Atascadero Commercial (WM/AWA) WMmaster626 2021-06-29 | As many know, Waste Management had thousands of Volvo/Wittkes across North America. In Southern California, it was an extremely common combo, and almost each yard had at least a small handful of them. As of recent, the WM yards in Santa Maria (HSS) and Atascadero (AWA) were the last two yards to have Volvo Wittkes running in them. I discovered HSS's Wittkes in particular were extremely interesting with the HSS logos and stripes on them. Given their spread out service area though, I had practically given up on finding one. With a bunch of luck and help, I actually managed to get footage of all the HSS Wittkes I wanted to see - and ironically, all were caught up at their sister yard AWA! (0:00) 206301: This was the Wittke I wanted to see most from HSS. This Volvo had the rims I like best (for many years, the sister units had different rims), and combined with the HSS stripe, it was my favorite of the bunch. When I was in the area a few months back, Eli took me around town and we caught James in this truck doing commercial recycling. He ran the truck very nicely and was super cool with us hanging around! Thrilled to finally have caught 206301, and even more thrilled that it was ran really well too. (4:43) - 102569: HSS had four of these Autoreaches for years. If I'm not mistaken, they once were housed at a yard on Vandenberg AFB back in the day until they merged operations with HSS. As old as this truck is, they have been kept for one reason, and one reason only - they do the yard's 300 gallon route. On the off days, they use it for the organics route that HSS runs, and on Fridays, AWA uses it for their organics route. Seen here is Mike collecting a stop. Very happy to have caught one of these old Autoreaches. (6:34) - 207027: This truck was sitting in the yard when everything left, so we didn't think it was going to be running. When we circled back later in the day, we noticed it was gone on route! We tracked down Jorge in this truck eventually and followed him until he went on lunch. Very nice and experienced driver who has been with all the other garbage companies in the central coast! Definitely happy to catch this HSS truck as well - I've seen it at AWA several times over the years so it's great to finally film it. (12:11) - 203591: AWA's badass commercial recycle truck. I first found this truck back in 2018 when I was up there but didn't get as much footage as I would've liked. GI repainted this truck in 2016 and the paint was still looking good after two years. It got damaged in a fire shortly after and got new logos. Terrific sounding truck so I'm glad I was able to get some footage of it. (13:50) - 202704: Almador was running this truck from HSS on his commercial route since his FEL was down. Really nice sounding rig and Almador runs it super well. I was hoping to get more video but unfortunately he had a flat tire and had to go back to the yard.Big thanks to the awesome Richard Rosa for all this help with routes and trucks!! And another big thanks to Eli for dragging me around to make this video possible - appreciate it man! Enjoy! Comments are always appreciated!
Waste Management Mack LE Amrep Octo ASL 106216 WMmaster626 2022-12-11 | While most of Waste Management's fleet in Santa Maria is relatively uniformed, they had a couple oddball garbage trucks running around. This ex-Anderson Rubbish truck was one of their neat units that was being used as a spare back in 2021. When GI Industries bought Anderson, the initial plan was to have the Octos replace the aging Freightliner Condor Octos at both Atascadero and Santa Maria. For various reasons, only 2 Octos made their way up to the Central Coast, and AWA was quick to send this truck over to Santa Maria after a short time of using it. From what the driver said, the controls on this truck were backwards from the usual Amrep he drove, which is why he struggled to operate in a smooth manner. Despite that issue, I wanted to grab some video with how good the truck sounded, and also with the more unique blue Cascades that populate the area. I've only seen blue Cascades in this color in Northern California for the most part. Definitely neat how HSS chose to not only use Cascades in this shade of blue, but also put the iconic HSS logo on them too. Unfortunately there weren't any Zarns in this area but I would have loved to see this truck picking them up. Also a big fan of the aluminum rims on this truck - by the time GI put aluminum rims on their Octos, I barely had a chance to grab pictures of them, let alone video. Thanks to the driver for making this video possible and a big thanks to Eli for showing me around!
Waste Management Autocar WX Amrep HX-450 ASL 103432 WMmaster626 2022-12-04 | ~The Beast of Calabasas~This pro driver from Waste Management - GI Industries makes it look easy to maneuver a huge garbage truck through the tight hills and streets of Calabasas Highlands. I'm a huge fan of how quick this truck is (and he said the truck was "running slow" on this day lmao). Definitely glad to have been able to catch him on this particular route too with the old Las Virgenes Disposal Rotos. Big thanks to Mike for making this video happen!
Waste Management Peterbilt 320 Amrep HX-450 ASL 105404 WMmaster626 2022-05-12 | We celebrate a huge milestone in this awesome driver's career today - 35 years of hard work and dedication to Waste Management!If you've gotten to meet or work with Julio Rangel, you'll quickly find out that he's one of the best that this industry's got. He started out at Sunnyedge Disposal and has been with WM since before the burgundy days. Lot of awesome stories and pictures from over the years! As you can see from this video, he's a very talented, safe, and efficient driver. I've got mad respect for how good of a driver he is.WM MoVal had a truck show about a month ago, so the following day, I grabbed a quick video while his truck was still super clean, polished and chromed out. Absolutely love how this thing looks and he maintains it very nicely. Easily the nicest garbage truck in the Inland Empire! Thank you for 35+ years of dedicated service Julio!
Waste Management Autocar WXLL McNeilus FEL 264509 WMmaster626 2022-04-20 | Here's a quick little video of one of the few Autocar McNeilus Curotto Cans that Waste Management Corona used to run. This truck in particular was one of my favorites because of the refurbished Curotto Can 1.5 on it. Always thought it was really neat how they redid the entire bucket rather than getting a Slammin' Eagle like many other yards. Driver was an absolute pro with the truck so that made it extra fun to watch. I also really liked all the Western Waste carts along the route. For years, I wanted to film a Curotto on greens out here with all the old carts - unfortunately this was the only one I was able to catch. Wish I got more but we decided to break off and go look for a Mack instead.Crazy to think all these Autocar Curottos are gone - definitely wish I got some more video while they were running resi routes out here.Thanks to the awesome driver!
Waste Management Mack LE Amrep Octo ASL 101584 WMmaster626 2021-11-21 | Been in a GI mood lately, so here's another video of one of their best! Earlier this year, we were able to catch Mike in truck #101584 going through his Friday route. It was awesome to see the Thousand Oaks branded Mack working in Thousand Oaks like back in the day. This truck was a frontline green waste truck in TO for many years until that driver got a new truck. He took really good care of it, but since it became a spare, its condition has unfortunately worsened. Thanks to the driver for making this video possible!
Waste Management Autocar WX Amrep HX-450 ASL 103431 WMmaster626 2021-10-24 | In honor of his one year anniversary with Waste Management, here's a video of the man himself smashing out his Friday route in his regular truck, #103431. This is probably the smoothest Amrep driver I've ever seen, especially in one of these WX/Amreps. Absolutely love how he runs these trucks, though no surprise since he's the king of Amreps. Even though he doesn't lid flip, I really enjoyed how he would quickly pop lids shut without jerking the arm down. With how efficient he runs the truck and the route, Mike's been able to beat the old driver's time significantly, although that's also not a huge surprise either haha. Thanks to the driver for making this video possible & congrats on 1 year!
Waste Management Peterbilt 320 Amrep HX-450 ASL 104423 WMmaster626 2021-10-10 | Waste Management's operation in Santa Maria hasn't seen much spotlight in recent years since these Peterbilt Amreps make up a large portion of their fleet. I've always been a huge HSS fan since I was little, so when I was up in the area, Eli and I were able to poke around Vandenberg Village to see what their Amreps were like.This area has some awesome carts that I've been wanting to see. Huge fan of the Rotos and Zarns. The drivers here do split routes, so this guy came back later in the day for recycle. Definitely unique to SoCal to see split routes like that for WM, but make sense for how this region is. Greens and recycle also alternate every other week which is another unusual thing for the market area. Driver was an absolute pro with the truck which made it really enjoyable to watch, even for being a new truck. Absolutely love how these trucks look and perform so I'm glad I got some video.Thanks to Alfonso for letting us grab some video!
Waste Management Mack LE Wittke FEL 263854 WMmaster626 2021-09-28 | Here's another Curotto Can we managed to get lots of footage of when Corona was running it. 263854 was originally from Los Angeles Hauling in Long Beach and Corona received it around 2011. We first caught Armando running it on a trash route in early 2018. Very smooth truck and I was definitely pleased with how he ran it. Later that year, we caught Ernesto running it on Christmas trees, which was something I've always wanted to see. Thank you to both drivers for letting us grab some video!
Waste Management Mack LE Wittke FEL 263492 WMmaster626 2021-09-17 | Here is one of the most entertaining Curotto Cans I've gotten to see. A few years ago, we were fortunate enough to catch our buddy Jaime in one of our favorite trucks quickly collecting recycling in Eastvale. When this was filmed, 263492 was a spare, but because it was in great condition, Jaime liked taking it out on route almost regularly. Unfortunately, this truck was retired in mid-2019. Definitely one truck I'm glad I got to see so many times over the years. I was a huge fan of the nice paint and speed of the truck. Thanks to Jaime for being so cool!
Waste Management Mack LE Amrep Octo ASL 101465 WMmaster626 2021-08-25 | One of the last Mack Amreps from Waste Management - G.I. Industries hard at work in the hills of Thousand Oaks. The regular truck was down for the day so I was treated to this nice surprise one Friday in January. Thanks to the very skilled & awesome driver for making this video possible!
Arcadia Residential (WM) WMmaster626 2020-12-30 | Waste Management San Gabriel Pomona Valley and some of their most iconic garbage trucks working in Arcadia over the years. I've been serviced by this yard my whole life and these Curotto Cans are some of trucks I have the best memories of. Hope you enjoy this old footage spanning eight years of 11 trucks seen around town. (0:00) - 205605: Fili Barrera has been doing my route for over 10 years now, and during the time when he was in a Curotto Can, he always had a Mack except for these two weeks back in 2013 when he was in a spare Volvo. I was especially fond of 205605 from Tony's videos of it, so I was thrilled when Fili came by in it! Here he is collecting two Sierra Madre Toters on my street. 205605 was scrapped in December 2013. (0:35) - 263452: Before Fili was given an ASL, he drove 263452 for a few months. I had been wanting to see this truck for a while, so I was really glad he ended up using it. Here's Fili collecting the end of his greens route back in November 2015 - with the seasons changing, greens was especially heavy so he was dumping the bucket like every three houses! 263452 was scrapped in early 2018 from Compton Hauling. (3:36) - 263982: A truck I wish I had way more footage of. Mike Vasquez got this truck after his Volvo was retired in late 2014. These trucks sounded amazing but for some reason, I never stocked up on a bunch of footage unfortunately. I caught Mike on this day driving off after finishing his first load. 982 ended up having some problems in 2016 and this truck never returned to being a frontline unit. 263982 was scrapped last year after sitting for more than 2 years untouched. (3:43) - 260596: This is one of my favorite trucks I've ever filmed. I first discovered this truck in 2012, and was shocked that my local yard still had ex-WMX trucks running! The driver, Ike, was super cool and very skilled at driving Curotto too which made things even more enjoyable. Ike kept 260596 extremely clean, and even had chrome caps on the truck which was rare in San Gab! Drivers and old supervisors told me he used to wax the truck on his break which I highly respect. Seen here is Ike collecting trash back in early 2013. One cool thing about this truck is that it was button operated rather than joystick. Certainly an added bonus to the uniqueness of this truck. 260596 was scrapped in late 2013.(5:23) - 263266: Another one of my favorite finds from over the years! Joe Quezada running Curotto was something Kevin and I both wanted to desperately see, so when it actually happened in summer 2017, we were ecstatic! Joe hadn't driven Curotto in years before this happened but he still ran 266 really well! Arguably one of the fastest Curotto drivers I've seen which is awesome. 263266 was still running as of a few months ago, but I haven't seen it in a while so it might've been scrapped unfortunately. (10:37) - 264515: Jose Mentado used to drive this ex-Corona McNeilus, and I caught him doing trash one afternoon in 2016 which was something I had been wanting to see for a while with all the Turn-Keys around. This truck is still running daily today with a different driver. (11:16) - 263525: Fili got this truck in 2012 after his diesel Mack was sent away. He used 525 for two and a half years, and I got to see it go from having an original Curotto Can all the way to brand new Slammin' Eagle on it. Seen here is Fili collecting greens when his truck had just gotten a 1.5 bucket. 263525 was retired in 2016 after it was sent to Los Angeles Hauling.(12:17) - 263264: Some footage of Rosendo Pimienta on the first time I met him in 2015! I had been wanting to see this truck once I saw it had a bucket on it, so it was a nice to meet such a cool driver behind the wheel. 263264 was retired in 2019 after serving as the frontline bulk truck for many years. (12:51) - 263268: Fili's ASL was being used elsewhere on this day back in 2016, so I got to see him in 263268! You'll also get to see a 64g Cascade for greens in this clip, which is rare to see in Arcadia. 263268 was retired in 2018. (13:16) - 263453: Mike had just gotten his ASL here back in early 2017. One afternoon, I was out driving and saw his ASL was being used by a Chino driver helping out in Arcadia! I went to Mike's route and caught him picking up some Turn Keys. 263453 is still running today as a frontline bulk truck. (13:57) - 263016: When Fili Cortes first became my recycle driver in 2013, he was still driving his Volvo Wittke. I managed to film him once on this day in November 2013 before he was given a brand new ASL just a few weeks later. Unfortunate because I really was looking forward to getting more video of him in a Curotto! 263016 was retired in 2015. Thank you to all the awesome drivers from WM San Gabriel for making this video possible! It's been great getting to grow up with these guys for so many years.
Glendale Commercial (WM) WMmaster626 2020-12-27 | The City of Glendale currently operates under an open market system. Waste Management is one of the many haulers here. I managed to find these 3 front loaders and 2 scout trucks all on this same street over the last four years passing through Glendale. (0:00) - 203020 & 632028: Back in 2016, 203020 was one of the top front loaders I wanted to find from Sun Valley. One Saturday in December, Kevin and I were looking for 203020 before he finished for the day. The route manager on duty that day had given us an address of where to catch him at in the north central part of LA, so we booked it over there from the West Valley hoping to catch him in time. As we were heading south on the 5, we saw 203020 pass us on the northbound side of the freeway! I thought we had missed our chance of seeing him, but luckily, the RM sent me another address on where to catch him at. Kevin and I ended up waiting here on Orange Street in downtown Glendale with the scout driver, Chuy, for a few minutes before Johnny rolled around the corner in 203020! At the time that this was filmed, this was the oldest garbage truck WM was running in SoCal and one of four trucks from the old burgundy WM days. The sound of the truck was nostalgic to me and brought back memories of when I used to film the ex-WMX Volvo/Wittke in Arcadia in 2012. The truck isn't as loud as the 2001 Volvos but I was definitely a fan of this truck nonetheless. The original body on the truck was a McNeilus Century for those who don't know that. Anyway, watch as talented driver Johnny Villalvazo safely collects this massive dumpster line. He was almost full so he spent quite a while packing these in! (11:55) - 213155 & 607854: About 6 months later in June 2017, I was in the area and happened to pass by the massive stop I caught Johnny at in December. Outside, Antonio and Armando were collecting the dumpsters here so I decided to grab a clip. The first dumpster they collected was an old Crown dumpster that WM had just started servicing once Recology started losing work. When this was filmed, 213155 had just barely arrived into the fleet as part of the RecycLA contract so it was neat seeing one of these ACX Amreps in action. (14:23) - 214116: This past year, I again ran into Antonio on Orange Street in his new truck, 214116. Very skilled driver who has been working at the company since the Valencia Disposal days. I was happy to catch him collecting these stops with the bottom channel dumpsters, and even more happy to see green WM dumpsters still around from Sun Valley. Thanks to all the drivers for letting me film!
