Are you a septic service contractor who visits the Pumper & Cleaner Environmental Expo International every year and finds yourself gravitating toward the displays of combination trucks? Maybe you’ve always wondered what one of these high-powered and versatile rigs could do to help build your business? Maybe you’re drawn to new technologies and dream about going to different locations and seeing these impressive rigs put through their paces.
I feel the same way when I look at the latest tough-job trucks employed for hydroexcavation and a wide variety of industrial vacuum loading tasks. For years they have opened up new worlds of work to pumping professionals. This month I feel lucky to have learned how two companies in our industry are using combination trucks to grow their businesses.
In this issue dedicated to industrial vacuum loading, we travel to the Southwest to visit Texas ReExcavation LC – T-Rex for short; then to the rugged Northwest to see the operations of Redi Services. Both of these companies are utilizing combination trucks to bolster profits, but they’re doing it in their own ways.
BEHIND A DIFFERENT KIND OF STEERING WHEEL
In Houston, long-time NASCAR driver Bobby Hillin Jr. was smitten by the big work trucks when he was looking at a vac-loading company for a race sponsor. Though his career took him across the country driving stock cars at 200 miles per hour in front of hundreds of thousands of race fans, he remained excited by the capabilities of trucks used for hydroexcavation. As he told writer Ken Wysocky in our cover story (“Fueled for Success”):
“I told my wife, ‘There’s something to this,’ ” Hillin said. “So we moved to Houston and started T-Rex … First, I thought it was pretty exciting how hydroexcavating helps build infrastructure safely. Second, it was something new. I knew I’d have to educate potential clients, but the market wasn’t saturated.’’
Today, you’ll see Hillin on a construction site more often than you’ll see him at the track. And he’s happy to have embarked on a second successful career.
EXPLOSIVE GROWTH IN WYOMING
From tiny Lyman, Wyo., entrepreneur Gary Condos and his partner, Jay Anderson, set out to build a regional industrial services company that could attract work throughout the year, even in the harsh Rocky Mountain winters. One secret weapon to quickly growing profit: technology, including combination trucks.
Redi Services utilizes 50 trucks to perform work as far ranging as hydroexcavation at oil exploration sites, high-pressure cleaning at gold mines and removing sludge at wastewater treatment plants. Offering diversified services has driven revenue from $5 million in 2005 to $55 million in 2009.
In the profile story (“Anything Goes”), Condos interestingly told writer Scottie Dayton that the company’s portable sanitation division — an area familiar to most Pumper readers — plays a role in encouraging diversification.
“Offering portable sanitation got our foot in the door more than once,” he said. “After that, my guys are really good about cross-selling and we end up doing multiple services for the client.”
HOW ABOUT YOU?
Do you have an industrial vacuum services success story to tell? Drop me a line at editor@pumper.com and let me know about it.
