Risk & Reward

Canada’s Georgian Bay Sanitation steps out to provide new services and invests in new technology to keep the business fresh and profitable after nearly 50 years
Risk & Reward
Paul LeFaive (left), Keith Robillard and Sheri King review daily service routes in the Georgian Bay Sanitation office.

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Taking risks comes with the territory for business owners. But Keith Robillard upped the ante considerably in 1994 when he moved to diversify his father’s Canadian septic-service business, Georgian Bay Sanitation Inc., by buying 12 portable restrooms – with money he and his then-fiancée, Amy, were saving for their wedding.

“She almost killed me when I told her,” Robillard says. “But I had calculated what they would cost, and how much I could make renting them, so I was confident I could pay it back before the wedding.

“I bought them in April, and they all were rented out by May,” he adds. “In about three months, I’d made back my initial investment. It worked out so good that we took money we got as wedding gifts and bought 30 more restrooms.”

That anecdote illustrates one of several reasons why Georgian Bay, based in Penetanguishene, Ontario, has grown dramatically since that gamble 18 years ago. A third-generation owner of the company along with his sister Laurie and father, Martin, Robillard helps fuel the company’s growth through solid business instincts coupled with an emphasis on new technology, innovation, diversification and cost-reducing land application of waste.

 

CALCULATED RISK

The move to diversify into portable restrooms paid dividends, but it was hardly a knee-jerk decision. Robillard thoroughly weighed the pros and cons – including the fact that his main competitor was about an hour’s drive away. He figured he could compete on price because Georgian Bay would benefit from lower transportation costs and could provide better service via closer proximity to customers.

But Robillard knew he would have to invest his own money in the venture and not rely on the company to take the risk. He said his father viewed the new service as a way to test his son’s resolve.

“I knew it was going to have to be my gamble, not the company’s. It was a test, too. I was young and just out of school and he wanted to see me follow through on it,” Robillard recalls.

“I also wanted to bring something to the company that was different,” he continues. “I didn’t want to just join the family business and do something my grandfather had started. I wanted to put my own spin on things.

“My big goal was to own 100 portable restrooms because I knew the income I could make from them would support myself, allow me to buy a truck and make a good living,” he says. “And if septic was slow, there’d still be good, steady income with 100 units and a truck.”

 

GROWING FLEET

Today, the company’s business volume is split fairly evenly between septic service and portable sanitation, with about two thirds of the restroom business generated by construction and weekend rentals, and the rest from special events.

The company owns about 300 units from PolyJohn Enterprises; a 60-foot restroom/shower trailer bought used and outfitted by Robillard; and 20 PolyJohn hand-wash stations. To service the restrooms, the company owns a 1985 Ford 7000 with a self-made, 800-gallon steel tank, mounted sideways so the rig can carry six restrooms; a 1999 Ford F-350 4 x 4 with a 350-gallon waste/200-gallon freshwater slide-in unit, made by Vacutrux Ltd.; and a 2001 Ford F-550 with a 350-gallon waste/200-gallon freshwater Vacutrux slide-in unit (also mounted sideways, which allows the truck to carry four restrooms).

In addition, Georgian Bay relies on a 2008 Ford F-550 4x4 with a 500-gallon waste/300-gallon freshwater Vacutrux tank. It’s unusual in that the freshwater tank is located in the middle of the waste tank; if viewed from the end, it would look like the hole in a doughnut, Robillard says, noting he came up with the innovative concept.

“We designed it that way so the weight is always evenly distributed,” he explains. “As you load up with restroom waste, you lose freshwater, so if the tank runs lengthwise, the back of the truck gets heavier and the front gets lighter. And if the tank sits sideways, the left or right side would be too heavy or too light. This design eliminates that problem.”

For septic service, the company uses a 2010 Kenworth T470H with a 3,600-gallon tank made by Presvac Systems, and a 2006 International 7600 with a 3,600-gallon steel tank built by Vacutrux. It features wrap-around trays so it can hold the Tiger Tail hose, made by Flexaust, without a bungee cord. Both trucks rely on PV 750 vane pumps from Presvac.

 

SEPTIC SERVICE ROOTS

Georgian Bay is a far different company now than it was when Robillard’s grandfather Fred Bidian started out in 1964 as a snow-removal and septic-service company. Robillard began working for his father and grandfather part time when he was 12 years old, and worked for the company full time during summers while he attended college to earn a nursing degree.