Simi Valley Residential (WM/GI) WMmaster626 2020-12-22 | Waste Management - G.I. Industries and their awesome Mack and Volvo Amreps collecting in Simi Valley. These are some of my favorite garbage trucks WM ever purchased and it is really nice to still see some of them running so late into 2020. Here are 7 Amrep Octos I’ve caught over the last four years. (0:00) - 101609: This route was previously done by 101518, but when 101609 showed up on this route, I wanted to grab some video because this is likely GI’s best sounding truck! Gerson took over this route a few years ago, and funny enough, I actually saw him getting trained by Gerry when he joined WM in 2018. Love the way he runs these Macks, especially 101609! (3:25) - 101630: For a while, 101609 was down with engine issues, so 101630 became Gerson’s regular truck. I was pretty happy about that even though I really liked seeing him in 101609. 101630 is an old WM San Gabriel Pomona Valley truck, and I remember seeing it at the yard right before it got sent to GI. Definitely happy I caught Gerson on this day, as the truck was freshly shined up the night before so it looked especially good. The striping on this truck is also unique from the other Macks at GI. The simple green and yellow stripe was also seen on the beast diesel Mack LE Octos that GI had for many years, so 101630 is a nice little reminder of those trucks. You can see an old GI Tucker at 5:07, neat to see those still showing up. (6:46) - 101520: I caught this Mack back in 2016 doing trash. Back then, Macks doing trash was still a common thing, so I just grabbed this one clip before moving on. 101520 was once used on a WM flyer for the City of Simi Valley back when it was brand new so it was cool to see it still running in Simi. This truck also doesn’t have the GI stripes that many other trucks had. (7:14) - 101518: Here’s some old footage of 101518 from 2016. I really enjoyed watching this truck with how quick the arm moved, and the LA County franchise signboard and chrome lug nut covers made the truck stand out even more. Even when revving, this truck was especially quiet back then which was interesting. Unique and I actually did like the smooth sound it had. (10:31) - 101644: A clip I got of Reyes in the ex-HSS Volvo Amrep in December 2016. I had just filmed this truck on the previous trip to GI, so between that and the engine tick, Alex and I decided we’d just move on. I do wish I got a couple more clips just for archive sakes but if you haven’t seen it yet, you can check out the other Simi Valley video to see this truck on trash. (11:13) - 101465: Gerson had 101465 as a spare one day earlier this year when I ran into him in May. Tired looking truck but it still seems to run well luckily. This particular route was super cool to check out too because almost everyone still had their GI Rotos from the automation program in 1995/1996. (13:22) - 101512: Some more clips of Reyes subbing on a recycle route in 101512. It was neat seeing one of these MR/Amreps in Simi Valley, as they seemed to always be running in Thousand Oaks back when this was filmed in 2017. Thank you to all the awesome drivers at WM/GI for making this video possible!
San Diego Residential (WM) WMmaster626 2020-12-19 | Here are some old and new trucks from Waste Management of San Diego. I always enjoy seeing their fleet with the Amreps, Wittkes, and Curotto Cans that they run. The yard has had a pretty awesome variety of LNG and CNG trucks, even in recent years, so I'm glad I got to see all these! Seen here are 8 trucks in 4s Ranch and Carmel Valley. (0:00) - 106316: WM received a handful of these brand new LNG Amreps to my surprise. This one was seen doing the few green waste carts around 4s Ranch earlier this year. (0:09) - 265378: The famous Amrep Curotto from WMSD with Raphael behind the wheel! He was flying in this truck, I had a great time seeing the arm move faster than I've ever seen before. The arm speed on the bucket used to not be as fast so I'm glad I got to see it on this day. Unfortunately this truck had many issues with the Curotto Can system so it was recently taken off and the truck was put on commercial. Will definitely miss seeing it with a Curotto! (3:14) - 263582: A few years ago, in 2017, Alex and I caught Raphael in this old carry can when the Amrep was down! It was awesome seeing a driver hustle in a carry can. Definitely wish I could have seen him in a Mack Curotto Can too. This truck was repainted shortly before I caught it on this day so it still looks super fresh for being a 2002 model. I believe it now runs as a commercial truck unless it was scrapped. (9:31) - 263278: A few months ago, Kevin and I ended up down in San Diego poking around at their routes hoping to find a Curotto Can. We saw several Amreps and began to get discouraged when we stumbled upon Francisco in this old Mack! It was cool getting to see one of these old dual axle Breathe Easy Wittkes that are so iconic to San Diego and Francisco ran the truck well. Surprised but super happy WM still has some old Macks down there in 2020! (14:36) - 105301: This truck was doing trash opposite Francisco. I grabbed a clip because the driver was running the truck really nicely. Wish I got more even though it's a standard 320/Amrep. The chrome bumper is a nice touch too compared to the sister units that have black bumpers.(14:57) - 263271: The iconic "Think Green, Think Clean" dual axle Wittke with the 1.5 Curotto! I got a clip of Francisco in it earlier this year. Not the fastest arm unfortunately but a really good looking truck nonetheless.(15:32) - 263273: One of the last Curotto Cans that still runs daily out of WMSD. Not the fastest arm on this truck either but I thought it would be cool to grab a clip of it doing these massive lines. (18:18) - 101455: These old Crocodiles sound amazing and some of them have pretty quick drivers which is cool. Seen here is one of the last ones left in the yard. Unfortunately the driver didn't floor it like others in the past but not bad overall. Thanks to all the awesome drivers from Waste Management of San Diego for letting me grab some video! Thank you to Alex & Kevin as well for making this video possible!
Waste Management of the Inland Empire WMmaster626 2020-12-08 | Here is a quick look at Waste Management of the Inland Empire's old fleet from a few years ago. In 2017 & 2018, I was fortunate enough to meet some of the awesome people at this yard who were more than happy to show us around. At the beginning of 2018, I found out that the yard was planning to scrap all their old LNG Macks off by the end of the year, and so I made several trips out here to try and catch them while they were still in operation. Here's a little summary of some of their more unique trucks: (0:30) - 262906: This was my favorite Wittke that the yard had in recent years for many reasons. What was unique about 262906 is that it was from the very first batch of Wittkes that Corona ordered. These pre-date the large batch of Wittkes that San Diego famously purchased, which is why this truck has the American flag next to the Wittke logo and a unique hopper design. The Inland Empire divisions (both MoVal and Corona) had a different way of stickering their trucks back then too. These trucks were originally branded as WM - USA Waste of California on the bodies, and a little bit of that sticker can still be seen on this truck. They also put those "We Care About Your Air" stickers on their very first Wittkes back in the day, so it was really cool to see a truck that still had that from the early 2000s. Another neat thing, seen at (1:23) is that this truck had the old button installation to operate the Curotto Can on this truck. I personally have never seen that before so very interesting in my opinion. Oddly enough, this truck was spec'd as a sit down drive unit, which is another thing I've never seen on these old LE/Wittkes. (1:45) - 102831/102853: These two Heil Python originated as a Moreno Valley truck, and were sent around SoCal for a few years as I guess no one wanted them truck. 102831 seen in San Diego, Baldwin Park, and Chino before landing in Corona. 102853 was seen in Compton along with San Diego and Chino before coming to Corona as well. (2:07) - 263531: This was probably my second favorite truck in the yard after 262906. This is actually the same Wittke that Bill filmed on a recycle route in Long Beach over 10 years ago. You can see the old "Recycle Long Beach" stickers poking through on the side. I loved how this truck had the fold up door on it and the green mudflaps were a nice touch! These old LA Hauling Wittkes were what really drew my attention to Corona back in the day. I loved the Recycle Long Beach logos on them and many ran with original Curotto Cans. When they were sent to Corona, my focus shifted to that yard and I started getting to know their operation better.(2:46) - 263906/263907: These two Wittke/Leach FLs became the main focus for Kevin and me once we found out the Macks were about to get scrapped. In 2016, we stumbled upon a sister unit of this truck that sounded really good, so we wanted to find one of the sister units. Unfortunately, both 906 & 907 were extremely tired by 2018, so they were not as powerful as the one we saw. (4:05) - 264509: A freshly repainted Autocar/McNeilus Curotto Can. I was a huge fan of this truck with the different rims it had and 1.5 Curotto on it. It now resides in Rosamond Hauling.(4:53) - 632596: I believe this is an ex-Western Waste truck given how fond they were of Freightliners. Really nice looking rig especially with the new paint. (4:57) - 263376: Another one of the old Wittkes from Corona's second batch of LNG trucks. Great sounding truck, and it has an interesting CVT Recycling sticker that I think was from when these guys were operating up by Colton. (5:31) - 103542: One of two mini Amreps that runs out of this yard. These originated as Long Beach trucks as well. They're in rough shape for only being 10-11 years old unfortunately, but glad they are still around as these are the last Octos WM bought. (5:41) - 632852: Corona has two of these large scout trucks that service the manure routes in Norco. (5:59) - 263492: Here's the truck that really got our attention from Corona! Javier Correa's #263492 was known as the pride of the fleet. Even though the truck was roughly 15 years old, it ran really well and Javier kept it looking really clean. The new logos on the body made it look even better and the cab was repainted mid-2016 for a fresh look.(6:28) - 263854: Another ex-LA Metro Wittke that I really liked. Sit down drive and Slammin' Eagle bucket made this particular truck stand out from many others in the fleet. (8:34) - 265841/285842: These two Curotto Cans were transferred from Moreno Valley for Christmas Tree season. Due to serious hydraulic issues, they never saw route unfortunately! Thank you so much to Miguel and everyone else at WMIE for letting us visit the yard - lot of great memories here over the years!
Santa Monica Mountains Residential (WM/GI) WMmaster626 2020-11-28 | Here are five trucks that Waste Management has run up in the Santa Monica Mountains. This contract is extremely difficult to service, so they run a wide variety of really neat, custom trucks. Unfortunately, with how insane most of the route is, I was only able to get this little bit of footage (most of it coming from 2018) despite the many awesome trucks that they've run here over the past couple years since taking over the contract from UWS. (0:00) - 101511: These MR/Amreps were originally ordered many years ago specifically for the Topanga contract. When UWS won the contract back in 2007, GI moved these drop axle Octos to other service areas. Luckily, they were able to maintain them in pretty great shape over the years, so when they won the contract in 2018, these went back up to Topanga. Here's veteran driver Jorge up in the tight hills on the Thursday route. Only managed to get this one clip unfortunately before he got a new truck. (1:44) - 105283: This ex-Sacramento Freightlinder Condor Amrep was purchased when GI was in dire need for new minis. We caught another veteran driver, Miguel, up here doing an actual neighborhood so we grabbed some footage. Awesome driver who really knows a lot about the trucks and routes at GI. This Condor can't be revved unfortunately but I was happy that the arm moved at a pretty good speed. (2:11) - 105613: One of my favorite drivers from GI was running their very first 520/Amrep up here. I first caught Benito out in Simi running the old Volvo/Amrep from HSS back in 2016 so it was really cool to see him on another route. (2:28) - 105283: Here's more of Miguel finishing up in this neighborhood. It was really cool seeing all the UWS carts still around. (5:20) - 101512: This was probably the number one truck I wanted to see from GI back then. Arnulfo previously drove 101512 for many years up until roughly 2016 when he was given a tag axle Mack LE/Amrep. I wanted to see him in 101512 badly because he tended to lid flip and rev in that truck. When WM won Topanga, he was given 101512 back so I really wanted to see him in it. Moises and I caught him in this tight area collecting a few carts back in September 2018, but this was all I could get before he disappeared up another tight street. 101512 was retired last year unfortunately.(7:24) - 106232: These are the new Topanga trucks for GI. Even though they are new, I'm a huge fan of them. They have a shorter body and it's really neat to see custom drop axle trucks. I also really like the simple WM logo on the body. The driver of this truck was running it really well I decided to grab a couple clips. (8:52) - Carts: Some pictures of some of the carts around TopangaBig thanks to all the awesome drivers from WM for making this video possible! And another BIG thanks to Moises for making most of this video possible - he sure knows how to maneuver through the tight streets of Topanga!
Murrieta Commercial (WM) WMmaster626 2020-11-19 | Here is some old footage of a couple front loaders from Waste Management in Murrieta.(0:00) - 209274: Back in 2017, this was 1 of 3 ex-H&C Disposal Amreps that WM was running out of MoVal still. With their gigantic service area, coming across one was definitely hard, but luckily, Kevin and I saw this one heading down the 215 in Perris and chased it all the way to Murrieta. The driver, Carlos, was super cool and ran the truck really nicely. I'm a huge fan of these old CNG trucks with how loud they sound. We were able to catch him collecting some great stops, especially the one with the 6YD cardboard bins. (6:00) - 264345: I wasn't planning to use this clip ever but I decided to throw it in just because the driver revved the arm cycle really well. This crappy clip goes all the way back to 2014, and unfortunately, I was with family so I didn't have a chance to follow and get more. Thanks to the drivers & thanks to Kevin as well for driving! Check out Kevin's footage here: youtube.com/watch?v=_CjFCS_QOmI
Baldwin Park Residential (WM) WMmaster626 2020-11-14 | Waste Management San Gabriel Pomona Valley's awesome drivers hard at work in the City of Baldwin Park. I've gotten to know many of these drivers extremely well so it's always fun seeing them. Here are 13 of the many trucks that I've caught over the last three years. (0:00) - 263205: One of my favorite drivers to visit is Moises, who is a 34 year veteran of the company. He always moves quick, so seeing him in both FELs and ASLs is very entertaining. Earlier this year, Kevin and I caught Moises doing a heavy bulk route in one of the last Wittkes, 263205. This truck sounds amazing, especially with how hard Moi revs. We also got to see him use the arm on some bulk items which was entertaining! Today, Moi drives an ACX/Amrep FL for the bulk route so I'm glad I got this when I did.(5:23) - 104407: Another long time WM veteran is Leonard Leanos here, who has won several awards within the company for his impressive safe driving record! His Driver of the Year Award is especially impressive. Awesome guy who always has some cool stories from over the years. (5:47) - 103859: Here is Martin, who I've known for over 10 years when he became my recycle driver in 2009! I've been wanting to see Martin in his Peterbilt for years now, so when I ran into him one day a few months ago, I decided to grab some clips. He used to drive a Mack LE Amrep when he was doing my route, but he said his Peterbilt is a lot better. (7:21) - 263452: Fernandez was one of the last drivers in the yard who had a Curotto Can, so I was lucky enough to catch him in it one afternoon right before he got an ASL back in 2017. Definitely miss seeing these old Wittkes doing residential routes so I'm glad I have some older footage stocked up. (9:16) - 263235: Pimienta was the last driver who had a Curotto Can on resi. I got lucky and saw him in 263235 one afternoon back in 2018 and got a few clips. Unfortunately I never got to go back and get more before he retired! Love the old WMX carts as seen in one of the clips here! (10:40) - 105338: Fili, my greens driver in Arcadia, collecting some old WMX carts on his recycle route. (11:15) - 263453: Yet another great driver I love to see. Enrique is an incredibly hard working driver who is always super nice when I see him. I caught him on his last few stops earlier this year, and you'll see how big some of the set outs are! He runs these Macks super well, and is extremely quick so it's fun seeing him move through his massive route. (15:31) - 106121: Fermin is one of the last drivers from Western Waste, so I always enjoy visiting him and hearing stories from back in the day. I really like how these new ACXs sound, and combined with the faster arm, is definitely one of my favorite ASLs in the yard. (16:05) - 263266: I saw that 263266 had an old Moreno Valley Curotto Can on it, so I wanted to get a clip of that! Unfortunately they already swapped it with a newer bucket so I'm glad I caught this when I did.(17:49) - 103708, 103857, 103695, and 105631: 3 drivers came to help on this route when Fernandez first got his ASL. It was definitely cool seeing so many trucks swarm the area! Big thanks to all the awesome WM drivers here for their many years of hard work and dedication! All the drivers here each have well over 25 years of service, which is a huge accomplishment in my opinion. Enjoy!
