Even though 70 percent of the Earth is covered by water, less than 1 percent of it is suitable for human consumption.
With so little useable water available for drinking and agricultural production, governments and industries must increasingly look for ways to effectively provide safe drinking water while also properly treating waste water. That’s where Kemira, a subsidiary of Helsinki-based Kemira Oyj, a $2.7 billion global chemicals company, comes in. Kemira’s mission is to help cities and industry conserve that precious resource through proper treatment.
“We supply many of the cities and towns in the United States with environmentally-friendly and cost-effective chemicals that treat municipal drinking water,” said Charles Wodetzki, fleet manager for Kemira’s manufacturing division. “We’re also responsible for supplying cities, industrial manufacturers, and mining companies with chemicals to treat wastewater before it’s returned to the environment.”
To keep transportation costs in line, the majority of Kemira’s shipments are made by its own private fleet of 97 tractors and 140 trailers. The equipment is positioned at several of the manufacturing division’s plants and transloading facilities located across Canada and the United States.
Kemira produces inorganic coagulants including aluminum-based products, such as aluminum sulfate, polyaluminum chloride, and polyaluminum sulfate, in dry or liquid form. They’re used to treat municipal drinking water, industrial process water, and wastewater. Kemira also produces iron-based inorganic coagulants, such as ferric chloride, ferric sulfate and ferric chloride sulfate, in dry or liquid form for wastewater treatment. And Kemira also manufactures polymers. Specific polymers are used worldwide in municipalities and industries such as agriculture, oil production, pulp and paper.
About 70 percent of the chemicals that Kemira produces is used in municipal water treatment, and about 30 percent is used in industrial effluent treatment, Wodetzki said. Kemira is the world’s leading supplier of coagulants for water treatment and the world’s third largest supplier of flocculants for water treatment.
“Some of our biggest customers are cities with keep-full accounts, which means we have to run loads of chemicals to their water and sewage treatment facilities on a 24/7 basis,” Wodetzki said. “And then there are our smaller accounts, cities with personnel available to receive shipments only at certain times. We often have short delivery windows. They may be there from 9 to 10 a.m. or 2 to 4 p.m.”
Wodetzki said Kemira must have reliable trucks spec’d and maintained to operate efficiently. When municipalities and industrial use
rs need chemicals for their water treatment facilities, the last thing they want to hear from suppliers is that their shipments are delayed because of equipment issues, he added. That’s a major reason why Kemira has increasingly turned to full-service leasing through PACCAR Leasing, (PacLease), to supply the trucks the company uses to deliver chemicals.
Kemira leases 27 Kenworth T800s, including eight with 42-inch AeroCab sleepers, 17 with regular day cabs, and two with Kenworth’s Extended Day Cab, from Inland Kenworth PacLease in Fontana, Calif. It also leases 18 Peterbilt Model 386s, including six with 63-inch UltraCab sleepers from Allstate Leasing in Cleveland, Ohio, and Sioux City, Iowa, and 12 with regular day cabs, from Peterbilt-PacLease of St. Louis in Strafford, Mo. In addition, Kemira operates 29 full-service lease units, including 16 Kenworth T800s, five Kenworth T660s and eight Peterbilt 386s leased from Location de Camions Eureka in Anjou, Quebec, and Kenworth Ontario PacLease in Toronto.
Since Kemira makes deliveries at all hours, Wodetzki said he appreciates how the local franchises provide the company flexible maintenance schedules and arrangements so that the company’s specialized units can be quickly returned to service.
“With CSA (Compliance, Safety, Accountability) from the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration now in place, having new trucks every five years and having PacLease and its franchises handle their maintenance helps us keep our strong safety rating, which is a distinct competitive advantage,” he added. “Under CSA, the inspectors are getting so meticulous, which requires the kind of attention to detail and expertise that PacLease and its franchises offer.”
Kemira generally chooses the 450-hp Cummins ISX engine powered through a 10-speed manual Eaton Fuller transmission. The Cummins ISX engine offers the capability to add a high-volume dual air compressor to offload product at a rate of 37.4 cubic feet per minute, Wodetzki said. Plus, the engine-transmission combination provides a good balance between weight considerations and power needs. Like many other bulk haulers, Kemira needs trucks with the power to pull heavy loads over mountains and through heavy stop-and-go traffic, he added. But the company also tries to keep its trucks as light weight as possible so that they can pull more payload.
Wodetzki is also always looking for new ideas. That’s why he has been testing two 430 HP PACCAR MX multi-torque engines.
“On the PACCAR engines, we spec a transmission driven PTO and an Ingersoll Rand rotary compressor,” he said. “Unloading times will be a big factor in our decision about both of these sets of specifications. The biggest piece, however, will be fuel economy, which we’re also tracking closely.”
Wodetzki said having the experts at PacLease’s franchises help him choose the right components to achieve that proper balance is crucial to the fleet operation. Driver comfort is also a key consideration since driver retention is so important in keeping a low annual turnover rate of 1 percent. Kemira pays its 111 drivers by the hour not by the load because of the expertise the company needs to haul and deliver the water treatment chemicals.
“Typically, our drivers stay with us until they retire,” he added. “Most have been with us for 15 to 20 years or more. The fact that we pay by the hour largely contributes to our low turnover rate. Another reason is the quality equipment we offer them.
“The Kenworth and Peterbilt trucks have key features that make them comfortable work environments,” he added. “We’ve started making the Extended Day Cabs a standard spec on the local delivery units.
“By leasing our trucks from PacLease, we can rely on our local PacLease franchises to specify and maintain them so that we can concentrate on getting deliveries made quickly, safely and efficiently,” Wodetzki explained. “Since we have someone locally we can deal with, we’re not having to make calls to a national office to have questions answered or issues resolved.”
“Full-service leasing offers companies like Kemira financial benefits over ownership including a lower net-present value cost and diversified sources of capital,” said Olen Hunter, director of sales for PacLease.
“Additionally, a proposed rule change by the U.S. Financial Accounting Standards Board and the International Accounting Standards Board may require that lessees report leased assets on their balance sheets,” Hunter said. “With leasing, since the leasing company is responsible for the residual value of the vehicle, the amount the customer has to report will be less than if they purchase the equipment.”