By Taylor M. Coffman
Herald Correspondent
Waste Pro has big plans for its safety department in 2026, with the company putting $2 million toward its Safety Award Program for what officials are expecting to be the program’s “biggest year yet.”
Started in 2004 by Waste Pro’s founder John Jennings, the Safety Award Program is meant to “reinforce the company's safety-first culture and to showcase the importance of keeping safety a daily top priority.“ Sean Jennings, who took over as President and CEO in 2020, said the following about the program:
“Through the Safety Award Program, we maintain our commitment to being a people-first company that prioritizes safety. Our Waste Pros are the backbone of the company’s success and we want to honor their commitment to living the Waste Pro Way each day, putting safety first.”
To date, the Waste Pro Safety Award program has awarded over $10.5 million to eligible drivers and helpers. In order to be eligible for a Safety Award, Waste Pro’s VP of Safety and Risk Romeo Vellutini explained that drivers must meet certain criteria: no accidents, no injuries, no verifiable customer complaints, and no unexcused absences.
In addition to keeping the roads safe for both Waste Pro drivers and others navigating around the massive trucks, the Safety Award Program criteria also encourages drivers to maintain a professional, respectful, and friendly standard for customer service. In the last few years, executives have reported an increase in repeat winners, with some employees even amassing over half a dozen Safety Awards.
Since starting the Safety Award Program, Waste Pro has seen fewer and fewer accidents each year, which in turn leads to lower insurance costs for the company. The saved money is then being put back into the Safety Award Program, creating a cycle and a workplace culture that essentially “feeds itself”, according to Vellutini.
Aside from saving the company money, the constant emphasis on safety within Waste Pro has also increased awareness and readiness for the external safety concerns they still face, chief among them being improperly disposed lithium-ion batteries like those found in most electronic devices. When compacted with the rest of the trash, the batteries break open and often cause fires within the garbage trucks, with Vellutini reporting that Waste Pro drivers face such “one or two fires a week” on average. The fires can cause tens of thousands of dollars in damage to the trucks, and can sometimes damage customer property as well.
In order to combat these issues, and to keep up the same high safety standards from year to year, Waste Pro sends its drivers to three driver safety centers within its twelve-state footprint, where they undergo week-long safety trainings courses before they ever get behind the wheel of a garbage truck, at which point they’re mentored for several more weeks before going solo.
Overall, Waste Pro’s longstanding emphasis on safety paints a hopeful picture for 2026. VP Romeo Vellutini said that he’s “confident that our continued focus on mentorship and regular coaching will result in more drivers and helpers earning the [Safety Award] this year” but ultimately, only time will tell.
