Shares of companies that make Heavy trucks rose Wednesday, pulled up by a strong overall market, along with new data showing an increase in truck orders.

According to data from ACT Research LLC, orders of Class 5 through heavy-duty Class 8 trucks rose 12 percent over November 2006 levels.

The November increase came after a 9 percent jump in October, which was preceded by a drop in the three previous months, according to the data included in an analyst note from Wachovia’s Andrew Casey.

Casey said the sustained strength in orders showed that truck market weakness may have bottomed, which is a relative positive for the companies in the sector, he said.

Also on Wednesday, Paccar Inc. announced a special dividend of $1 per share and a regular dividend of 18 cents per share.

The company said it would increase production at its DAF Trucks subsidiary by 5 percent in the first quarter in light of the strong Western and Central European truck market.

Here how Heavy truck stocks finished Wednesday:

Paccar rose $3.94, or 7.8 percent, to close at $54.55.

Cummins Inc. gained $4.52, or 3.9 percent, to finish at $122.

Eaton Corp. added $2.48, or 2.8 percent, to end at $91.74.

Navistar International Corp. rose $2.20, or 4.4 percent, to close at $52.20.

Residents of this manufactured housing community will get to see Brevard County’s planned new automated trash-collection system in action next week, as a truck’s mechanical claw lifts 64- and 96-gallon wheeled carts from the curbside, dumps out the contents and sets the carts back down.

But some are already criticizing the plan as garbage.

“A lot of the people here only put out one little bag of garbage a week,” Pat Clark, incoming vice president of the Barefoot Bay Homeowners’ association, said Thursday. “Why should they put that in a big bin and drag it down the (driveway)? And if they (filled it) for two weeks, just think of the ants, bugs and maggots.”

The system requires the wheeled garbage bins, said George Geletko, spokesman for the contractor, Waste Management Inc. And he said the company will provide the bins free of charge, without passing the costs to the consumer.

Waste Management is negotiating a new contract for 100,000 homes in unincorporated areas of Brevard, such as Barefoot Bay and Micco.

And the contract’s proposed rate increase, from $9.17 to $11.65 a month, has angered residents, Clark said.

But Geletko said that increase only looks bad because the existing county contract, which expires in October 2008, didn’t account for skyrocketing fuel prices.

Waste Management also serves northern Indian River County, where county Utilities Director Erik Olson said going to automation would be costly and only worth it if the county required residents to subscribe to garbage collection. Brevard does, but in Indian River it’s still voluntary.

Traditionally, workers hop off the truck, pick up curbside cans, dump them into the rear of the garbage truck and hop back on for the next house. This month, the County Commission endorsed automation, asking Waste Management to report back at a Jan. 31 final public hearing with budget estimates based on including and excluding recycling as an automated service.

“Currently Waste Management has a hard time keeping people, so the level of service is way down,” County Commissioner Helen Volts said Thursday. “Nobody wants to work on the back of those trucks, especially in the summer time.”

She said the new system also will expand the kinds of material the county can recycle, boosting an annual recycling revenue of $150,000 to $400,000.

As for the homeowner, she said, the new bins are better balanced and easier to maneuver than having to carry traditional 30-gallon cans.

Clark said she needed to see that in practice. So on Saturday, Clark and her neighbors on Barefoot Bay’s Egret Circle will get the new wheeled carts so they can fill them and see the truck at work Wednesday.

Geletko said Waste Management has already set up pilot programs for about 20,000 customers, before the county inks the final deal, in Cape Canaveral, Satellite Beach, Indialantic, Indian Harbor Beach and Melbourne Beach.

FOUR Dump trucks, two owned by the Municipality of Consolacion, have been confiscated by the Provincial Environment and Natural Resources Office (Penro) for alleged illegal hauling of limestone.

The Penro monitoring team and the Cebu Provincial Police Office (CPPO) conducted a checkpoint last Tuesday in Conso-lacion.

The four trucks were flagged down at Danglag, Consolacion and were seized after the driver failed to present delivery receipts for the hauling activity, which is a violation of the Province’s quarrying ordinance.

Glenn Baricuatro, Capitol consultant on environment, said that either for commercial or government project, extraction of minerals like limestone has to have the necessary permits and the hauling must be covered by delivery receipts.

The team learned that the limestone was extracted from the waste of a road opening project in Barangay Danglag.

Based on its records, Penro has not issued any waste disposal permit to any person or government entity for the hauling activity.

The four vehicles loaded with six to 10 cubic meters of limestone are now in the custody of the CPPO.

Baricuatro said they do not know where the limestone was to be delivered but they have received reports that quarrying in Consolacion has been going on for quite sometime already.

Capitol will investigate the matter further.

More timely garbage collection is expected next year when the Department of Environmental Health brings on stream 10 new Dump trucks with a combined $2 million price tag.

According to the department’s acting director, Winston Sweeting, the trucks’ arrival will enhance the garbage collection system in New Providence.

It comes in the wake of the government’s decision to put a hold on a plan that called for outside companies to assist the department with garbage collection.

Once the new Dump trucks arrive the entire garbage collection systems is expected to be revamped, according to Mr. Sweeting.

