Letters to the Editor: May 13, 2021

Lunch-time scale closure impacting haulers

For about 15 years after I retired from the Hawaii Police Department, I drove a truck hauling green waste to the Waikoloa Green Waste Station. I got to know a lot of the other drivers and now I get requests from them asking that I write a letter to the editor in an effort to inform the public of what is going on. The hope is that there will be some minor adjustments made to accommodate the public.

The process in dropping off the green waste goes like this: The hauler drives his truck into the facility and pulls up onto the scale. The county employee operating the scale records the total tonnage (gross weight) and allows the hauler to continue. The next stop is at the green waste station. There, the hauler is directed where to dump his load. Upon dumping his load, the hauler drives back to the scale house and onto the scale. The scale operator records the net weight and the computer calculates the difference and prints the results which is then handed off to the hauler and he drives off for another load.

Ever since the county took the last Wednesday off for training, the process has changed. The scale house operation is such now that both scale house operators eat lunch at the same time. So now if the hauler bets there at their lunch break, he sits in his truck and waits until lunch is over. If the hauler makes it past the scale house and cannot make it back before lunch break, he sits in his truck until lunch is over before he gets on the scale to record the weight of his load and allowed to get another load.

There are times when there are 10 to 15 trucks sitting there waiting for lunch to be over. Somehow, the scale house operators cannot think to stagger the lunch breaks to accommodate the haulers. Time is money but, that does not effect the county, only the haulers who must charge the customers more because lunch breaks are not staggered.

This only sounds funny if you are not the hauler or the person who ends up paying for the lunch-time delay caused by both scale workers having to eat at the same time.

Leningrad Elarionoff

Waimea

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