Robert Voss

Eric Girouard  0:00  

This is Bucket Talk, a weekly podcast for people who work in the trades and construction that aren't just trying to survive, but have the ambition and desire to thrive. The opportunity in the trades and construction is absolutely ridiculous right now. So if you're hungry, it's time to eat. We discuss what it takes to rise from the bottom to the top with people who are well on their way and roll up their sleeves every single day.

Jeremy Perkins  0:28  

On this episode of bucket talk, we're here with Robert Voss, aka the Fit Garbage Man. Welcome Robert.

Robert Voss  0:34  

Thank you for having me.

Jeremy Perkins  0:37  

Awesome. Awesome. So this part of the show, I'd like to get to know a little bit more about you, how you got into the industry, what you do on a day to day basis. You are our first person in sanitation. So I'd love to give our guests, I'd love to get our viewers a deep dive into what it takes to be a garbage collector. Awesome. Well,

Robert Voss  0:59  

mine is a, used to be much more consistent story throughout. Now it's a little bit more rare. I'm actually a third generation garbage man. Um, my grandpa started a very small garbage company. Couldn't even tell you how long ago, it's been a while. Been a minute. Um, my dad worked on the truck. We actually have a small business, kind of, in the country here, and I've been working since I was 15, which is, again, a rarity, but it was summers. I still went to school three days a week, starting at 15. But mind you, at 15, I was six to 230 so like, I could do the job of a grown man for the for the most part, there something I always wanted to do, seeing both, Oh, my grandpa, but seeing my dad do it, and always wanted to do it, and kept bothering him, kept bothering kept bothering him. And then finally, at some point, I guess I was big enough, and he allowed me to do before I could drive. And that was just a throw around the back, which was incredibly hard physical labor, way harder than I thought it was because we do not have the new trucks that have the big, fancy arm that'll load the toters and stuff like that. We still throw everything by hand on the back. There's no lift, no anything other than for bigger dumpsters, so everything's by hand. And I have been doing that since 15 and already approaching 20 years at that.

Jeremy Perkins  2:19  

Well, I sure you wouldn't be in the industry for 20 years if you didn't enjoy it. But do you enjoy it?

Robert Voss  2:24  

I do, honestly, like I have a couple questions I get a lot about, about is the quote, unquote, the smell? Well, I sidebar, I don't breathe through my nose like ever, but I got hit with the basketball in the nose at a young age, so I think they that had something to do with it. But in general, I don't breathe through my nose for the most part, unless it's a really, really hot day or you pick up a restaurant like it really, it just smells like truck. If you've been around trucks, just smells like diesel and grease and hydraulic oil and all that kind of and break dust, obviously, and farmland, which is a lot of the areas I pick up. So that doesn't bother me. I did a little deep dive on you when you asked me about me. I listened to a couple of your shows and somewhere to you. And similar to you, runs in the family. We are big ADHD family, and whenever I can do something with my hands, when I can do something with my hands, it is the biggest help in the world. Like I have friends of mine who did office jobs, and I just can't do it. I can do mental stuff while moving. So that's why the truck, the truck has been fantastic, and not to be Where's I tell all the little kids that asked me is, when I'm driving around the truck, it is basically like playing a video game, like, back, because we, we're rear loaders, so it's backing up till you feel the dumpster, then dumping it. And I make game out of it anyway. So or trying to beat one of the other guys on a truck down the street and turn everything into a game, it's a great time. But, yeah, I've, I've thoroughly enjoyed it. So

Jeremy Perkins  3:42  

now, do you ride with somebody else, or you, you're the driver and the loader at the same time? I've done

Robert Voss  3:47  

a little bit of everything in the last number of years. It's just me. I've pivoted a little bit more to commercial work, so restaurants, stuff like that, but I still do a good amount of homes until, yeah, then it's me. It's getting out at every stops. And you'll say, you get your steps into the day I started off just Yeah, homes. I used to work with a guy, and then we would take once I got my CDL, I started ride, been able to drive, but before that, you can't get your CDL till 18. And some companies, they don't want you if they want you at 21 because that's when there's an insurance break there. So sometimes they only got higher till you're 21 but so once I turned 18, we would take turns driving. But so for three years, all I did was just ride down the back and you pitch garbage and lift stuff and yeah, so I've done a little bit of everything. We're a smaller company. We don't have roll off or anything like that. So it's just dumpsters, trash, recycling, stuff like that, and a little bit of yard waste. But so

Jeremy Perkins  4:37  

you go, you go buy the Fit garbage man, would you recommend this to somebody that's, that's that's looking to stay in shape, that that really cares more about their fitness, and this would be a great fit for them, or,

