MUSCATINE, Iowa – Customers unloading material on the tipping floor at the City of Muscatine Recycling Center and Transfer Station will do so without the aid of Transfer Station staff according to a policy statement issued Monday (March 4) from Dave Popp, Solid Waste Manager for the City of Muscatine.
“This policy was in place when the Transfer Station first opened,” Popp said. “Over the years it was not emphasized and that led to liability risks to both staff and customers.”
Popp said the discussion to re-emphasize the policy came after a customer asked a staff member to help clean off his trailer.
“There were a lot of safety concerns by the staff member who did not assist the customer,” Popp said.
Popp said there are numerous examples of the liability that the City would encounter in assisting customers including damage to the customers’ vehicle and/or trailer, damage to City equipment or other customer vehicles in close proximity, and injury to the customer(s) or staff member(s).
“We had to decide whether we were going to help all our customers or none of them,” Popp said. “Safety is our primary concern and that led to the determination that the original policy needed to be enforced again.”
The policy states:
For employee and customer safety and for liability concerns, staff working at the City of Muscatine Transfer Station will not provide mechanical and or physical aid to customers unloading materials from cars, trucks or trailers.
Such aid may include but is not limited to; pulling loads off of customer trailers with chains, cables or ropes hooked to machinery, using machinery to push or pull loads off of customer trucks or trailers, and operating customers trucks and trailers in order to back them on to the tipping floor.
Mechanical aid such as providing battery boosts or providing jumper cables is the responsibility of the vehicle owner and will not be allowed by City of Muscatine Transfer Station Staff to provide.
This policy is not intended to inconvenience customers but to ensure the safety and wellbeing of both the staff of the Transfer Station and its customers on the tipping floor.
For more information, contact the Recycling Center and Transfer Station at (563) 263-9689.