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To some, a tarp system without tie downs, steel springs, or hydraulics might seem novel. But when its benefits include lowered costs, increased safety, easy compliance, and improved operator performance, there is little doubt that its returns are worth the capital invested.
By Kevin Anderson and Keith Lowe

If you are the owner of a waste hauling business using roll-offs or hook lifts, you might often feel like you are walking a thin line between profitability and failure. And it makes sense, since your highest priorities are compliance, worker safety, efficiency, and maintenance—issues that affect your operating costs and stress load. However, with the engineering advancements being made in the automatic tarp sector, that thin line may soon fade away altogether. So, with that in mind, how would investing in the latest tarp system technology address all four issues and elevate your business?

#1: Compliance
No matter your municipality, covering loads of all kinds is a matter of compliance. Most federal and state regulations mandate that debris and refuse from waste, recycling, and demolition/construction sites need to be properly covered as they are moved to processing facilities.

With the latest generation of automatic tarp system ingenuity, safety regulations are easily met. Engineering advancements have enabled innovations like pivot technology (patents pending), a system that uses a fixed or sliding pivot system and creates tension without steel springs, tie downs, or hydraulics to keep tarps down. This tension system allows for stronger hold-down power while staying covered over bumpy terrain or through harsh weather conditions, helping to avoid fines and violations for unsecured loads.

#2: Worker Safety
Historically with manual tie-downs, securing tarps incurred a high degree of risk for drivers, who would have to climb onto containers or over debris to accomplish the task. Steel springs and hydraulics helped reduce the need for tie-downs.
New technologies such as gas-powered springs, with cold-weather durability rated to -30 degrees Fahrenheit, take tarp hold down to the next level, further reducing driver hazards.

With the push of a button, there is no longer a need to manually tarp or struggle to keep the cover down. And with upcoming slider technology advancements, you can safely cover a wider range of roll off container sizes.
Your operators do not have to risk it all on a rainy roadway just to make sure their load is covered. And no longer would the costs of workers’ claims, injury downtime, or poor employee retention hang over your head.

#3: Efficiency
Time is measured in money, not minutes in the waste hauling business, and revenue is directly affected by the speed at which drivers cover containers. The longer it takes to tarp a load, the slower the route, and the less hauls that are possible in a day. If your workers are still hand-tarping, then expect the inefficiencies to pile up and affect your bottom line.

With better containment through a tension system, loads are secured quickly at the press of a button with less concerns about strong gusts yanking off tarps. Your fleet can also recover the time it normally takes to fix or replace steel springs and hydraulics in other systems, since it uses none of those components. The system also balances durability with lightweight, maximizing payload capacity so you can haul heavier loads.

#4: Equipment Longevity and Maintenance
How many days and dollars have you lost while fixing, replacing, or waiting for spare parts? Between trying to repair a leaky hydraulic cylinder, replacing steel springs that lose torque over time, and the downtime that all this requires, maintenance on traditional systems is expensive.

However, pivot technology not only ditches all those parts in lieu of its patent-pending tension system, but it also replaces them with superior hold-down power and maintains virtually the same amount of force when the tarp is stowed and up to 3X the down force when deployed. There are no additional parts to get worn out over time and downtime is reduced with a simple single-pin service lock-out/tag-out. Tested at 100,000 cycles and counting, this pivot technology could easily perform for more than 30 years, depending on your annual hauls—a factor to consider when looking for a return on investment. When you consider the amount of time and money recouped, the durability and low maintenance pays for itself over time.

For the Long Haul …
To some, a tarp system without tie downs, steel springs, or hydraulics might seem novel. But when its benefits include lowered costs, increased safety, easy compliance, and improved operator performance, there is little doubt that its returns are worth the capital invested. This is the kind of technology that changes a hauling business’ future. | WA

Kevin Anderson is a Marketing Communications Specialist, focused on copywriting, editing, content creation, and social media for Safe Fleet commercial vehicle brands, where the latest innovations are being engineered for practical work truck applications.

Keith Lowe is a 38-year waste industry veteran who began his career in landfills, transferring to the hauling side and eventually to manufacturing. He has excelled in sales, safety, and operations during the first half of his career. This experience gave him a solid foundation when transitioning to a sales role in waste equipment manufacturing. Keith understands the importance of safety and the needs of the end user. He can be reached at (713) 817-7726 or e-mail [email protected].