Robert Voss  4:50  

if you like to be physical, I would say it's absolutely a good fit for you. The whole fit garbage man thing started because I just saw way too many guys that I know I'm. I've always been in a fitness bunch of guys I know and family members I know, and just over years and years on the truck, like bad knees, bad back, bad shoulders, like everything at some point starts to break down. So the whole fit garbage man thing was a way to stay strong, build muscle to stop myself from getting injured so I could just keep working. I don't know too many guys. I mean, I almost anyone that started at 15, but I don't know anybody that's been working as long as me that are injury free, and I've other than mishaps on the garbage truck with me just hurting myself, I have not gotten injured so, but it will, it will help keep you in shape. The only downside is, like everything your body gets used to whatever you're doing, so it doesn't quite burn the same energy on year five as it did that first summer. I mean, summers will always get you, but that's a little bit different.

Jeremy Perkins  5:52  

So I'm sure you've seen some pretty nasty stuff in your life. What is the nastiest or crazy thing that you've picked up as a garbage man.

Robert Voss  6:01  

Nastiest, nastiest. It's hard to beat a restaurant after a holiday on a hot day that we also had rain. It's like this very unique combination of stuff. I mean, I do get the water treatment plant, but that's more just smell than anything. Actually, probably the worst smelling thing, period is I one of two things that the water treatment plant periodically they clear out the traps of spillover. So it's kind of this combination of grease, oil, and then just all the remainder they couldn't get out. They now get a service that did that. But for years, everyone small, they would clear that out, like once a year. That was awful. And then, honestly, when they clear out the the grain bins into a dumpster, all that, the moldy corn and oats and stuff like that, just has a very particular hue, even me, who doesn't breathe through my nose, that'll get

Jeremy Perkins  6:52  

me. Yeah, I did a podcast on on septic systems and and he was telling me that they when they offload the septic trucks into the wastewater treatment plants, they go through a great and then all that stuff gets bundled up and then thrown away, you know, toy cars and and rubber gloves and all that stuff. So I'm so many rubber

Robert Voss  7:14  

gloves. I don't know how many people. I don't know why there's so many rubber gloves in a toilet. Because when I get the water treatment plants, the same thing, like, because obviously they don't break down. So we, I pick up two water treatment plants, actually, one a small town of a couple 1000, and then another one closer to 10, and one of them, like, they seal everything in bags. It's a whole big ordeal. The other one is just like this tiny funnel that goes with the dumpster. So that one, that one's a little bit more, isn't it isn't it isn't because, like, since it's a small enough town, at least the downtown proper, is that, like, it's not a lot, and it's more dried out, and it's, it's weird. It's like, it would only smell bad if it was wet, and at that point, at that juncture, everything's dried out because they separate all of that stuff to, like, reclaim the water, so it's not as bad. But again, I'm not a good judge, like I said, without the smelling, but I've been around people, and we've started picking up a local YMCA this last year, and we got a dumpster by where a bunch of the kids play. And the amount of times you'll go there and, well, first off, you get the cheers for garbage grant, garbage grant, garbage grant, which is very a big ego boost, makes you feel great. But then you'll have, like, the one or two kids are like, it smells. It's awful, I don't it's like, you don't have to do the job, and you're fine. We'll keep it away from you. We're taking the bad stuff away, I promise.

Jeremy Perkins  8:33  

Yeah. I mean, you always see, you always see those videos. I mean, my I live in a rural area, so, so we don't have trash pickup, but it's interesting watching all the videos with the kids out there waving at the guards. Man. How often does that happen? Daily?

Robert Voss  8:48  

That's a daily occurrence. We'll get as long as you're paying attention, but you'll get waves from the windows, especially in the summertime, waves from the window, waves on bikes through go to things that they even do to semis, the pumping for the horn, although the funny part about we got it, we got to switch in our truck, to switch it from air horn to electric. So electric just sounds like the car horn. So everyone messes them, and I'll switch to electric and honk it, and they just look at me like something's broken. But I'll usually do it at least once for the kids. But no, that's a ton. Some will watch us. Some will follow a little bit, or bring out waters. Or I've had some kids like, bring out drawings and hand to me, and some of that, which has always been nice. We had this little boy who was waiting for us, and he wanted to help throw the bag in with me, so I let him. And then the second guy came around, and he had, like, one of those toy electric cars, like little, small ones. So he had everything loaded in the back and was driving it to the edge of the road. And then after we were done, he reloaded the recycle bin back up and drove back up to his parents. Kid was, like, four years old. It was the coolest thing in the

