It’s not been a good few months for Waste Pro, the garbage hauler in Palm Coast and unincorporated Flagler County. Again.
But this time the problems are occurring just as the city was surveying residents about their garbage service and the kind of service they want in the future: the city’s contract with Waste Pro expires in 2022. City officials have already begun the long process that will culminate with bidding out the contract and choosing the next hauler. Waste Pro’s 14-year relationship with the city may either end at that point or, assuming significant improvements in current service, win yet another extension. The last months’ littered record isn’t helping, nor did what seemed like an attempt by the company to give its trucks the inside lane in the coming negotiations by having management cozy up to council members.
The list of complaints for March alone is 97 pages long, in the city’s tally.
“Full route missed.” “I’ve had debris sitting in my yard for over a month that has not been picked up.” “Recycling not picked up Thursday, Friday or Saturday on Ibis Court N. in Grand Haven.”
From Black Oak Ct: “Missed picking up 4 car [tires]. Been sitting out there for a week.” From Fairhill Lane: “Entire street was missed for recycle.” Same day, from Crompton Place: “Entire street’s garbage was missed yesterday.” Same day, Febre Lane: “a few streets were missed,” with one customer calling very aggrieved that her pick-up was missed for the third time in four weeks.
And on it goes, street after street, neighborhood after neighborhood, entire streets–if not subdivisions–missed, garbage bins not being emptied thoroughly, “Same old, same old lousy service,” as one customer put it to the city’s customer service department, with every geographic area of the city generating complaints at one point or another. The words “entire,” “whole area missed” or “entire neighborhood” keep recurring in the complaints list.
Palm Coast levies fines on Waste Pro for poor service, documenting the location and reason for each complaint. For March alone, fines totaled $7,500, the highest total in two years and the fourth-highest monthly total in the last four years. The worst month for the company in that span was in March 2018, when it tallied $34,400 in fines. Its crews tallied $14,500 in fines in January 2019 and $10,000 that April. The company had a good 2020, but fines have accumulated and risen in four successive months since November–$750 in fines in December, $1,500 in January, $2,000 in February, then March’s big spike, causing the city to issue an unusual statement on Thursday.
“The City of Palm Coast is aware of the delays in pickup around the City. These lapses in timely and consistent service are unacceptable,” the release read, noting the extent of the problem: Waste Pro alone can’t be relied on alone anymore to provide service. “The City is proactively communicating with temporary staffing services, private and public waste haulers, and other municipalities to assist,” the statement continued. “All of these options will be a charge to Waste Pro and not at a cost to residents.”
The county has generally had a chummier relationship with Waste Pro and does not levy fines when service falters.
Melissa Catalanotto, manager of Waste Pro corporate communications, cited chronic problems with the industry as she noted the company’s cooperation with the city. “The demand for qualified drivers and helpers currently outpaces the supply due to the nationwide driver shortage,” she said in an email. “Locally, we are actively working to train new drivers and helpers and have implemented increased recruiting efforts including an upcoming job fair on April 8 at the Hilton Garden Inn.”
The waste-hauling industry in particular and the trucking industry in general have been experiencing a driver shortage for years–at least according to industry statements like the American Trucking Association. But the claims may not be as pronounced, or accurate, as they seem.
“The ATA has been arguing systematically since 2005 that firms hauling freight face a shortage of truck drivers, and discussion within the industry of a shortage actually dates to the late 1980s,” a Bureau of Labor Statistics–the federal government agency–reported in March 2019. “Stories about a persistent driver shortage—and its potential effects on the larger economy—have also appeared periodically in major media outlets, most recently in 2018.” The analysis goes on to recognize that while the market for truck driver has been “tight” from 2003 through 2017, it also found “normal labor market behavior.”
“This finding suggests that the market for truck drivers works about as well as that for other blue-collar occupations, and that, broadly speaking, we should expect that if wages rise when the labor market for truck drivers is too tight, the potential for any long-term shortages will be ameliorated,” the analysis found. Put another way: pay your drivers well, and you won’t have a problem attracting them. But that’s not necessarily in companies’ hands alone. The current median pay for rank and file waste haulers in Florida is $19.33, according to BLS. If residents want better service, they may have to put up with somewhat higher fees that enable the better pay, and with it surer retention of haulers.
