Arcadia -- Residential (WM)

Here is some footage of the old Wittkes and new Amreps that Waste Management has been running out in my hometown of Arcadia over the past few years.

(0:00) – 263266: I’ve know this driver, Jose “Joe” Quezada, for five years now and he’s always been one of the coolest guys to film. He was Kevin’s driver over 15 years ago in Sierra Madre as well. Because we both know him so well and is one of the last Sierra Madre guys still around, we’ve both been hoping to see him behind the wheel of a Curotto Can again just like in the “old days”. Week after week, on Tuesday nights we’d say, “Let’s hope Joe’s in a Curotto Can tomorrow!” On August 9th, I, like every week, asked my trash driver if anyone was using the old Curotto Cans, and much to my surprise, he told me Joe was in one! I immediately went out in search for him. Finally tracked him down and was not disappointed one bit with how he operated. Especially since it’s been almost 10 years since he’s driven one! The last Curotto he drove was one of our beast Diesel Mack LE/Leach ones. Here’s just a little sample of what I filmed – the rest will be up one of these days.

(4:42) – 103716: This section of Arcadia is interesting in that it’s a huge open route. On Wednesday afternoons, it’s not uncommon to see five trash trucks collecting a piece of this route. Here’s Jorge Quintero doing his portion in Joe’s old Autocar. I’ve filmed Jorge in Diamond Bar before back when he had a Mack LE Wittke/Curotto Can, but because of a 10 year limit on what can run in that city (AQMD’s headquarters are out there lol), WM gave him an ASL shortly after I filmed him. Anyway, 103716 was in a fire recently and WM hadn’t gotten around to putting the “Think Green, Think Clean” stickers back on yet. They got the “T” on but not sure what happened to the rest of it haha.

(5:03) – 263452: Now THIS was a huge surprise for me. My trash driver, Jose Plazola, has serviced my house since WM rerouted Arcadia in 2009 and started one day collection. He’s been in an ASL ever since he started coming by, and, unlike many other drivers, when his truck is down, he still usually gets another ASL as a spare. I was at school when I saw this truck collecting trash. I was almost positive a sub was doing my route, but right when I got home, I was shocked to see it was Jose behind the wheel! Similar to Joe, it’s been almost 10 years since he’s driven a Curotto Can. The last one he drove was #260527, an ex-WMX Volvo WXLL/Wittke FEL. I think this might be pretty cool – I’ve found him in 260527 on Google Maps in San Dimas on the EXACT same route that he still does today. 263452 was our regular spare Curotto but because it was in pretty good condition, we ended up sending this one out to Compton for some reason.

(8:14) – 263267: Normally, 263267 is the frontline bulk/MPU truck every day except Wednesdays, when Rosendo Pimienta takes out the Wittke with a carry can instead. On this day, 264 was broken down and so Pimienta took 267 out. Extremely long day for him as this was taken around 7 in the evening.

(9:54) – 103705: Here’s Plazola in his normal truck collecting some of the different set outs around my area over the past couple years.

(11:04) – 263525: Filiberto Barrera is another driver who has worked my route since the route change in 2009. From 2012 to 2015, Fili drove 263525, a transfer from LA Metro. It has since been sent back to LA Metro where they sadly retired and scrapped it.

(11:24) – 104406: Filiberto Cortez collecting my recycling.

(11:46) – 263524: This was one of our spare Curotto Cans that got sent up to Fresno I believe a year ago.

(12:58) – 103862: I believe this is the fastest residential driver we have here at Baldwin Park – Moises Gonzales. He is really good with ASLs and trains all the drivers who come onto resi. On top of that, he’s one heck of a nice guy so it’s always good to see him. He used to drive a Mack LE/Amrep, #101582, so he’s been in an ASL for a long time. When I filmed this, he was in a spare Amrep as his was down for cylinder problems.

(13:14) - 105338: After 263525 was sent away, Fili was scheduled to get a new ASL, this being it. He’s pretty fast in it and actually finishes a little earlier than before.

(13:43) – 103860: Joe in his regular truck a week after driving the Curotto. He was so happy to be back in his regular truck!

(14:30) – 263264: Here’s Pimienta in the usual Wednesday bulk truck. 263264 was a commercial truck for a long time but was switched over to bulk in 2015.

(15:33) – 103858: I saw that some of the Peterbilts had their rims shined up a little bit so I wanted to get a clip of Moises in his truck. Always fun seeing him on route!

Thanks to all the awesome drivers! Some of the greatest guys around.

I would like to dedicate this video to WM San Gabriel’s former route manager, Omar Lucero. Thanks for all the info on the good ol’ days out here. The boys and I sure miss having you around here at Baldwin Park!