Jeremy Perkins  9:48  

world. Well, maybe he's looking for a job, you know, hey,

Robert Voss  9:51  

no, hey, you gotta, sadly, have to wait till 18. But

Jeremy Perkins  9:57  

that's Wow. So, so, just to recap some things. Right? So third generation that that is, that is insane. That's, that's pretty cool. It's almost like you didn't choose it. It was chosen for you anyway. Well,

Robert Voss  10:12  

yes and no, I was told very early on that I did not have to do this. I don't have to come work at the business. I could go to college, which I did do. I went to college, but and I worked during the summers. And then the latter half, I only had classic twice a week, so I just worked the other three. But I was like, I could literally go to school and go for whatever I wanted, but it's always what I wanted to do, so it's kind of still stuck with it. What was your degree in? Human Resources, business management, human resources, I was again, but was told, I can go for anything. But I was like, I'll go for the thing that applies to the business in some capacity. Because we're a really small business, like very small business, did

Jeremy Perkins  10:53  

any of that carry over? Did? Did was college worth it for you or, or was it just something gonna create another avenue for you, if you didn't want to be in the in the garbage industry.

Robert Voss  11:05  

Um, it has helped in some capacities. It's also very hard nowadays. I would say pretty much anything post computers, being involved in schools is because things change so fast in terms of technology. So what has helped, what helped me was I was able to really assist in the early goings of college, help us get computerized, which was a big help, and know how to work some of the basic functions of that. But then you start to get to a point where, like, I'm, I'm 35 so I'm 13 years out of college. So so much stuff has changed now. I mean, I've been trying to keep up with some of the technologies, but there are so many special technologies as well. Like, there's a couple huge tech companies that are specifically for the garbage industry, and they make these awesome bits of software that, like, are like, kind of like, shortcut type things. Would they say that the whole because I talked to my advisor when I went there, I'm like, so this is what I want to do after school. Does business management make more sense? Or Business Management human resources, like human resources, because given the size you're talking about, it'll help you be able to function like with a small group of people and maintain stuff like that. And I do think that's helped, because grant I've known the most. Some of the guys I've worked with, I've known since I was 15. Some are still there, but the occasional new guy has really helped with that. So

Jeremy Perkins  12:19  

I heard, and I don't know if it's 100% true, but like FedEx and UPS, they have these routes, like completely detailed, even down to having the route planned out to where you take as many rights as possible, so you don't have to stop it. Stop. Are you involved in any of the route planning? How detailed is that? I mean, is it are? Yeah, yeah. Go ahead. Yeah.

Robert Voss  12:46  

The bigger companies absolutely are. They are. Have a similar rule about the only right turns, because it does save on gas, but I and technically save them money, but I would argue based on time, because what we're able to do is, when we drive down the roads, I can zigzag and get both sides of the road at the same time. They're not allowed to. They have to stay one side of the road and then come back the other direction. So although they still say all right, turns, saves gas. But I don't know, I feel like, other than the fact they have a mechanical arm, a lot of times, I can give them a run for their money for how fast they're doing stuff, just from the simple fact they have to go up and down twice, whereas I just run from side to side, and it goes a little bit quicker. We do do route development a little bit. It's more basically trying to figure out what doesn't work. It gets a little bit tricky because, well, like you said, you live more out in the country, a lot of our work is rural. Actually, a lot of our we have a lot of like, dumpsters at farms and such a lot of like, one of my routes is, like, deep into the country, and it's just getting a lot of spread out farms. So that's more just trying to figure out, like, where you're not eating a bunch of time going too far, or extending too far to get, like, one stop, and trying to filter in as much as we can. So that does come into the fact. But then also, we're in an area where there's not a ton of town contracts, which is good for us small businesses. You won't win a town contract ever. Just they can take a town at a loss and make it up in doing landfill, transfer station, commercial work, roll off, whatever. So we can't do that. So luckily, most of the towns we pick up are all by choice. So given choice, about 90% of people pick us. So we just go with that, so we don't get every stop. So sometimes it is hard to planner out when you don't know every single house you're going to get and you just kind of know, kind of off the top of your head from doing it so many times.

Jeremy Perkins  14:40  

So a lot of people will argue pet peeves of garbage. Garbage men, like, we've had stuff out that they wouldn't pick up, and it's like, well, you know, they should pick it up, or bags outside of barrels. What's your biggest pet peeve?

