Articles in the March 2007 issue:
Association News
Association News • The Ontario Association of Sewage Industry Services board is considering holding Canada’s first wastewater environmental event Oct. 17-18 at the Stephen Lagoon in Huntsville.
• According to a report from ZweigWhite, a management and information firm, water/wastewater will be among the three hottest markets for design and construction companies in 2007.
Building the Business
Getting Beyond the Daily Grind By Mike Cooper In 1987, Michael Gerber wrote a groundbreaking, best-selling business book, The E Myth: Why Most Businesses Don’t Work and What to Do About It, – “E” standing for Entrepreneur. In it, he talks about the hidden secret to becoming a wealthy and successful entrepreneur. Putting it simply, the secret is to work on your business, not in it. That means you should spend your days working to make the people who work for you more independent, and develop a management system that helps employees run the business themselves. You gradually remove yourself from the demands of dealing with immediate problems and making all the daily decisions.
Classy Trucks
Alpena Septic Service, Spruce, Mich. This green dream of a vacuum truck was plucked off the 2006 Pumper & Cleaner Environmental Expo show floor from the exhibit of 27th Trucks Inc. The 2002 Mack Vision Series sports a metallic forest green over gold finish and new owners Richard and Lynn Gillespie say it’s has become a real head-turner on the country roads around northeast region of lower Michigan. The pre-owned truck is powered by a 460-cubic inch E/7 engine coupled with a 10-speed Eaton-Fuller transmission. The rig has a new 4,200-gallon steel tank and new Jurop 150 water-cooled pump. The workhorse is tricked out with bells and whistles, both inside the cab and outside. The design including a drop axle allows the pumping couple to haul a minimum of 1,500 gallons when springtime weight limits are in force. An onboard computer tracks engine and drive train diagnostics. Comfort features include air ride, air conditioning, cruise control, stereo, electric windows, heated mirrors, air-ride seats with lumbar adjustments. Graphics were designed by Lynn Gillespie and created by Ernie Delgado. The rig is used mainly for septic tank pumping.
Cover Story
Generation Next? By Mary Shafer Sullivan Septic Service has become a dominant player in its rural market of White Lake, N.Y., over more than eighty years. Four generations of the Bloom family have leveraged market intuition, flexibility, versatility and a dedication to service into a successful history. Where growth is concerned, says manager Mike Bloom, “We’ve had the same plan since 1923: the business grows organically.” He refers to the company’s history of keeping its thumb on the pulse of its market and anticipating area needs.
Industry News
Industry News • Kent Taylor has joined Infiltrator Systems Inc. as a regional regulator consultant in the Science and Government Affairs Department.
• Bay State Truck & Trailer Inc. is expanding the semi-trailer service bays and office space at its headquarters in Rehoboth, Mass.
• Rumpke Consolidated Companies Inc., a privately held Cincinnati waste and recycling firm, has purchased Southern Ohio Sanitation of Cincinnati, a portable restroom rental service with more than 230 customers.
• Satellite Industries has redesigned its Web site at www.SatelliteIndustries.com.
Interview
Not Your Father’s Service Vehicle By Ed Wodalski If you think today’s vacuum trucks look more like your living room and less like a truck, it’s not your imagination. They’re a far cry from the vehicles of only a few years ago. With a price tag of about $65,000 to over $150,000—with a $75,000 price tag being fairly common—today’s operator-friendly trucks sport custom-paint schemes, air-ride seats, air conditioning and CD players. Steve Nelson is the owner of TankTec in Minneapolis. He says today’s trucks are getting lighter, bigger and more efficient. And computer-monitoring systems enable some rigs to think for themselves.
Legal Advice
Away From Prying Eyes By Fred S. Steingold Judges and lawmakers are stepping up efforts to protect the privacy of employees. Here are three suggestions for avoiding legal landmines as privacy rights continue to expand: Lock up all sensitive employee data, initiate an Internet, e-mail and telephone use policy and know the limits on drug testing.
Lighter Side
The Pumper Wonder Years By Jim Kneiszel Mike Bloom has fond memories of growing up in his family’s business, Sullivan Septic Service, in White Lake, N.Y., and his father, Ken, captured some of those happy childhood days as an amateur shutterbug. Bloom, 27, now works side-by-side with his father and his younger brother, Dan, 25. For grins, Mike sent in some fun historic images from the family photo album to Pumper. Readers with children who grew up around the liquid waste industry will relate to the Bloom family scrapbook. “Growing up, you want to be just like your dad,’’ Mike Bloom recalls of the photos of the brothers, noting that many of the photos were posed and the boys weren’t paid employees yet.
Money Manager
A Taxing Time of the Year By Judy Kneiszel Some people hate winter with its snow and cold. Other people hate summer’s heat and humidity. Scrooge hated the Christmas season. My kids hate “back-to-school” season. Myself, I hate tax season because of the extra work it creates for me in the office. I look forward to tax time like I look forward to getting the flu, even though I hire an accountant for the heavy number crunching. I still have to dust off the shoebox full of receipts and provide him with the numbers and the documentation to back up my deductions. But despite my dread, I do it, and I do it thoughtfully and meticulously—because as much as I despise it, I hate the thought of being audited even more.
