Raleigh moved the bandit into its fleet in 2005, joining cities nationwide that saw manpower and money savings in its automatic arm.

But here and across the Triangle, the trucks spend a large chunk of time laid up by mechanical failure. In Raleigh, a single bandit truck racked up 32 repairs between July and February, costing more than $24,000.

In all, two-thirds of the city's bandit trucks have faced repairs -- at a cost of more than $400,000 to the city.

It's a sore point for city garbage crews who walked out twice in 2006, partly because the new trucks led to a manpower cut that resulted in longer slogs through the city for the remaining workers. Now the bandits need the longest maintenance downtime, and those crews in the old-fashioned rear-loaders have to pick up the slack.

More moving parts lead to more broken parts, and the automatic grabber arm on the bandits is just another part that can fail.

"It's a maintenance nightmare because of that movement," said Travis Brown, Raleigh's superintendent of vehicle fleet maintenance.

Still, City Manager Russell Allen defends the trucks. He says the heavier maintenance was expected and notes that Raleigh saved roughly $4 million by switching to the one-man trucks. That more than offsets the cost of frequent repairs, he added, explaining that more than 100 jobs have gradually been phased out through attrition since the bandits' arrival, saving the city wages and other benefits.

Other Triangle towns share the maintenance burden of bandits. Durham runs 14 of the complex machines in a fleet that totals 24 garbage trucks. Cary runs 10 of them, plus a spare, out of its fleet of roughly 20 trucks.

Like Raleigh's, those trucks require far more attention, said Scott Hecht, Cary's solid-waste superintendent. They're down about 13 percent of the time, meaning about one truck is always out for repairs. But manpower savings makes it worthwhile.

"No regrets," Hecht said.

In Orange County, Hillsborough has two of them running one at a time, and breakdowns strike about twice a month.

"We've had a lot of failures," said Darren Koch, Hillsborough's fleet maintenance supervisor. "They fail a whole lot more than the old rear-loaders."

4 problems in a week

And even those old-style rear-loader garbage trucks are prone to frequent breakdown.

Last month, Raleigh truck No. 1133, a rear-loader, conked out four times in a week -- stranding its crew in the rain, its fuel leaks coming back bandaged with Teflon tape and hose clamps.

Driver Joseph Jenkins can scarcely recall when the truck made it through a four-day workweek without a mechanic crawling under its belly.

"I don't know if it's a cheap truck or what," Jenkins said. "I guess it's worn out."

Rear-loading trucks such as No. 1133 are a mainstay in Raleigh's hangar-like shop off Peace Street. But they are the picture of health compared with the bandits. They're also cheaper overall. A bandit costs roughly $220,000, compared with the rear loader's $180,000, said Frederick Battle, director of solid waste services.

By adding the bandits, Raleigh has invited a much heavier maintenance schedule, even as the city's garbage collection system adds 150 customers a week.

The solid waste maintenance budget has grown from $7.1 million to $11.8 million in the past five years, partly from growth and gas price increase, but also because of new equipment.

It's hard to generalize without looking at specific problems on specific trucks, but failure of once or twice a month would be average, said Robert McIlroy from Southern Truck Service in Charlotte, which handles repairs all over the state.

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