Robert Voss  14:56  

Well, first off to those, I would say that's because you're with a big cut. Because I would take all of those things. Okay, we have, we have a system where we have unlimited service, where, obviously we're not going to be the cheapest, but if it's bagged up or canned up within reason, we'll pretty much take it one large item a week. We'll take it unless it's something that, like, legally we're not allowed to take like, they keep changing rules for landfills and stuff like that, and transfer stations. So we can't take everything. My biggest pet peeves are basically people that, well, number one pet peeve is the people that shove a two large pizza box at the top of a can, because it acts like an adhesive that nothing can pass so you have the can tipped over, and you're dumping it. You're dumping it, nothing is happening, and it's taking a Herculean effort, and all you flip it over, it's like, oh, a pizza box or another Amazon box has been shoved in here, and it's like a barrier that something can't pass. Besides that, just not tying bags, if things are in bags that really don't care, and then packing peanuts are the bane of every garbage man's existence.

Jeremy Perkins  15:52  

I hate packing peanuts in general. No,

Robert Voss  15:54  

they're they're the worst things. There's the worst things in the in the world, like any other type of packing material. I'm fine with the air filled bags, awesome, but what always ends up happening is similar thing. People will put a bunch of loose ones at the bottom of a can or in an open bag, or in stuffed into a bag so tight that as soon as the back blade hits, it just shoots everywhere, and it's showered on top of you, and you want to clean it up because it looks awful, and very clearly you were the one that made the mess, even though it's not necessarily your fault, but that could take quite a while to clean up, which

Jeremy Perkins  16:24  

is now we're, we're we're pretty we're pretty timely with so my, my house, the farm, we don't have trash pickup, but at at my, my in laws, lake house, they have trash pickup. And he's very he's very methodical about putting it out Tuesday morning, because a lot of vacationers and stuff will put it out after the weekend, and then the Trashman come around, and animals have gotten into it and that. Now you don't have to answer it, but I would like to know, what do you do in those situations, or what is your company policy in those situations? Or company policies in that situation where, like, an animal or, you know, weather or whatever has more stringent about are you responsible for that? Or do you try to do it?

Robert Voss  17:10  

This is gonna be one of those things that I again. This is me speaking as a small business, yep, yep, yeah. We'll take it all. We'll take our time. We'll take it all if it becomes a reoccurrence, yeah, like, multiple times, then we might contact and be like, Hey, if you, like, really the two times, whenever we sign up someone for service, it's like, if you can't have it out by like, 5am please put it out the night before. And then the further you get from the night before, yeah, you have the chance to end it. Because, like I said, I work on the country too. That happens plenty, especially if, when people are mixed up because of the holiday, something sits for an extra day and stuff like that, animals will and can get to it, but yeah, we we clean it up. And those are the little things like, as a small company, those are the little things we do for customer retention.

Jeremy Perkins  17:56  

I guess you'd say, How long is a work day for you?

Robert Voss  17:59  

That is very dependent. We are a small business, so we are not union, so it's pretty much just like as fast as you can get done. So like we have, we have an eight hour shift that starts at 5am and goes eight hours. But if you work fast, you work fast some evens out there. We're not as, I guess, dogmatic on the time, because it's really just important of, like, the work getting done. So like, you might have some days where you're working more than eight hours, and you're going to have a couple that you're going to be working less, it kind of averages out over the week, especially, like, like, we just had labor day not that long ago, so the week after Labor Day is a busy week. Like, probably every one of those days is going to be over eight hours, and we're trying to catch up from the holiday, and we have to work a little bit on Saturday to make up for everything being delayed to have that holiday. But then the next week, because everything was a day less day extra trash, the year, the week before, everyone's a day less trash. Or the next week, we'll be on the early side, everyone's working closer to, like, six and a half seven, yeah. So

Jeremy Perkins  19:03  

out that way you pay, you get paid the whole eight hours. So if you're done in three, if you can

Robert Voss  19:10  

get done in three, you are one of the fast people, I know, but absolutely, it's why we have a lot of guys who, like, we have, like, one of the guys I work with, he has a family farm, and he goes and does this, like the family farm work after he he works with us. And, like, couple of the other guys have, like, they don't need side gigs, but it's like, a nice thing that, like, you have some hours for in the afternoon. Like, I use those because I know at some point, especially the more awful stuff I start doing, which has started to happen, I'll have less time with my kids. So I've been in this time when I can get done on the early side, I try to do that with them while they're still young enough to want me around. So what are some, what are some

Jeremy Perkins  19:45  

no nos for, for objects in the garbage I know, like while back, it's oil and stuff like that. But what is something that a that a person wouldn't actually know is not a something that the dump would take or that a lot. Awesome, that long have changed.