As far as the city is concerned, the hauler’s problems are its own. It’s under a $9 million a year contract with Palm Coast, with residents paying $244 a year to see their garbage picked up on time, twice a week, on a reasonably steady basis. The complaints to the city–echoed by shriller decibels on social media sites such as Facebook neighborhood groups–suggest that’s not happening.
“Residents in our recent Solid Waste survey have overwhelming rated consistent and timely pickups as being a top priority,” City Manager Matthew Morton is quoted as saying in the statement the city released Thursday. “That is the level of service we contracted for, what our residents are paying for, and what is expected. We will continue to work diligently to get this matter resolved.”
Morton’s predecessor had at times used even stronger language to reflect the council’s displeasure with the hauler in previous bursts of shoddy service: “It stinks,” Jim Landon had said of Waste Pro’s service that month when the company racked up the $34,000 in fines, and Mayor Milissa Holland alluded to ending the contract.
Waste Pro since March 2018 has accumulated $112,500 in fines.
Holland was more diplomatic when asked about Waste Pro on Thursday. “After receiving numerous messages about Waste Pro’s failure to meet their contractual obligations to our residents,” she said, “I immediately reached out to our city manager to ask for a resolution. Besides the fines that are now accruing to Waste Pro per our contract, they have been put on a 30 day performance plan. Our residents pay for a service and expect and deserve delivery on that service. We are going through an evaluative process now as Waste Pro’s contract is set to expire and have engaged the community in advance in an effort to continue to meet the communities needs and provide the level of service our residents have come to expect. A competitive bid will be required and a vendor will be selected to provide a necessary service in our community. Whether that will be Waste Pro or another vendor I cannot say at this time as we are very early in the process and my focus is to ensure that this lack of service will not continue.”
There is good news for Waste Pro: the city’s month-long survey window has closed.
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Robjr says
Big deal that the city of Palm Coast fines Waste Pro.
It is all the same to us homeowners. We are still billed for full service no matter how shoddy or how many pickups are missed.
The only one making out here is the city. They take some off of the top from the Waste Pro and also collect fines.
Waste Pro speaks of a driver shortage.
It is probably more like a wage shortage.
wintertom says
Alternative #1 Consider privatizing trash hauling and letting each homeowner or business contract with their favorite trash hauler.
Alternative #2 Consider purchasing all new trucks and associated equipment to add to the ever increasing Palm Coast fleet. Find qualified drivers that can and want to work and pay them $40 per hour and benefits on top of that!
Alternative #3 Continue putting the contract out to bid and being required to accept the lowest cost trash hauler.
James M. Mejuto says
It really doesn’t matter what you put-out for collection. I live in a neighborhood where homeowners
have violated common decency rules. (TVs, a lot of plastic crap and outdated or polluted furniture, all for one
pick-up! )
I really don’t understand how our community would allow the same company (14years) to continue if
our city gov’t feels there have been violations.
Another question we have to ask : Where does all this garbage go ? And is it recycled as we intended ?
I am sad to admit that this planet, this world we live in does not have the faintest idea how to re-cycle the huge mountain of garbage collected from every country. We can send a man to the moon but . . . ?
Why must this planet continue to produce new plastics when landfills overflow?
Wendy McLane says
I would like to know where the “fine” money goes? Does it get passed on to reduce the cost to the homeowners or does the city just profit that?
Hayley says
My husband did trash driver most his life.
They pay by day, but still clock in and out after 8 hours its Chinese pay which is half of regular pay. So lets say 150 a day for 8 hours , so from 5:30 to 1:30 pm anything after that he got 6.00 or less and ge did a route in palm coast he was still on route 5:00-600 pm . Not to mention over his cdl time . For 40 hours over time he hardly made 200 for it. I believe their problem is theres not enough drivers/helpers . They hirer through labor temp and half those guys fall out. My husband had 3 different helpers in one day!!! Its not a easy job. Anyone who thinks it is go out for 1 day and see. Thry got tid of the cherry picker who went out and picked up the big stuff now the garbage truck as to pick that stuff up too then people cut yards and renovation put that out for tge garbage man too!!! They go cut yards come home and dump that out for the garbage man . Now going to dump the truck two three times a day you have to go all the way to Ormond beach or daytona. So yes its a hard job.
compaqrat2020 says
from article: From Black Oak Ct: “Missed picking up 4 car [tires]. Been sitting out there for a week.
