Pumper Generates Multiple Revenue Streams Via Customer-Driven Decisions & New Technology

Ohio’s Judge Berk provides old-fashioned customer service, but employs the latest technology to ensure a job well done.
Pumper Generates Multiple Revenue Streams Via Customer-Driven Decisions & New Technology
Judge Berk has worked in the industry for 40 years and opened his own septic service company 11 years ago. Berk credits technology improvements and good customer service for his company’s growth.

Interested in Onsite Systems?

Get Onsite Systems articles, news and videos right in your inbox! Sign up now.

Onsite Systems + Get Alerts

By his own admission, Judge Berk is an old-school septic pumper – the kind of guy who prefers to avoid debt by paying cash for equipment and still believes in sealing a deal with a handshake.

Yet along with his wife, Juanita, he operates Judge’s Sanitation & Excavation LLC in Westerville, Ohio, with a decidedly modern-day mindset, centered on diversified services that generate multiple revenue streams and help keep cash flow consistent; GPS units on trucks that save fuel and maximize income tax deductions; and a variety of equipment that improves productivity and enhances customer satisfaction.

At the end of the day, Berk believes a strong, old-fashioned work ethic and common courtesy for customers counts just as much as the GPS units, the pipeline inspection camera and the nicely lettered and painted vacuum trucks that help him do his work every day. 

“I’m old school, all right,” Berk says. “Every day, you go out and treat people right, work hard, come home and relax, then go out and do it again the next day.

“In this line of work, you can’t just go buy a vacuum truck and start pumping out tanks. You’ve got to know how to find the tanks, pump them efficiently and treat people well,” he continues. “People think they’re going to buy a truck and make millions of dollars. But in a way, it’s like being a doctor … there’s way more to it than the average person can ever imagine.”

STARTED SMALL

Berk, 56, spent the first 26 years of his career as a route driver for a septic pumper in Columbus before branching out on his own in 2000, doing mostly excavation work. In 2011, he fulfilled a longtime goal – expanding his services – by buying the septic-pumping accounts and two vacuum trucks owned by a company called All-American Sanitation, whose owner was retiring.

Today, Berk’s business volume is about 75 percent residential pumping (with approximately 1,000 accounts) and about 25 percent commercial work, including cleaning grease traps and car-wash catch basins.

Disposal costs are higher for grease-trap waste, which he says reduces his profit margins. “But when the phone rings, you have to go and do it – or someone else will,” he says. To make up for the higher disposal fees and cover wear and tear on the trucks, plus fuel and labor expenses, he charges a minimum fee for pumping less than 500 gallons of grease. “It ain’t really worth doing it without a minimum charge,” he says.

Berk’s first pump truck was a 1967 Chevrolet 60 with a 1,250-gallon steel tank. Things have changed dramatically since then; today, Berk estimates that he owns about $250,000 worth of equipment.

The roster of equipment includes: a 2005 Sterling truck with a 2,500-gallon steel tank; a 1987 Ford LN-8000 with a 2,000-gallon steel tank; a 2002 Ford Economy cargo van; a 1987 GMC box truck (used to carry everything from pipes and fittings to sump pumps); a 1987 Ford stake-bed truck (for carrying pipe and pulling excavation equipment); a 2012 Caterpillar mini-excavator; a 1986 Case 1840 skid loader; a 1995 Chevrolet pickup truck; two drain cleaning machines from Spartan Tool LLC – one for 1 1/2- to 2-inch-diameter pipes and a bigger unit designed to handle 2- to 6-inch-diameter pipes; and a Viztrac AM200 pipeline inspection camera system.

CUSTOMER-DRIVEN EQUIPMENT CHOICES

For a brief time, Berk tried to boost productivity by purchasing a larger, 3,400-gallon, tandem-axle truck. But he quickly sold it after too many customers complained the much-heavier vehicle left marks on their asphalt driveways, especially in summer.

A bigger truck isn’t an absolute necessity for Berk because there are three municipal waste treatment plants within a reasonable drive from Westville – in Newark, Johnstown and Columbus. Besides, he says he usually averages about 1,500 gallons per disposal trip.

“I might hit 2,000 gallons every now and then,” he says.

Berk says customer demand for services has dictated his equipment purchases. His reasoning: If he doesn’t do the work customers ask him to do, someone else will ­– and would reap the profits.

“I want to be able to perform the services my customers need,” he explains. “For example, sometimes people just want their drainline cleaned, not the tank pumped. It’s all part of providing good service. If I didn’t do it, they’d call someone else to do it. Why not put that money in your own pocket?”

On a similar note, Berk says he used to rent drain cleaning equipment, but couldn’t make enough profit on it. So he saved up money and bought his own machines. “Now when I go out on a job, I can pump out the tank, clean the lines and use a camera to show customers what’s wrong,” he says. “And I can charge customers an extra hourly rate when I use the drain machines or the camera.”

The Viztrac pipe camera has been an especially valuable tool because it provides visual proof for skeptical customers that a problem – a broken line or tree roots, for instance – really does exist in a drainline. “They can see it for themselves, and it’s way better than me just taking a guess at what the problem might be,” Berk points out. “Customers get a big kick out of it because they can actually see what’s going on under the ground.

“It also helps me retain customers,” he adds. “If you go out on a job with a ratty-looking truck, people don’t want that. But if you go out with upgraded equipment and modern technology, it’s very impressive.”

MAKE A GOOD IMPRESSION

In that vein, Berk says he makes it a point to keep equipment clean and well maintained, and he doesn’t mind paying extra to make his trucks look good with nice paint jobs and graphics. In addition, he bought chrome inserts for his truck wheels instead of aluminum wheels, because they “look a little fancier – they’re eye-catchers,” he says. “It dresses ’em up a bit. I’m also a bear on maintenance. If trucks go down, it’s not cheap. So I keep them maintained.”

Given his old-school mentality, it should come as no surprise that Berk prefers to pay cash for his equipment. “I never did like getting billed for things,” he says. “If you spend the money that comes in, sometimes there’s no money left by the time the payment is due. It’s just a company policy of mine. It’s the way I started out, and I won’t have it any different. It’s easier on me and easier on my bookkeeper.”

The only exception in 13 years was the Caterpillar mini-excavator. Berk says he couldn’t resist the zero percent interest rate on a three-year financing plan – especially when the monthly payment was the same amount he was paying to lease the machine.

“That’s free money,” he says. “Instead of putting money in someone else’s pocket, I’m putting it in mine.”

HONESTY – THE BEST POLICY

Looking ahead, Berk says he still loves his work because he gets to meet a lot of nice people every day and enjoys talking with them. He says he’s content to maintain his current client base and not grow significantly.

“I feel pretty comfortable where I am right now,” he says. “I just plan to keep being nice to people. And be honest. And do a job and do it right – give customers their money’s worth. You can never forget that it’s the customer that puts bread and butter on the table.”



Discussion

Comments on this site are submitted by users and are not endorsed by nor do they reflect the views or opinions of COLE Publishing, Inc. Comments are moderated before being posted.