Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/78449
SEVERE SERVICE Severe-duty disaster relief By Amanda Bayhi The disaster relief efforts of Tad Agoglia, center, and crew members Andy Nissley, left, and Tim Wolkowicz earned Agoglia a 2009 CNN Hero award. Scan the QR with your smartphone to pull up a video presentation of the award, with clips of his crew and equipment in action, and to hear Agoglia's speech. Visit FirstResponseTeam.org for more. POWER, VERSATILITY IN REFUSE TRUCK LINE Freightliner Trucks brought its line of severe- duty trucks spec'd for the waste-haul market to the WasteExpo show in Las Vegas. Featured trucks included: • The new 114SD compressed natural gas-powered truck with a McNeilus 25-yard rear loader body. • Two 114SD diesels, one with an Amrep roll-off, one with a SwapLoader SL-505 hook lift/20-yard container. • The 108SD with a 25-yard Heil rear loader. • A Business Class M2 with stand-up right-hand drive conversion and an Automizer automated side loader body. Stay on top of Freightliner's SD (Severe Duty) line via the company's Severe Duty Report. Scan the QR with your smartphone to subscribe to the newsletter, or visit FreightlinerTrucks.com/Multimedia/Newsletter. "The waste industry is changing," said Mark Faro, Freightliner's vocational segment manager for product marketing. "The private market wants productivity and the government market is focused on versatility, but everybody has to be smart with their purchases in today's economy. These are versatile, hard-working trucks." 50 | Overdrive | September 2012 As an example, Faro pointed to the SwapLoader hook lift up-fit, outfitted by Western Truck Fab in San Francisco, Calif. SwapLoader Sales Manager Matt White said the configuration gives the 114SD the ability to handle "unlimited applications. It can pick up a construction site waste container in the morning and haul a water sprayer or a sander in the afternoon." Tad Agoglia and crew arrived to what was left of Haiti within a week of the 2010 earthquake that left large swaths of Port Au Prince in a shambles. The team used its Cat excavator and Peterbilt dump to clear rubble for a medical clinic. Agoglia was struck by the opportunity to fill a vast need. "I began to realize no one organization can fix everything," he says, "but it's extremely important we all make a contribution." the essence of his charity work with his First Response Team of America, launched in 2007 after a tornado tore through Greensburg, Kan. Agoglia used heavy equipment from clean-up contracting business to help residents and business owners. "I saw a need for heavy lifting," Agoglia says. "I wanted to take what I had and see if I could assist." By 2009, on the scene of at least 18 storms, the First Response like Caterpillar, Peterbilt and chainsaw maker Stihl began donating critical equipment to Agoglia's efforts. Agoglia says he is adding equipment owners and truck drivers from his Pennsylvania hometown to the First Response team of seven people.