Highgrove Residential (WM) WMmaster626 2020-10-29 | Waste Management has serviced the unincorporated region of Highgrove since the Western Waste days. Back in the day, Western Waste and BFI Loma Linda were the main competitors in the city. BFI eventually sold that operation to USA Waste in the late 1990s, and for many years, the trucks came all the way from Corona to service what used to be a small area. In recent years, the Moreno Valley yard took over servicing Highgrove as it continues to grow today. Here are three trucks I've seen on route last year. (0:00) - 103541: These few streets in Highgrove are serviced by the Corona yard since the big trucks can no longer fit down them. Back in the day, Highgrove was a small town with hardly any traffic, so the big trucks would collect one side of the street, back out and make a T turn on the main road, then back down the other side. Now, a large, busy street cuts through Highgrove, making it impossible for the big trucks to service these few homes safely. WM sends this mini now to do a single pass run through here, then takes it to Agua Mansa Transfer Station for mixed waste processing. Anyway, I stumbled upon this mini hustling through the route one Friday and decided to get some video since the driver was running the truck really well. These minis have a lot of issues apparently so I'm glad I found him when I did. I was hoping to catch their other mini on this route but the times he was coming were so inconsistent that I never saw him on the route after this. (5:59) - 103869: In the new part of Highgrove, Mike and I found this truck picking up trash. It was nice to see another 2012 moving at a good speed and Victor was really cool. When I filmed this last year, those new Rehrig EGs were barely starting to pop up, so I thought it was cool to see some getting collected. (9:52) - 103526: In the older part of town, we saw some old BFI Ottos on route. Since the greens truck was in the area too, I decided to grab some clips. Thanks to all the awesome WM drivers as always!
Waste Management of North County WMmaster626 2020-10-11 | Waste Management of North County in Oceanside, California was once known for their rather unique and diverse fleet of trucks. For many years, they ran the old WMI POD system, shipping their trash up to the landfill in San Juan Capistrano. Once WM automated the city, the PODs were phased out (in a rather slow fashion surprisingly). The replacements were supposed to be Labrie PODs, however, only a couple made it in before a small fleet of standard Labrie Automizers came instead. Throwing it back to early 2015, I thought those Labries collected the entire city. The nice folks at WM North County told me that that wasn't the case, and that a good amount of the Oceanside fleet was actually still diesel! At the time, Oceanside did not have a fueling station yet for CNG, so the Labries parked in Carlsbad and came up to Oceanside everyday. Oceanside housed a decent sized fleet of old diesel Amreps to service the green waste routes in the city. Many of these trucks were the same units that Carlsbad used for their automation process, so they were in excellent shape. Today, Oceanside's resi fleet consists of the older Labries and some 320/Amreps they received in 2016. Alex and I had the opportunity to tour WM North County and learn a bit about their operation in August 2015. It was awesome getting to see so many Volvo Amreps still running, especially since a few were childhood trucks from WM San Gabriel Pomona Valley. They even had a POD front loader still around! It was really cool seeing that before it got scrapped. Thanks to everyone at WM North County for being so welcoming and showing us around! Trucks to note: (0:05) - 101287: A former WM San Gabriel truck that I used to see on a weekly basis. Insanely loud truck too which I really miss! (2:59) - 101016: Another former WM San Gabriel truck. This was is extra cool because it has the old phone number board still hanging out! (3:32) - 101044 & 263129: Both rather iconic Oceanside trucks; 101044 was the WXLL/Octo that Alex caught on commercial recycling in the apartments, and 263129 was the same carry can that several guys caught doing the recycling lines out by the beach. (4:36) - 102937: This WX/Amrep collected Solana Beach for many years, but once they got new trucks, Oceanside ran it on greens for a little while. I remember many of us seeing this truck around town and noted how much it smoked haha.(5:24) - Old Pictures: Some oldies from Oceanside from back in the day. They didn't last as long but they had a few WhiteGMC WXLL/Heil PODs, which I did not know Oceanside had up until relatively recently. Besides the PODs, Oceanside once ran WhiteGMC WXLL/Amrep Octos for other streams as well as WhiteGMC MSLs and Recyclers. Pretty neat! The square body also seen here is pretty cool, that picture was taken in 1986 so I'm guessing the WhiteGMCs replaced these. Thanks to Christian for access on the Newspapers archive as always.Definitely not my best work but I thought some might enjoy the throwback to the old days of WM Oceanside. Thanks to everyone at Waste Management of North County for showing us around! Filmed: August 2015
Eastvale Residential (WM) WMmaster626 2020-09-17 | Waste Management of the Inland Empire's awesome drivers have kept things relatively interesting in Eastvale over the past two years. Here are 8 garbage trucks that I've found on several trips through the city. Many of the old Curotto Cans are no longer around unfortunately so I am really happy I caught them over the years before they were scrapped. (0:00) - 263492: On our first trip of 2019, Kevin and I were fortunate to find the incredible Jaime Ramirez helping out in Eastvale thanks to the help of another driver. This truck was special to us because it was the first truck Kevin and I had ever filmed from Corona back in 2015. It was kept in immaculate condition by its old driver, Javier, up until it became a spare when he received a new truck. Jaime ended up taking 263492 out quite often to help on routes, and he really enjoyed using this truck with how fast it moved. He's definitely the fastest Curotto driver I've seen to this day! This is only a small portion of footage I got, however he finished this area extremely quick so there's not a whole lot of video unfortunately haha. (2:23) - 264501: After Corona got rid of their Macks, I stopped going out there as often just because their Autocar Curotto Cans were rather difficult to catch given their huge service area. Earlier this year, I was headed home from Riverside for spring break and found out that Jaime was working in Eastvale in a Curotto Can! I quickly found him in 264501. This used to be their slowest Curotto but thanks to a new bucket, this truck is much faster! I was happy I caught Jaime on this route especially with all the old NEWCO carts on route! He didn't like this truck as much as the Macks unfortunately given how slow it took for the Autocar to pick up speed. This truck is now up in Rosamond running a commercial route. (6:05) - 103388: Veteran driver Victor Vazquez was tag teaming with Jaime doing the trash route in the area. Victor kept his truck looking incredibly good with chrome caps and tire polish, although the post-rain look on this day hides that unfortunately! This was the last time I got to see Victor out here before he transferred back to Moreno Valley yard.(8:36) - 263854: Here's some footage I got of Armando Quiroz in his old truck before he got an ASL. I was a huge fan of this truck with how fast the Slammin' Eagle bucket was and Armando ran the truck at a great speed. The truck was overheating a little bit on this hot afternoon so he didn't rev it as hard or as often as usual. Still very enjoyable with the fast arm. (12:00) - 105967: Alfonso Camargo working on his massive Friday route in his new 520/Amrep. (12:30) - 263850: Here's a couple extra clips of 263850 from 2017. Also shows a good example of how flimsy Ottos are! (13:02) - 263847: An extra clip I had of Roberto in the old 263847. Loved how this truck had a Moreno Valley bucket. (13:19) - 103387: Sal Barajas helping out on the massive Friday route. The drivers still had a massive route area left at 6pm which was crazy! Thank you so much to all the awesome drivers at Waste Management of the Inland Empire for being so cool with us filming!
Quail Valley Residential (WM) WMmaster626 2020-09-13 | Waste Management Moreno Valley's awesome Neiman Campbell is featured in today's video in his old and new "Think Green, Think Clean" Amrep ASLs out in Quail Valley, California. This neighborhood stands out from the typical SoCal neighborhood being composed with many one way streets, dirt roads, and plenty of hills. It made for some neat shots and it was impressive to see Neiman maneuver through the tough route! (0:00) - 103851: We went out to visit Neiman back in May to see him in the one ways streets. As many of you know, he keeps his truck looking amazing, and these 2012 Peterbilts are always entertaining to me. In several shots, you'll be able to see how close the lids come to hitting power lines, and in others, you'll see how steep the hills are. (5:57) - 106735: This past Tuesday, Neiman was given this brand new yellow arm Autocar ACX Amrep ASL! These trucks look amazing and have some new additions from Amrep. They have a neat utility box on the street side of the truck that drivers can put tools and the tire gauge in, and the truck also comes with a new tail light design. If you are familiar with Amreps, you'll know that they are notorious for having lights pop out at the top of the tailgate, but I think the new design will help prevent that from happening. Anyway, my brother and I went to visit him in Quail Valley today and got to see him finishing up for the day. It was great to see this truck while it was still super fresh. Love how it looks and Neiman loves how it performs! (10:09) - WMI Inland Valley: While filming Neiman, I spotted this old dumpster off the side of the road! The old WMI dumpsters are extremely rare to find in Southern California, but because of MoVal's rural routes like Quail Valley, some have survived into 2020! Thank you Neiman for always being so cool with us grabbing some video! I love your enthusiasm in the trucks and it is always so fun to see you. Hope you like the video! And thanks to all the others who were there for the trips.
Moorpark Commercial (WM/GI) WMmaster626 2020-08-29 | Waste Management - G.I. Industries has some of the fastest front loaders around, and it is always fun seeing their hard working drivers in action! Seen here are two garbage trucks I have seen in Moorpark over the past two years. (0:00) - 214203: This was the very first truck from Anderson Rubbish to be repainted, and actually was the trucks I wanted to see in WM green the most! In August 2018, Moises and I went out to GI in hopes of seeing this truck on route - about a week or two after being repainted. The route manager showed us where the truck was at, and we quickly headed out to find him. Behind the wheel is veteran driver Jaime Magana collecting a recycling route. Jaime runs the truck really well and had extremely quick dump cycles. I was also really excited to catch him on this particular route with all the lime green recycle dumpsters - truly iconic from the old GI days! (4:06) - 211259: Today, Mike and I were out in Moorpark and stumbled upon Julio Vargas in this 2012 Peterbilt. These Peterbilts were some of the many trucks that really caught my attention at WM/GI. They look amazing and run at a nice speed. Julio is a second generation GI driver who shared some great stories with me from over the years! Huge thanks to both drivers from WM/GI for being so awesome and another thanks to Moises & Mike for making this video possible!
Moreno Valley Residential (WM) WMmaster626 2020-06-19 | Waste Management of Moreno Valley runs a massive number of trucks in the large city. Back in the day, MoVal was once known for their insanely fast automated front loaders (their managers used to brag about being able to do hundreds of homes per hour). Unfortunately, those were never really caught on camera, and by the time I started going out to Moreno Valley, the Curotto Cans were on their way out of service. Here are 2 Curotto Cans and 1 Amrep I've found in MoVal. (0:00) - 264106: Back in November 2015, Kevin and I met up in Moreno Valley to check out their fleet for the very first time. They still had many interesting trucks running at the time, like Volvo WXLL Wittkes, Freightliner Condor AFEs, and Autocar Pythons. Kevin had spotted the Superlight at the yard earlier in the day, so we spent a good while looking for it. With no luck, we decided to grab some clips of this Leach Curotto Can with veteran driver Ismael Rodriguez behind the wheel. The route was really neat with all the WMX recycling carts but unfortunately, residents pretty much chased us out before I could get a decent amount of footage! Shortly after this, MoVal got some new trucks that retired the Volvo Curotto Cans before I had a chance to see them, and a little while later, this truck caught fire and burned down. (3:07) - 103514: Earlier this month, a few of us met up to poke around Moreno Valley. We found Phillip in this awesome 2010 Peterbilt Amrep revving insanely hard. I thought this truck sounded especially interesting compared to the other 2010s, and the visor made the truck look even more unique. (6:20) - 265842: Here's the truck Kevin and I went to MoVal to look for! After much searching with Mike and Alex, we had no luck and just about gave up. Once we parted ways, Kevin and I decided to go through MoVal one last time, and luckily caught veteran driver Rudy Leal running this Curotto in the north part of town! Rudy started out at USA Waste in Salinas, and transferred to MoVal in the early 2000s. These McNeilus FLs have been quite troublesome since they ended up in WM's fleet in late 2017. Most of the time, they're used on commercial routes, but with the increasing amount of residential garbage, they ended up on residential starting in April. Since Rudy has experience driving residential FLs, he ended up taking one of the Curotto Cans and let other drivers use his ASL throughout the week. Incredibly nice driver who takes good care of the customers on his route. Unfortunately, these trucks aren't as quick as the old FLs back in the day - Rudy said he finishes 2 hours later with this truck! Still, it was awesome finally getting to film this truck on route after almost 3 years of trying! Big thank you to all three drivers from Waste Management of Moreno Valley for letting us grab some video! Thanks for watching!
