VTS has built well over 1100 vacuum tanks over the last 30 years.
Many of these tanks have been built from mild steel, in fact probably the majority of them. Without spending an hour or two looking through our production records I’d say that we would have built maybe 100 aluminium vacuum tanks and somewhere in the vicinity of 100 stainless steel tanks as well.
I wont bother discussing stainless vacuum tanks in this article as the pricing and payload comparison is very relevant between mild steel and aluminium vacuum tanks and stainless really is a discussion for another day.
Let’s consider the following possible scenario.
Stinky’s Liquid Waste P/L (not their real trading name) has a requirement to transport three full loads of waste from the same site every day to a treatment plant 30km away. Stinky has an 11,000lt mild steel vacuum tank with payload of 11,000 litres.
He gets $150/kl + G (15 cents a litre) cartage not including dumping fees. So, all up income per load is $1,650.00 + G for a total of $4,950.00 per day. This job is for 5 days a week, 52 weeks a year. (nice work if you can get it…)
Stinky decides to upgrade to an aluminium vacuum tank on a very similar chassis the cost difference is around $15k . The aluminium vacuum tank weighs less than a mild steel equivalent and the increase in payload is 1,500lts. No doubt you can see where this is going…he still gets $150/kl + G but the income per load is now $1,875.00 + G for a total daily income of $5,625.00. so, an increase of $675 per day. Not to be sneezed at. However, let’s consider an annual number. The mild steel vacuum tank earns $1,287,000.00 per year whilst the aluminium vacuum tank earns $1,462,500.00 per year.
$175,500.00 per year additional income per year, for an extra one off $15K purchase price.
There are certainly pros and cons for mild steel and aluminium vacuum tanks, here’s a few that come to mind.
Mild steel
Pros.
- Cheaper initial purchase price
- Longer life than aluminium. Some of our mild steel tanks have an estimated life of 40 years!
- More robust
- Able to withstand lots of different products
Cons
- Heavier less payload than Aluminium
Aluminium
Pros
- Lighter greater payload
Cons
- Shorter lifetime than mild steel. 10-15 years
- Less robust, not suited to rough roads. can be susceptible to cracking
- Not suited to many types of waste
A mild steel vacuum tank is a safe bet for hassle free longer-term ownership, but aluminium will maximise profits in the short to mid-term of course. There are quite a few wastes that aren’t friendly to aluminium and this needs to be considered when making a decision which to purchase. Also due to the soft nature of aluminium there can be cracking issues when used frequently on bad roads.
Article by Rod Glue
