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Rocky Mountain Recycling employee exemplifies commitment to vehicle safety

(Las Vegas, NV) – For exhibiting outstanding efforts, achievements, and contributions during a career in vehicle maintenance, the Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries (ISRI) presented its Golden Wrench Award to Armando Ojeda. Ojeda serves as a diesel mechanic for ReMA member Rocky Mountain Recycling (RMR) in Commerce City, Colorado.

“It is with great pride that we honor Armando Ojeda with the Golden Wrench Award,” said Commodor Hall, transportation safety director for ISRI. “He is an example to his peers. His strong work-ethic, commitment to safety, and making sure the job is done right the first time ensures that trucks going out on the road under his watch are the safest possible.”

Ojeda started with RMR in August 2013 as a driver. In October 2014 Armando was promoted to mechanic position in the vehicle maintenance shop. Armando took on a leadership role as well as the responsibility of maintaining all the trucks and trailers. He also performs welding repairs on trailers, lugers and roll-off equipment. In addition, Ojeda helped RMR see additional savings by creating new vendor relationships, reducing material costs, and eliminating vendors that were no longer beneficial to RMR. He is married to his wife Yvonne Ojeda for 23 years, and has two children, Armando Jr and Sabrina. They also have two grandchildren, Adrian and Mireya. In addition to riding his motorcycle, hunting, camping, and fishing, Armando enjoys spending time with his son refurbishing old cars and selling them. 

“Armando has been an integral part of the maintenance program at Rocky Mountain Recycling. Armando ensures that our trucks are road worthy at all times. Armando follows DOT shut down procedures and he makes the necessary repairs before drivers get on the road. Above all, Armando ensures that repairs to our fleet are done right the first time mitigating future issues,” said Dave Atteberry, logistics manager for Rocky Mountain Recycling.

The Golden Wrench Award is based on the following criteria:

•    Nominees must be full-time employees (employed by the member company for a minimum of one year) whose primary responsibility is to maintain commercial motor vehicles.
•    Nominations must be made by someone familiar with the nominee’s work history, such as a supervisor, safety director, and so on.
•    No more than five vehicle maintenance technicians may be nominated from the same member company.
•    Nominees must meet the minimum requirement of five years of verifiable employment as a commercial motor vehicle (CMV) maintenance technician.
•    Nominees must have a minimum of 40 hours qualified medium/heavy and or auto/light truck maintenance training (within the last three years). For example; training provided by a licensed technical school, community college, automotive technician training program, or qualified equipment vendor.
•    National Institute of Automotive Service Excellence (ASE) medium/heavy truck and or auto/light truck test completion and current certification (within the last five years).
•    A current Commercial Driver’s License (CDL– A, B, or C Class).
•    Member company CSA vehicle maintenance performance score cannot exceed 60% (CSA Threshold 80%).
•    No member company record of CSA intervention letters/alert notices within the past 24 months (in any of the CSA Seven Basics).

Other criteria taken into account are contributions to improving company vehicle maintenance, letters of appreciation, deeds of heroism on or off the job, and civic and fraternal organizations.

The award was presented to Mr. Ojeda at ISRI’s 2018 Convention and Exposition in Las Vegas. In addition to travel to and lodging at the Convention, he received a crystal award and a personalized certificate.

*Photos Available Upon Request

The Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries, Inc. (ISRI) is the "Voice of the Recycling Industry™." ReMA represents more than 1,300 companies in 21 chapters in the U.S. and more than 40 countries that process, broker, and consume scrap commodities, including metals, paper, plastics, glass, rubber, electronics, and textiles. With headquarters in Washington, DC, the Institute provides education, advocacy, safety and compliance training, and promotes public awareness of the vital role recycling plays in the U.S. economy, global trade, the environment and sustainable development. Generating nearly $117 billion annually in U.S. economic activity, the scrap recycling industry provides nearly half a million Americans with good jobs.