Sep. 14--HICKORY -- Ronnie Fowler and Scott Tannenbaum are hot-shot GT drivers.

No, they're not Formula 1 race-car drivers. The GT stands for garbage truck.

The two GDS employees won championships at the recent North Carolina Solid Waste Association of North America Truck and Heavy Equipment Rodeo in Raleigh.

Now, the wizards of the wasteland are heading to Florida for the national rodeo.

"We're on a mission," Tannenbaum said. "We want to bring a national trophy back with us. More than one, if we can."

GDS, a subsidiary of Republic Services, dominated the state rodeo.

Several other employees, including Marshall Williams, a 17-year employee at the GDS Conover Division. won first-place trophies.

He won the articulated loader competition.

Tannenbaum took first place in the landfill dozer contest. He's been at the Caldwell County landfill for three years.

Fowler is a true truck driver. He was the best of the bunch in what's called the roll-off competition.

It was his first time at a heavy equipment rodeo, even though he's worked for GDS for 21 years.

"It's not easy, but it's like doing your job," Fowler said.

"There's a written mechanic's test and the obstacle course."

The course involves backing, parallel parking and the serpentine run. It's like a whole series of twists and turns, like the slalom test for cars.

The difference is Fowler's GT is 52,000-pound behemoth when it's fully loaded.

Knock down a cone on any of the obstacle courses, and the judges dock points.

Tannenbaum runs the super-sized compaction dozer in the landfill.

"I live in it 55 hours a week," he said. "It's used to cover trash, build slopes, build roads and get the trucks in and out of the landfill when it rains."

The machine weighs 80,000 to 90,000 pounds. The blade is 14 feet wide and about 12 feet high.

At the state rodeo, the driving course was set up with barrels that gave competitors two inches of clearance on each side of the blade.

You can't mess around or mess up negotiating the course.

The eyeball tests aren't easy, either.

"We have to inspect the equipment before we drive," Tannenbaum said. "You have to spot flaws that could occur on your machine. The judges do little things, and you have to find them."

"It's the same thing we do before be take off every day," Fowler said.

Compaction dozers aren't just hunks of metal, spiked-steel wheels and big engines anymore.

"The new compactor is over a million dollars," Tannenbaum said.

"The GPS calculates air space under the dozer and the compaction tonnage with each pass," he said.

It also shows the main office if it's rolling.

"Everything the compactor does during the day and what it's done to the landfill is recorded and transmitted for analysis," Tannenbaum said.

Both men are accustomed to busy days.

Tannenbaum can't clear out until he's finished with whatever the last truck hauls in.

Fowler works from 6 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. He's moving the whole time. Hauling garbage is a choreographed business. There's a timeline to follow, and while schedules have some flexibility, the day's work must be done in the specified time.

"I travel about 300 miles a day," Fowler said.

The two are overjoyed they're going to Largo and Clearwater, Fla., for Swashbucklers 2009, the national rodeo. The Florida SWANA chapter calls it a Road-E-O.

"It's nice that the company is doing this for us and doing other good things for the employees," Tannenbaum said.

Another reason why the guys want to continue their winning ways.

They leave on Friday and get home on Sunday. They hope they have trophies to show off.

"It's exciting," Fowler said.

"Yes," Tannenbaum echoed. "We're going to do our jobs and try not to get too excited. If we can be ourselves, we'll be OK."

Drivers and operators from all over the United States will be after the same trophies.

But the guys already proved themselves as GT superstars.

"Now we get to go again," Tannenbaum said.

Fowler smiled and nodded when Tannenbaum repeated, "We're on a mission."

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Copyright (c) 2009, Hickory Daily Record, N.C.

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