Robert Voss  20:01  

Okay? Well, first of all, in terms of oil, it depends what company you use, as long as you put it separate, we take oil because we use it to heat our shop. We have one of those oil we have one of those oil burners, so we use that to heat our shop. So we have a couple things. So anytime he wants to get rid of it, if they're willing to put into a container, we'll collect and we use it. But, yeah, you can't throw that away. Um, not illegal, but don't throw away paint. I mean, if you're gonna throw away paint, put some quick dry or some kitty litter in there, because you're just being that mean guy that thrown away paint, it's gonna explode and it's gonna go everywhere. Yeah, that's not okay. You're not technically supposed to throw away batteries, because they can start a fire in the truck. Um, especially the, especially the big ones, we've actually had a few close calls with a fire starting a truck because a car battery just hit just right and got clicked on and set the garbage on fire. Um, that can happen. So

Jeremy Perkins  20:53  

tell me a little bit more about that story. Sorry, what? No. Well, when that happens,

Robert Voss  20:59  

if you notice it happens, if you notice it happens, you could usually tell, because the way the garbage truck goes is you have the tailgate on the back, so there's like a seam, there's a seam there, and then you have the blade that gets pushed all the way back and compresses. Well, then there's an opening on the other side too. So if there's any fire, you're going to see smoke. You're going to smell it. And then if it's close enough to the back, like it just happened. We do have fire extinguishers on the truck. The best way to do it is, if you're buying a home, is to, like, borrow someone's hose and just try to spray it down as best you could. If you can't get it, you have to dump the load right there. Otherwise it'll catch the garbage truck on fire. And then you wait for it to get completely cooled down, and then you come and load it. I've helped come and load up a load that got dumped before. It is less frequent than you might think, but it does happen, like entire load will catch on fire. And to save the truck, you gotta dump the entire load wherever you happen to be. And luckily for one of the guys, he was almost gonna have to do that, and he was at a big gravel area on a tire place that we picked up he but he was able to put it out after messing with it for a good while. Luckily, it was early enough in the house, there wasn't a lot of trash to catch on fire. And obviously the hope is that it was really, really wet trash, because it won't burn too well. I had it once. The closest I've had to happen to be one time was after Fourth of July. A bunch of people threw away a bunch of fireworks, but we didn't see him so but it wasn't crazy fireworks, just a bunch of like, firecrackers and stuff like that. But it was enough to get a little bit of kindling and the fire going. That time, we just lifted up, not the tailgate, but just the blade, because we saw right where it happened. We just sprayed it down with a with a hose for like 15 minutes, and we were able to put it out.

Jeremy Perkins  22:34  

That's insane. That's, that's, I wouldn't even think of that. So

Robert Voss  22:38  

batteries can catch on fire, like most things, they'll say on them if you should dispose of them. But for the most part, that kind of stuff, just like, don't throw away acid, like, things that, like, people should most things people should be able to figure out, basically, anything that you can't take on an airplane, don't throw away. Most of that stuff is hazardous or should be handled a different way. But obviously they don't give you a lot of avenues to get rid of those things. Like, even like fire extinguishers, is like, your fire extinguisher may have issues, but make sure it's empty. Like any fire extinguisher we see will spray out to make sure it's completely empty, because the pressure of that can explode, yeah? And it can make a mess in the sealed steel container that is a garbage truck, yeah?

Jeremy Perkins  23:20  

And I feel like, I feel like, as we've, you know, as the society's matured, I guess, if you will, I see people just trying to get away with as much as they can. You know what I mean? So, oh, absolutely, even if they do know the do's and don'ts, they're still going to try to push the envelope. And I would assume that, like, that kind of sucks for you.

Robert Voss  23:42  

Well, especially because, like I said, we try to go above and beyond, because we are a small business, so it's like, we try to give someone the benefit of the doubt. Like, honestly, I probably go a little bit too above and beyond. So like, when I'm calling the office and I say I'm leaving something, they know it's a big deal. Like, it's been, like, multiple weeks, or just like, beyond, like, especially, like, I said, like, the whole thick garbage kind thing. I'm on the strong side, so if I can't physically lift something and get it into the truck, I don't know how you got out to the side of the road. Yeah, like, there's times where people will wheel like, they'll have a Toter from another company, and since we don't supply toters, and I'll sell to dump it, so they'll wheel it out and I'll start moving it towards the back of the truck. I'm like, this is a bit heavy and, like, literally not being able to get into the back of the truck, because then you open it and it's bags of ash or, like, loose tile all the way up to the brim of, like, a 96 gallon Toter. And I'm like, I mean, I'm strong, and I could tip part of it in, but that's not going in. Don't want hurt myself.

Jeremy Perkins  24:43  

Now, do you have a cable on the back? Do you ever utilize that to pull any of the lines in?

