Explore the Future
RDK Truck Sales · The Blog
Straight Talk on Trucks, From the People Who Sell Them
Meet the Author
Every Post Written by Richard Kemner, Founder of RDK Truck Sales
Richard Kemner started RDK Truck Sales in Tampa back in 1997 with a simple idea: sell good trucks to good people, and stand behind every one.
Nearly three decades later he's still in the day-to-day — spec'ing chassis, talking with manufacturers and fleet operators across Florida, and paying close attention to how trucks actually hold up on real refuse and roll-off routes. This is where he shares that perspective: plain-language takes on emissions rules, pricing, residual value, and fleet planning, written to help you make the call that's right for your operation — not to push whatever a press release says you should want. No hype, no jargon, just the kind of straight talk you'd get standing in the yard on Adamo Drive.
Story Series
Gary the Garbage Man
Gary Kowalski clocks in at 4:47 a.m. and loves Big Bertha — his 33,000-pound rear loader — more than most folks love their cars. Stories from the seat of a garbage truck.
Read the Gary stories
Own, lease, or rent? See the best term for ASL, rear loader, roll-off and front loader refuse trucks, based on real cycle counts and wear.
For National Coffee Day, Gary runs the yard's espresso machine all week. Eleven pounds of beans later, even the real Linda approves.
On the first day of fall, Gary holds his annual plastic-leaf ceremony at 91 degrees. Mrs. Kravitz brings a real pumpkin and denies everything.
A DEF header north of $500 can park a $350,000 truck. Here is what the part actually does, why it fails, and what to check before you buy one.
National CleanUp Day: 41 volunteers, 6 contractor bags, one roll-off, and one raccoon who considered that ditch his inventory. Cake settled it.
Truck Driver Appreciation Week: Gary's route fills with 17 unsigned thank-you signs, hot coffee, and banana bread. Mrs. Kravitz denies everything.
DEF is 32.5% urea and 67.5% deionized water. Heat and time are what push it off spec, and off-spec fluid is what kills sensors, catalysts, and uptime.
On the NOAA peak day of hurricane season, Gary's whole RDK fleet runs the storm checklist anyway — then gets a clear, boring Tuesday.
Bertha, Guardian, Atlas, and Loyal run Tampa routes in layered shifts, then rescue a property manager's six missed commercial pickups by Saturday.
Ninety-seven degrees, a mystery cooler, and one pop-up storm — Gary and Russ honor every hardworking neighbor on their Tampa Labor Day route.