GARBAGE COLLECTING
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"In short... we have to be superhuman. You have to weather all the range of temperature extremes, blazing sun...freezing cold...rain...sleet...hurricane winds...Then you have to deal with the customer relations part of it, satisfying customers who think you're a joke anyway. Animals of all descriptions who want to taste your leg(s) and/or other accessible body parts." [Carl T, sanitation relocation specialist]
Interview with Garbage Truck Drivers
In order to speak
directly with real, live garbage collectors, I infiltrated the Yahoo! Garbage
Truck Driver group (although I must say that the "Jedi Knight" user name wasn't
much of a disguise). There, I met a fascinating, intelligent group of
people who certainly defied whatever sort of negative stereotype there is that
surrounds garbage men and women. Whatever I had been expecting, they
certainly weren't it. Many, many thanks to the hardworking garbage
collectors of the group.
A garbage collector may rise as early as 3:30 AM
Q: Describe a
typical day on the job.
Paul Jones, Colorado Springs, CO: I get up at 3:30 a.m., eat
breakfast, pack a lunch and dress in a uniform. I'm at work by 5:00. I perform a
pre-trip inspection on my vehicle and review my route for the day. There are
always changes to the route: new customers, customers who are on stop service
because they didn't pay their bill, and customers who have canceled service.
My route is out in the country and it takes me anywhere from
just over 1/2 an hour to nearly an hour to drive to my first stop. I like to
start picking up trash by 6:00 or shortly thereafter so I can be finished by
2:00. Most trash routes are either commercial (dumpsters) or residential
(trash cans). Because my route is out in the country, I pick up both commercial
and residential. I have to average 18 stops an hour to meet productivity.
In town, this would be exceedingly slow, but because my stops are often miles
apart, 18 stops an hour can be difficult to maintain. The only way I can manage
this is by skipping my breaks and lunch periods. I eat lunch while driving
between stops. At the end of each day, I stop at the landfill and empty my
truck
regardless of how full it is. This is unusual as most drivers only go to the
landfill when their trucks are full. I have to do this because my route is so
far out in the country that it would take too much time for me to break route
and drive all the way back to the landfill to empty it and then drive all the
way back out to my route. I then drive back to the yard, park my truck,
perform a post-trip inspection, finish any paperwork and turn it in, and go
home. I generally arrive home around 3:30 to 4:00.
Larry Harvey:
I am doing something a little different than a typical trashman now. For the
sake of your question, I will answer as if I was still doing a normal
residential route. I would get up at 2:30 to arrive work at 4:00 am. Do my
pre-trip inspection and grab my route book, then be on my way. The normal route
is about 500 homes. I would normally have to go the landfill twice a day. It
would take me about 13 to 15 hour a day. We do not use
helpers, we always work alone. After returning back to the shop, nobody does a
post-trip
inspection, we just crawl home.
Q: Why are you doing what you are doing? In other words, why are you a garbage collector?
Larry Harvey: My previous job
was a Building Service Coordinator in the Health field.
The stress was killing me, and the meetings that droned on for hours was too
much. Now I'm alone all day (except for my dogs) , and just go about my merry
way, picking up my trash while shopping in the hopper for occasional treasures.
Along with the long hours comes big money. I'm making twice what I was, and
nobody cares how many hours I work.
Tauna Bohlmann, Aubudon, Iowa: [My husband] Rick drove truck over the road- lonely for him, lonely for me. Probably would have killed the marriage and the boys missed him and he them. So we took the first job available and sold the truck. garbage was it The guy wanted to retire so he sold the business to us. Best thing we ever did. We got a problem with competition right now but there really is enough for everyone.
Paul Jones: I really thought
I'd like the job overall... I like being outside, on my own and physical
labor. Previously, I was a paralegal/office manager for an attorney for 10
years. Before that, I was
a project manager for GTE. I hadn't counted on the brain dead part or the lack
of possibility for advancement.
I was looking for a job that would get me outside, on my own
and doing physical labor. Garbage Truck Driver presented itself, and I took it.
Q: What do you like most about your job?
Paul Jones: I like being outside. I like working on my own. I like the physical labor.
Tauna Bohlmann: [What I] like best that I go to my neighbors homes and sometimes get the chance to chat a bit. Garbage. Any other description needed?
Larry Harvey: Dogs. Love the dogs, the dogs love me. I have many dogs on my routes and they all come to see me. Some follow me from stop to stop. I keep a large supply of dog biscuits with me everyday. Sure, it's bought friendship, but what the heck.
Q: What do you like least?
Paul Jones: It's a brain dead job with essentially no mental challenges. There are few, if any, possibilities for advancement.
Tauna Bohlmann: The weather. I like everything else but HATE the cold.
Larry Harvey: What I like least would be the smell of maggots. That's why I like working in the winter better.
Q: What is the most out-of-ordinary thing that has ever occurred on the job?
Tauna Bohlmann:
Didn't make landfill before closing. Had to take trash to shop and then work
on the truck. Heard meows from back. Hubby got pushbar up and I dug thru a ton
of garbage, rescued 2 kittens. rest of litter was squished. Nothing like climbing into a full truck and sifting trash to have a dead
squished kitten fall on your head. How the 2 survived is unknown. They
were practically flat but a milk carton took up some of the weight on one.
Both in good homes.
Rick once [heard] a guy yelling for help behind his barn and he ran to
help. The farmer was trying to save a calf that had gotten wedged in a feeder
and was choking to death. the man was actually yelling for his son.
He was
surprised as heck when Rick came
around the barn instead but after about an hour, they got the calf free.
Sometimes animals may interfere with collection...
Larry Harvey: Interesting question. Nothing comes to mind. I have been doing trash for three years. I remember in the beginning coming home every night and telling my wife all the strange things that happened that day. Now all the strange things just seem normal to me and nothing really sticks out.
Carl T: Info
on a weird find....although unsubstantiated, I heard today about
a Rear Loader crew in Central
Nebrask a who found a dead body when they went to the landfill.. Geeze that'll
give ya the creeps. And I thought the Igauna I found 3 years ago was a bad
deal...man
that sucker was freekin HUGE.. I just hope I never find a human body in the back
of my truck!
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