Spokane Valley garbage truck driver collects rewards, too

Admired by toddlers and barked at by dogs, the garbage truck drivers with Waste Management work their way through Spokane Valley starting early in the morning.

Scott Talley has been at the wheel of one of the trucks for 19 years, and he just won “best driver of the year” among Waste Management’s approximately 2,500 drivers in Alaska, Washington and Oregon.

Talley has gotten to know many customers along his routes – he stops at almost 3,500 homes every week.

“I love my job,” he said last week, while driving his route in southeast Spokane Valley. “I get to know people. I get to know the neighborhoods.”

One customer sometimes brings him a sandwich, another leaves him a bottle of Gatorade.

Then there’s the older gentleman who got a new camping trailer, even though Talley said there was nothing wrong with the old one.

“I gave him a hard time about that. But we both like to go hunting,” Talley said. “When it’s hunting season we swap stories.”

A computer tablet with a GPS system keeps track of which houses have service. Garbage service isn’t mandated in Spokane Valley, so on some streets everyone is a customer, on others there’s just one pickup or two.

When Talley began driving, he had to get out of the truck and empty the garbage cans into the back of the truck. Now the trucks have an arm that grabs the can and flings it up over the open load.

“We got so much more exercise back then, it was really hard work,” Talley said. “Now I rarely leave the truck so for the first time in my life I have to watch what I eat.”

The roads are clear and quiet, and the sun is finally out. Talley waves at a woman who’s out walking, she nods back. A dog watches from a big picture window, and Talley waves at the owner.

He tries to make friends with local dogs for no other reason than to stop their barking.

“I used to carry Milk Bones but not anymore,” Talley said, “you never know if it’s okay to give a dog something or not.”

Talley said he’d been nominated for the award before, but didn’t quite make it.

“I was surprised I got it, and very honored,” he said.

The award earned Talley and his wife an overnight stay at the Davenport Hotel, dinner at Churchill’s Steakhouse and tickets to a Gonzaga basketball game.

Jesse Granado, Waste Management District Manager for Eastern Washington and Idaho, said Talley is someone he can always count on.

“If anything happens in the field, if anyone needs help, we can always count on Scott,” Granado said.

“You do spend a lot of time by yourself,” Talley said. “You get to do a lot of thinking.”