“But then Dad started having health issues and I didn’t like working inside, so I joined the company full time when I was 20 years old,” he says. “I became a part-owner in 1999, when I was 25.”

Growth came quickly. By 1999, the company owned 300 restrooms, in part because it purchased 115 units in 2002 to help handle a huge special event: a visit to Canada by Pope John Paul II. Robillard says he was unconcerned about that large purchase creating an inventory glut.

“I knew we’d use them eventually because we’d often need to take restrooms from construction sites for special events if crews weren’t working on those weekends,’’ he says. “It didn’t take long and all the restrooms were booked for the summer. At that point, there was no problem paying them off by the end of the year or by early the next season.”

 

LAND SPREADING

To cut expenses, Georgian Bay land-applies residential septic waste when weather permits; all other waste goes to sewage treatment plants. No land application is allowed from December to April; during that period, the company must take all waste to a treatment plant. The rest of the year – as long as there’s no snow or no heavy rain occurring or forecast – the company land-applies waste on 28 acres of leased land that’s no more than a 30-minute drive from anywhere in the company’s service area.

“We land-apply waste because it’s cheaper for our customers and none of the three local municipal (treatment) centers can handle all the waste generated in the area,” he says. “We pay $236 (Canadian) per 1,000 gallons of waste to dispose in Midland, plus 13 percent tax. That’s one of the highest rates in Canada. So it costs us about $800 per load with the bigger trucks. Customers pay 100 percent of the disposal cost – there’s no profit at all for us in disposal.”

To increase waste-disposal efficiency, the company bought the Kenworth with a 3,600-gallon tank, enabling route drivers to service more customers per trip than smaller trucks.

“We plan routes by location and the size of the tank to ensure we’re not going out for nothing,” he says. “We want every kilometer we drive paid for in both directions. It pays to know the gallonage ahead of time so we can plan accordingly.”

 

DIGITAL RECORDS

The company runs more efficiently because of a customer-database software program Laurie designed in 1997 and has upgraded four or five times. She took all the company’s paper customer reports and input critical data – such as customer name, address and phone number and the size of the tank – for easier access.

To diversify its business base, Georgian Bay also inspects septic systems for banks, lawyers and real estate companies. It makes the company a one-stop shop for waste services, Robillard says.

“It gives us the opportunity to be the first person a customer calls, because we do restrooms, tanks and inspections,” he says.

The company also promotes a filter-cleaning maintenance program that provides three cleanings a year. “It’s good because it lets us provide another service and gives us a contact, so if a pump-out is needed, they use us,” he says. “We use a car or pickup truck to do cleanings, which take about five minutes to perform. If we route the cleanings efficiently, and can do 30 a day, we can make some money.”

In addition, Georgian Bay pumps out holding tanks at five or six local marinas during summers. “We do about 2,000 to 3,000 gallons per pump-out,” he says. “We’re also licensed to pump out grease traps, but we don’t do a lot of them because the disposal costs are so high.”

 

CHALLENGES AHEAD

Disposal issues will challenge Georgian Bay in the years ahead. Increasingly tighter land-application regulations and treatment facilities reducing operating hours and limiting the amount of waste they accept creates logistical nightmares for routing trucks. The plants accept less waste in part because the restrictions on land-application have created more demand than the plants can handle, he says.

Add on ever-increasing fuel, wage and insurance costs, and Robillard sees limited growth potential in the coming years.

“The closest treatment plant (in Midland) is now only open from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. and limits the gallonage it accepts,” Robillard explains. “The next closest treatment plant is in Collingwood, which is a two-hour roundtrip away and also only open from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m.

“Eventually, I think we may have to use the Collingwood plant all the time,” he adds. “So, if we need to dispose of two loads a day, that cuts out half a work day, which means we’ll need another truck in order to do the same amount of pumping in the same amount of time. It’s going to make it tough to survive.”

However, Robillard and other operators are working with local government officials to develop solutions that can satisfy political concerns about land-applying waste without financially punishing pumping contractors.

“The waste has to go somewhere,” Robillard says. “They’ll have to come up with something. In the meantime, we’ll just keep working to find a solution. I’m not too worried about it. We’ll do whatever we have to do.”

Except borrow more money from a wedding fund.



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