Robert Voss  24:48  

I do. That's for the bigger dumpsters. The tricky part is, is that it's so strong when the stuff's heavy, like that, and all the toters are plastic, yeah, it'll just crack. Yeah, it'll just destroy the Toter. I've done it like just to stabilize stuff, because we also have a lower and upper tipper bar for the smaller dumpsters. So sometimes what I'll do is I'll use that to kind of tip it forward a bit, and then as long as I can, as long as I can get under it, I'm getting it in the truck. But the hard part sometimes is getting under it.

Jeremy Perkins  25:19  

So I guess you won't know, but how long did your dad and your grandfather do this?

Robert Voss  25:26  

Oh, I know exactly how long my dad did it, because, I mean, he's in the office now, but I was there when he got off the truck the first time, and then had to go back out again. So he worked similar summers when he was in college, came back to work full time after that. Then worked on the truck till 50, okay, and then, and then took about a year and a half off the truck. And then we had an employee leave, and we needed him good for the CDL. And then he came back on for 18 months after that. So, yeah, he so, yeah, he worked on the truck. That that amount of time my grandpa is a little bit more hazy, um, because I don't know if he worked on a truck before he started his business. And when he started his business, I know he was on the truck, but I don't know for how long he he passed when I was like five, but I just know that he was also a garbage man. So, so

Jeremy Perkins  26:17  

what's your plans around 50? Are you gonna look for a more admin job, you're gonna look for one of those self loaders. I mean,

Robert Voss  26:24  

well, that'll depend. I don't, I don't think I'll have to be on the truck that long, um, but needless to say, all the fitness stuff is to that, if I had to, I can, yeah, type thing, because, like, already, well, that sounds like, like you get, you get broken down. So I know people that have because one thing that happens to garbage, but a lot just the way you reach down to get stuff is not torn ACL, it's tore MCL. So I know, like, a handful of guys that had multiple MCL tears, torn rotator cuffs from, like, the dumpster jerking, or is it just random accidents that can cause stuff like hurt, like, I mean, I've hurt my hand before with the dumpster, but like I was actually isn't my own fault is. So we're rear loaders. So I'm moving a dumpster that has four wheels on the bottom, steering wheels, and I'm pulling it by the handle and the metal trunnion portion of it, and I'm pulling it not looking behind myself, first dumpster of the day on a Monday, not paying attention. That was my own fault. And then so I pull the dumpster, holding the metal handle part, and my hand goes directly sandwiched between the metal part of the truck, so steel on steel. That was not smart on my part. And first dumpster of the day. And it hurt a lot, obviously, but I've hurt myself before, and I was just like, not sure I want to take my glove off. But this is bad enough. I think I think I need to take my glove off. Type one of those situations. And oh no, that one was rough. I took off quite a bit of I interviewed, quite a few stitches from that, but it was first dumps for the day, and if I had to leave, someone was gonna have to do my entire route. And we were down a guy at that point. So we didn't even have enough guys to drive trucks. So I just was right by our shop, turned around, went into our little first aid kit, wrapped it around, tried to stop as I could put the glove on. They just did not take that glove off again. The rest of the day. Finished the day, and then went to urgent here after he's got a tenant, 10 stitches on the outside, eight on the inside and but hey, they were just surprised there wasn't a broken bone. But I was completely relaxed, because I didn't expect it to get smacked on both ends by steel on steel. So that's my own fault. I have not me, but one of my piece of sheet of steel came down. Same thing. If it wasn't wearing his glove, probably would have lost some fingers, just end up with a broken one and some stitches. But the funny part is, like, my wife brings it up every once in a while, that being garbage man's like one of the 10 most dangerous jobs. But honestly, it's not usually that stuff. It's just people get hit by cars, of like, not paying attention and just taking people out. Like, about two years ago, I was bringing a can back up to the house because it was an is an older person. We have some senior citizens we take care of, so like, on windy days or anything like that that can't going all the way up to the house in case blows away. Yeah, windy days will do that with just about everybody, but just in general, so they don't have to do that much. And like, I heard a loud bang, I turned around and, like, where I was, like, 15 seconds earlier, a car had just kept going and driven completely into the back of my truck. No way. Yeah, he was fine. Luckily, he was driving, like, an old convertible, something where he was driving out, he said the Sun was in his eyes, but like, I'm checking. I'm like, You okay? And luckily, the person behind was there the whole time. So when they all came, like, No, he wasn't even in the truck. Like, yeah, I was like, 10 feet away from it. About 15 seconds earlier, I was right behind it. So that would have been that one would have been bad, but so that that kind of stuff can happen, sadly, and then obviously, different types of vehicle issues, because we were in the Midwest, so, well, you said you're in Okay, yeah. So, so, you know, the winters, so in the snow and stuff like that, like, yeah, yeah, well, and living in the country, so we work in the country, and snow and sliding and ice and all that stuff, dealing with all those fun things. So those days are interesting, especially saying. It's, I just the funniest part is, for the first people, like, 15 years, I was on the truck, nothing was ever canceled from the snow, ever, like, we just worked, and it just took longer, yeah, and then, like, five or six years ago, there was one really bad, like, crazy, wind, ice, whatever day. And that was back when we were going to a landfill. They just called it. We're like, man, okay, well, I was already made it out to work at that point, but I'm like, okay, so we'll just work like a holiday and catch up later, and then ever since that. I don't know if that was just like someone ripped a band aid off, but now, anytime there's like a foot and a half of snow or, like, super high winds, like, they'll call it sometimes. And, I mean, I'd rather work personally, because I'd rather just deal with it, because you're gonna have to deal with it eventually anyway, so, but that's been a big switch again last I think it's like five or six years ago, the first time that happened, and ever since then, now sometimes we'll have, like, there's only a big enough storm, they'll call it luckily. Last Last winter, especially, didn't have much snow, so wasn't as bad. But bad.

