"Not too long after sunrise on a recent Tuesday morning near Dolores Park, Jamal Lavallier finished his last pickup of the day. He hooked a pair of bins onto his garbage truck, pulled the levers to engage the lift, and then set the bins back down, lining them neatly along the sidewalk. It was 8:30 a.m. The neighborhood was waking up, but Lavallier was wrapping up his workday."
"He worked as a truck driver for 7Up for 14 years before joining Recology following the advice of some of his friends already in the industry. "Back then, everybody wanted to get in the garbage company," he said. Now, he has a shot at national acclaim. Last October, he was nominated for the National Waste and Recycling Association's "Driver of the Year" award by his employer."
Jamal Lavallier finishes pickups early morning after starting his workday at 2 a.m., often wrapping up by about 8:30 a.m. He is a 48-year-old San Francisco native who has driven garbage trucks for more than a decade. As a child he watched waste trucks in Bayview and later worked as a truck driver for 7Up for 14 years before joining Recology. He was nominated last October for the National Waste and Recycling Association's Driver of the Year award and advanced to the second round. The award recognizes strong safety records and outstanding on-the-job performance; the winner receives $1,000 and will be honored in Washington, D.C. in June. Lavallier said he learned not to jump out of the truck during training and feels excited about his national nomination.
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