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Monday, February 18, 2019

RANDY the GARBAGE MAN

RANDY the GARBAGE MAN

The big event at the Crankettes’ house when I put on my Grandpa Joe Hat is the arrival of Randy the Garbage Man.  Is that politically correct? Are they called Refuse Recyclers, Trash Totters, or Disposal Engineers?  

I’m pretty sure Randy would say that he is a Garbage Man.

Randy is a microcosmic example of the power of capitalism.  I understand there are functions which only government can legislate, mandate, and perform; garbage disposal as demonstrated by Randy is not one of those functions.

The garbage pickup at my municipality pales in comparison to Randy.

Randy is an independent contractor hired by the town where the Crankettes reside.  He owns his truck.  Randy collects the garbage by himself.  He drives his truck, stops, gets out, gathers the cans, empties them into the truck, compacts it, gets back in the cab and drives up to the next can. 

This is one hard working dude. Along the way, he takes time to wave to the Crankettes, save the compacting operation to display for their great enjoyment, and as he pulls away he gives the horn a short blast.  I am told by long term residents, that Randy or his father before him have not missed or been late for a pickup in twenty-five years.

The collection in my town works pretty well.  There are probably three trucks that do the work that Randy does.  There are three people to a truck, a driver and two collectors.  They work hard and do a fine job, faster, but no better than Randy.

Every two years our town’s collectors threaten or actually go on strike.  Randy never goes on strike.  Our collectors get vacation and sick days.  Randy does not get sick.  He seldom takes vacations. 

Randy is his own boss.  Randy’s boss is tough to work for.  Randy would not want to work for anyone else.

Re-run from 2012.  Last I heard Randy sold the route and is in the landscaping business.  On his last day he made a special stop at the front door to say goodbye to the crankettes.

16 comments:

  1. Works for me. Be like Randy.

    Have a fabulous day, Joe. 😎

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  2. Please tell Randy to buy a back support belt.

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  3. My Dad was Director of Public Services of our town so he was boss over the garbage men. They loved him because if one of them couldn't make it, he would put on the coveralls and go out with them. Good folks those garbage men.

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  4. Same with Tabor.

    He is a special man.

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  5. We need more Randy's in this world.

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  6. He left one difficult, labor-intensive outdoor job for another. He's the kind of person who is the backbone of the country.

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  7. The Randy's work extra hard for their money. I followed a garbage truck quite often on the way to work. Not on purpose. It had a driver, and two guys who rode on the back, standing, holding onto a handle. One of them hopped down and darted across the road to get a can, and was narrowly missed by a car that crested the hill coming at us. I think I forgot to breathe for about 5 minutes. I was shaking for that Randy. Good thing he had youthful reflexes, and jumped back just in time. Didn't seem to faze him. They're out in all weather, too. I can't imagine one man doing it all himself!

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  8. Our garbage trucks used to be like Val's, with two young men hopping on and off the back of the ruck as they picked up cans to empty into the gaping maw, so back in those days, three people were well employed. Now, the garbage truck is HUGE with only a driver and a robotic arm that swings out, picks up the bin and upends it over the truck, but there's only one arm on one side, so the HUGE truck has to do one side of the street, then turn in again to do the opposite side. Two hours later, another HUGE truck comes along to pick up the recycling bins. The original trucks had the men running both sides of the street at once so only had to travel each street once.

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  9. System in UK is as described by River. Our bin men have it easy, pick up a bin, attach it to the machine, then deliver the empty bin from whence it came, after which they have a union meeting which decides them to strike, which is where we are now.

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    1. Agree with Valerie. In my part of the UK we have three trucks with three men each. One collects general rubbish as described by Valerie. One collects re-cycling materials. One collects garden refuse - grass cuttings and tree bush pruning - but NOT vegetable matter like cabbage leaves, potato peelings, carrot peelings and the like. They go in the rubbish bin. We have three bins in different colours.

      So ... three trucks, three men per truck, three bins per house ... and that's progress.

      God bless.

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    2. Our garden refuse bins are also used for vegetable peelings etc even egg shells, anything compostable is accepted, the whole truck load goes to a municipal compost depot and once it is all broken down into actual compost it goes to local councils to be spread as mulch on parks gardens etc.

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  10. What a guy and just hope he has some sons to carry on. Oops, saw where he is now landscaping. Pretty sure he is doing a bang up job there also. Still hope he has a boatload of sons.

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  11. We had Randy's growing up but now we just have the garbage guys.

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  12. Around here, the Randys got laid off after the county contracted vehicles with robotic arms that pick up the garbage cans.

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