One Pennsylvania Family Stumbled Into Pumping, Found Success and Satisfaction

Stephen Smith bought a vacuum truck in the 1950s to serve his mobile home park, and parlayed the experience into a multi-generation family wastewater business.
One Pennsylvania Family Stumbled Into Pumping, Found Success and Satisfaction
Steve Smith, left, with son Stephen Smith, are shown with a Kenworth service truck built out by Pik Rite with a blower from National Vacuum Equipment. (Photos by James Robinson)

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When Stephen I. Smith purchased a 1949 Studebaker pumper truck in the 1950s, he had no intention of getting into the septic service business. Rather, his purpose was practical. He couldn’t find reliable pumpers to service his mobile home park, so he decided to do the work himself.

It wasn’t long before family and friends were asking him to pump their septic tanks, and in 1959 he officially started a part-time pumping business. From the beginning, his 12-year-old son, Stephen (Steve) C. Smith, rode with his father. When he graduated from high school in 1966, Steve worked full time in the family pumping business covering the Hanover, Pennsylvania, area.

These days, Steve, 69, carries on the three-generation business with his son, Stephen Paul Smith, who is 41. With nine trucks and a 330-acre farm, Smith’s Sanitary Septic Service has added a broad spectrum of services to meet customers’ needs as types of allowable septic systems have changed over the years.

According to Joan Smith, Steve’s wife, who runs the office with two other women, Smith’s offers one-stop service from pumping to installation to repair and inspection. The company has grown over the years, but the Smith name and reputation continue to focus on the quality of service since its simple beginnings.

The service menu has grown gradually, Joan explains.

“It just evolved,” she explains, recalling her nearly 46 years with the company since marrying Steve. “At first we had two trucks, and then we’d add more each year as the business grew.”

Before CDL licenses were required, and when the trucks were smaller, she drove a truck and learned the business hands-on. With the office in their home, the Smiths started out with two trucks parked in an oversized garage at their home.

DOING MORE

About 75 percent of the Smiths’ work continues to be pumping, with about 25 percent commercial, including pumping grease. The remaining revenue comes from related services. The additional services began when Stephen graduated from high school, and he was interested in excavating.

“We used to give backhoe work away,” Joan explains their one-time preference for subcontracting the dirt work. “But then they’d be busy, and we had to have someone immediately. We decided it was best to do our own (backhoe work). When a septic is backed up, you need to do it immediately.”

With repair and installation services, jetting was added. Later, Joan and a driver earned certifications in 2007 to do inspections.

One reason for adding services comes from how systems have changed over the years.

“We had cesspools from the ’40s through the ’60s. In the ’70s we went to drainfields. In the 1990s we had sand mound systems and then more sophisticated systems in the 2000s. With the changes came the need to repair pumps and install systems, and emergency repair,” Joan says.

In addition to onsite excavation, their son, Stephen, oversees the farm and land application end of the business. He was the one who pushed for purchasing land four years ago. His father, Steve, land-applied septage until 1991, before regulations increased and it became difficult to find land. Hauling septage to a treatment plant became more practical.

“For the size we are now, it is much more worth it. The amount of gallons (3 to 4 million gallons/year) made more sense expense-wise,” Stephen notes. Besides the 180 tillable acres on the Smiths’ 330-acre farm, the business has access to a neighbor’s fields for a total of nearly 500 acres — more than they need to meet regulations.

Though it requires more management and fieldwork hours, land application has been a good addition to the business, Stephen says.

PROMOTION AND IMAGE

While their son keeps track of land application and the farm, Steve and Joan have a handle on the day-to-day workload. Joan’s on-the-job education pays off when she answers phones. “At first they don’t want to talk to a woman, until they realize I know what I am talking about,” Joan says.

In the business’ early years, customers only called when they had problems with their system. Years ago, she started a handwritten system to contact customers every couple of years to remind them it was time to have their tanks pumped. Now the information is handy to retrieve through her computer’s Septic Tracker (Westrom) software.

“Over the years we’ve educated our customers. It’s preventative maintenance,” Joan says.

“When we clean a septic tank we hook up a water hose. We (backflush) and also use the water hose hookup to completely clean the tank and wash it down to the bottom.”

An important component of good service is making sure technicians are effectively trained on all procedures and prepared to meet a standard of service dictated from the top.  

