For anyone who doesn鈥檛 know what they want to do when they get older, my advice: follow your dreams, and enjoy what you want to become.
By Jaccob Dalton
For the typical individual, an interest in sanitation trucks is unheard of. Sports cars, golfing, photography, and hiking all may come to mind as various interests. Not sanitation trucks. I鈥檝e had a passion for sanitation trucks and the refuse industry all together for as long as I can remember, dating back to my younger days when I was a year old, watching the old Waste Management side loader service my house. It was something that was mesmerizing to me. I remember back in the early 1990s when my parents would drive me around in our old beater Plymouth minivan to watch the uncontained bulk trash crews at work. This was a neat process to watch, having one operator drive the Kubota, and one drive the Rear Loader. It was a quarterly process that I looked forward to.
This was before I knew about video cameras. In 2006, my older brother discovered a site known as YouTube. It was not popular, but it was a good place to catch a tune here and there. Typing in 鈥済arbage trucks鈥� inside the search bar got me to a video by georgewuzheer, which featured sanitation trucks in Naples, Florida. Known as 鈥淕arbage Trucks Part 1鈥�, it still remains popular today with four sequels. That was the first true garbage truck video I watched on YouTube. I wondered if there were any from the Phoenix area at the time, and there wasn鈥檛. After two years, I decided to create my own YouTube channel (JaccobDalton) in February 2008 to be able to comment and rate videos.
A few months later, I discovered the first garbage truck video from the Phoenix area, which featured the prototype SCORPION Automated Side Loader from DaDee Manufacturing. It was thrilling to be able to see another refuse truck manufacturer again locally in the Phoenix area, as the once older Heil Environmental plant that my father would take me to closed down. I remember finding Paul Campbell鈥檚 (president of DaDee Manufacturing) e-mail address on the Arizona Refuse Sales website (Arizona Refuse Sales is a dealer for DaDee Manufacturing), and asking him about the SCORPION Automated Side Loader, when I would see one in my neighborhood. Three years later, Patricia Ballentine (sales contract administrator of DaDee Manufacturing) sent me the first photo of one of four City of Phoenix SCORPION Automated Side Loaders. Coincidentally, one ended up in my neighborhood, as the regular recycling route truck, and the rest is history. My YouTube videos really took off from there, and today (Under 鈥�Refuse Arizona鈥�) from over 330 videos, I still retain a regular audience for new videos.
I鈥檓 not alone either. There are also many other YouTube users that post videos of sanitation units serving collection areas spanning from various parts of the world. George Lanoszka 鈥�驳别辞谤驳别飞耻锄丑别别谤鈥� of Florida, Bill Tetreault 鈥�厂丑补诲辞蹿补虫96鈥� of California, Scott Watson 鈥�罢谤补蝉丑尘补苍242鈥� of California, & Dejuan McDaniel 鈥�罢丑补罢丑耻苍诲别谤厂迟辞谤尘鈥� of Georgia introduced the world of what refuse equipment documentation was in the form of pictures, and videos back in 2006, when the process was unheard of. Over the span of a few years, the documentation grew, with the addition of several new users, new ideas and new places: Christian Diaz 鈥�Garbage Trucks AZ鈥� of Arizona, Ryan Parsons 鈥淧辞辞骋辞产产濒颈苍驳厂濒辞迟丑鈥� of Arizona, Lyon Marcheschi 鈥�TheTrash153鈥� of Arizona, Andrew Harmsen 鈥渓别驳辞诲耻诲别24652鈥� of Arizona, Alan Blanchard Jr. 鈥�FormerWMDriver鈥� of Florida, Jake Beck 鈥淕补迟辞谤闯补办别12鈥� of Florida, Bryn Erdman 鈥�Thrash 鈥楴鈥� Trash Productions鈥� of Washington, Alan Yunt 鈥�West Coast Refuse Trucks鈥� of Washington, Jared Martinson 鈥�谤别耻迟别谤丑耻苍迟别谤1鈥� of Oregon, Connor 鈥�Virginia Refuse Trucks鈥� of Virginia, Torrey Harrison 鈥�Northern Virginia Refuse鈥� of Virginia, Aarron Deol 鈥�RempleDisposal鈥� of Delta, British Columbia, Jacob Wenhold 鈥�rws676鈥� of Ohio, Eric Garcia 鈥�滨苍迟别谤苍补迟颈辞苍补濒搁尝贵补苍鈥� of Illinois, Sean Chotibut 鈥�罢谤补蝉丑尘补蝉迟别谤684鈥� of California, Michael Brennan 鈥�3补尘谤别辫尘颈办别3鈥� of California, Alex Clemmans 鈥�Alex Clemmans鈥� of California, 听Kenny Andersen 鈥�KennysTrucks鈥� of California, Tristen Pak 鈥�Sanitation94 Videos鈥� of California, David Van Wagner 鈥�Solid Waste Entertainment鈥� of New Mexico, Chris Calabrese 鈥�碍贵颁辞谤叠耻蝉迟鈥� of Texas, & Tyler Gale 鈥�罢丑别顿贵奥罢谤补蝉丑尘补苍鈥� of Texas.
In June of 2014, I was hired at DaDee Manufacturing to be a part of the Sales Department. I couldn鈥檛 be happier and thankful for the opportunity. I look forward to an ambitious future with the company. I鈥檓 also going to college to obtain a bachelor鈥檚 degree of mechanical engineering to be able to completely understand the functionality of these refuse trucks. For anyone who doesn鈥檛 know what they want to do when they get older, my advice: follow your dreams, and enjoy what you want to become.
Jaccob Dalton is a Sales and Marketing Representative at DaDee Manufacturing, LLC. He can be reached at 800-940-7467, e-mail [email protected] or visit www.DaDeeMfg.com.