Los Angeles City Hauling WMmaster626 2020-05-31 | Here is a look at Waste Management Sun Valley post-RecycLA transition. During the first few months of 2018, the haulers of RecycLA had a significance increase in undiscovered accounts by the city, and scrambled to get trucks from all over to accommodate the increase in work. Waste Management transferred many garbage trucks from across Southern California to Sun Valley, some I didn't even know where around. The yard was so full that trucks were parking in front of each other, and more were stored in the front parking lot. It was a nice few months full of some surprises!Notable trucks include: (0:06) - 210968: Waste Management San Gabriel Pomona Valley sent their frontline commercial spare to Sun Valley to help out with the craziness - I was surprised to see it show up here randomly! (0:23) - 102782: I saw a picture of this truck on Instagram, and that's when I knew WM had transferred some trucks to Sun Valley to help with RecycLA. This Mack LE/Amrep HX-450 ASL was transferred from Irvine, and it was especially interesting to see Mack Amreps here once again. Back in the day, Sun Valley had several Mack LE Amrep HX-450 ASLs parked here to service Santa Clarita, so seeing the CNG versions of those trucks here was a really cool throwback. (0:34) - 211477: This truck came from Health Sanitation Service (HSS). Their drivers take excellent care of the trucks up there, and some even have their names on the door! (0:52) - 408371: Sun Valley had this prior to the RecycLA transition, but I never knew how good it sounded until they started moving trucks around the yard! Really nice sounding 2000 Mack MR Amrep Roll Off - definitely wish it ran on more weekends back then. (1:11) - 263586: This Mack LE Wittke FEL was converted to a food waste truck by GI in 2016. It didn't run route much unfortunately, so when Sun Valley needed trucks, this was one that they sent over. Nice looking truck and I was happy it got some hours in for a few months! (1:56) - 205362: This was probably the biggest surprise to me on that day! I had no idea WM Oceanside still had Volvo Wittkes, but this and one other truck were sent to Sun Valley. These 2000 Volvo Wittkes are some of the meanest sounding trucks, as shown at (5:37). (2:06) - 414035: This monstrous Peterbilt 367 Amrep Roll Off was sent to Sun Valley from El Cajon. The driver on this day serviced some really tight areas and said the truck barely fit the clearance to service the stop! (2:26) - 206669: This was the last old truck from the old Sun Valley days. 206669 started out as a WM San Gabriel truck (didn't know that until last year) then went to Compton and finally Sun Valley. (4:12) - 262986: Another Volvo Wittke from Oceanside. Being early 2018, I had no idea Oceanside still had Volvos up until then! (4:29) - 412564: The last International Spartan roll off that still has the old Looney Bins colors! I've always wanted to see a Looney Bins colored truck so this was an awesome surprise. (4:41) - 403899: The old BDC WhiteGMC Road Commander roll off! The grille on this thing was in perfect condition - really nice truck. (4:47) - WMI Turn Key: Here's a cool little relic from the old WMI days. Sun Valley was the North Los Angeles yard and serviced the City of San Fernando and had accounts in and around Santa Clarita. (5:16) - 213455: One of several brand new LNG Amrep FLs that showed up to Sun Valley for a few months before going up to AV & Fresno. (6:43) - 212970: Peterbilt 320/Amrep FEL from Corona(7:12) - 102780: Along with 102782, 102780 was sent from Irvine to do apartment recycling. (8:08) - 213133: The awesome Armando Saavedra in his old truck, 213133! At (10:04), you can see a line of Blue Barrel trucks fueling up at Sun Valley, which was a really interesting sight to see! A big thanks goes out to everyone at Waste Management - Los Angeles City Hauling for letting us come by to see the fleet!
Diamond Bar Residential (WM) WMmaster626 2020-04-21 | Here are two of Waste Management San Gabriel Pomona Valley's mini garbage trucks working in the condos in Diamond Bar:(0:00) - 311539: Here is our McNeilus rear loader with one of the many new drivers, Gary, behind the wheel. Gary does the trash piece for the entire Burro route in this truck, replacing the little Wayne rear loader since that truck has been having some major issues. I'm glad I caught him where I did because of all the 32 gallon trash carts around here. (1:48) - 106418: Here is something different and definitely exciting - the former Universal Waste Systems (UWS) truck #310! I've been tracking 106418 for well over a year since it came into WM's possession in September 2018. I started going by the All American Paint Shop in Fontana, and when I first went by, I noticed a UWS Mack Amrep inside the paint booth. Thinking it was just UWS repainting their trucks, I didn't grab a pic that day. A few days later, a driver from Santa Ana messaged me asking if GI had transferred one of the UWS minis to Santa Ana, as he had seen a UWS mini in the yard. He told me that the truck was at All American getting painted, and I then realized that the truck I had actually seen was a UWS truck being painted into WM colors! My brother and I went out to the paint shop again and saw it sitting outside freshly painted. I sent Moises some pictures of it, and as I was driving home, he called me telling me this wasn't #312 or #314, which were the trucks GI got from UWS. I realized this truck had a top mounted tank versus side (I know, can't believe I missed that), and that the chrome caps were in the exact same pattern as on #310. I later found out that night that Santa Ana was looking for a mini to replace the shuttle, and so their director of ops reached out to Mike from GI asking how he got the UWS minis. Mike referred them to UWS, and soon, this truck was in WM's possession. Santa Ana eventually started using it, however, it kept breaking down. It was sent to Corona for a little bit to try and replace their junky GMC Amreps, but this truck was too tall. It was then sent to LA Metro, but they never used it, and so it finally ended up with me here in San Gabriel Valley! This truck has been a terrific addition to the fleet. Recently, it took over the recycle portion of the route with Jesse driving. He finishes recycle by 10, then dumps and comes back to help Gary with trash. The two are able to finish the entire area by 1:30, which is significantly earlier than before. On Wednesdays and Fridays, this truck is a spare and actually comes to Arcadia as a help truck semi-frequently. I love how it looks with the standard Alcoa rims and WM mudflaps, and am just thrilled that Baldwin Park has a new Mack in the fleet. Big thanks to the awesome WM drivers for letting me grab some videos and for always working hard! Glad you guys are part of the team!
Oak Park Residential (WM/GI) WMmaster626 2020-04-07 | The City of Oak Park has a lot of interesting history in regards to its waste collection. For years, Waste Management/GI Industries ran alongside Atlas/Consolidated Disposal, but in 2005, Waste Management purchased Consolidated's assets in the area. Like many other cities serviced by Consolidated, their cart system is beyond confusing. 15 years later, many of the original Consolidated and Atlas Disposal carts still remain, and the trucks that collect them are very entertaining for being newer equipment. In this video, you will see footage of five trucks I've found in Oak Park over the years.(0:00) - 101577: Back in 2016, this truck was one of my top priorities to film. 101577 is one of my childhood trucks, and actually came by my house several times when it was running in WM San Gabriel Pomona Valley. In 2011, it got transferred to GI along with several other LNG Macks. When I first toured GI in 2014, I remember watching this truck back into its parking space, still showing the distinct (800)-266-7551 number on the signboard from its San Gabriel days. The DM introduced me to the driver, David Linares, and finally in July 2016, Alex and I caught him on route. Super nice guy who runs the truck very nicely. This portion of Oak Park was pure GI, though you can still find carts from the haulers GI purchased over the years, like Hillside Rubbish and Block Disposal.(3:18) - 103556: In December 2016, Alex and I were out in the area once again for the annual GI Christmas Trip. A few weeks prior, I had seen a clip of this truck on YT, and I was actually really impressed with how smooth the driver was running it, as well as how clean and chromed out it looked. We were looking through the area and stumbled upon the old Atlas route with this truck collecting trash! These 2010 Autocars are actually pretty sweet trucks with the right driver, and Enrique O'Campo probably runs them better than anyone. Didn't know until about 6 months ago that these trucks have an auto-neutral switch in them which is really cool (thanks Mike). The chrome on the truck also made it look better than the sister units.(7:27) - 101465: Working opposite Enrique is Arnulfo Izarraras in this old Mack LE/Amrep. The old Consolidated carts were really interesting to see, especially when set out at a house with a gray recycle cart. Unfortunately this was all we could get before he finished his load. Arnulfo used to drive the beast Mack MR Amrep Octo #101512, which would've been SUPER cool to see on this route. I think he was still driving that truck the year before, very disappointed I never got to see that! Arnulfo now drives a 2010 Autocar ACX Amrep, as 101465 was giving him problems.(9:44) - 101466: My brother and I were helping GI sticker carts for the day, and after we finished, we drove through Oak Park to see what was running. I was surprised to see David in this truck, as Gerry from Thousand Oaks was still running it regularly at the time. David told me 101577 had a blown motor (and never was fixed sadly). 101466 seemed to have its fair share of issues on this day too, but it was fixed and used in Thousand Oaks until Gerry blew the engine about 6 months later haha. (11:10) - 103563: This past December, Alex, Eli, and I went back to Oak Park to see what had changed lately. Saw this truck on trash, and as we approached the truck I saw it was still Enrique driving! I hadn't seen him around on route every time we went to this route throughout 2019 so I was happy to see him again. 103556 was having issues a few months earlier so this became his new truck. Still revving hard but the chain wasn't as responsive as on 103556.This video is dedicated to David Linares, who sadly passed away in June 2019. Miss you brother, thank you for the great memories at GI since 2014. Thank you to all the awesome WM/GI drivers featured and another thanks to Alex, Eli, and Bryan for being there on these trips too!
San Diego Commercial (WM) WMmaster626 2020-03-30 | Waste Management of San Diego runs a massive fleet of front loaders to service their commercial stops in San Diego county. The fleet has a solid variety of old and new trucks, and combined with many fast drivers, it sure was fun seeing them hard at work. Here are six trucks running in Downtown, North Park, and Rancho Bernardo. (0:00) - 205851: Back in January, Alex and I were poking around in Rancho Bernardo. I had told him one of my goals for the day was to find one of El Cajon's iconic MR/Wittkes, so when we pulled into the center and spotted this, I was excited. Behind the wheel is the very skilled Frank Avila. I LOVE how he runs this truck, very smooth and quick. I was impressed how he managed to empty all the overloaded bins without spilling anything! Frank told me that he was given a new Autocar some time last year, but he didn't like it and asked for his Mack back. Smart choice! (5:37) - 211352: Here's my favorite truck in the El Cajon fleet - the one-of-a-kind 211352! This truck is a 2011 Mack MRU with a 2009 Amrep body. Mack did a demo with WM with a new LNG chassis back in 2009, but it didn't go too well and the truck was retired just two years later. So, the body was taken off and placed onto this newer 2011 CNG chassis. Once we discovered this truck was in the El Cajon yard, many of us have tried to find it, but with how big their operation is, that was really difficult. I was able to connect with the driver, Eddie Miranda, back in December and finally get some video of this truck! Eddie is another awesome driver who runs the truck nicely. He too really likes the Macks - he had driven a dual axle MR/Wittke for many years before getting a Peterbilt. He didn't like it as much and finally switched to this truck once it opened up. The Downtown route has some cart stops, so I was glad to be able to get some video of that in action. (14:04) - 263584: Back in September 2018, Moises and I made an attempt to find 211352. We knew the general area the truck was going to be working in, but couldn't find it. Instead, we got to meet Uzi Merino in this LE/Wittke. I actually didn't know El Cajon had this particular truck, so that was an awesome surprise! About six months after I filmed this, Uzi was given the MRU/Amrep, but handed it over to Eddie when he changed routes. (15:01) - 211922: Ricardo Aguilar does the recycling route opposite Frank in Rancho Bernardo. Ricardo was filmed years ago doing residential in 4s Ranch, so it was awesome to meet him myself. He keeps 922 really clean and runs it really nice! (16:54) - 263580: This LE/Wittke was helping on Ricardo's route. I love how nice this truck looks with the "Think Green, Think Clean" paint scheme so I wanted to grab a couple clips. (18:17) - 214600: 4 of these LNG 520/Amrep FLs were originally destined for Fresno, but somehow, El Cajon got their hands on them along with a bunch of LNG ACX/Amrep ASLs. Interesting to see and a nice change from the ACX/Amrep FLs that flooded SoCal the past couple years. Thank you to all the awesome drivers from Waste Management of San Diego! Another thanks to Alex and Moises for making this video possible. Enjoy! Comments are always appreciated.
Woodcrest Residential (WM) WMmaster626 2020-03-24 | Here are 4 trucks that run/ran out of the Waste Management yard in Moreno Valley. The unincorporated region of Woodcrest has a lot of interesting factors to it that have made it a fun area to find trucks in over the past few years. (0:00) - 265017: Back in October 2017, Kevin and I made a trip out to the Monday route to see Paul in the Superlight Curotto Can. For much of 2017, Paul was running an ASL, but in September, we had heard from a fleet manager that MoVal had put the Superlight back on 265017. I was glad to film Paul running green waste in this nice area of the route compared to the rural dirt roads he was working on right before we found him. Two months after we filmed this, the Superlight went to Chino to do Christmas trees. While it was there, something went wrong with the electronics and they ended up running the truck with a carry can exclusively on trees instead of on GW like planned. Once it returned to MoVal, 265017 has been a commercial truck. (3:30) - 103527: In October 2018, my brother and I went to poke around Woodcrest to see what was running. I saw this fast 2010 Peterbilt doing trash and decided to film since he was running the truck really nice. Raul is the same driver I filmed in the Python back in 2016, and also remembers being filmed by Jason in East Hemet way back in the day when these trucks were brand new. (8:01) - 102832: Israel worked the Woodcrest recycling route in this Python back in 2017. We stopped to ask him if he knew where Paul was so I grabbed this clip before we took off. I wish I got to film more when this truck was around, especially with all the NEWCO carts. I honestly didn't think they would ever transfer the Pythons but about 6 months later, Israel got a new truck and the Pythons sat for a short time in the yard before going up to HSS. (8:26) - 103532: Here is Paul's "new" truck, filmed in October 2018. It runs a little slower than the Curotto Can but definitely not bad and Paul said the truck is good overall. This was the second 2010 Peterbilt I ever filmed from MoVal (the first being Raul), so I assumed that all the 2010s were set up with auto-rev/neutral feature. As I started to explore more of MoVal, however, I found that a lot run at idle, so I was really happy both Woodcrest ones are relatively entertaining. Paul told me the route was extremely heavy this time of year. Literally every single house had at least 2 green waste carts filled to the top (some with manure), so he was doing 3-4 loads regularly. Around (11:23) in the video, you'll see him motion towards me - Paul was telling me that this particular house stuffs so much GW in their carts that he routinely would not be able to pick up the carts because they were so heavy! Big thanks to all three WM drivers for being so cool and letting me grab some video! These guys have some of the biggest routes I've ever seen so props to them for always being in a great mood when I see them. Thanks for watching!
