For anyone who doesn’t 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’ve 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 “garbage trucks” inside the search bar got me to a video by georgewuzheer, which featured sanitation trucks in Naples, Florida. Known as “Garbage Trucks Part 1”, 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’t. 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’s (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 “Refuse Arizona”) from over 330 videos, I still retain a regular audience for new videos.
I’m 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 “georgewuzheer” of Florida, Bill Tetreault “Shadofax96” of California, Scott Watson “Trashman242” of California, & Dejuan McDaniel “ThaThunderStorm” 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 “Garbage Trucks AZ” of Arizona, Ryan Parsons “PooGobblingSloth” of Arizona, Lyon Marcheschi “TheTrash153” of Arizona, Andrew Harmsen “legodude24652” of Arizona, Alan Blanchard Jr. “FormerWMDriver” of Florida, Jake Beck “GatorJake12” of Florida, Bryn Erdman “Thrash ‘N’ Trash Productions” of Washington, Alan Yunt “West Coast Refuse Trucks” of Washington, Jared Martinson “reuterhunter1” of Oregon, Connor “Virginia Refuse Trucks” of Virginia, Torrey Harrison “Northern Virginia Refuse” of Virginia, Aarron Deol “RempleDisposal” of Delta, British Columbia, Jacob Wenhold “rws676” of Ohio, Eric Garcia “InternationalRLFan” of Illinois, Sean Chotibut “Trashmaster684” of California, Michael Brennan “3amrepmike3” of California, Alex Clemmans “Alex Clemmans” of California, Kenny Andersen “KennysTrucks” of California, Tristen Pak “Sanitation94 Videos” of California, David Van Wagner “Solid Waste Entertainment” of New Mexico, Chris Calabrese “KFCorBust” of Texas, & Tyler Gale “TheDFWTrashman” of Texas.
In June of 2014, I was hired at DaDee Manufacturing to be a part of the Sales Department. I couldn’t be happier and thankful for the opportunity. I look forward to an ambitious future with the company. I’m also going to college to obtain a bachelor’s degree of mechanical engineering to be able to completely understand the functionality of these refuse trucks. For anyone who doesn’t 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.