Pros
You are out there by yourself and you get to know customers pretty well with the rural routes. Some will even wait for me to arrive so that they can visit with me. Heck, some customers will give me treats or even a full-blown meal on a regular basis! As a rear load driver, I see everyone's trash, which means I occasionally find some valuable stuff. Start times and your work pace are somewhat flexible. There is mostly poor management and B.S., but the good generally outweighs the bad.
Cons
1. We don't get a helper! We have to jump in and out of the cab for every single dumpster and tote! On residential routes, expect to jump out of the truck at least 200 times daily. (They are not low steps like UPS trucks.) I get asked about 1 time/week why we don't actually get paid for the work of 2 people. 2. The drive cams and GPS suck. They make the quarterly safety bonus hard to achieve, especially if you are driving in rough terrain. (Even pot holes will set the cameras off.) We definitely are micro-managed with the cameras. The boss has literally "coached" me on how to (both) properly take a drink or a bite of food while driving. Then they showed me the stupid camera clips of me doing it wrong. It was hard not to laugh! 3. Many customers are very nasty with their trash. You will want to throw up when you have to grab totes with maggots on the inside AND outside. There are lots of really inconsiderate slobs out there that expect you pick up massive amounts of extra trash. 4. Customers will rarely thank you. On the contrary, people will call the office to tell on you for the dumbest (and untrue) things. I've been yelled at many times by customers who forgot to put out their trash and want me to go back and get it.