Jeremy Perkins  31:02  

But so when you don't have trash pickup because of a holiday or something like that, do they push it back into, like, Saturday and Sunday? Or do they double up on that Tuesday?

Robert Voss  31:10  

We used to do the double Day, which would always just be like, depending on the hell they fell, maybe it would be the day before the day after. But then you run, you run into those occasional days where you're working like, like, like, we the last time we did it, we stopped doing them, and then we did them again. Was it, think three years ago when Christmas Eve was going to be on a Friday? Yeah. So we did and New Year's Eve, same thing. So we did the double day for the first time in years. And the same thing. I mean, you do it, but it's like a 14 hour day, and it would snow that time. So like, we went to a family function that night, and they were asking my wife, like, Is he okay? He's like, he's just really tired. They started, like, an hour and a half early, and then it's like he got home, showered and we came here for dinner. So it's like he was so, so we stopped doing the double day. So we'll do the day behind thing. So since I get a lot of commercials, what will happen is, so let's say the holidays on Monday, because most of them are on Monday. Yeah, everything will be everything will be a day behind. I will do my best to get all of my Monday and some of my Tuesday dumpsters on Tuesday, and then I'll be playing catch up the rest of the week. I still get homes too, so gotta factor those in, and then usually I can catch up on dumpsters by that Thursday, or possibly that Friday, and then some of the other trucks will help get a couple of them. And then we have this, really, it's the smallest town we pick up. They normally go on Friday. So we just have all the dumpsters done, and we just all work that small town. So we usually have, like, a four hour day on Saturday. So yeah, we have to work the Saturday. So you never truly get a day off because it's Monday's off, but then you're working Saturday, so you have a long weekend, but then a short weekend. Yeah. So which I my kids are old enough now I'd like, but I still have to explain it to them every time they're like, but you're not going to be home. Like, I know, because the trash, trash has to go somewhere. It's that annoying thing. You can't just like, push it and say, hey, we'll do it next week. I don't think everyone would like that very much. Well,

Jeremy Perkins  33:03  

I think we got a very good look into the sanitation industry, and it's pretty cool that you're still doing it the old way, at least from my perspective. You know? I think it's cool that you're out there just staying fit and being active and doing what you love. And honestly, it's cool that you guys go above and beyond and and really help the community. I agree. I think it's nice that, you know, you walk Mrs. Johnson, or, you know, whatever's can because, because that I mean, and I've seen it, and I've helped it. It's a struggle for them to just come out from the house, pick it up and bring it back out. Oh,

Robert Voss  33:42  

absolutely, especially on those bad weather days, like I we always think about that, especially on icy or snowy days. It's like, the last thing you want is for someone to go down, especially once think, I think the statistic is like, if someone gets a fall after 65 like, they're never the same, yeah, like on the ice, like, with how bad things can go. So that's want to avoid that as much as possible. So

Jeremy Perkins  34:04  

it seems like you guys are pretty tapped in the community and well received, which is, which is awesome. So, but before we go, I want to know what you do outside of your day job and the fitness aspect, like, what do you really enjoy to do, to unwind and just kind of go out and do what you love to do. I