The 10 to 12 trucks that are currently being utilized reportedly cost the department $250,000 each.

Mr. Sweeting advised members of the public not to place items such as car tyres or batteries in the garbage as they tend to damage the trucks, causing the department to fall behind in its work.

“We want to be able to tell the public what days they can expect their garbage to be collected. We ask the public to bear with us and if the garbage is not collected they can call the solid waste division. We will do our best to collect the garbage,” he said.

Mr. Sweeting said the department is a week behind in certain areas.

“The inner city is well taken care of. It was just the outer sections of the island affected. Sections of Yamacraw and Pinewood Gardens are the areas we are behind on. We are working with the trucks we have. They are currently breaking down [and] we are coping with what we have,” he said.

Mr. Sweeting said he is aware of the increase in demand for the department’s services during the Christmas season.

The department’s workers are prepared to work over time so that there wouldn’t be an overflow of garbage, he indicated.

Mr. Sweeting said old Christmas trees ought to be taken to the dumping facilities.

He advised members of the public to discard the trees themselves because that is not the responsibility of the department.

The acting director noted that another garbage collection problem stems from persons not having the correct garbage collection bins to enable the department to carry out its duties a lot more quickly.

“The householder has a responsibility to provide suitable receptacles that are properly covered,” he said.

Mr. Sweeting asked members of the public to stop using oil bins because they are hazardous to sanitation workers.

“We had incidents where sanitation workers were cut…when it rains water settles to the bottom of the bins and it is very hard for the sanitation personnel to move the bins,” he explained.

“The garbage collection trucks only collect household waste, which comes from the preparation of food. Residents need to make the necessary arrangements for us to assist them with removing larger items.”

He said persons should not dump garbage on anyone’s property, in the bush or at the sports centre.

The city is getting two new dump trucks, complete with a plow and a salt spreader for each vehicle.

City Council members approved the purchase of $238,939.36 Monday. The units replace two 1999 Chevrolet dump trucks and were purchased through the State of Missouri bid process, which essentially saves municipalities money.

The total bid price for each unit, complete with plows and salt spreader accessories, is $119,469.68.

Hargis said existing vehicles are getting to the point where they are getting too expensive to keep repairing.

“We rebuilt the transmission in one of them for $16,000,” City Engineer Steve Hargis said. “It’s still in use, but they could go any time.”

The vehicles are used throughout the year — in summer for street resurfacing and in the winter for snow removal and salt spreading.

The old vehicles, which are valued at about $15,000 each, were not acceptable for trade-in. International Truck Corp., which has offices in Springfield, Kansas City, St. Joseph and Joplin, was the successful bidder.

City Council members also approved the purchase of a new wheel loader for the purchase price of $103,137, less the trade-in of $43,500 for a total of $59,637.

Like the Dump trucks, the wheel loader was purchased through the State of Missouri bid process.

“If I were a contractor, I couldn’t buy it for this,” Hargis said. “It’d be 25 percent more.”

City Council members approved the awarding of the bid to Crown Power and Equipment, which has offices in Columbia and Jefferson City.

After bids were awarded, City Finance Director Steffanie D. Rogers sought approval from City Council members for financing for both the dump trucks and the wheel loader.

Rogers said both purchases — the trucks and the wheel loader — were budget items for a five-year payment schedule of $51,000 and $21,000, respectively. City Council members approved the financing bid to Commerce Bank with a rate of 3.53 percent of $51,159.18 annually for the trucks and $12,768.85 for the wheel loader.

Hargis concluded the evening by asking City Council members to approve the purchase of a Bobcat with a trailer. Once again, Hargis sought the bid through the statewide bid process for a total of $33,290. Hargis’ 2007-’08 budget appropriated $32,000 for this purchase.

One person is dead following a collision involving a pickup truck and a dump truck in Palgrave, Ont., west of Newmarket.

Provincial police say the southbound Dump truck hauling a secondary trailer known as a “pup,” hit a northbound pickup truck head on. A northbound SUV also collided with the dump truck.

Rescue crews worked for hours to free the driver from the pickup, but he did not survive his injuries.

The other two drivers were taken to a hospital in Orangeville with unspecified injuries.

No names or ages have been released.

A man was injured yesterday when the dump truck he was driving overturned on Interstate 295.

The accident occurred just before 6 a.m. on the northbound side of the interstate near the Route 38 interchange, a Burlington County Central Communications supervisor said.

The driver was flown to Cooper University Hospital in Camden for treatment of unspecified injuries, the supervisor said.

Cleanup of the accident was ongoing as of 9:30 a.m., according to the state Department of Transportation. Traffic was backed up on the northbound side due to lane closures.

A dump truck sustained major damage when its dump bed, left in the “up” position, struck the Shiloh Road overpass as the driver tried to enter southbound Interstate 99 from the Shiloh Road exit, state police reported.

The dump bed was detached from the truck by the impact of striking the underside of the overpass and came to rest in the entrance lane at about 1:55 a.m. today, police said.

The 2007 Kenworth dump truck, owned by John Bookwalter Trucking of Huntingdon, was operated by Dale Lee Brenneman, 57, of Mill Creek.

Brenneman was not injured in the crash.