Made In Walker
The Made In Walker Podcast connects you to the people, stories, and ideas shaping our community. From local innovators to everyday change makers, we are diving deep into what makes Walker Michigan a great place to live, work, and grow.
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Made In Walker
Working on Walker's Wheels: The Hidden World of City Vehicle Maintenance
Every time a police officer responds to an emergency call, a firefighter races to a blaze, or a snowplow clears your street after a winter storm, there's an unsung team of experts making it all possible. In this fascinating conversation with Ben Willcome, Walker's Fleet Services Supervisor, we pull back the curtain on the critical but often invisible work that keeps our city vehicles running.
Ben and his three-person team maintain over 300 pieces of city equipment—"anything from a chainsaw to a platform fire truck." With remarkable versatility and technical expertise, they handle everything from routine maintenance to complex rebuilds, saving taxpayers substantial money compared to outsourced repairs. A fire truck repair that might cost $200 per hour at a specialty shop gets handled in-house by certified Emergency Vehicle Technicians. Their preventative maintenance program includes innovative approaches like applying specialized rust prevention coatings and completely rebuilding aging vehicles to extend their service life.
The conversation reveals fascinating insights about vehicle lifecycles (police cars typically serve 3 years while fire trucks may run for 30), winter preparation procedures for snowplows, and a particularly rewarding project where the team transformed an underperforming fire tanker into a high-capacity emergency response vehicle. Beyond the technical aspects, Ben shares how his childhood passion for working on vehicles with his father evolved into a fulfilling career serving the public. "We keep the city rolling," he explains, taking pride in supporting every department and participating in community events that showcase their essential role. As Walker grows and vehicle technology evolves toward autonomy and alternative fuels, Ben and his team stand ready to adapt and continue their vital mission.
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Welcome to Made in Walker, a podcast that connects you to the people, the stories and the ideas shaping our community, from local innovators to everyday changemakers. We're diving deep into what makes Walker a great place to live, work and grow. Here's your host, nicole DiDonato.
Speaker 2:City vehicles are more than just machines. They help keep our city running smoothly, and the man who is in charge of making sure that they all run smoothly is Ben Wilkham. He is here now. He is our Fleet Services Supervisor. Fleet Maintenance Supervisor.
Speaker 3:Fleet Services Supervisor yeah.
Speaker 2:All right, it took me a little bit, but it's a mouthful it's awesome having you here. I know you're busy in the garage, so thank you for taking time out to do this with us?
Speaker 3:Oh, absolutely, yeah, I think it's important.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think our residents are kind of interested in what all goes behind making those, all those vehicles, because you've got police, fire our snow plows. There's so much more. What is the fleet look like for everyone?
Speaker 3:Yeah, so the city owns over 300 pieces of equipment, that's, I like to say, anything from a chainsaw to a platform fire truck and the garage, which is made up of myself and three fleet technicians. We take care of every piece of equipment the city owns, so you have to be pretty versatile to do that. So it's pretty fun.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I love being able to just kind of like walk in there and oh, there's a fire truck on a hoist or oh, there's a police cruiser. So you never know what you're going to get, and is that kind of how you approach every day, is I'm not sure what's going to happen?
Speaker 3:Yeah, we're working towards doing we do a lot of preventative maintenance. That's working towards being on a schedule, um, but it's hard to predict. You know the the weekend, or you know um fire trucks breaking down or um police cars getting flat tires, but we do take, take those as they come. So, um, but it is. You know, as a kid you know playing with trucks and stuff, it's fun to come into the garage and talk trucks and, uh, work on them all day.
Speaker 3:So it's a great point. Was that always something that you saw yourself doing? How did that all start? Not exactly. I just really liked my dad and I worked on snowmobiles as kids and then, as I got my license, started working on cars and just found a passion for it. So it's kind of fun to bring that passion to the city too.
Speaker 2:And what kind of skills do you need to work on a fire truck or work on these? You know random city vehicles that you get.
Speaker 3:So that's a great question, because you know it's not like a dealership or say Michigan CAD or anything not to plug anybody here but just you know they work on a very similar piece of equipment every day. It's always something different. You know you have to be able to work on those smaller items or those big fire trucks, and you know we have a very talented group of people in the garage that are very flexible and able to work on all those different things. And that's those are some key pieces that make us successful.
Speaker 2:So Very much so, and the city probably hasn't always had an in-house maintenance for our vehicles. So what does that kind of do for residents or how does that, you know, help with financial side of having that done in-house?
