you should note that a gas engine does not convert all that 33kWh of energy into mechanical energy. a gasoline engine has about a 25% conversion into mechanical energy. https://www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/atv.shtml . diesel might be a bit better than a car but it's city driving by nature.

just heat alone is the largest waste product in a car or truck

That's not relevant to the comparison in any way.

fair enough. misread your comment

Only Soviets kept using gas engined trucks and buses past the 50s

And, for some insane reason, the average American commuter.

A tank of gas is still a tank of gas, regardless of what it gets used for.

Energy in = energy out + waste + energy stored

The truck is barely storing anything on average, so what you've described is energy out and waste, but the calculations to compare the truck to the landfill was done on Energy in - the amount of gas that it needs to be filled with.

For the same total job, you could raise or lower how quickly the truck goes through a tank of gas, but that variance has already been averaged out

This has got to be one of the greatest retorts I have ever read on HN. Hat tip to you.

Most trucks -- at least of the kind used for transporting trash to a landfill -- don't burn any gasoline at all. They run on diesel fuel.

(But yeah, the original claim still seems orders-of-magnitude off; clearly BS.)