Carroll County Engineer, Dave Paulson, reached out to area truck dealers for quotes on two new dump trucks that would be outfitted for winter use. Three dealers responded, two Mack and one International. With little disparity between the pricing, it came down to availability, service and features for the Carroll County Board of Supervisors to review in making a selection. Paulson said some of the dealers were strongly promoting automatic transmissions, but after talking with the county workers, he said they weren’t comfortable with that option and preferred they stayed with manual.
He added the automatic transmissions were sophisticated and electronically driven and likely result in better fuel mileage and performance; they are just not widely present in dump trucks yet. Hausby Mack was the only one of the three dealers who said they did not have a 2016 model available, but they provided a price on that model year anyway. Supervisor Neil Bock said there is no time pressure as new trucks could not be received and outfitted for this winter, and asked Paulson to contact Hausby with some further questions.
Supervisors also directed Paulson to request the 2017 model be reduced to match the 2016 price if that model year was truly unavailable. The board will vote on awarding the bid once those questions have been answered.
