It’s been almost a year since I posted that big video of my old reliable workhorse SL31 on the job with me behind the wheel. I also put together another long video of my Randwick truck at work, using two previous camera mounting spots off the cab side mirror and around the tailgate hydraulic lines. With this one I aimed for more of an uncut action result where it’s just showing constant work and reality as you go house to house, not that the video does any justice over the real experience of a day in Randwick. There is only a single transition in this video, which switches between camera angles halfway through the video, otherwise it’s just start to finish with nothing in between. The second clip in this video I actually retook a couple of weeks before I left my truck and the contract behind. The big difference between the clips is the condition of my grabber, which wasn’t too fantastic for most the time I had the truck, but for the last month I enjoyed how a grabber should be following a refurbishment - a damn big difference!
I shot this on my old Tuesday run in the large suburb of Maroubra, found in the council’s south. The operating conditions change a lot as you move across this suburb, with a mix of streets being wide and narrow, quiet and busy, with and without parked cars, even good and bad with bin presentation. In some spots you can happily drive along the kerb without needing to reach out once, but then in other streets use of the lifter slide is inevitable to achieve every grab... at least until you come across cars parked directly in front of or pressed against the bins! I like the culture of residents dropping them in the gutter where there are plenty of parked vehicles, which saves the need to stretch the lifter right out to grab your prize. However, there are still plenty of residents who put their bins right back on the kerb, making you max out the reach in hope of grabbing the very edge... just to flick it further back and over when you’re a centimetre too far away.
Without trying to sound like a hero garbo, I actually classify the shown conditions as “cream” or pretty good, because I can keep collecting and moving forward without needing to get out of the truck frequently. I personally don’t refer to anything as hard or difficult, instead I’ll say fun, challenging and bloody annoying describe the next level of work some would consider hell. The third collecting condition is simply paradise in my eyes, where you can do the job with a blindfold on :D Some fellow side loader operators out there will look at this action and label this as horrible working conditions, but it’s really not that bad... something fellow inner city drivers will agree with. Any side arm driver can drive between spaced out unobstructed bins in wide suburban streets with no traffic, but the real test is when you experience the opposite of just that. Endure the challenges and frustrations of using a side loader in an extraordinary location and you can drive them anywhere!
Also thought I might mention you can work quickly and still be a tidy operator. I got paid a salary in Randwick which gave me an incentive to get the job done swiftly and go home, but it didn’t mean I would leave rubbish spilt on the road and bins knocked over in the middle of driveways. Taking a little bit of pride in your job can go a long way, even if it costs an extra few seconds per bin you handle. It doesn’t take much to at least leave the bins standing upright, putting them back where you got them from is a bonus and making sure all the rubbish gets in the truck is quite ideal. It’s also nice going out of your way to make the job easier for your co-workers, but unfortunately it seems rare that the favour gets returned. I’ve always liked to make sure lids are left flipped after I’ve emptied a bin so things looked good/consistent down the street, but I stopped caring about that only in Randwick when it occurred to me you can’t see all the bins behind cars. Also figured it was better for the lifter to bring it straight down instead of giving it a little whip to flick the lid, found it was a good time saver too. Oh I sure miss this truck and (parts of) this old job... these are some memories for future anyway.
19 ноя 2016