Blue Barrel Disposal WMmaster626 2020-01-25 | Waste Management - Blue Barrel Disposal in Santa Clarita has a decent size fleet of roughly 65 garbage trucks. The famous blue Amreps from back in the day have brought lots of attention to the yard over the years, and while those have been gone for several years, their fleet has remained relatively interesting with different yard transfers going in and out. Here is some video from over the past couple years of the yard (March 2019 and July 2018). The more interesting trucks appear here: (0:20) - 408372: This truck was transferred to Sun Valley years ago, and they actually kept it for quite a while, even after the new fleet of trucks for LACOM came in. I had been wondering what happened to it for a while so when it appeared up at Blue Barrel in late 2018/early 2019, I was pretty surprised. Love these trucks and many sound really good. Unfortunately, the area was really tight so the driver didn't push the pedal much. (0:52) - 206849: These Wittkes were transferred to Blue Barrel in 2011 from the LA Metro yard. There hasn't been too much video of them but some of them actually sound pretty good. Unfortunately I found that out a little too late and missed some of my favorite sounding ones.(1:20) - 207757: This truck came from Sun Valley right after LA Franchising kicked in and the entire old fleet was wiped out. I thought all the old Macks were gone but this randomly showed up at Blue Barrel one day much to my surprise. For a while, Blue Barrel's commercial fleet was actually like a mini Sun Valley yard (WIttkes and an Amrep Octo FL) so that was pretty cool. You'll get to see him empty some dumpsters at 2:16 in the video. (1:32) - 207604: Another transfer from Sun Valley. This and its sister unit have been up at Blue Barrel for years now. (4:06) - 213993: One of their new 520/Amrep FLs. This was a welcomed change for me from all the ACX/Amreps that were purchased. Good sounding truck and I love how clean it looks. Veteran driver Carlos got this truck either the morning of or day before I got this clip. (4:18) - 101507 & 101524: Two of three Amrep Octo ASLs that Blue Barrel had back in early 2019. 101507 is a transfer from Fresno and 101524 is a transfer from Baldwin Park, and is actually a truck that came by my place several times. They had literally just brought 524 back to life when I got this clip. (5:17) - 206850: This nicely refurbished Wittke was probably my second favorite FL Blue Barrel (probably favorite FL of theirs now). This was a frontline unit up until the day of or day before I visited so just barely missed it. I think it was due to go on route the next day too. (5:32) - 206884: This MR/Octo was what got me really into Blue Barrel the past 2 years. After missing Sun Valley's 206722, I had my eyes dead set on catching this thing. It started out as a Hardox FL at GI and was transferred to Blue Barrel in 2011. In December 2015, Blue Barrel sent it to GI to get worked on, and GI ended up doing a body swap on it, taking the old Hardox body off and placing this Octo body on from #206723. This became the very last Octo FL WM has. Lost track of where it's at right now since it was bouncing around between AV and BBD so often. (9:43) - 207605: This old Sun Valley truck caught my eye with the awesome Mack mudflaps on it. For years, whoever ran it at Sun Valley had it beautifully chromed out too.(10:49) - 102479: This ex-LA Mack was always a neat truck to me. It did my cousin's house back in the day and I remember the chassis just bleeding LA paint all over. (11:32) - Old Photos: So the history of waste collection in the Santa Clarita Valley is extremely fascinating. For many years in the 1980s and 1990s, trash was primarily collected by Blue Barrel, Santa Clarita Disposal, and Atlas Disposal. Waste Management started to enter the city and quickly got over 300 customers throughout town, serviced out of Sun Valley (hence why you can find old WMI carts in parts of SC). The city eventually split town into 3 zones between BBD, SCD & Atlas, and after the buyouts in the late 90s, that's how WM and CDS became the 2 haulers in Santa Clarita. Big thanks to WM's AJ, Larry, and Karla for letting us come by!
Ridgecrest Residential (WM) WMmaster626 2020-01-01 | Waste Management of Kern County's site in Ridgecrest consists of a small fleet of garbage trucks, however, the side loaders they run are definitely some pretty neat trucks. Seen here are 2 Autoreaches and 1 Amrep that run in the area.(0:00) - 101698: Mike, my brother and I ended up in Ridgecrest while looking for the Amrep Octo they were running. We were initially planning on just poking around to see what was running but when I saw this truck, I decided to film a bit especially after meeting the driver. Behind the wheel is Ridgecrest's route manager Aaron Celestine! Super cool guy who ran the truck extremely well. 101698 is my favorite of the four Autoreaches that Ridgecrest has/had so I'm really glad that I caught him in this particular truck. (0:26) - 101700: Behind Aaron was Dave in #101700 doing recycling. He also ran his truck really well. 101700 definitely looks worse for wear with all the peeling and faded logos unfortunately. The bounciness of the arm proved to be a little problematic on a recycle route when paper would fly out every couple stops. (3:22) - 101698: More of Aaron in 101698!(7:56) - 106211: So the goal of our trip up here was to find one of the ex-Anderson Rubbish WhiteGMC Amreps. Thanks to a friend of mine, we found out the route was up in freaking Inyokern rather than Tehachapi like I originally thought. When we arrived, the driver, Lorenzo, was in a nasty part of the route going through dirt roads and tight streets. We decided to wait for him to hit a normal area so that's how we ended up in Ridgecrest. When we went back and found him in the normal part of the route, we were pretty disappointed to see him running the truck at full idle. Only got a few clips just cause it wasn't all that exciting unfortunately. Thanks to Aaron and his team up at WM Ridgecrest for letting us grab some video! And another BIG thanks to Mike for making this trip possible. Hope you all enjoy & comments are always appreciated. Date filmed: December 12, 2019
Thousand Oaks Residential (WM/GI) WMmaster626 2019-11-10 | Waste Management - GI Industries and their awesome Mack LE/Amreps have continued to keep things entertaining in Thousand Oaks throughout 2019. I can easily say that these are my favorite garbage trucks on the road but unfortunately, only a few of the LNG ones remain and their days are limited. Hope you enjoy this compilation of some of my favorite drivers out of this yard, featuring 8 Macks and glimpses of 2 Peterbilts.(0:00) - 101525: It was almost a year ago when I found out the crazy Gerry Medina was given this truck. 101525 is a former WM San Gabriel/Pomona Valley truck (old phone number still on the side), so it's extra special to me. I used to see this truck around Arcadia doing green waste so I'm glad I finally filmed it. It took a while to finally catch Gerry in this truck, but I am very happy I did! On this day back in August, he was running the truck harder than I have ever seen which made for some very entertaining video. I had never noticed before but the tailgate on this truck is only partially painted yellow too, so that was a nice little touch that makes it different from the other ones GI has. (3:57) - 101494: This is another truck I've been wanting to catch from GI for a while. When GI repainted this truck, they used oil based paint and so even today, the paint looks very fresh on the body. So along with the chrome bumper and old WM signboard, it stands out as one of the nicer Octos that they have. Behind the wheel is Jose Santiago (1 of 3 brothers at GI). Him and his brothers all run these Macks very well - always love filming them. (6:07) - 101584: On the most recent trip to GI in September, Mike and I were surprised to see Gerry running in yet another Octo! 101584 was previously driven by a veteran GI driver, and so it was kept it terrific shape until he got a new truck. Gerry got it when 101525 went down and he ran it extremely hard on this day! He knows we enjoy seeing him run trucks like this so he flipped a few extra lids for us! Always a great time seeing him! (8:30) - 101630: Back at the beginning of August, Kevin and I saw this truck in one of the areas we usually see trucks during the late afternoon. We followed it to its route section and were surprised to see it doing greens! Turns out he was helping 105626 on the route, so that's why he was flipping lids. Behind the wheel is Alex Gutierrez, one of the relief drivers from Anderson. He's the same badass driver from Mike's MR/Able Body video. SUPER cool guy with 25 years of experience, who later told us he put the tag axle down on purpose because it makes the truck look cooler, "like a lowrider", on video haha! 101630 is another ex-WM San Gabriel/Pomona Valley truck. Unfortunately it's had its share of issues over the years and you'll notice here that it continuously shut off. (12:04) - 102811: Here's GI's infamous 102811 again but with a different driver behind the wheel! Nacho recently retired, and so GI's awesome Jose Villa was training a new driver on the route. Jose runs all these Macks SUPER well and revs very hard. I was happy we caught him on this truck. Not sure if it still runs regularly anymore unfortunately. (14:37) - 101466: This is a clip from 2016 of Gerry in his old truck, 101466. This clip is actually from the very first time I got to see Gerry on route! He used 66 for a couple years before the truck pretty much gave out and could no longer handle Thousand Oaks' many hills. (15:13) - 106213: This was the very first Anderson Octo that GI painted. My brother and I stumbled upon it back in June and was surprised to see it in TO! Juan Diaz is a long time Anderson driver and currently can be found all over helping on different routes. The truck looked so good with the fresh paint! (17:19) - 101334: Jose Santiago in the ex-Blue Barrel truck #101334. It's in rough shape (probably worse now, not even sure if they still have it) and none of the drivers like using it. Thanks to all the awesome employees at WM/GI for making this video possible! And another big thanks to Bryan, Moises, Mike and Kevin for making some of these trips possible. One of my favorite videos I have made to this day and I hope you all enjoy too. Comments are much appreciated!
Baldwin Park Residential (WM) WMmaster626 2019-09-12 | Waste Management San Gabriel Pomona Valley's last remaining garbage trucks from the old fleet. Here is some footage of the boys working in Baldwin Park over the past couple years. Today, only two Wittkes run regularly on bulk routes. Unfortunately, these trucks are at an age where they'll end up getting scrapped instead of fixed if any serious issues arise. Half these trucks are gone or on their way out now, so I'm glad I got this footage when I did. (0:00) - 263235: When this was filmed last year, 235 was a spare Curotto at the time. On this day, both frontline bulk trucks were down, so Enrique Bueno had to take this truck out on route. He didn't really like how tall the bucket was and said it was hard to fit larger items in. Later that day, he was able to get his regular truck back (with a lower bucket)! Enrique Bueno is one of the hardest working drivers I've met and always is super cool. Fridays are his extremely busy days - usually he has between 120-150 stops alone!(0:36) - 263266: Moises Gonzales is the second bulk driver in Baldwin Park. He takes the other half of the bulk route, which is usually just a little less than what Bueno has (roughly 90-110 stops). Moi is one of the fastest resi drivers in ASL, so I was excited to see him in an FL finally after so many years of trying. I found Moi picking up a stop later in the day after finding Bueno which was a surprise to me since finding bulk trucks in the city is usually rather difficult! Unfortunately, 263266 went down earlier this year and it does not seem like it'll be fixed. (1:35) - 263452: Here's some older footage of Jose Fernandez in what was at the time Baldwin Park's best running Curotto Can. The arm on this truck was pretty fast so you'll see him flipping a lot of lids which is rare for the district. His regular truck at the time was 263205, but when that went down, Fernandez was in 452 for a while up until he got an ASL. Fernandez has since retired after many years of service. Definitely glad I got this when I did. (5:49) - 263453: On the way to Corona, Kevin, Bryan and I passed through Baldwin Park real quick and found Rosendo Pimienta in 263453 back in 2017. The first cart you'll see him pick up is an extremely rare Recycle America Toter - the only one I have ever seen in Baldwin Park! You'll also see some Rotos and older WMX carts which are actually on the more plentiful side in the city. 453 is one of the better running trucks and sounds really nice. This truck is still used on a weekly basis thankfully, even after Pimienta retired. (8:54) - 263205: This was the only time I got to film Fernandez in his regular truck. They had just recently switched the bucket on this truck (to a slower one unfortunately) but I'm glad I got to get some footage of this truck when it was still doing resi. The cut hopper wall and green Curotto Can sure add an old school feel to it. Shortly after this, 205 went down for a very long time. It was fixed but went down once again for a while up until recently when it was fixed (much to my surprise). It has served as the frontline bulk truck in the city for the past couple weeks! (11:23) - 263268: Here's some old footage of Pimi in 263268 from 2016. This truck has since been scrapped unfortunately. Just last summer, I got to see an old photo of this truck working in the City of El Monte with an OG Curotto Can collecting a route full of WMX carts. Pretty awesome how this footage coincidentally turned out to that (aside from the Curotto Can)! Thank you to all the amazing WM drivers for their hard work and years of service keeping Baldwin Park clean!
Santa Clarita Commercial (WM/BBD) WMmaster626 2019-08-16 | Waste Management - Blue Barrel Disposal's commercial fleet up in Santa Clarita has been a high priority to hit for years, however, not knowing any of their managers made it difficult to find their trucks (not to mention their residential garbage trucks were also really neat). At the beginning of 2018, a good friend of mine transferred up to the site, and so I finally had a chance to catch a few of their old LNG Mack front loaders, some of the coolest trucks I've been able to see! (0:00) - 206884: This is probably the most rare garbage truck WM runs in Southern California in my opinion, and the story behind this truck is quite crazy, considering the Octo isn't the original body for this truck. I first caught wind of it in 2015, and since then, have been wanting to catch it. At this point, this truck was a last resort spare, with the Wittkes being front line trucks. I tried three of four times to find it but it always just sat in the yard. On July 5, 2018, I hit up AJ in the early morning wondering if this truck was going to be out on route for the day, and much to my surprise, he said it was! Around noon, I decided to make a quick trip up to Santa Clarita with my brother to catch it. AJ told me where it was going to be working, and we easily found it shortly after that. Carlos is one of the fastest drivers I've seen, so it was a lot of fun watching him run this truck! He did not like driving it one bit, but sure did a great job either way. This truck was in worse condition than all their other FLs, yet somehow outlived almost every single Mack FL in the fleet as CARB took them out one by one. Definitely my best find of 2018, so I hope you enjoy! (9:04) - 207605: This was my second favorite front loader that Blue Barrel ran. Everything about it was very nostalgic to the old Sun Valley days (being an old Sun Valley truck after all). The green CA 1243 was a nice throwback to the early 2000s when all of Sun Valley's trucks were registered like that, and it even has the old 800-926-9693 number too. Even more interesting was the neat Mack mudflaps on the truck! No clue when that was added but it sure stood out from the rest of the other Wittkes. Francisco ran this truck for a little while until CARB took it out of service earlier this year. (11:31) - 207757: Another throwback to the old Sun Valley days right here! I actually filmed this truck when SV was running it. By June 2017, it disappeared and I was afraid it was gone, however, it showed up randomly at Blue Barrel thankfully. It's a very good truck still and hardly has any downtime. Juan loves this truck (605 was his old one) and said it has a lot of power for its age. More to come of this truck in the future! A huge thanks to the awesome supervisors at WM Blue Barrel for their help in tracking down these trucks! It was a nice throwback to the old Sun Valley days seeing all these Macks running. Thanks to Moises and Bryan for tagging along on the trips as well.
