Next week is my 20th job anniversary of being a garbage man. Most people don’t work in one industry, doing one job, that has only 3 to 5 activities that hardly change. However as I roll from house to house, I’m able to go on autopilot mode which has given me lots of time to ponder all aspects of life – including how to make more money.
In 2018, I had an epiphany while ordering at a sandwich shop. If this high school artisan thought his 2 minutes of carelessly slapping the most minimal amount of toppings on my sandwich was worth putting out a tip jar, then surely my services too deserved to be rewarded by the destitute. After all, how many people could really live without my service?
But how can a garbage man even receive tips? There was a lot of trial and error.
I attached a bright yellow tub to my trash truck and in big letters with a sharpie wrote “TIPS”. But no one runs out to meet their trash truck and I knew I needed a way to lure the masses out. Ice cream truck music! Kids fall victim to it every time and immediately beg their parents for a treat. However parents, not wanting to give unhealthy treats to their kids all of the time, will resist.
I ask my readers to close their eyes and imagine being a parent. The sound of ice cream truck music is vaguely approaching. You roll your eyes already hearing your kid running down the steps screaming “ice cream ice cream ice cream”. The sound rapidly approaches but you realize it is being slowly drowned out by the purr of a 220 hp engine. “What in the world…”? The repeated stops and whizzing hydraulic sounds give it away. “Is that a garbage ice cream truck”? You fall victim and step outside.
And they came… and left often within a few seconds of processing what they had just witnessed. I tossed the yellow bucket in the back of my truck and called it.
My next idea was to get creative and provide extra services. The idea hit me like the funky smell after you unload your truck in 100 degree heat. I’d target the middle class with a trash related service rich people have – someone to put out and bring back in their garbage cans on garbage day.
Everyone occasionally forgets to put their garbage can out on their respective trash day. So when I’d drive by a house that didn’t have a can out, I would go into their backyard, grab it, dump the trash, and place it back. The first few times I did this, there were no results, but I knew I had to be persistent. Finally one day, I go to grab the garbage can from a house that had forgotten to put it out the previous week as well. Taped on the can was a bright white envelope labeled for the garbage man. Inside was a crisp $5 bill.
News spread around the neighborhood I served like wildfire. And by the end of the year I had collected just over $5000 in tips as a garbage man.
