Sounds like there are hierarchies in the garbagemen business. I recall reading an article a few years back about garbagemen, the ones who ride on the back of the trucks, they do back-breaking work, and it's definitely a young man's gig.
I've admittedly never seen our garbage trucks in operation here in my Dallas suburb, but for over a decade in Louisiana, our garbage trucks were a 1 man crew who ran a robotic arm.