Clean It Up, Mate!

The blokes at New Zealand’s HydroVac Limited use a specialized fleet of lorries to handle the stiffest sludge and the smelliest spills
Clean It Up, Mate!
When limited access prevents the use of a 3,000-gallon vacuum truck, a smaller unit is used. Here, the smaller rig transfers a load to the bigger truck for transport to the treatment plant.

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Clogged sewer laterals catapulted Andrew Williams’ Laser Plumbing and Roofing business in Whenuapai, Auckland, New Zealand, into a 24/7 environmental support company that cleans up tough messes.

Frustrated when his compact portable jetter removed only 70 to 80 percent of blockages, Williams envisioned a machine that could clean and vacuum. In 2004, he and some engineering associates purchased a Nissan Atlas pickup truck, then added a 250-gallon debris tank and a lawn mower engine to power the vacuum pump.

Then Williams formed HydroVac Limited and brought in business partner Dean Stuart. They branched into servicing stormwater filtration systems and catch basins, maintaining advanced treatment systems, and responding to spills within a 30-mile radius of a new facility in Waitakere. The fleet grew to include three purpose-built combination trucks, three vacuum trucks and five vans. By 2008, the company rose to the top of the Auckland Regional Council’s Pollution Response subcontractor list.

No matter how fast or large HydroVac expanded, its niche remained looking after small businesses that needed someone to turn up on time, do a thorough job, and do it economically.

 

STARTING SMALL

HydroVac initially operated within Laser Plumbing, with the lunchroom doubling as an office. When the partners needed help in the field, they borrowed an operator from the plumbing side. Within months, they hired operations manager Amanda Ross to research growth opportunities. Claire McDonagh followed as office administrator/dispatcher and is still with the company. So is their first drain-cleaning technician, Bruce McIntosh.

Ross, replaced by Matthew Punter in 2007, influenced the owners to branch into buying maintenance agreements for advanced wastewater treatment systems. “Manufacturers tasked installers with the 12-month contract, but the money they received was a pittance compared to installation fees,” Punter says. “Dean and Andrew determined that if one company serviced a lot of tanks in a small area, the effort would be worthwhile.”

Ross identified a few installers with numerous tanks to maintain and offered to pay them the revenue they would receive for the service. Williams and Stuart then hired subcontractors to do the work. The vacuum loading branch of the business kept the fledgling endeavor afloat until a year later when Deven, a system manufacturer, offered a maintenance contract for 100 tanks.

That work enabled Williams to build combination trucks to service the accounts. Most had 500-gallon tanks with water and vacuum pumps pulling 600 to 1,700 cfm. “Pumping a system usually requires a 1,500-gallon tank,” Punter says. “We did what we could and hired subcontractors with bigger trucks when necessary.”

 

COMPACT TRUCKS REQUIRED

Because New Zealand is mountainous with narrow two-lane roads, the government mandates vehicle dimensions, low axle weights, and shorter wheelbases than on U.S. trucks. “Our cabover trucks are lighter and more nimble,” Punter says. “Your vehicles are too long and far too big to make it around most of our roads.”

The gross vehicle mass for light vehicles is up to 3.5 tons, medium vehicles from 3.5 to 13 tons, and heavy vehicles exceed 13 tons. To distribute the weight, the trucks have a minimum of two rear axles and possibly two front ones. Until recently, tanks had no baffles.

To increase driver efficiency, the partners installed a holding tank in the yard for offloading septage, then hired a subcontractor with a tanker to transport it to the municipal treatment plant. Land application is prohibited in Auckland.

During the two years HydroVac installed advanced treatment systems, it earned a reputation for troubleshooting. “We hired two experienced technicians and a manager for the unit,” Punter says. “We always want to learn and to be the best, so they wrote down any overheard snippet of information and researched it.”

Troubleshooting tied into maintenance work and was more lucrative, so Punter handed the installation branch to Laser Plumbing. Within a year, HydroVac was servicing more than 1,900 tanks on six-month intervals. Today, troubleshooting and maintenance agreements account for 40 percent of its revenue.

 

TARGETING SMALL BUSINESS CUSTOMERS

In 2006, both companies moved to a larger, rural location in Waitakere. But business slowed due to competitors charging half of HydroVac’s fee to clear blocked laterals. To compensate, Punter focused on expanding scheduled maintenance work with property and facility managers, restaurant owners, schools and manufacturers.

“The area has plenty of large contractors looking after big business,” he says. “They view small companies almost as something to be tolerated. We saw our niche, avoided municipal and government contracts, and set our sights on small business owners.”

The Yellow Pages, the HydroVac website, following leads, and word-of-mouth doubled the work in one year. “As soon as our drivers enter a site, they look for other areas that may need attention,” Punter says.