Speaker 3:Yeah, so well it's. It's as simple as I mean. You know, changing your oil yourself versus taking it to somebody. You know. You know changing your oil yourself versus taking it to somebody. You know you, that service comes at a cost. So say, we had to bring a truck into a fire truck to get worked on. You're talking roughly $200 an hour for somebody to work on that truck, whereas we have EVT technicians on staff and we're able to do those services right in-house. And then there's a lot of stuff that we take a lot of pride in. We know the use of it better than an outside source, so we're able to project those different repairs differently and save some money there too. So we take a lot of pride in maintaining our equipment to make it last. We want to stretch that piece of equipment as long as we can for the city's dollar.
Speaker 2:So yeah, you're very good at that and especially keeping the residents money in mind. You know that's very fiscally responsible one of my favorite things yeah, so, um, you know.
Speaker 2:So it's getting ready to prep for winter season. The, the snow plows, they, they take a lot of a beating. Your police cruisers, they could be running 24 hours a day, absolutely Fire trucks, these large vehicles that you are sitting in the garage. Then when they need to go out, they're running down the road and everything that is on them is kind of moving jumbling. What do you guys do to just preserve what we have?
Speaker 3:Yeah. So with the plow trucks, for example, every fall we do a winter prep we actually already started about a month ago on those and we go through and try and project any possible failures. We inspect all the hydraulic lines and things like that. It's a lot easier to replace those now than it is in the middle of a snowstorm when that truck is needed on the road. So we do a lot of those preventative measures and then in the last few years we actually do this. We've added sandblasting and painting to a lot of our maintenance items. As far as, as a truck gets a few years in service, we'll actually sandblast and paint the frames. And then we use this product called fluid film and it's just basically a rust preventative and we treat almost all of our fleet with this fluid film to help prevent rust and preserve the vehicle as long as possible, Because they're always out in the worst conditions, so try and keep them nice, you know, while they're out there in those bad conditions.
Speaker 2:Yeah, very much. One of the things that you all have been working on in the garage was you were, it seemed, like rebuilding a fire truck or a fire tender. I think that what does that help? Keep like sure what a tender is.
Speaker 3:but so a tender is just another name for a tanker, gotcha. Ours is a 4,000 gallon tanker. It's a 2006 model and from the beginning it was. It was a fiberglass tank and it was specced with some. I don't know if it was a cost thing or whatever at the time, but it was specced with some different plumbing and it didn't flow the water capacity that it really should. So it was always kind of they use multiple different agencies tankers when they are running a chain of tankers.
Speaker 3:Typically Okay, ours was kind of the slow one to offload so people wouldn't call on it very often. So we also had problems with the fiberglass tanks actually cracking. I think in the 10 years I've been here we've had it replaced or had it repaired five times. So it was time to do something else with that and we actually purchased an all-plastic or poly tank. It's all fabricated and uh plastic welded, very cool.
Speaker 3:Um, and then um at. We took that chance to refurbish or bring some more modern life into the truck by um. We work very closely with um local uh lighting agency and we purchase new lights and we have a talented technician that actually built fire trucks before and uh. So um has all new lights on it. Um, use the chance to do the black over red scheme on it and give it that fresh look. And then, uh, it now has a four inch valve versus two and a half and it flows like you wouldn't believe it Past pump test testing with flying colors, which was a huge, huge relief and success. So it was exciting to hear firefighters say that trucks never worked, that, you know, never pumped like that before, and so it was really rewarding to hear that.
Speaker 2:Oh my gosh. Yeah, so crucial in a time of need. And yeah, how does that make you feel?
Speaker 3:Yeah. So it's really cool in our, in our position. You know I always joke, we that we keep the city rolling. You know that, uh, police officers and firefighters and the dpw couldn't do their job without the equipment they need. So it's, um, it's very important that in the background we're we're keeping, you know, all these vehicles maintained and, um, you know they're able to travel the streets, make them safe, they're able to put out those fires or rescue a person. So it means a lot that we're part of the team that way. And I think Walker's close-knit enough and small enough still that you feel like you're welcome and part of that team. And I think all the guys in the shop I think I could speak for them where they feel like they're part of each department. So we're kind of a little the black sheep of the family in a way, and we relate to everybody and everybody comes to us to fix things.
Speaker 2:Yes, yeah, that is great. You guys are so knowledgeable and you really do try to get out in the public too. You see you at some of the community events the ones that maybe you're not helping set up for but you've got a table. You love showing off the vehicles, you love bringing them to touch a truck.
