The Fourth Generation
My education in the solid waste industry began on the back of a residential garbage truck at age 12. Back then, we still had a couple of customers who required a carrying can to service. I was able to experience the dogs and the sunken cans that my father, grandfather, and great-grandfather talked about all the time.
At 16, I was driving our satellite trucks (under 26,000 GVW) on route. On my 18th birthday, I earned my CDL and climbed into a 1997 Volvo rear loader with a Leach body to run residential routes in Gresham. At the time, I thought I'd made it to the big leagues.
Over the next several years, I learned every collection system our company operated, rear-load, front-load, and side-loader, long before automation became the standard. Eventually, I moved into roll-off operations with Flannery's Drop Box Service, where my copilot wasn't GPS; it was a Thomas Guide folded open across the doghouse.
Residential collection taught me consistency. Roll-off taught me adaptability. Every jobsite was different. Every customer had a deadline. I even managed to introduce a couple of their phone lines to my boom before learning how to maneuver a truck through the city's narrow streets and impossible job sites. Looking back, that's where I truly learned to drive.
When I transitioned into the office, I began exactly where I'd started in the field, at the bottom. Those years taught me every operational aspect of our family businesses. If we were short a driver, I climbed back in a truck. If dispatch got buried, I answered the phones. Whatever the business needed, that's where I went. During this time, I started a company of my own on the side, NW Pro Haul, where I learned firsthand what it took to build and sustain a successful operation.
At this point in my career, I have spent my time leading operations for both Twelve Mile Disposal and Flannery's Drop Box Service, overseeing municipal franchise administration, fleet operations, commercial growth, strategic planning, government contracts, finance, and business development.
Looking back, I'm grateful that I learned this industry from the ground up. Every lesson was earned by doing the work, and from the people who built this profession. Carrying the torch for our family business a little farther down the road has been one of the greatest privileges of my life.
I never set out to build a career in solid waste. I was fortunate enough to grow up in it, and somewhere along the way, it became part of who I am.