Waste Management - G.I. Industries WMmaster626 2019-08-03 | Waste Management's team up at GI Industries in Simi Valley had a really busy 2018! In March, WM acquired Anderson Rubbish, bringing on about 30 garbage trucks to the already huge fleet. Shortly after that, they started their contract in the Santa Monica Mountains franchise in April. Throughout the year, the amazing team managed to handle the huge increase of work. Always impressed with them.This video shows some action around the yard in August 2018 and also includes some recycle trucks dumping at their on-site recycle transfer station. It's an old school set up but it's overall very effective and allows for some great dumping action from a safe point of view. Also, this was filmed shortly before they started getting rid of some older Macks that were no longer running, so I was very happy I got some great lineup shots filled with my favorite trucks of all time. Notable trucks included in the video:106212 (1:29): Here's the old Anderson 180 dumping a load of recycling for the day! Shortly after, this truck was repainted and sent up to Atascadero. Wish GI still had it! 101495 (3:56): Miguel Rivera in a spare for the day. 101495 is a beast truck and at the time, had chrome lug nut covers on it so it looked really good. Sounded great and Miguel revs all his trucks very nicely so it was fun watching him unload!103121 (7:56): This was my first time seeing these at GI. They received two from LA Metro once they lost the City of Carson and they became frontline trucks after a lot of work was put into them. Here's GI's awesome Jose Villa in 103121 dumping his load. At the time, he was driving 101518 regularly, but that was down for the day. 101498 (9:16): Jose Ramos usually takes an MR out on Fridays to do his route. For a while it was the sister unit to that truck but once Topanga contract started, he was in this truck on Fridays. Very nice truck and it has been cared for well over the years! 101293 (10:43): One of the Midliners dumping out. These trucks were the last minis they bought brand new with a push out blade. All the other minis have been tip to dump which is cool in its own way. 214189 (12:06): So this was a surprise for sure. Anderson's old 1993 Mack MR Able Body FEL was on route for the day, however, we had no idea until he rolled into the yard after a long day on route. Unfortunately it hardly ever ran and looks worse for wear, but we were told every time they started it up, she would fire up (as long as the batteries were alive). Shows the power of old trucks! 214193 & 214203 (13:28): Here are the two CNG Mack MRU Amrep HX-450 FELs that Anderson had! Ironically these were the two trucks I wanted to see repainted first and they ended up being the first two! They looked amazing practically fresh out of the paint shop.106222 (13:51): Another truck I wanted to see repainted was one of the two ex-UWS Mack LEU Amrep HX-450 ASLs. This one was fresh out of the paint shop, and Ron was nice enough to start it up so we could get some shots of it! A huge thanks goes out to Steve Lee and all the other awesome employees at Waste Management - GI Industries for being so welcoming to us, always a blast coming here!To see more of WM/GI's awesome garbage trucks in action, check out this playlist:youtube.com/playlist?list=PLiqTB9-WLDR63JAx_sQqFk8-JrFe7mw1uSDO Morning Launch: youtube.com/watch?v=ia2oogkJ3e8
Arcadia Commercial (WM) WMmaster626 2019-07-31 | Here is a video I made for the boys in Arcadia! This is how Waste Management handles the many multi-family apartments in the town. In some parts of the city, it's literally just block after block of apartments, most requiring scout service. So, a team of 3-4 scout trucks are constantly circling town bringing bins out to the streets in the morning and bringing them back in once they're emptied - most days they all have well over 100 bins to service. It's pretty awesome seeing just lines of bins scattering the neighborhoods on collection day! Once everything is in place and positioned, a team of front loaders comes through to empty the dumpsters. It's definitely a difficult process and a ton of respect goes out to the drivers who have to deal with this on a daily basis.(0:00) - 631892: We start with Jose "Frijolitos" Avila in one of the many old Gaskin Built scout trucks Baldwin Park has. Avila has been one of the scout drivers in Arcadia for at least 20 years in the city which is pretty amazing considering how difficult of a route this is! This scout truck and many others like it are the oldest units in the fleet, all going back to late 1999-early 2000. They run pretty well still, however, have their fair share of issues from the age. (0:42) - 210972: Here we have Raul Cervantes (1 of 5 brothers at Baldwin Park) on the one day he comes to Arcadia. These 2012 Peterbilt 320 Amreps are my favorite new garbage trucks WM has bought in recent years, however, one issue with them is that they all have stationary forks (these trucks were meant for another site when purchased). Arcadia is the only city that WM San Gabriel services with bottom slot channels, and so when these trucks came in, they were dispersed to drivers in every city except Arcadia. Over the years, the bottom slot dumpsters were replaced with dumpsters that had a pull out channel, and so these 2012s started showing up in town twice a week. Raul runs the truck very well and one thing I like about these trucks in particular is how fast the arms operate without much revving. Unfortunately, I caught him right after a rain storm so his rims were a little dirty. (4:39) - 610976: My boy, the crazy Mario Herrera in his brand new scout truck! These FF Gomez scout trucks are the first new scout trucks to show up in like 15-20 years, and so Mario, having 37 years of seniority, was one of the few who received a new truck. Super awesome, funny guy who I've had the privilege of knowing for 4 years now. (5:23) - 210965: This truck comes to Arcadia only on Thursdays, and after a couple tries, I was able to catch it. Behind the wheel is Art Casas, one of the commercial relief drivers. Another long time veteran who works quite fast, as it was only 1pm and he was already done with the route! (7:02) - 631747: One of San Gabriel's newest drivers is Ignacio "Nacho" Cervantes! Raul and his 3 other brothers, all of whom have been with WM for over 30 years each, were finally able to bring another brother to join the team. Nacho does a terrific job and is always SUPER friendly so it's always fun seeing him around town! (7:20) - 210968: The week after I caught Art in 210965, he came by in the spare front loader, 210968 so I grabbed a couple clips of him. (8:21) - 610976 & 631746: Mario and Jose hanging out at the 7-11 I first met them at on their break. They had JUST repainted 631746 so I wanted to grab a clip of that since we hardly repaint trucks. (8:29) - 206211: One of many trucks I wish I spent more time tracking down. This is a really old clip from 2014, I just happened to see the truck so I put my camcorder on a post to record so I could get a picture too, and little did I know that the view was unfortunately blocked. Shortly after this, a new Peterbilt Amrep FEL was put on this route. (9:05) - 630312: Avila putting back another dumpster at the end of the day. Thanks to the awesome team for all their hard work (and a special shout out to Mario Herrera for introducing me to many of these guys) and service to Waste Management and the City of Arcadia!
Menifee Residential (WM) WMmaster626 2019-06-14 | First off, a BIG thank you to all the drivers from Waste Management of Moreno Valley who made this video possible. These guys are some of the nicest, most professional people I've met. Even though the city is filled with new "Think Green, Think Clean" garbage trucks, I still had a great time making this video thanks to how fast most of the trucks are and how cool everyone has been. Here's a little history on how waste collection in Menifee used to work. Back in the day, Menifee was open market, and the three companies who worked here were Waste Management of Inland Valley, Western Waste Industries, and CR&R. Today, many of the old WM Inland Valley and Western Waste carts still remain, so it's really interesting being able to see who had the majority of different neighborhoods. Today, WM services the growing city with a good number of trucks - the Thursday route alone has at least 14 trucks working in it! (0:00) - 103851: Over the past couple months, I've been getting to know one of the coolest drivers ever. Some of you may know him from Facebook and others from Instagram - here's the awesome Neiman Campbell! I have a lot of respect for drivers like him. Every time I see him, he always has a great attitude and on top of that, is extremely knowledgeable about the industry. He still remembers watching the Great Western Reclamation (WMI) trucks in the North Tustin area when he was a kid, and about 8 years ago, started driving for WM in Irvine! Anyway, Neiman texted me a couple weeks ago saying he had just gotten this truck as his new ride! I was very excited, as these 2012 Peterbilts are probably my favorite new trucks WM has bought in recent years. They look amazing, they're fast, and sound pretty good for CNG. He spent the next couple days cleaning the truck up, polishing the rims, and waxing the cab. Here's the final result! It looks so nice and the arm is really fast. I was also really happy to catch him picking up so many old Western Waste carts. The older part of Menifee is filled with tons of old WW carts - I would say about 30% of all green waste carts in the area are actually Western Waste so that's pretty surprising to me. Occasionally, I see some lime green WMX Cascades but unfortunately the only one in this area wasn't set out for the day. Would have loved to get more but Neiman packed out! (3:31) - 105404: Here's another INCREDIBLE MoVal driver! Some of you may have seen him on my Instagram before - the legendary Julio Rangel. A 34 year veteran of the company, Julio is one of the greatest drivers ever. Not only is he super nice, he also takes pride in keeping his truck clean and chromed out (and got to love the GOT TRASH! sticker!). He's well respected by all his coworkers and it was so awesome getting to see his truck in person. He works at a solid speed and the truck is adjusted just right to where it's fast but not violent to the point it's breaking lids. Check out another cool thing about Julio here ;-) instagram.com/p/BuNR2r-junK(8:33) - 103868: When I arrived in Menifee on my first trip down there, I stumbled upon this neat little retirement community filled with old WMX carts in great condition. I soon found Oscar in this violent truck. I thought it was his regular truck so I only got a few clips and moved on, however, turns out it was a spare for a WX/Amrep which was really disappointing because I loved how 868 operated! (10:09) - 104526: Neiman in his old truck! This ex-La Habra Amrep was Neiman's truck for a few years. A couple weeks ago, the arm started to slow down quite a bit so last week, he requested 851. You'll get to see him show off his skills up-righting fallen carts in one of the clips! (12:59) - 103530: Dave Stenlake is another long time veteran of the company with 32 years of service. He's a great guy with some hilarious stories every time I see him! He was also the second driver I ever met from Moreno Valley way back in 2015.(14:16) - 103526: Ruben in a spare 2010 Peterbilt. Some drivers rev these really well so I'm always on the look out for that. (15:34) - Carts: Some of the really cool carts I've seen around Menifee! Again, a big thanks to all the awesome WM drivers who made this video possible! Thanks for all the hard work and dedicated service!
Simi Valley Commercial (WM/GI) WMmaster626 2019-05-16 | Here are three ex-Anderson Rubbish front loaders that Waste Management - GI Industries still runs today in Simi Valley. I've always been impressed with how the GI and Anderson drivers run FELs, as every single one I've seen from them is extremely fast. The bottom channel dumpsters also add on to the interesting aspect of things. Seeing FELs move at this speed is a nice throwback to the old days in SoCal when everything seemed to be bottom channel, fast, and collected using exterior controls. (0:00) - 214191/Truck 20: On our most recent trip out to GI, we stopped by the yard to see what was running. Steve showed us the list of FELs on route and said we would probably like 214191 the best. For a second I thought it was a Peterbilt but then he mentioned it was one of the Macks! Steve showed us the route for the day and it turns out that we already knew the route from our visit in October. When we got to the area, we found the truck in less than five minutes and Jose Cejas was a driver I already met so we were ready to roll! Really nice looking truck and I love how it sounded too. Definitely looking forward to seeing it in WM green and aluminum rims although the mix of Anderson and WM was actually really cool. (4:13) - 214193/Truck 190: This is definitely one of the most entertaining front loaders I have ever seen. When Bryn and Alan came down to GI in October, this repainted "Think Green, Think Clean" Amrep was the truck that was doing the Anderson route for the day. I was VERY excited as I knew these CNG MRUs are very quick trucks especially with good drivers behind the wheel - and Heriberto Morales is no exception. Steve showed us where we could catch him - up at the base of Simi Valley Landfill! We followed him to his route and got some video. Heriberto has more than 25 years of experience in the industry and showed off his professional skills to us. Very impressed with how quick his arm cycles were - took us like 2 hours to get this much footage just because his cycles were so fast! (11:07) - 214192/Truck 50: On our first trip Simi Valley right after the Anderson buyout, we found Jose in truck #50. Everything was practically still Anderson except the drivers had WM vests.Thanks to Steve, Martin, Heriberto and Jose for making this video possible! Some of the greatest people I've met at WM! Also a big thanks to everyone who was there for the trips! Hope you enjoy the video! Comments are always appreciated!
Diamond Bar Residential (WM) WMmaster626 2019-05-02 | A video dedicated to two of Waste Management San Gabriel Pomona Valley's veteran drivers who both recently retired after over 25 years of service. Thank you Wolfrano Rios and Rosendo Pimienta for all your hard work! (0:00) - 311925: When I arrived at the condos, I ran into Rios in this little Ford Wayne rear loader. This truck is neat in that the body was taken off of the little Isuzu rear loaders that WM LA Metro had, refurbished, and put onto this Ford 550 chassis. Not a horrible replacement for the Wittke Burro although I really wish I got to see that truck. Rios told me he does 4 loads in this truck since it is so small, but he's able to get to the transfer station and back pretty quick so his day isn't all that long. I only got a couple clips because I wanted to find Pimienta and get on over to Pomona to catch another driver there. Hope to film the new driver we have in this truck soon. (1:20) - 311539: Pimienta in the Freightliner McNeilus! Ever since I met him, Pimi has always been so proud that he gets to drive the Burro truck. He took care of all his customers in these condos and many kids would draw pictures of the truck for him. He's been doing this route since WM was still running the Stagg MSL here so he has a lot of experience in this area. This footage was taken way back in 2016, when Pimienta was already 64 years old. Very impressed that he was able to move at a good constant pace. On top of that, Pimienta ended up staying 2 years longer than he planned to just cause they had trouble finding a replacement for the route. He's a great driver and a really good person on top of that so I'm glad he stuck around for so long! Thank you to both drivers for letting me film and so many years of service! Hope you are enjoying retirement!
Waste Management - South Sound WMmaster626 2019-01-26 | Waste Management South Sound, located in Auburn, Washington, is home to a hauling site, transfer station, and the Pacific Northwest's central maintenance shop. Because of the excellent fleet maintenance program here at Auburn, it is not uncommon to see many different garbage trucks from across WM's Pacific Northwest sites here for repair. The man behind this program is Tom Repass, and with him and his amazing technicians, they are able to keep trucks from all over up and running. We start the tour with with the pride of Auburn's fleet - a 1982 International Cargostar Heil 4000 RL. I originally saw a picture of this truck in the annual Wenatchee Apple Blossom Festival. I was amazed at how good of a condition it was in, and so I spent the next few months trying to track it down. When I started my internship at WM in 2016, I was able to find out that this truck was registered to the Auburn yard. I reached out to the PNW Fleet Director, Ernie Christie, about this truck, and he put me in contact with Tom. The following morning, I received an email from Tom inviting me to come check out the truck if I'm ever in the area. Two months later, I finally got to see this beast in action along with Alan (West Coast Refuse Trucks). It originated from a company in Portland that got bought out in 2013. Because WM is contractually obligated to have a rear loader on site at Auburn, Tom decided to refurbish the entire truck and use it not only as a community clean up truck, but also as a show truck for other yards. Once in a while it even does bulky item pick ups! They did an amazing job with it, and the paint looks really good (Tom still wants to repaint the cab to make it perfect lol). We couldn't leave without asking to see if they could fire the truck up, and thankfully, they were more than willing to show us the ins and outs of it. I'm fairly certain this is the oldest active garbage truck in all of WM's fleet. After the rear loader, Tom showed us his next project... a truck salvage program for the entire market area (9:38). Sitting inside a warehouse is about 50-60 cabs fully dismantled and parted out. The majority of them are Macks and Condors, most of which are from California. Because Condor parts are so hard to find, Tom is well known across the entire company and he said that if any site needs a part, they usually come to him for it. He's personally overseen the dismantling of over 40 Condors. Some other notable trucks in their fleet are the old school roll offs and tractors. Tom told us that the WhiteGMC WGs were bought from an Air Force base in Utah, and at the time, they were single axle tractors used for LTL trailers. They were in good condition so WM bought them, stretched out the chassis, and put roll off hoist on them. There are still many WhiteGMC WGs running daily here, as well as a few old Freightliners and Peterbilts, some of which are bleeding blue paint. I was also glad to see their Volvo WXLL Wittke Curotto Cans, both of which I found out run regularly. So despite the frontline trucks not being as unique, Auburn has still managed to keep things interesting between their fleet maintenance program and truck salvage yard. A big thanks to Tom Repass for inviting us to come check out his awesome yard and another thanks to all his techs for their hard work! And thanks to Alan for tagging along - this trip wouldn't have been possible without him!Date filmed: August 28, 2017
Pomona Residential (WM) WMmaster626 2019-01-01 | Waste Management's residential accounts in the City of Pomona have always been one of the most interesting things to me. Since these HOAs don't fall under the city's regulations, many have had the same level of service with WM for more than 20 years. This means that some of the accounts in the city are still manually collected - something hard to find from WM in Southern California. However, with more and more recycling mandates coming from the state of California, automation has slowly made its way to Pomona. Seen here are three garbage trucks that service the city. (0:00) - 264515: Over the summer, I found out that one of the last manual accounts in Pomona was being automated. My task at work one afternoon was to put together the automation letters for the Tradewind Condos HOA. On the Wednesday of that week, the route manager introduced me to the driver who does the route, Jose Maldonado. He told me what time he usually gets to Tradewind, and the next day, I met him out there to see the last manual collection at this HOA! Riding with Maldonado is David Castillo, who was training with him for the day. At the time, David was one of the newest additions to the team, transferring from WM's Lewisville yard, and wow was he an amazing driver. He became the fastest driver in the yard (one of my favorite stories was how he covered the RL route for a day and finished by 11 in the morning) and was going to be the new driver trainer. Unfortunately, David had to transfer back to Texas because of some medical issues in his family so this was the only time I ever got to see him in action. Anyway, it was really awesome seeing this route get collected before it was automated. As much of an automated fan as I am, I liked how this was manual because Maldonado used to take a Curotto Can out to service this and one other manual account. Huge set outs at some of the condos and somehow, people got carts from all over the County. The cart roll out came through the Saturday after this was filmed so I'm glad I got it just in time. (11:34) - 263453: Today, I went out to La Verne in hopes of seeing Rosendo Pimienta. I thought he was covering a recycle route but it turns out that he was one of a couple guys scouring the city for Christmas trees. He ended up going out to The Oaks community to collect a few trees over there, so I was glad to be able to catch a Mack over here again.(12:36) - 105531: About a month after I filmed Mike in this HOA last time (2 years ago now), he received a brand new "Think Green, Think Clean" Amrep since he kept breaking down. I was curious as to how he'd handle this HOA now in an ASL, so today, I stopped by after Pimienta finished. He's able to maneuver through the tight streets much better since there's no bucket in front but still has to get out quite a bit to move carts around like when he had a Curotto. Arm speed on the truck is actually pretty good - overall Mike said he likes this truck quite a bit. Hope you all enjoy a glimpse of Waste Management's residential work in Pomona! Only one manual account remains and the days are numbered before it becomes automated. Thanks for watching and thanks to all the WM drivers featured in the video!
