Garbage is garbage -- as long as a big truck shows up once a week to take it away, I don't much care what color the truck is. I'll confess that bringing business a bit closer to home appeals to me, but other than that, the change is no big deal.It shouldn't be, anyway.
The KintlaLake household, along with a number of our neighbors, is in the county-governed township, surrounded by hundreds of other homes that fall within the city-governed municipality. Our new trash hauler, in its corporate wisdom, serves township and city customers from two different depots, on two different days.
Trucks headed for city customers come from 15 miles away, while those serving township residents travel 33 miles. I roll my trash to the curb on Tuesday, and my neighbor across the street does the same three days later -- same company, same contract.
If serving a single contiguous community from two far-flung locations sounds like a head-scratcher, consider this advisory from the company:
"Recent increases in fuel prices have made it more difficult for us to manage costs. To offset the effects of higher fuel prices, you will be assessed a fuel surcharge, which will appear on your invoice and will vary from month to month."I understand that a trash-hauling business has to account for higher diesel-fuel prices, but slapping customers with a surcharge without first tackling such obvious operational inefficiency is lazy and unacceptable.
Garbage is garbage.
