Lauderdale County supervisors are weighing their options to replace part of the county’s aging dump truck fleet after bids for replacement trucks came in over budget with long wait times.

The county received four bids for dump trucks, including McComb Diesel for $169,000 per truck, Tri-State Truck Center Inc. for $169,500 per truck, Waters International for $179,650 per truck and Truckworx for $195,000 per truck.

In a meeting Thursday, Road Manager Rush Mayatt said he would recommend Tri-State as the lowest and best bid due to the companies guaranteed buy-back program.

McComb Diesel had a lower initial price, he said, but the buy-back and warrantee made Tri-State the better deal.

“The thing you need to look at is not the price that you see as the bid,” he said. “It’s the operating cost. It’s that number minus the buy-back. That’s your actual operating cost for three years.”

The county’s effort to replace its fleet of 10 dump trucks was driven, in part, by increased maintenance costs on its aging vehicles. Replacement engines have been installed in two of the trucks in recent months, costing around $33,000 for each.

Mayatt said the operating cost is more important than the initial bid price as his plan is to trade in the trucks after three years to avoid maintenance issues as the vehicles age.

“We do feel confident that we’re going to roll these trucks out in three years rather than getting to the point we are now where maintenance is eating us up and reliability we’re having on them,” he said. “There’s a happy medium somewhere in there, and that was the whole point of these trucks.”

Unfortunately, Mayatt said, supply issues will cause a delay in getting the trucks. Tri-State, he said, had a lead time of 10-12 months from the time they’re ordered, and it was unlikely any of the bidders could fill an order for all ten trucks like the county had planned.

“Unfortunately that’s the world we live in, and it’s not going to get any better in 2022,” he said.

Mayatt said the other issue was cost. When planning for the truck purchase during budget sessions this fall, the road department budgeted $165,000, which was based on the cost of the vehicles at the time.

Like other equipment and material costs, the price of the trucks has gone up dramatically in the past few months, and all of the bids received were over budget.

“Six months from when we started the budget session, that’s literally how much trucks have went up,” he said.

To stay within budget, Mayatt and the board agreed the plan to purchase 10 trucks was out. Instead, the county could look at purchasing fewer trucks, with the money budgeted for the full fleet covering the increased price.

Mayatt said he would look at mileage, maintenance records and speak with the drivers of the trucks the county had now to come up with a list of which trucks to replace and which to keep for the time being.

He said he would bring that information back to the board at it’s next meeting for the board to use in making a decision how to proceed.