Meadowbrook/Good Hope Community Clean Up (WM) WMmaster626 2018-12-13 | Waste Management of the Inland Empire hosted a community clean up for the unincorporated regions of Meadowbrook and Good Hope. The amount of bulky items and trash that is brought to these events in the unincorporated areas usually varies, and so WM ended up bringing 8 garbage trucks and 4 roll offs to ensure that everything was hauled away. It was amazing seeing so many trucks lined up and the set up was really quick and efficient. Here is a list of all the trucks used and their first appearance in the video: 263376: As we walked down the line of trucks, this was the one that really caught my attention! This truck was one of the very first LNG trucks to arrive at Corona in the early 2000s and is now one of the last remaining Macks to run. Anyway, the driver of this truck recognized us from a previous visit! Sal runs the bulk route every now and then and really knows how to rev the front loaders well! It was awesome hearing this truck scream as the older Macks sound a lot louder and better than the newer LNG Macks. Sal makes the first appearance at (0:06) as well as a few other appearances at (4:39) and (6:44). 263492: Next to Sal was the awesome Jaime Ramirez! It's been a while since we've seen him in a front loader so this was neat. Not sure why they took Javier's truck out (wish they took the oldest Mack out instead) but this was still interesting to see. Unfortunately by the time I ended up at his truck, the event was slowing down and cars were being sent to other trucks so I was only able to get one clip unfortunately (5:13). 263854: I was surprised to see this truck here as I had just seen it with a Curotto Can a few weeks earlier. The cut up Curotto Can was very interesting to see and Ruben gave the truck some hard revs! Appearances are at (0:30), (4:28), (5:35), and (8:20).263846: Here's another ex-LA Metro Wittke that I've been wanting to see! The event was light so they sent Rodney back to the yard to get a roll off and help pick up roll off boxes from the event. I'm glad I caught him doing a dump cycle before he left (0:58)! 264509: Jose Casteneda had 264509, the freshest looking Autocar McNeilus in the yard, shown at (2:36)! This truck looks really nice but unfortunately they swapped out the repainted 1.5 Curotto Can for this dusty Curotto Can II.264501: Cristobal probably had one of the heavier loads from the event! Throughout the morning, he had a constant flow of cars so I was able to get quite a bit of footage. One of the many long time employees at WM who started out back in the Western Waste days!264512: It was cool to see this truck again because it spent some time in Baldwin Park almost 10 years ago. Humberto revved the truck well so it was very fun to watch. These LNG Autocars sound really nice when they're revved hard. First seen at (3:08). 264503: Edgar came about an hour into the event and shortly after he got there, the event started to get a little less crowded. Wasn't able to get any dump cycles unfortunately but luckily these trucks will still be around for a little while. 412637: Autocar WX roll off that got transferred from Orange County412735: Another Autocar that was shuttling roll off boxes from MoVal to the clean up site, seen at (10:38).414345: Peterbilt 320/Amrep Roll Off hauling away a 40 yarder full of tires, seen at (10:53). 415070: Corona doesn't have any doubles roll offs so they had this one come from MoVal! I absolutely love doubles roll offs so I was excited to see this one and was really hoping to get some footage...unfortunately he broke down so I was only able to get pictures :( Huge thanks goes out to Waste Management's awesome Marie Aranda, Russ Cordiero, and all the friendly drivers for making this video possible! I had a lot of fun and am definitely looking forward to next year's cleanups!
Eastvale Residential (WM) WMmaster626 2018-11-29 | Within the last year, there has been a lot of changes with the Waste Management team in Eastvale. Almost every truck in my last video has either been transferred or retired unfortunately, and a few drivers have moved routes/positions. Despite the new drivers and new "Think Green, Think Clean" garbage trucks, it's still been one fun city to visit. (0:00) - 263854: This ex-LA Hauling Mack is one of surprises that came into the city earlier this year. Armando Quiros took over this route from Frankie Magana and ended up using 263854 for a while. This is one of the trucks I've been wanting to catch from Corona so I was extremely happy to see it here. The bucket on this truck was sent over from GI when they got a Wittke from El Cajon and is actually Corona's only Slammin' Eagle. Armando sure knew how to run the truck well and the fast arm and hydraulics made things really entertaining! (4:28) - 103313: I heard last week that Armando was driving an Autocar WXLL McNeilus, so today, I headed to Eastvale in hopes of seeing that. I instead found him in 103313, which turned out to be his regular truck. I was disappointed at first until I saw how fast and violent the arm was! Without any revving, this truck flies! Armando said he really likes it and is happy to be in an ASL now. (9:59) - 263854 & 103388: Last month, Kevin and I were in Eastvale and was surprised to see Ernesto in 263854! His truck had broken down so he took that truck out for the rest of the day. Behind him, we have Victor Vazquez in one amazing looking truck!! Victor's son Hector, who works in the shop at Corona, told me his dad recently added caps and chrome bits and I was shocked at how good it looked in person! Especially with the fresh tire polish. I wish I got more that day but we were short on time unfortunately. Props to Victor for keeping his truck looking so sharp! (12:09) - 105964: Here's Mario Rodriguez in one of Corona's many 520s. On this day, the arm was moving insanely fast! The few clips you see here are of him slowing down the arm - would have liked to film a little longer but unfortunately he finished after the last cart. (12:58) - 103312: Alfonso Camargo took over Jaime's recycling route when Jaime became a relief driver. We tried 3 times to catch him in the old Curotto Cans but each time, he just so happened to be in an ASL, including this time when he was in 103312. Because of all the break downs he had been having in the Curottos, Alfonso was one of the first drivers to receive a 520 when their second batch came in. (14:09) - 263532: We caught Frankie Magana leaving the city for the day earlier this year in this old beast! Shortly after, Frankie also became a relief driver so that's when Armando took over his route. I loved this truck and really wanted to catch it in action but its fork assembly broke off and so it was the first one to get scrapped when Corona started getting the new trucks. (14:42) - 105776: In late 2017, Corona received their first 2 520/Amreps. Sal Camarillo was given one of them and he absolutely loves the truck! This was filmed about a month after he got the truck, and I was surprised how fast he was able to move. (16:58) - 103741: Alfonso in one of Corona's ACX Amreps. Fast arm and it's cool how this truck has the other "Thinking Green" logo on the side.Thank you to all the awesome employees at Waste Management of the Inland Empire! Some of the most welcoming and friendly people I have ever met and they continue to make my Inland Empire trips very fun even with the increasing amount of new trucks.
Los Angeles Commercial (WM) WMmaster626 2018-11-14 | Here's some footage from my first glance at how Waste Management has been doing in the West Valley after the massive RecycLA transition. Despite the new "Think Green, Think Clean" trucks, I'm very excited to release this video for the two drivers featured in it - Armando Saavedra and his uncle Antonio Tinoco! (0:00) - 213480: Many of you may know Armando from Instagram. He's one of the coolest drivers out there and has some neat connections to the history of the waste industry. Armando currently has two uncles who have been driving for WM for over 25 years - Antonio (featured) and Frank. He also had 2 uncles who were mechanics at WM Sun Valley for many years, and Armando's dad was a driver at Foothill Waste! Very impressive history. Anyway, for a while, Armando was driving one of the many CNG Amreps from the first batch of trucks WM ordered over a year ago, 213133. Earlier this summer, Armando sent me a pic of his NEW truck that he was rolling in - this dual tank Amrep! I've always had a thing for side mounted tanks, so I was really happy these were spec'd out this way. I've been meaning to get some video of Armando in action, and so Moises and I made a stop in Chatsworth on our way to GI to finally see Armando in action! He keeps the truck extremely clean and does a great job on route. (5:01) - 213091: Armando told us his uncle was working in the section next to him, and so he called him up and told us where to look for him. Here's Antonio in one of my favorite new trucks around. This truck has been in service for almost a year I believe, yet looks like it's brand new! Unlike a majority of the RecycLA drivers, both Armando and Antonio work out of the West Valley Hauling site (the old Anderson yard). So this allows Antonio to wash his truck every day which explains why it looks so nice! I really like the looks of these LNG Petes, so I'm glad West Valley Hauling took this one in from AV. (8:20) - 204W: At the end of the video is a photo of Armando and Antonio back in the old WMX days! The Mack MR was Antonio's truck and the little boy by the door is Armando. One of the coolest pictures I have EVER seen so thanks to Armando for sharing that!! THANK YOU Armando and Antonio for letting Moises and I grab some pictures and video of your trucks! Hope you guys like the video and can't wait to see you both again!
Waste Management of San Diego WMmaster626 2018-09-21 | Welcome to Waste Management of San Diego - the largest yard WM operates in Southern California. The history of this yard is very interesting, however, not much is known about their fleet prior to 2000. This fleet still seems relatively old school because of all the old trucks still running today. In 1999, WM partnered with PG&E to develop a pilot project to test out natural gas garbage trucks. WM ended up purchasing 120 LNG powered Macks, and today, many are still working hard picking up trash throughout San Diego County. Being the huge Mack fan that I am, I've really taken a huge liking to this yard as the number of Macks across SoCal has decreased year after year. On September 14th, Moises and I made a trip down to the area to meet up with WM's awesome Phil Smith, who is a 46 year veteran of the company. He knows so much about the history of the waste industry and shared many interesting stories with us. I learned that WM worked under the name Universal Refuse & Removal, who occupied the current property where WM of San Diego currently sits at. He remembers when WM ran PODs out of El Cajon - something I didn't know about until recently! I also found out that Western Waste had a yard close by WM where half a dozen trucks were parked in a small lot for them to service the county.In this video, you can see many of their older garbage trucks unloading at the transfer station. I also made sure to capture many of their chromed out trucks both new and old. The fleet pride in El Cajon is absolutely incredible. I don't think there is a Waste Management yard I've seen with more fully chromed out trucks than this yard. Below are some of my favorite trucks in the fleet: (0:49) - 205593: This is the last truck in the El Cajon fleet that still sports the old "Breathe Easy" logo from back when these Wittkes were brand new. (5:58) - 212976: This is one of my favorite trucks in the fleet despite being a new "Think Green, Think Clean" truck. The driver chromed it out really well and really makes it stand out in comparison to the other Peterbilts. (6:50) - 408138: I never realized how awesome these trucks are until Tyler posted a clip of one a few months back. These LNG Mack roll offs SCREAM when the right driver is behind the wheel! (8:25) - 263271: This is one of the nicest front loaders in the fleet. The previous driver chromed this truck out really nicely until he got a new truck. They still kept the truck looking really nice and you can see how clean the truck is today. (14:33) - 263584: Here's a truck I didn't know El Cajon had until this day! Refurbished LE/Wittke driven by super cool driver Uzi Merino. (14:46) - 200036: I believe this is the very first LNG Mack that El Cajon received. It's incredible how it still runs daily! (15:40) - 211352: This is probably my favorite truck in El Cajon's fleet - a one-of-a-kind 2011 CNG Mack MRU Amrep HX-450 FL! Moises showed me that the body on this truck is actually from the 2009 LNG Mack MRU Amrep HX-450 FL that WM bought and displayed at Waste Expo! The drivers of this truck have taken really good care of it and today, it looks really nice and runs well. Thankful that it's been kept in great condition all these years! (17:02) - 205530: By far El Cajon's most photogenic driver! (17:54) - 101490: One of several Wittke Crocodiles that WM still operates down here. This is one of the meaner sounding ones they run too. (19:20) - 206436: This Mack MR Wittke was repainted within the past year I believe and it looks amazing! Really cool to see El Cajon still repainting Macks these days. (25:06) - 205828: I really enjoyed watching this truck in particular unload. Smooth sounding truck and the Curotto Can grippers on the truck is definitely unique! On top of that, the oil based paint job on the truck has kept it looking really good all these years. At the end, starting at (27:16), are some old photos of WM of San Diego from the early 2000s. The ones from 27:16 - 27:40 are courtesy of John Tiquet, WM's natural gas fleet manager. John started out as a tech in El Cajon and rose up to become in charge of all of WM's natural gas fleet technology due to his extensive knowledge of the systems. He can even be seen in an interview in this video here: youtube.com/watch?v=uhO8WAItTHAThank you so much to everyone at Waste Management of San Diego, and a special thank you to Phil Smith and Dawn Carmen for taking the time to talk with us about the history of the local waste industry. Another thanks to John Tiquet for sharing his experience and some photos of the early LNG fleet with me! And finally, thanks to Moises for making this trip possible. Hope you all enjoy & thanks for watching!