Service does not pick up tires. There may be a special request for this but I don’t think so.
Timmy says
9 million a year! I have the solution: The City should start their own garbage department. Have City hired employees with good benefits.
Andy B says
This company hires x-cons and skilled drivers and pays them nothing. The workers know this group of greedy management will not win the follow-on. They quit for better pay. The company pays bribes to officials. They should all be in jail.
Paul says
Strange. We live in the south part of the W section, just to the north of WhiteView Parkway and have absolutely no complaints.. The waste pick up is reliable, pick up time varies a bit but is normally late morning – early afternoon.
The truck crew are polite, don’t drop any of our trash, don’t abuse our wheelie trash can. But then we do make an effort to bag our trash properly, break down any cardboard, don’t overfill the trash can and greet them politely on the rare occasions that we interface with them.
Christopher says
I had the same opinion, too. For many years Waste Pro were always on schedule, crews courteous, and they took everything I put out including bulky items. However, about two months ago their service started to decline. We’ve had numerous missed days, they’re messy with bins being thrown all over the roads and in wet swales, they no longer take any household items, and the yard waste can go a month without being picked up. On one occasion recently I had a two rolls of old carpet that sat outside for well over a week and I finally tipped them to pick it up.
I’m sure staffing is the problem. I know other industries in the same situation.
TR says
As a business owner in Palm Coast for over 30 yrs, I have talked to customer in the past few months and they all say the same thing. What waste pro normally would pick up now they leave at the street. I tell them all the same thing. Waste pro is in contract negotiations with the city and that’s why they don’t pick up everything. It’s all a strong arm tactic, I’ve seen it ever time the contract is up for renewal.
Monte Cristo says
Once again, City mismanagement. The last City Manager barked with no bite. Landon was a do nothing manager just like this new one.
The City waited till things git out of hand.
No solid waste manager at the City level. It raw incompetence.
The City is in a mess and is looking for help from anyone that can help. How sad. Fire Waste Pro and for the City Manager fire him too for just being around.
Put it out to bid ASAP.
D. Wilson says
We have never had a problem. Our crew is great.
Wine bottle jabberoo says
Yea, lol.. okay.. how long have you been a resident here? Just wait until one of the pick up guys is jabbing a broken wine bottle, that he broke, towards your face, inches away from your face, yelling at you.
Just last week we had a missed pick up of yard debris, and the week prior to that another one, for recycles. I think the majority of missed pick ups are recycles and yard waste, maybe you do not put those out???
James M. Mejuto says
re: Well, Wine bottle jabberoo:
What did you do after the alleged attack, which I don’t believe ever happened!
If it did happen, did you notify the Sheriff ?
James M. Mejuto
Carl Rodriguez. says
I have never had an issues with them either. They have always been kind and have done a great job. Been here since 1988.
PDE says
I’ve noticed a serious decline in Waste Pro service in the Beachside area where I live. For the last few months, pick ups are regularly missed (especially recycle pick ups on Thursdays). I call WP every time it happens nothing has changed. I’m glad to read this article on Flagler Live, because it confirms that our neighborhood is not the only one in Palm Coast suffering with poor service.
Debbie says
As we speak, my recycling is still sitting on the curb. It was supposed to be picked up yesterday.
Better Call Saul ! says
I have full 1080p, 4K not yet, video surveillance due to these guys. Running over cracking up driveways on the days they actually pick up, especially yard waste. I will not ask to see your surveillance when you bust up my drive!! One day, the recycle guy attempted to accost me with a broken wine bottle to my face trying to tell me I put it in the recycle bin broken just to hurt him (he could not hear it fall out and break on my drive over the ACDC blaring, at 6am). No. Joke. 4K, here I come. Lawyer up!
Smelly Shelly says
Careful what you ask for. The ‘solution’ may end up costing us all more. Waste Pro, perhaps historically the lowest bidder, may decide it doesn’t want Palm Coast and its bored, time on the hands, whiney retirees and their garbage. Sometimes corporations pass off business to the competition as a way to put them out of business, then come back in at a price that the service is supposed to be delivered at.
