First Day on Route | Brand New Peterbilt 520 McNeilus ZR Garbage Truck

After being delayed for more than two YEARS, I can now showcase what will be the final nail in the coffin for the last company in the city to hold onto their diesel fleets from the original 2007 contract.
The city's four residential contracts renewed in 2021 for an additional 15 year extension, which finally mandated California Waste Solutions to replace their worn out fleet for brand new CNG powered trucks. GreenTeam, Garden City Sanitation, and GreenWaste Recovery all began receiving new trucks in mid-2021. Problems with negotiating regarding labor disputes and budgeting between the company, the city and the local union delayed CWS from purchasing a new fleet until October of 2022, which was when the first ZR arrived in the yard.
However the truck just sat in the yard, and it was only taken out of the yard in March of 2023 for a Touch-a-Truck Event. Most of the trucks sat at Coast Counties Peterbilt, which were then sent to the CWS Yard where they sat for months. That was until August of 2023, when my driver (who's coincidentally #1 on the seniority list) had his truck suffer a catastrophic hydraulic leak & spill. It finally forced the yard to hastily prepare and send out his reserved truck the following day. All of the other drivers are still waiting on replacement units, which I hear will be rolling out in increments of five.
I was very fortunate to be there first hand when his old truck broke down, which gave me the knowledge to know where he would be the following day in his new truck. So the first portion of the video is SJC-01 on it's very first day on route. Considering the mechanics sent it out without greasing or inspecting the truck, it ran very well, with only a few hiccups relating to the packing speed and the truck stalling out from the RPM cutoff. The operations manager also hopped in for the first couple hours to observe the truck's performance.
The second portion of the video is the truck's first time on my route. Over the weekend the mechanics put chrome lug nut covers on the steer axle wheels, which was a nice touch. His main gripe is that the blade doesn't cycle constantly. It only packs for a couple of cycles, and then it'll stop. Over the next few weeks, he said he had to constantly press the pack button so the hopper wouldn't be overwhelmed. One week that he was training another driver, he said he basically spent the entire route stretched over the console pressing the pack button. I've heard similar issues from other drivers at other companies, and what they do is actually fashion something to wedge into the pack button so it's constantly depressed. He's also somehow got revving down to a science with a brand new McNeilus side loader, which is interesting to say the least, considering these trucks nowadays have pretty low RPM cutoffs. Overall it's a very nice truck, with a few hiccups that will hopefully be ironed out as more new trucks come in.
FYI, this truck and one of its' sister units are actually featured prominently in both McNeilus advertisement and the calendar for 2024, so keep an eye out for that.
Special thank you to the following;
- George (my driver)
- Matt (Operations Manager)
- Jesus (Mechanic)
for always allowing me to film, and to give me a heads up on this truck!
Enjoy the video!
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[@FresnoRefuseTrucks]

These I have to say look super slick in the CWS scheme. Too bad SJ31 Was a total loss after the line blowout. Glad to see George likes his new rig, seems he’s mastered the controls very well. They look very nice, hope to see these roam the streets more frequently.

[@GarbageTrucksofSanJose]

any truck would look like in their livery, whoever thought of the current livery back in 2007 did a good job

[@dariangarcia5374]

Great job

[@RecologyChaser]

Great video Brian! Do you know how many of these zr's California Waste Solutions bought?

[@GarbageTrucksofSanJose]

somewhere in the ballpark of around 40 ZRs, and probably a few M/A's in the future

[@tgwinternational3296]

Great video, it is nice to they are getting ZRs are they getting new Autoreachs

[@illinoisgarbagetrucks]

Great video

[@maxalcala1366]

Max grat jod

[@TheNVTrashMan]

Great job, I like the yellow on the arm. Hopefully they get faster with age haha.

[@GarbageTrucksofSanJose]

hopefully, I think there's a grace period where modifications such as modification of RPM cutoffs or other non-official mods would result in the warranty being voided so for a while they'll be stuck at this speed

[@WMAC_Master]

Hmm good choice CWS. Looks really great. AND NO CNrG!!! Even better!!

[@RyderFilmsGarbageTrucks]

Great video!

[@CaliforniaCapitalRefuse]

damn thats fresh

[@davidrader4188]

It's funny how mcneilus always comes with a garden hoe that by the doesent even fit in the clean out properly

[@greengolf1]

Peterbilt on top

[@elroyrandall7113]

I had a feeling cws was going cng one day I called it watching a lot of videos I love cng trucks but it seem like all the north cali companies get peterbilt zrs like they got other brands they could get it

[@WasteManagement828]

Very Neat! Love the sound of these trucks.

[@Trainlover1995]

So CWS bought ZRs. Good choice. What did Garden City and GreenTeam get for the new contract?

[@GarbageTrucksofSanJose]

both bought/are buying peterbilt labries for their residential fleets, though green team bought some wittke starlights and mcneilus meridians for their commercial operations

[@Trashman702]

Man the arm is slow. On my 1500 a day routes this would drive me crazy

[@westernamericantrashtrucks]

What will happen to the Autoreaches, spares or scrap line

[@GarbageTrucksofSanJose]

scrap

[@blazeginsberg7278]

These are way better than amrep

[@godtrek1023]

macnulus and coming

[@GarbageTrucksofSanJose]

🤯

[@Trashman702]

Why would they spend $400K on a truck and sit on it for months?

[@GarbageTrucksofSanJose]

probably some management issue, the drivers and mechanics weren't allowed to touch the trucks until mcneilus reps came in to train everyone last month

[@Trashman702]

@@GarbageTrucksofSanJose Was it their first time running ZRs?

[@GarbageTrucksofSanJose]

@@Trashman702it was my driver's first time running it on route, the company demo'd a unit a few years ago but my driver wasn't able to drive it

[@dfjgdfuhgjldfsgdljfh]

Quien ponpo? 😹

[@garbagetrucksofsanmarcosca]

Excellent video bro I like this brand new truck.