WM: A Day in the Life of a Truck Driver

WIT President & CEO Jennifer Hedrick, CAE, recently did a ride-along to experience first-hand what it takes to be a truck driver with WM. She is pictured here with Laurenis Espinal, a professional driver with WM.

WM is North America's leading provider of comprehensive environmental and sustainability solutions. Services include residential and commercial trash collection and recycling, sustainability advisory services, Renewable Natural Gas production and more.

WIT’s CEO Experiences It First-Hand

A CDL truck driver who safely operates a heavy-duty truck to perform assigned duties on designated routes is at the foundation of WM’s operations. Jennifer Hedrick, CAE, President and CEO of the Women In Trucking Association (WIT) learned this first-hand when she recently participated in a ride-along for a day in Northern Virginia. Let’s take a peek into her experience:

Hedrick met with Brian Smith (Route Manager) and Laurenis Espinal (Driver) at WM’s operations offices in Sterling, VA. There she learned about a typical day for Laurenis at that site:

• 4am: The drivers meet on the day’s schedule and are briefed on weather conditions and key safety issues. If weather is poor, extra precautions are taken to ensure the safety of the drivers.
• 4:15am: All drivers on that shift go to their trucks to prepare to leave. They all perform a series of pre-trip inspections on their trucks, start trucks, check tablets to guide routes and see where routes may have been changed, and ensure their trucks are disconnected from natural gas lines used for fuel.
• 4:15am to the end of her route: Laurenis drives her Commercial Front End Load truck and services customers along her route.
• End of day: The truck must be emptied each day to ensure no co-mingling of trash and recycling day-to-day.
• End of day: Once the truck returns from the shift, a post-trip inspection is performed and then the driver typically brings back the truck to be refueled for the next morning’s route, according to Smith. 

WM tailors its services to meet the needs of each customer group and to ensure consistent, superior service at the local level. Headquartered in Houston, the company serves more than 20 million municipal, commercial, industrial, and residential customers.

The company has the largest disposal network and collection fleet in North America, is the largest recycler of post-consumer materials and is a leader in beneficial use of landfill gas, with a growing network of renewable natural gas plants and the most landfill gas-to-electricity plants in North America. WM's fleet includes more than 12,000 natural gas trucks – the largest heavy-duty natural gas truck fleet of its kind in North America.

Laurenis Espinal: WM Driver Extraordinaire

Espinal works Monday through Friday for about 55 hours per week (by choice). Hours of Service rules cap driving to 11 hours, with a break before eight hours is achieved. Her routes include commercial and residential, but not individual home pick-up. This includes apartment/condo and business container trash bins.

Hedrick was paired with Espinal, who has been with WM for more than a year. Her routes are in the Northern Virginia area. Before joining WM, Espinal was no stranger to driving, as she previously drove a commuter bus.  

On the ride-along, Hedrick made the following observations as part of the life as a professional driver at WM:

• GPS shows directions and pick up points, and each stop in the route is marked with directions and any notes indicating pick up instructions. 
• If anything is blocking the pick-up or preventing a container from being safely collected, Espinal noted it in the truck’s tablet and awaited instruction or input from anyone who may show up onsite (e.g. store owner, property maintenance worker) or with WM dispatch. 
• Due to volume, Espinal drops trash and recycled materials at an assigned landfill or WM-owned recycle facility at least once per shift (oftentimes two or three times per shift).The landfill typically is no more than 20 minutes away from the route.

Why is WM an ideal employer for Espinal? This employer choice works well for Espinal because she is a mother of young children and can coordinate her hours with her husband’s work schedule. Her ultimate career goal is to go into management so she can work in an office setting – and WM provides many career paths along with educational opportunities for success, which Espinal is taking advantage of. Espinal says she feels very supported by WM, including management, her peers and other colleagues throughout her work site and on her route.

For more information on WM, visit WM.com.

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