Call me Al . . .

In my last Spanish lesson, professor Ximena presented me with a short story, written by Mexican author, journalist, and television presenter Cristina Pacheco.

It contained several colloquial phrases, one of which I'd like to share with you.
It tells the story of a woman who has to seek employment, after her husband is made redundant, and the only work he can find is as a night-shift taxi driver, which doesn't pay enough to keep up with expenses.

She hires a maid, but leaves for work before the maid arrives, so she has to leave notes with instructions for her.

Among the notes, is one which asks "¿Llamó al del gas?" "¿le pagó al de la basura?"
My first thought was 'who's Al?' but, of course that's not the meaning of the expression.

The 'al' is a contraction of 'a él', and there's also an implied word, which has been left out, which is 'hombre'.

So, the full version of "¿Llamó al del gas?" would be "¿Llamó (usted) al hombre del gas?" or "Did you call the gas man?" and "¿le pagó al de la basura?" becomes "¿le pagó al hombre de la basura?" or "did you pay the refuse collector?"

This construction can also be applied to women so "Ví a la de las flores" is "I saw the flower lady".
Of course, you don't have to restrict yourself to professions. How about "Diga lo al de la nariz grande", "tell it to the guy with the big nose".

Just be sure not to get confused with Al Del Greco who, apparently, was Placekicker
 (I honestly have no idea what that is) in SuperBowl XXXIV for the Tennessee Titans ;¬)