Marshall County is preparing to piggyback off a neighboring county to update the Highway Department’s truck supply, but that came under question from a local truck company.
During Monday’s County Commissioner’s meeting, representatives from Wiers International Trucks questioned the lack of an open bid process for the purchase of six trucks. Drew Hettich with the company says he was disappointed with the decision.
“I’m curious as to what has occurred or changed that there is not going to be an open bid process for these units,” says Hettich.
Marshall County decided to piggyback on a bid process in Kosciusko County in March of this year, with the Highway Department ultimately recommending the purchase of Western Star trucks.
The vehicles will be supplied by a company out of Fort Wayne. The real issue, according to Highway Department Group Leader Jerry Ambrose, was the reliability and longevity of the engines as opposed to International brand trucks.
Ambrose made a point of saying that if International is able to improve their engine power and reliability, he would encourage the county to open the purchase to local bids in the future.
“Everybody’s got a little bit of a problem when the EPA changed the regulations,” says Ambrose. “We’re running Cummins in the last trucks that we’ve got. The new trucks will have ISL Cummins engines in them – which we get along a lot better with than we did the Internationals.”
Two tandem trucks and four singles will be considered for purchase to help rebuild some of the Highway Department’s fleet.
The County also suggested the Western Star trucks may be roomier. Hettich said that the county shortchanged themselves on understanding the technical assistance available in the market prior to making the recommendation.