Speaker 3:Events, what is that like that community feel, yeah, I'll never turn down a time to talk about trucks, for sure, and you know it was, it's perfect to. You know, for example, you know just showing these, seeing kids light up when they see the fire trucks lights turn on, or the, you know the loader, you know loader set up and just climbing in the cab, you know you could be inspiring somebody for a future position. You know, or you know, just you know, igniting that spark and it's, it's really fun to be out in front of the public and educating them, the public, of what the DPW does and the garage and I think we're a very humble department and we don't brag about ourselves or you know, and it's fun to get out there and just you know, see people expressing interest.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely. I do social media for you guys and, like you had mentioned, you are very humble. You're not used to being like, hey, this is what we're doing, oh, post this picture of us doing this. So it's hard to get that information out of you, but it's because of a mindset.
Speaker 3:It's just like we're here doing our job public I think you don't know what goes on behind the scenes, and it's fun to share a little bit of that.
Speaker 2:Do you think there is a misconception of anything when it comes to public works, whether it could be like what you guys do, whether it's parks, roads, fleet management?
Speaker 3:It's really hard just to, when you say what you do for a living you work for a department of public works or something like that people think you're there's that, uh misrepresentation of a shovel leaner or something like that, and it is just so, um false. And I I think, uh, you know we are definitely not that way and uh, just I hope we can educate people and show them that we are extremely busy and there's no time for leaning.
Speaker 2:Yeah right, you know, and you're just very proud. I mean, we brought this up. You're just very proud of what you do. This is your way to serve and give back to the community.
Speaker 3:Yep, absolutely. Yeah, I couldn't imagine doing anything else at this moment. You know, it's just, it's great to do. Like I said, serve the public and, you know, do what we can to be successful.
Speaker 2:And coming from, yeah, a car guy in maintenance. Any kind of tips for folks who you know may want to kind of like work on things on their own, of how you maintain things or how you do preventative measures, any kind of tips you can give to the neighborhood garage person?
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's definitely getting harder and harder to do yourself. With all the electronics and everything. It's easy to mess stuff up. So make sure you take precautions, use those jack stands you know. Consult somebody before tackling a project and make sure you know what you're getting yourself into. I guess.
Speaker 2:Great words of advice, and how long do you typically like to keep certain vehicles on hand?
Speaker 3:for how long do those last of service, just because of failure rates and the usage. Those, like I said, are typically around three years for a police car, a fire truck, just because the amount of cost involved and the amount there are less mileage but more hours than mileage To spread that cost out. For it to make sense, we keep those for about 30 years, okay. And then a DPW truck. We're shooting for that 15 to 20 year range, okay. We had a long cycle where we kept them 25 to 30 years. We actually still have a truck that's 30 years old, oh wow, and it just it doesn't. There's been enough change in the city where it doesn't fit our need as well anymore and I think you're going to find that that 15 to 20 year range is going to be. It's a, like you said earlier, the it's a rough life for a plow truck. You know it's, it's doing a tough job and it takes its toll over time.
Speaker 3:So, it's expensive in the end, but no, it all. It all varies just a making sense cost per um age of the vehicle. So um and and use is a big thing. Yeah, idle time on a police car versus a dpw truck, that's you know, in and out every day makes a big difference.
Speaker 2:Yeah I can see how it would yeah and you also are able to. Not only are you working underneath the vehicles, you actually hop in the driver's seat because I see you doing some plowing and such. So you get that kind of need crisis.
Speaker 3:We're obviously part of the team, we will be out there. If you could see one of us with a chainsaw in our hand or, like you said, I'm in the loader plowing the complex, that way I'm close. If something does break In time of crisis, dpw is there to do whatever is needed. So we definitely have that team atmosphere where we can help each other out Awesome.
Speaker 2:And you're looking toward the future. Where do you see you know as far as like maintenance or the city's direction of their vehicles? Where do you kind of see that going?
Speaker 3:So the city is growing at a rapid rate and I think with added staff you're going to see that the fleet will grow, grow more as time continues, just because of the amount of people that are just going to need more vehicles moving around the city. And I think the other thing is you know, as far as not only being more vehicles.
Speaker 3:I think they're also going to continue to get more complex. I think you're going to see, you know you're starting to see in agriculture the autonomous tractors and things like that. I think we're not far off in the future of seeing, you know, autonomous mower mowing a soccer field, you know, in a park maybe, who knows? But then I think in my lifetime we'll also be dealing with alternative fuels and things like that too, not saying any particular type at this moment, but I think that's definitely in the future.
Speaker 2:Yes, well, ben, we appreciate your insight. It's really cool to kind of go behind the scenes, into the garage and know what it's all about.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I really appreciate you highlighting us.
Speaker 2:Of course. Well, thank you so much and keep up the awesome work that you do for our city, ben Awesome, thank you. All right, and thank you.
