One of the three crew members has been cut from trash trucks in The Villages, but an official contends it is a smarter, safer approach to collection.
Assistant District Manager Bruce Brown penned a piece in Wednesday’s edition of The Villages Daily Sun explaining the “Smarter, Safe Waste Collection in The Villages.”
“For decades, waste collection in The Villages relied on a three-person crew using a two-sided pickup method. Under that system, one driver was assisted by two pitchers — workers who walked along both sides of the truck retrieving household trash and pitching it into the rear hopper,” Brown wrote. “While once common, this labor-intensive approach has been phased out across the country due to safety risks and operational inefficiencies.”
Trucks now remain aligned with the curb, and the two-person driver/pitcher team alternates duties to reduce fatigue and keep workers out of traffic.
Brown admitted that “collection times have increased slightly as crews adapt to single-side routing.”
Sumter Sanitation serves homeowners in Community Development Districts 1 through 11, and Tri-County Sanitation is in charge of trash collection in Community Development Districts 12, 13 and 15. Both Sumter Sanitation and Tri-County Sanitation contract with Jacobs for manpower to operate the trucks.