Robert Voss  34:26  

love doing stuff with my kids, just in general, yeah, not a lot, especially on the weekends, we do board games and stuff a lot. I'm a big reader. I read a ton. And in the fitness aspect, I always just lifted weights because I did, yeah, like, shot put in discus in high school, and did play basketball, but I was just a big guy, so I didn't really have to do a whole lot, but also fell in love with running in college, and I like online, do doing that in the afternoon. That's why, like, if anyone, ever, if anyone ends up following me, or does following me, they'll see that like it. I post a video of a workout. It's before work. And then some afternoons, I'll go for a run. Sundays, I'll go for a run, done a number of races by now, I think I've done five marathons at this point, and stuff like that. And, well, I'm just apparently I deceive people, because everyone sees them about six, four, about 200 pounds. And when I'm training for Martha, a little bit less than that, but usually right around there. And apparently I'm deceptively fast. I was unaware that was a thing, but because I said because I don't pay attention to, like, races in general, and I don't compete with anyone, it's just me running. And anytime I've been asked, like, how fast I do, I tell them, like, that's really fast for a big guy. I'm like, I mean, thanks. It's one of those backhanded compliments where you're like, I don't know what you're trying to say here, but I appreciate that. But in general, yeah, I would say anything completely outside of fitness whatsoever, because that is a big, major outlet for me. Yeah, it helps calm down my brain, which is always needed, but is reading, spend time with my kids, and there's gonna be a bit not health related at all. Be my wife gotten really into sipping tequila, which has been awesome. Like, trying, like, the little bit crazier kinds and like, basically how people do with, like, wine or fancy beers, but we'll do with different tequila. We made some trips to Mexico as well, and tried some, yeah, pretty amazing stuff. So, yeah, well, unwind on our Friday. Doing that is pretty awesome. Hit

Jeremy Perkins  36:25  

me, what a good book recommendation. Oh, well,

Robert Voss  36:27  

it all depends what you're into. I'm I really like science fiction. I will read some fantasy stuff in general, but I really like something. There's a couple genres within science fiction, like space operas, like people are in space on a long journey, blah, blah, blah. My go to is more on the hard science science fiction side, which is, like they get a little bit technical with the science, but super entertaining. But if you want something that like guaranteed full stop recommendation, sci fi, that will borderline change your life, is called the Red Rising series by Pierce Brown. Okay, so, okay. So if you like science fiction, crazy fights in war, blend in a little Ancient Rome in there. It's just, it's, honestly, it's the first book is a little bit kind of, not hunger gamesy, but like, he's kind of like a kid when it starts. But like it very much. Like you could tell that he was very much, tried to tell, Hey, make this more a young adult book. And by according to book, it's like, that's not what it is anymore. And it gets it's a very, very intense like he the sixth book just came out, like, about a month ago. Read it about a week and a half because I couldn't help myself. But it's really, really good. And also, if you're not a big reader, reader, like, I know a lot of people with ADHD and dyslexia, like my son tends to lean that way. Is ear reading. So listening helps really, just the guy that they got to read those audiobooks is spectacular. I want him to voice everything in my life, like, if I was just walking around and like, ages, the accents. Well, if I took him walking around like narrating my life, I would just feel infinitely cooler than I do right now. And I feel pretty cool some days, but it would just be unrelenting.

Jeremy Perkins  38:11  

The superhero of your own story,

Robert Voss  38:13  

exactly. So, yeah, Red Rising by Pierce Brown, I say it as a series. The first book is called Red Rising and then each one has a subsequent name, but that's what he gives the first one, and I guarantee you, if you read that book, you will be hooked. All right.

Jeremy Perkins  38:29  

Check it out. Well, thank you for being on the show. This has been again, spectacular, wonderful, deep dive into what you do on a day to day basis and how you help out your community. So if anybody's looking to get into the industry, or has any questions, where can they reach you? Oh,

Robert Voss  38:47  

well, I'm at FIT garbage brand on Instagram. Mainly, I've been on a few other things, but it's basically just reposting stuff from Instagram. Honestly, I would just give one bit of advice. Anyone who wants to get into industry, get a CDL license. You are worth your weight in gold. If you have a CDL license, they're getting harder and harder to get. If you have a CDL license with an air brake endorsement, you're going to get hired. Like, without fail, it's going to happen. It's so hard to find early 20s, somethings that have a CDL and, like, we had to find someone not that long ago, and it took combination of CDL and someone do the work, but CDL is a hard time every major business that I know, all the everybody in the industry, because we all talk to a degree like I know several of the big companies out this way, and everybody is hurting for drivers. If you have a CDL, you're getting hired guaranteed and probably getting a good wage as well, because they're that desperate at this point.

Jeremy Perkins  39:42  

Well, thank you for being on the show. It's been wonderful. Well,

Robert Voss  39:44  

thank you for having me.

Jeremy Perkins  39:45  

And as a special thanks to our loyal listeners, we're giving $10 off your next purchase of $60 or more@bruntworkware.com Use Discount Code bucket talk 10. That's bucket talk 10.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai