Albuquerque’s Solid Waste Department is looking to fill more than 100 vacancies.

“All the positions on the driving end are really short,” Ernest Pacheco, a supervisor in the city’s Solid Waste Department told KRQE. “There’s a lot of other vacancies.”

According to KRQE, the Solid Waste Department consists of 542 positions. It is in need of 20 collection drivers to fill its normal allotment of 173. The department is also looking to hire two equipment operators and five transport operators.

Pacheco said current employees have had to deal with staff shortages. “The impact of that has just been having to step up and cover the different facilities and work six days a week for probably the last year,” Pacheco said. “This has been hard on everybody.”

The city is targeting potential employees who have backgrounds in driving, like Pacheco, who was a truck driver before working for Solid Waste.

“I was over the road for 15 years of my life,” Pacheco said. “Not home, missing graduations, celebrations, all family functions.”

 Kimberly Francis, a former truck driver and now a new mom, has been a collections driver for a little more than a year. “You get to go home every night,” she said. “You’re not stuck out, and it’s fun.”

Joe Valerio, a supervisor for the clean city division, has a background in driving buses, semis, and military tanks. He called his job, “a real desirable career. You have children real small; they’re fascinated by the trucks and what we do.”

As an incentive, the department is offering a $750 hiring bonus and is considering a billboard campaign early next year along I-40 to attract more drivers. Along with money, the job can be personally gratifying.

“It almost gives you a sense of accomplishment because you’re going out, you’re cleaning up, you’re taking it away; you’re making it look nice again,” Francis said.

Click here if you’re interested in applying for a position.