Drifts and Delays

In the early hours of January 9, our managers made the difficult decision to postpone routes due to the snow and road closures. It’s been years since we needed to postpone routes due to winter weather, but we will always choose the safety of our employees and their families. 

 A small skeleton crew did come to work to clear driveways and sidewalks, work on trucks in preparation for the next day, figure out how to postpone routes, and let customers know about the route changes. However, one of our managers got stuck in his driveway and needed to make his driveway passable before he was able to come to work.  

In the following days, we saw and felt the sense of community. A few of our drivers got stuck in snowdrifts as they were driving their routes. When possible, our customers were very willing to get out their big tractors and help our drivers. Likewise, our drivers got to return the favor to various individuals stuck in snowdrifts or ditches. The office received many phone calls from grateful people who were stuck in the snow until our drivers stopped to help. One woman commented that she didn’t have any idea how she was going to get out of the snowdrift, but it didn’t take long once our drivers arrived!

Although it forced our customers to be flexible with their trash schedules, the winter snow brought welcome moisture to our Kansas soil. We’re so grateful that our customers understood the decision to postpone routes due to the weather, and we expect it to be quite a few years till we have a storm like that again.