That said, technology will transform the collection industry, likely by 2030. Drivers may very well be a thing of the past with autonomous trucks.
metoo says
Waste Pro. Gotta go.
James M. Mejuto says
re: Robjr say: It’s amazing and discouraging you would somehow condemn sanitation workers ” for shoddy pick-ups.”
If our city has a problem with sanitation pick-ups then we must get to the root of the problem and it
certainly is not with the sanitation workers. They’re just doing their job ! They have no control over
the politics of the company and to suggest they do is a disservice to workers who are surviving in an
economy that doesn’t relate to them . . . only to the wealthy and corporations.
Problems with your garbage pick-up have to be directed to corporate greed and corruption not to labor.
Your anti-labor discrimination harkens back the political crap regarding postal workers !
Hans Wilson says
James,
Hello.
I didn’t read condemnation in the first comment. The workers are paid by the day no matter how long the route or if they have to cover for others and work extra. They are often rushed. I know I have asked the workers. Sometimes they miss because of equipment break downs which is not their fault.
Their pay is moderate and benefits meager. I do agree with the first comment that driver shortage is not the issue, it is economics as to the reason for the driver or worker shortage.
Danm50 says
Trash removal and water access are the most important job of city government. The mayor has no solutions. Her advisors are helpless. How about training the mayor to drive a trash truck and her advisors can ride on back.
Edith Campins says
Never had a problem in the past. The last year+ the service has been apalling. Missed recycling, missed pickups, trash all over the road after pickup, picked up half of the garden trash, left half, garbage cans thrown in the middle of the driveway. What has been worse is the attitude when you call in a complaint. When pickups have been missed I am told that the GPS shows they were there. I know they were there, they picked up down the street. And yes, I am careful to make sure the garden debris is the size they require, and I put the stfiuf out the night before. Maybe having someone supervising or checking the neighborhood on trash day, once in a while, would help
Mary Fusco says
I have been living in PC for 21 years and have never had a problem with garbage pickup. This week garbage and yard waste was not picked up on correct day. They picked it up at 7:30 this AM. Life goes on. Garbage does not rule my life. Everyone is yelling for growth, more homes, apartments, etc. Life will never be what it was. Get used to it!
Percy's mother says
People, you are supposed to file a complaint / comment on Palm Coast CONNECT . . . not call Waste Pro . . . for any issues.
Also, I’ve seen what people put out for pickup. Sometimes whole households full of furniture with no regard for the time or the work involved by the Waste Pro employees who have schedules to maintain. Didn’t someone complain about the fact that 4 TIRES weren’t picked up? Don’t you people have any idea whats acceptable for pickup? OR the amount you put out for pickup on any given scheduled day? You don’t find out by posting questions about it on FACEBOOK.
To all you loud (continual) complainers, I think you should all try just ONE day jumping on and off a garbage truck every driveway (every 80 – 100 feet) along with picking up garbage cans and throwing contents into the truck. It’s a thankless job, especially in summer heat. If I happen to be outside when I they come along (and they pick up almost ALL THE TIME), I wave and tell them I appreciate their work. I always get a smile and a wave back and “have a nice day!!” During the summer when the heat is brutal and its stroke conditions, I will always offer bottles of water to take the edge of the heat, one to pour over their heads and at least one other to drink because dehydration can take place much quicker during the intense heat. Ever thought about doing that for these Waste Pro employees you love to complain about? What you dish out is what you get back. They are HUMAN BEINGS.
JustBeNice says
I totally agree with you Percy’ mother. We leave cases of water for them and gave Christmas cash to them. They have a thankless, difficult job. If the worst thing in your day is that your recycling didn’t get picked up on the right day, well you are a blessed person. How about some kindness towards these hardworking people?
Zinnia Trail resident says
Percy’s mother: This is so true! Or maybe the same loud mouths should go up north and see how they do it up there with loud music, yelling over each other and throwing metal garbage pails across streets at 7am in the morning whereas these workers down here have manners, I hardly even hear them when they come around to my house, they always put the pails back neatly and never leave any garbage behind on the road, in fact my hubby just complimented these workers this week for their hard work and they were so happy to hear his compliments. Does anyone give them a tip around the holiday season to show appreciation?