Silverado Canyon - Residential (WM) WMmaster626 2018-08-18 | Waste Management of Orange County services the unincorporated franchise area of Silverado Canyon using some pretty unique garbage trucks. Due to all the extremely tight, one lane streets, WM has to use these Amrep shuttle trucks to collect garbage and green waste from the homes located in the Canyon. Recycling carts have to be brought to the main street for larger, full size ASLs to service them, so many people just opt for the one-pass system. (0:00) - 102285: Here is one of the two shuttle trucks that work in the Canyon. Victor is out here every Thursday going through the narrow streets. Super nice driver who didn't mind us following him around even though the streets he serviced were so tight we couldn't even pass on foot! I liked this truck a lot because the arm is a lot more loose, and so it flips lids a little more easily. We followed this truck for a good 30 minutes to 1 hour and this was all the footage I got because of how hard it was to get shots. One cool story about this truck is that it was supposedly sent up to WM of Ukiah for a month which is quite a journey! (0:21) - 207932: Martin runs the front loader that empties out the shuttle bodies throughout the day. The truck he's in is the best running Mack MR Wittke at Irvine. We've seen it in action on a commercial route before, so good to see it's still performing very well. These Wittkes are typically used for heavy duty routes so I'm glad to see that they bring one of these into the Canyon rather than a "Think Green, Think Clean" Amrep FL. (1:18) - 103919: Here is WM's newest shuttle truck! Amrep did a really good job with this truck. It hoists the body on much quicker than the Freightliner and seems to actually have a lot of power, especially for a CNG truck. I was a huge fan of the whole POD system so this was a nice throwback to that. Would have been so cool if Oceanside got a fleet of shuttle ASLs like this haha. This truck was actually in a really bad accident a few years back, but it got a completely new cab and chassis so I'm glad it's still around. Sal told us that he and all the other Silverado drivers would rather work out in this area than in Laguna Beach, which was a huge surprise to hear because this area looks extremely difficult! (8:13) - 104521: One of three full size ASLs that collects carts from the main roads in the area. It was funny seeing them collect out here because they literally take up the entire road even though it's a two lane highway! (8:18) - 103919, 102285, and 207932: Here is another clip of Martin, Sal, and Victor emptying out the bodies before heading into Silverado for yet another round of emptying carts. They were extremely behind today because both shuttles had problems in the morning so they didn't start until 10 AM. Usually, there's a little more action with an Insta-Bin truck bringing containers and another FL dumping the bodies and bins but the scheduling was so off that we didn't get to see that. Thanks to all the awesome drivers at WM of Orange County for letting us film and follow them throughout the route! Another thanks to Moises for inviting me out here and driving us around through the canyon, and to Lucas for route info. Definitely the strangest route I've been to!
Arcadia Residential (WM) WMmaster626 2018-07-19 | Here is a compilation of 10 trucks that I made roughly two years ago of how the WM San Gab crew was handling Arcadia over summer 2016. This video stands out a little more to me than the other Arcadia videos just because of how many different things happened in such a short time. It was a fantastic summer full of fun local adventures and many great memories. Back then, there were still a few Curotto Cans running regularly with the "Think Green, Think Clean" trucks, which was good. Below is a brief summary of a few points in the video that stand out.(0:00) - 263267, 103860, 103862, & 673246: In August 2016, I started an internship with Waste Management in the shop. One of my favorite parts of the job was seeing the activity that went on in the shop during the morning, such as road calls. On this day, I remember going out to Azusa MRF with a mechanic to help Mike out, as his usual truck was having some issues. He ended up going back to the yard to swap out trucks, so on the way home, I went out to his route to see what truck he had. Mike was in 263267, which is usually the MPU/bulk truck the rest of the week so its arm is pretty slow. Unfortunately, when I found Mike, he was down once again! I hung out with him for a bit and we waited for mechanic to come. In the meantime, Larios and Enrique Bueno were sent over to help collect some of Mike's route. It was awesome seeing four WM vehicles parked together! (0:29) - 263452 & 105338: This was the first summer Fili was supposed to be in his new ASL. Luckily for me, they decided to switch around trucks on Wednesdays, so for most of the summer, Fili was driving 263452 while his ASL was used to train other drivers. Once in a while, he did show up in 105338 so I got a little footage while it was still shiny and newish. (2:02) - 103860: This was fun to film! I heard Joe was covering a trash route up in the hills of Arcadia by Sierra Madre, and so I told Kevin to check it out and see if he could catch him. Sure enough, Joe was hustling through the area and Kevin made that awesome video of him in North Arcadia. That same afternoon, Joe came down by me to help on the huge open route, and so I went to visit. This was the first summer that the Ottos were rolled out, so I remember I was pretty interested to see them get collected. Always a blast following Joe! (7:38) - 264515: Another truck that I often saw helping on the open route was this McNeilus. Mentado had a set route every day except for Wednesdays, so he was all over. I had just gotten my license, so I was eager to finally film him in Arcadia wherever he was. For much of the summer, though, he ended up working just 5 minutes from my house! So after filming Joe, I drove over to this area and found him finishing the rest of the trash route. It was fun seeing the old Turn Keys get collected so I'm glad I got this when I did. Mentado is now at Republic Sun Valley, and is actually the same driver seen behind the wheel of the Peterbilt 320 Rapid Rail in Kev and Sean's videos. (10:05) - 103857 & 103705: We were taking down a basketball hoop, and we were fortunate enough to get rid of it in one day thanks to these two guys. Pascuali usually did greens in a different part of the city, but they had him covering my recycle route for the day so I was very excited to see him come by. As always, Plazola was happy to help me out! (12:03) - 263524: I was expecting Fili to roll up in a different truck so this was a nice surprise since I hardly ever saw 524! (14:35) - 103860 & 264515: I believe this is when I found out Joe was doing trash. Both trucks looked extremely clean that day compared to usual so that's always nice! Think this was the last trip I made on bike before getting my license. (15:15) - 103860: First truck I filmed that summer! I remember finding Joe in his usual area and he was going the usual speed that I was used to seeing him operate at back then. He collected the last cart in that area before telling me he had to go do an open route. I biked after him and by the time I caught up, I noticed he was whipping back lids which was completely new to me! I had never seen him operate so fast! You can hear him say he had to get to the MRF by 5:15, so he was really hustling. I think this was the last day I ever saw him operate "slow", as he's always moving fast nowadays. Lots of cool carts in this area. I was able to catch 2 Zarns & 1 old Toter which I hardly ever see in the city. (18:46) - 263451: Mikey in his usual truck at the time. I'm not sure why but I never went back to get more of this truck while Mike had it even though it's always been one of my favorite Curottos. It kind of sucks because 451 hasn't seen route in ages now. You'll see him collect a rare Dura-Kan and FA Toter before finishing up. Thanks to all the guys here at WM San Gab! I'm really fortunate to have such a great crew.
Eastvale Community Clean Up (WM) WMmaster626 2018-06-03 | On May 26, 2018, Waste Management of the Inland Empire hosted a community clean-up for the City of Eastvale. They brought 9 garbage trucks to the event (5 front loaders and 4 roll offs). The event ran from 8-12 and was a huge success with a larger than expected turnout of 481 cars (most arrived within the last hour). One of WM's awesome route managers, Andrew Gonzales, invited me to come check out the event and I couldn't have had more fun! Here is some footage of the trucks WM used. 263530: The first truck in the lineup was this 2003 Mack LE Wittke that Corona got from LA Metro a few years ago. As I was walking through the event trying to figure out which truck to start on, the loud revving easily grabbed my attention. The driver for the day was Mario Rodriguez, a 30 year veteran of the industry. Mario told me he started out with Western Waste, and after a few years, he went over to NEWCO in Riverside. Mario remembers servicing Eastvale back when the area was literally just two houses surrounded by acres of cow farms. NEWCO still had the City of Riverside back then, along with BFI and Tri-co Rubbish, known today as Burrtec. Mario said part of the reason as to why NEWCO lost their portion in Riverside is because they didn't want to convert their fleet to natural gas, and in 2001, their contract with the city ended. Their other work outside the City was in unincorporated areas like Home Gardens and Woodcrest, and they even had a few routes down in San Diego! Mario said the drivers who worked these routes started at 2 in the morning! NEWCO's Riverside assets was sold around 2003, and drivers were dispersed to WM, Burrtec, and CR&R after that. Today, Mario's regular route during the week is in Eastvale. 264509: This truck was recently in a fire, and just returned from being repainted - it looks awesome! Gustavo Cristobal was operating the truck for the day, but I only got a couple clips (10:23 and 14:03) since it will be around for the next few years, unlike the Macks. About halfway through the event, Andrew told Mario and Gustavo to shut off their trucks and fill up the other two first, so that really limited me since this truck was off for most of the event lol. 262906: This is one of two trucks I've tried multiple times to find - unfortunately, since it's a bulk truck, that's practically impossible. 262906 is a 2001 model, and is currently the oldest LE/Wittke that WM has in SoCal. Surprisingly, it still runs regularly as their frontline bulk truck, but that's expected to change soon. There are many small things that I like about this truck, but the main factor is the awesome "We Care About Your Air" sticker on the tailgate. Anyway, the driver on this truck was Jose Castaneda, a 30 year employee. I was really hoping to get lots of footage of 262906 (first clip is 5:05), so when I saw Jose was driving, I was excited since I already knew him from another trip. Unfortunately, the right side pedal was inoperable (Jose tried revving it multiple times for me) so he had to operate at idle. He revved up the truck for me on his last cycle before leaving, so that was awesome. Jose is another driver with a very interesting background. He started out at WM in Irvine, and he said his first truck was a two axle front loader with a removable body (PODs!). 264025: Here we have the awesome Frankie Magana making Chino’s Condor scream! I've filmed this truck so many times but I've never seen it operate like this! I was hoping to get more footage since I loved Frankie's operating style, but I ended up grabbing a pair of gloves in the truck and helping out on different trucks the rest of the event. I kept my camera near, so I whipped it out as often as possible to get some shots. It was actually Frankie who got me excited to come to one of these cleanups after seeing one of his Instagram posts. For many years, WM used roll offs at these events, but this was the first year in a while that they decided to use FLs. So a BIG thanks to him for the heads up! At 11:30, Frankie and Jose were sent to the landfill so that Mario and Gustavo could fill up their trucks for the rest of the event. 263492: Javier Correa's truck was the 5th front loader brought to the event, shown at 2:12. It was a lighter day so Gustavo took it back to the yard around 9. 412637: This truck, seen at 2:47, is a recent yard transfer from Irvine. Rodney was 1 of 4 drivers shuttling boxes to and from the yard throughout the morning. 412735: I saw this truck roll into the parking lot and was really excited to see who was behind the wheel. I saw Jaime (fast Curotto driver from Eastvale) back in October and he told me he was a relief driver now, so we haven't been able to find him on route since last July. Footage is seen at 7:12. 414348: Another roll off dropping off a box. The fourth roll off was 414008, missed a clip of it unfortunately but nothing too special. Thanks to all the awesome employees from Waste Management for their hard work!
Simi Valley Residential (WM/GI) WMmaster626 2018-03-31 | As of March 16, 2018, Waste Management – G.I. Industries became the exclusive hauler for the City of Simi Valley following the acquisition of Anderson Rubbish Disposal. I first heard rumors of an acquisition almost a year ago, and by September, it was just about official that the buyout was happening. We were asked to keep it quiet until everything was finalized, and finally, Anderson Rubbish became a part of WM two weeks ago. All 30+ garbage trucks that Anderson owned were CARB compliant, so I was excited to see how they would be running under WM ownership.(0:00) – 180: This was our first look of how things on the residential side of the Anderson acquisition was coming along. I noticed a bunch of flipped lids in a neighborhood and wanted to find whatever truck was collecting those carts. Thinking it was the ACX/Amrep that usually runs that route, we were beyond surprised to come across this truck quickly going through the route. I was also surprised that they were running Anderson trucks on GI routes already so this was cool. Jose slowed down for the video just a little bit unfortunately, but he still moved at a nice pace. I was glad that they were using this truck on the WM routes too as I was really hoping to film one of these ex-LA WhiteGMCs. Really nice driver who we saw MANY times throughout the day haha. Thanks Jose for letting us film! (3:09) – 101232: I first filmed this truck almost two years ago and found it to be very entertaining. A few months ago, Kevin and I were in the area and watched this truck from down the street. The arm just flew on this truck and I was shocked how hard Miguel was revving compared to the first time I found him! A few weeks after this was filmed, Miguel was given the new 520/Amrep, however, it had some problems so they gave him 101232 back luckily. (5:31) – 102661: I’ve been wanting to find this truck for a very long time. This infamous truck has been seen by many, as it’s a former Blue Barrel truck that actually picked up Jared’s trash back when he lived in Santa Clarita. You can see this truck in some of Mike’s older Blue Barrel videos. Anyway, like many older trucks from Blue Barrel, this truck was sent to GI around 2012 and they refurbished it and put it on route. We found Ruben collecting recycling in the northern part of the Friday route back in September. Pretty sweet truck – not sure what’s up with the 1026 numbering though. (7:09) – 250: We wanted to see what was running on the original Anderson routes today and stumbled upon this truck on trash. These diesel Mack LE Amreps sound really nice and I like how they have auto-rev. There were some WM carts in this area from before the acquisition so that was interesting. (9:51) – 260: As we made our way throughout town, we found another large route area in the beautiful hills of Simi Valley. Couldn’t find anything for a few minutes but luckily, Moises heard this truck in an HOA. I really like the way Mikey operated this truck. His arm cycles were very smooth and the revving was nice. Unfortunately, he finished his first load at the end of the complex. (12:05) – 101518: Back in December, I saw this truck had a new driver behind the wheel while hanging out at the yard. He was really friendly and revved hard while unloading so I was curious as to how he operated the truck and was not disappointed at all! Jose told me he started out as a temp and worked his way up to becoming a driver, which is very impressive. Thanks for letting us follow you for a bit Jose! (15:48) – 101630: I knew another Mack was running a trash route in Simi Valley, but wasn’t sure which one it was. We stumbled upon this one working very close to the 118. This truck originally worked down by Westlake and I was hoping to see it but they gave it to this driver, Jose, before I made it out there. This truck actually came from Baldwin Park and I didn’t know that until very recently, so that only motivated me to find it even more. (17:09) – 101512: Last year, Alex and I made a trip out here. While driving around, we met Angel Manzano, one of the route managers at GI, who showed us some of the routes on his computer. We found out 101512 was being used and quickly went to find it thanks to Angel's help. Here's Reyes subbing for Miguel on the Monday route. Reyes subs for a lot of drivers but does so much for the company. . He used to drive 101644 before that was sent to HSS unfortunately. (18:34) - 104720: One of the newer “Think Green, Think Clean” Peterbilt Amreps in town working opposite of Reyes on trash. Many children throughout Simi knew the driver who used to drive this truck so it's one of the more famous trucks in town. Thanks to all the awesome Waste Management and Anderson Rubbish drivers for letting us film! Another thanks to Mike for keeping me updated with the acquisition and Steve for route info. Much appreciated!