NAWT
NAWT Enjoys Successful Pumper & Cleaner Expo By Tom Ferrero Everyone we talked to thought the Pumper & Cleaner Environmental Expo International last month in Nashville was the best show ever. It was a great success from the education program, trade show, networking opportunity, and entertainment perspectives. We look forward to a new era of evolution in Louisville in 2008. The National Association of Wastewater Transporters, too, looks forward to this new opportunity as it reviews its most productive Pumper & Cleaner Expo.
Overheard Online
Solids in the Effluent A pumper wonders what impact grinder/ejector pumps have on the absorption area of an onsite system.
Product News
Product News
• SandDollar Comfort Loos offers three new models of its luxury trailer restrooms.
• Designed for cleaning over-the-road tankers, the Gamajet 88 incorporates two Gamajet E-Z8 spinners, positioned to focus wash streams directly at the bulkheads.
• Clear Computing has partnered with Insight USA to develop the TACMobile 2.0 vehicle information center.
• The 2,000-pound capacity X-Tra-Lift 2000 from Stellar Industries Inc. is an electrically controlled, hydraulic lifting system designed for one-ton pickups and trucks with utility bodies.
• The Vermeer multi-blade plow attachment is designed to install Netafilm dripperline in septic tank leaching field projects.
Profile
Passing the Torch By Sharon Verbeten If he were still alive, Merrill Pollard would be proud to see the shiny white, blue and black Pollard Pumping trucks trekking the rural roads not far from Omaha, Neb. Fifty years after Pollard started the business, his grandson, Jason Magwire, has not only brought the company into the 21st century; he’s continued his grandfather’s passion for welding by building the company’s own service truck fleet. It’s a family labor of love, strengthened by steel and bolstered by what Magwire calls “50 years of trial and error.”
Reader Pipelines
Holding the Line on Fleet Costs By Carol Brzozowski Without a doubt, the price of fuel and insurance put fleet costs hand-in-hand with labor as the highest operational expenses pumpers face. So how do contractors keep a top-notch fleet while containing those costs? Reminding drivers to go slow and keep safety uppermost in mind is how Tony Ferreira, president of United Septic Systems in Bedford Hills, N.Y., deals with it. To contain insurance costs on the fleet, Ferreira tries to keep accidents and claims to a minimum.
Reading Between the Lines
It’s Slop Time! By Jim Kneiszel Keeping vehicles clean during this sloppy season makes an even bigger difference to you than it does to me. While I like to drive a clean car to church on Sunday, a dirty car won’t really impact my earning potential during the week. How does a sloppy-looking service truck reflect on your pumping business? The potential customer who reads your name and number across the side of your filthy-looking tank may think the dirty truck is a reflection of the service you provide. During these days of freezing and thawing and excessive road salt usage, the grimy film might be attacking vital metal components and the underside of your vehicle.
Rules and Regs
Ontario Association Opposes Proposed Wastewater Regulation By Scottie Dayton The Province of Ontario’s proposed streamlined Waste Management Projects regulation classifies waste projects based on the type of waste, size, and, in some cases, the ability to generate energy. The Ontario Association of Sewage Industry Services lobbied constantly but unsuccessfully for all levels of government to invest in infrastructure to help meet more stringent regulations.
• Missouri
The Department of Health and Senior Services Onsite Sewage Program is now under the Division of Community and Public Health, Section for Disease Control & Environmental Epidemiology, Bureau of Environmental Regulations and Licensure.
• Florida
The Department of Health has clarified a jurisdictional point about who may connect an onsite system to building plumbing.
• North Carolina
A bill advocated by the North Carolina Septic Tank Association requiring education and training for installers or inspectors of onsite systems has become law.
Septic System Answer Man
Built to Last By Roger E. Machmeier Research on septic tank performance has shown one of the most important features is the volume of liquid in the tank. Usually there is very little difference in the cost of a larger tank. I want to thank my installer friend, Jon Olson, of Olson Sewer Service in Minnesota, for some cost estimates on septic tanks and drainfield trench. These are average costs and the actual costs will vary from site to site. The cost of installing a single 1,500-gallon septic tank under average conditions is estimated to be $1,685. This is about $1,300 less than the cost of two 1,000-gallon tanks. So I would suggest that the largest size tank available be installed as a single tank.
Special Feature
Pumper & Cleaner Expo: It’s All Here By Jim Kneiszel Pumping professionals found plenty of new products to peruse and education opportunities galore at the 27th annual Pumper & Cleaner Environmental Expo International in Nashville Feb. 7-10. The National Association of Wastewater Transporters offered a variety of training and education opportunities, and hundreds of haulers participated. When attendees hit the show floor Feb. 8-10, they saw a raft of intriguing new products designed to enhance the efficiency of their operations. Nearly 400,000 square feet of exhibit space was filled with new vacuum trucks, onsite system innovations, portable sanitation units and accessories and alternative products to help pumpers expand their marketing efforts.
Special Feature
Special Feature: Choosing a Tank By Bob Carlson A long, long time ago it was a simple world. Vacuum trucks were all the same and there really wasn’t that much choice in the market. But as Bob Dylan so aptly sang back when, “the times they are a changin’.” There are more choices available to the vacuum truck operator than ever before. So let’s take a look at three of the major choices for vacuum tanks: carbon steel, aluminum and stainless steel. Each type has its place in the market and none is going to go away anytime soon. Like anything else, the choice depends on your goals, your style of operation and the economics of your business.
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