Zinnia Trail resident says
PS Let’s not forget and give FINES to the slobs who have garbage pails with no lids making their garbage spill into the street and guess who picks it up, these hard working unappreciated garbage workers. Where is the city inspectors to come around and see this?
flatsflyer says
You folks complain about the littlest things, didn’t you get the message that because of the pandemic the trash haulers where working from home.
capt says
Like any of these businesses, be careful what you ask for it could be worst and more expenvie. SO be prepared to deal with it.
Denali says
Many have suggested that the city start its own trash/recycling/yard waste pick up service. After all, this is not rocket science; the Utilities Department can manage it in their spare time. Buy a few trucks, hire some drivers, get some folks with strong backs to load the unwanted materials and off you go. But where do you go? Land fills are few and far between and invariably are owned by Waste Pro, Browning Ferris or some other big trash outfit – what kind of pricing do you think they will give the city? Where do we dump the yard waste, the tires, the used washing machines and that ‘hazardous’ stuff they pick up on Saturdays? Then there is the recycling – the market was Asia and they have dried up as their costs have sky rocketed and demand for their products has shrunk. Like many things in life, getting rid of the trash is not as easy as it looks. Kinda like getting rid of a politician no one wants, but I digress.
Waste Pro is not unlike many other businesses, they have good and bad managers, they have a good field staff with a few bad apples thrown in, they have mechanical failures, they are human. We have to remember that the folks on the trucks are human, they work in the the heat of a Florida summer and in the rain. They get yelled at by drivers when they hold up traffic for a precious few minutes. They provide us a service that 95% of you would not do even if it was the only job in town.
Where is all this going? 1) The city cannot/should not get involved in the waste hauling business, 2) The city needs to state the conditions of the next contract very clearly and hold the contractor to those terms. Fines for not performing must be meaningful. $120,000 in three years where they took in $27 million is less than 1/2 of one percent, pocket change to them. And 3) we the customers must be clear in conveying our complaints to the city – if there is a problem the city needs to know about it. Don’t complain to your neighbor or on Facebook, Take action and call the city, they need to know what is going on, don’t just let it slide.
Hammock Resident says
It’s almost comical to read how some folks have no problem with Waste Pro. We have a house in the Hammock, and a house in Flagler Beach and the difference in the service is day and night! Flagler Beach have their own workers and they are great! In the Hammock, WP is awful.
In the Hammock, we bag the trash properly, break down cardboard boxes, separate paper from containers only to find it all still there three days later. Or, when it is picked up, we usually have to clean up the road after them.
Yes, WP does skip roads and neighborhoods. They need to go in the County, too. If not, then more stinks than garbage!
Rob says
I think the city should get their own Solid Waste Department the city of St Augustine has there own and it seems to be working for them hire drivers with good pay and the people on the back should be making good money also I’m sure it’s not easy being on the back by yourself picking trash up in Fl weather maybe 2 peoples on the back would help
The Voice Of Reason says
Rob,
As one who has worked in St Aug for many years, (driving), I can attest some of their trash drivers are obnoxious and the people hanging on the back of the city trucks are day laborers. Low pay, no benefits. Count me as one in Quail Hollow who has had great service from Waste Pro. Not perfect but I would give them an A.
Harold Lumis says
Over the years, with few exceptions, there has been a noticeable decline in overall service and, moreover, professionalism. Riding around the city now, it’s not rare to see trash cans left in the streets (on non-windy days), garden waste in bags left for next week, piles of various kinds of trash left sitting in front of houses for weeks, and a demonstrable lack of respect for homeowners when encounters, that should otherwise be moderately friendly, occur.
Sure, it’s no doubt attributable to a lack of drivers as WP insists, but it’s also a clear lack of morale. These workers don’t seem to care much about their jobs. Are they underpaid? Probably. Are they mistreated? Probably. But how could circumstances deteriorated so badly in the recent past? This has been a systemic and long-term problem that is no longer tolerable. To some extent it’s a lack of vigilant oversight by both PC politicians and media outlets, particularly The Observer (too cozy with big wigs). In the end, this current situation is turning off residents, prospective business and future residents, and should be, once and for all, solved for good.
palmcoaster says
We have excellent service with Waste Pro and we do not want to loose them!
Jose gnash says
The problem is not the lack or shortage of drivers the problem is management and driver compensation waste pro in palm coast has lost half of their drivers due to management and driver compensation