When Sascha Schmitz throws aside another manhole cover or opens a sewer shaft, it sometimes means toughing it out. Flushing, cleaning and vacuuming sewers and shafts are all part of the daily tasks carried out by the trained professional driver from Aachen in Germany. His days rarely smell of roses!
Sascha Schmitz has been employed at Arei Kanal-Service GmbH in Düren, Germany since 2011. Over the years, he has gained a great deal of experience and expertise, which has had an effect on how he equips his work equipment. The combined vacuum and flushing vehicle is based on a Mercedes-Benz Actros 2551 with over 500 hp and boasts a large GigaSpace driver's cab. In the last two and a half years, Schmitz has covered an incredible 220,000 kilometres with his truck.
A complex special vehicle
This type of special vehicle costs a good 400,000 euros when it's as cleverly constructed as this one, but it is designed to last for a good 15 to 20 years. During the conversion process, this three-axle Actros stood for almost two months at Müller Umwelttechnik GmbH & Co KG in Schieder-Schwalenberg, Germany. The specialists from the North Rhine-Westphalia in Germany installed remote-controlled vacuum suction and high-pressure flushing pumps. Schmitz can also control all the hydraulic functions of the Actros, such as opening and closing the rear cover, swivelling the hose reel and moving the emptying piston, by remote control. Only the hose box cover on the driver's side is opened pneumatically and closed by a lifting cylinder. This is a distinct advantage when having to deal with unwelcome substances.
Light perfection is also guaranteed
Many of his jobs are performed when there is no daylight, in other words when companies, businesses and towns are less frequented. Sometimes, he also has to manoeuvre his way into really narrow corners that are poorly lit. That's why Schmitz places the same high demands on the lighting equipment of his vehicle as on all the other aspects of his truck. He relies on HELLA for this. "Adequate ambient lighting is essential in my job," the waste disposal professional comments as he describes the perfectionist lighting equipment with all the extras. And his attention to detail means that the vehicle also has one or two small lamps, which are mainly "cosmetic", but which nevertheless improve the general visibility. The key word here is perfection: all appliance cabinets are equipped with bright LED lamps linked up to motion sensors. And that really is something.
"The wide range of rotating beacons, work lamps, interior lighting, equipment cabinet lighting and rear and side marker lamps can be found almost anywhere thanks to an extensive and well-developed sales network," explains Schmitz.
The Actros is probably unique in Europe for combining highly technical working equipment with deluxe features and furnishings. In actual fact, it's not that unlike a comfortable motor home. Microwave, blu-ray player, refrigerator, running hot water and a mobile outdoor shower provide a feel-good ambience. It even has a heated wardrobe on board. When required, the parking heater can supply it with warm air.
A huge variety of customers
Schmitz's customers include companies and private individuals, but also local authorities and district councils, which goes to show that this specialist covers longer distances than you might expect. Anyone travelling through the western federal states of Germany – North Rhine-Westphalia, Lower Saxony, Rhineland-Palatinate or Saarland – may very well come across the 36-year-old Rhinelander opening the lids and shafts to the underworld, assisted by the brilliance of his truck's glittering technology.