Brian Ballantine ENG 122
Professor MacGrotty Research Paper
Drinking and Driving
A 50,000 Pound Killing Machine
English Composition II Date Submitted: 6/21/10
I work for the Department of Sanitation of New York City. A requirement of my job is to have a commercial driver’s license (CDL). Everyday my co-workers and I are given a partner and a route to clean. We go from house to house collecting refuse and depositing it in the back of our assigned trucks. The work assigned to us is predetermined to last us an entire day’s work which is six hours and fifty minutes. This time can change depending on how hard the workers work, and how we decide to work the route. The route is put in an order that is supposed to allow us minimal driving in between lines or blocks, but there are better ways and easier ways to work almost every route. This being said, many of my coworkers change the route around so that they can finish earlier. When we finish earlier we get a relay bonus which is an incentive to work harder. We get an extra five dollars by taking the truck to the transfer station and emptying the truck. This is where the trouble begins.
Many of my coworkers, for whatever reasons, decide that once they are done with their routes that they can now start drinking. I find this to be completely and totally absurd for many reasons. First, our shift is either 7 A.M. to 3 P.M. or 6 A.M. to 2 P.M. Recently, our union, Local 831, has allowed us to change our shift year round to 6 A.M. to 2 P.M. Many of my coworkers are done with their route and on the way to the transfer station by 9 A.M. Now you might be wondering if what I said earlier was correct. I will reiterate that when done with the route many of my coworkers feel that this is now time to start drinking. So at 9 A.M. many coworkers start drinking as they drive fully-loaded sanitation trucks to the transfer station, which is approximately a 12-mile round trip. I have never participated in this...