Another significant boost came from Auckland’s 2008 building code, which required commercial or industrial businesses to filter stormwater in vaults before it left the site. Various products are available, but the major player is StormFilter.

“Dean heard that Stormwater 360, our StormFilter agent, had a contractor cleaning filters,” Punter says. “Dean arrived just as they were talking about how the company wasn’t providing the level of service they needed.” HydroVac received the contract and still has it.

 

STORMWATER WINDFALL

Cleaning stormwater filters in underground concrete vaults requires confined-space entry and gas detection certification. All seven employees are certified and cross-trained. Vaults hold up to 160 cartridges filled with filter media and sediment weighing 150 to 200 pounds each. Such vaults take two days to clean, but will not require attention for another 12 to 18 months.

“The crews disconnect the cartridges from the floor, then push them to the vacuum hose,” Punter says. “If they are too heavy, the men add an extension to the hose and vacuum them in place.”

Empty cartridges are hauled topside, then workers vacuum the vault floor and clean the chamber inlets using 4,500-psi jetting rigs. They install new cartridges that were filled with media at the HydroVac yard. The company services more than 3,000 StormFilter cartridges.

As debris volume increased, a problem arose. “The disposal rate for water is significantly less than for solids,” Punter says. “Mixed loads are charged the higher disposal rate, and ours were 60 percent water and 40 percent grit.”

The partners’ solution was to build a 17-cubic-yard dewatering pit. In the center of the pit, they built a wall of stacked railroad ties separated by the heads of roofing screws. Water seeping through the minute gaps then passed through a perforated metal sheet that captured most remaining sediment before flowing to the clarifier. After the suspended and dissolved solids settled out, the liquid was decanted and hauled off site.

“Our little combo trucks are still running around servicing clients, but now we have separate holding tanks for stormwater, septage, and grease trap waste – and we do our own hauling,” Punter says.

HydroVac owns a 2010 MAN truck with 2,000-gallon tank built out by Kaiser NZ Ltd., in Matamata; a Hino truck with a 2,500-gallon unit and a Robuschi liquid ring vacuum pump built out by GRD Engineering in Aukland, and a Scania 8-by-4 with 3,000-gallon tank and Moreta pump from Japan that was converted for use in New Zealand by Ryan Trucks in Aukland.

 

A FINE MESS

HydroVac has tackled a variety of stomach-turning jobs. In one instance, a pipe broke in the semi-basement of a plant processing packaged salads. The pulp from the carrot-peeling machine dropped into a sump pump, traveled along the pipe under the building, through the basement, and out to the waste pit.

“Nobody noticed anything was wrong until pulp began flowing from under the basement service door,” Punter says. “As soon as they found the mess, production stopped until it was cleaned up.”

The pulp, splattered on the walls and ceiling around the broken pipe, was knee deep on the floor. Thick mold grew on the walls. As two crews vacuumed the pulp, they unknowingly dewatered the remaining material. Halfway through the job, it was too solid to travel up the hose. The men added water and mixed until it reached the proper consistency.

With the pulp gone, they emptied the basement and pressure-washed it from top to bottom. The Ministry of Health approved their efforts and the plant resumed production. The job took two nine-hour days and the men removed 18,000 gallons of pulp.

 

GREASE RELIEF

Another nauseous job began when the owner of an Internet cafe reported flies and a smell coming from under the floor. The HydroVac crew suited up, then lowered themselves into a crawl space through a hatch in the floor. “The overhead was so low that they couldn’t even crawl on their hands and knees,” Punter says.

The adjacent fast-food restaurant had no grease trap. When the lateral clogged, the owner removed the inspection cap to relieve the pressure, allowing wastewater to empty directly under the cafe. “Our crew advanced on their bellies, cleaning the mess with 2-inch vacuum hoses,” Punter says. “Then they disinfected and degreased as best they could and replaced the cap.” One year later, they returned for a repeat performance for the same reason.

Spills are not the only challenge facing employees. Sometimes it is daily tasks such as dumping sticky material from debris tanks. The men initially used a high-pressure hose to help slide out material, but that sent unwanted water to the dewatering pit. The crew brainstormed, sawed the handle off a spade, welded it to a 9-foot-long, 3/4-inch galvanized tube, and added a hose fitting to the opposite end. The tool shoots water up the tube and underneath the spade, helping lift the load off the bottom of the tank to slide it out.

 

HIRING FOR SUCCESS

Companies are only as good as their employees, and HydroVac pays above-average wages to attract and retain desired individuals. The process begins with an advertisement stipulating applicants must be able to handle physically and mentally demanding conditions, work flexible hours, and be in peak physical condition.

“During the review process, we explain that customer service is why HydroVac grew so fast, and we expect employees to represent our standards,” Punter says. “We do a good job of screening and our turnover rate is very low. More important, we allow our people to reach their full potential.”



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