FREEPORT, St James — Even though the agency that collects garbage in the western end of the country has stepped up its recruitment of drivers, it still has a 32 per cent shortfall.

Western Parks and Markets (WPM) Waste Management Limited, the regional arm of the National Solid Waste Management Authority (NSWMA), currently has 32 drivers but needs 47 for optimal performance. It also needs more sanitation workers.

“We have been constantly reaching out to residents across the four parishes — Westmoreland, St James, Trelawny, and Hanover. We continue to put our ads in the paper for drivers, sanitation workers, and also sweepers, but it is very difficult to get persons to come on board,” said WMP Regional Operations Manager Edward Muir.

He was responding to questions from the Jamaica Observer after a press briefing held at the WPM office in Montego Bay on Wednesday. He said compared to the rest of the country, finding staff has been particularly challenging in western Jamaica.

“Nevertheless, we continue, and I must say that we have been making some inroads as it relates to the drivers. Over the past six months we have brought in somewhere about 12 to 13 drivers, and we continue to push on that recruitment process,” added Muir.

The operations manager said they have had to be flexible in making changes needed to minimise the impact of the shortfall.

“We have improvised and… we have put plans in place as it relates to where we have shortage of drivers, where we have a down unit, we have that crew doing some night shifts at night. It is balanced out even though we would prefer to have more drivers,” stated Muir.

That challenge became more pronounced after they got 11 new trucks from the government in June. This has brought the fleet up to 30 which allows the entity to have approximately 28 to 29 units running daily.

“We are thankful for them. They have put a significant dent in the backlog and all 11 units have been shared equally among the four parishes and we are seeing less and less pile up [of garbage]. And, I must say that if we did not receive those 11 trucks, we would be in trouble today. But I am saying that we are thankful and we’re hoping that come next year, we’ll be getting some more units to have an even cleaner region,” Muir said.

He was referring to a marked improvement in waste collection within western Jamaica over the past three months. The entity is hoping to have zero backlogs in a few days’ time.

Meanwhile, Muir said efforts are currently being made to bring eight trucks that have been out of service for a few months now into operations.

“We are in the process of rehabilitating those units. We are starting the procurement process and we are hoping that in short order those eight units will be back up and that will add to the fleet so it will even make life much easier for the crew,” he told the Observer.

“Some of these parts are not readily available for some of the units. We have identified the parts and they’re in the procurement process now, so we should get them back out within the next couple weeks,” added the operations manager.

The press briefing was aimed at updating the region on plans to be executed by WPM and progress being made so that residents can have a full understanding as to what the entity is doing.

Muir said plans are in place to make the press briefing a quarterly event.