“We are very particular about our pumpers before they go out on their own,” she adds. Newly hired crew members ride along with an experienced driver for a couple of months before going solo.

A FIT FLEET

Steve’s priority of thorough cleaning can also be seen in the condition of the truck fleet.

“Appearance means a lot. We keep them clean, and my husband takes a lot of pride in doing that,” Joan says. The service trucks with blue cabs and white tanks help create a professional image and effective mobile advertising for the business, she says. The Smiths believe money spent to make the trucks look sharp has a big payoff in image.

“You can never have too much chrome,” Steve says.

To maintain consistency, the Smiths have ordered their last 18 trucks from Pik Rite Inc. The manufacturer is conveniently located two hours away, and Joan says the company builds quality trucks and stands behind its products. Since winter weather can be a challenge and the Smiths pump tanks year-round, one feature they include on every truck is heated valves.

The current Pik Rite fleet of nine trucks all carry steel tanks, with capacities ranging from 4,200 gallons to 5,500 gallons. Model years range from 2008 to 2017 and chassis come from Peterbilt, Mack and Kenworth. Most of the trucks run pumps from Wittig (Gardner Denver) or Jurop/Chandler, but the last three were purchased with more powerful vacuum blowers from National Vacuum Equipment.

“We tried one on the 2016 truck, liked it and put them on the next two trucks,” Joan says. “They (NVE blower pumps) definitely save time. We strive to have the top-of-the-line equipment,” Stephen adds.

ADAPTING AND IMPROVING

During their decades of work in the wastewater industry, Steve and Joan have witnessed many changes, and they’ve blended traditional and new ways of working. They still work from home, but now two large shops with three bays each house the bigger trucks they purchased in the past several years. Steve has a washing area outside to keep the trucks clean according to his high standards. Maintenance and minor repair work can be done indoors by a part-time mechanic.

In her home office, Joan, Annalee Werelius and Donna Hull keep the drivers on track with daily job sheets, which they can update or add stops for drivers through cellphone texts. All the trucks have GPS. Customers can pay bills with credit cards through the office. When she’s not in the office, Joan can often be found mowing about 2 acres of lawn to keep up the business’ appearance.

Driver/technicians are Jeff Baldwin, Darren Dixon, Adam Kreider, Nathanael Nell, Alan Pullin, Todd Sherman, James Stiff, Jeff Schuhart, Gerald Shanebrook and Ray Sloan.

The Smiths maintain a landline phone and advertise in five phone books, but also have taken up new technologies to improve marketing, utilizing a website, a Facebook page and employing small-business digital marketing firm Hibu.

Though Steve and Joan have reached a typical retirement age, that’s not part of any discussion, Joan says. The business is a big part of their lives, and they enjoy what they do. Besides maintaining the trucks, Steve drives and provides services when the need comes up.

“Eventually, we would like to take more time off,” Joan says.

THE NEXT GENERATION

Stephen has taken on a bigger role over the years. “My job is overseeing daily operations, and to keep the ball rolling,” he says. He has taken over the hiring process, and by offering better wages, incentives and bonuses, the goal is to keep good employees.

In addition to seeking out opportunities for more commercial work, he is open to adding services as the need comes up.

“Maybe we will get a little more into plumbing; so far we just do outside work,” Stephen says. “And maybe we can do more advertising to make people aware that we do all aspects of it — pumping, excavating, plumbing and troubleshooting.”

Wherever the future takes the business, he emphasizes that some things won’t change.

“We stress that it’s done right. Name recognition is a large part of our business,” he concludes.


The ups and downs of land application

Because Smith Sanitary Septic Service operates year-round and deals with a large volume of septage, land application is an economical and efficient alternative to hauling to a treatment plant, says Stephen Smith. But it takes planning and plenty of storage to meet regulations and have the flexibility to work around the weather.

The farm owned by Smith’s Sanitary Septic Service has three underground tanks: a 500,000-gallon tank, 750,000-gallon tank and a 1 million-gallon tank. These poured concrete tanks range from 8 to 10 feet in height and 119 to 140 feet in diameter, and were constructed following Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) regulations for manure storage. They feature required leak detection systems for holding septage.

“It’s a long-term investment,” Stephen says. “The massive storage allows us to haul for big accounts, and if we don’t have the right weather, we can store for months.”

By spreading whenever the weather allows, they don’t anticipate ever filling the tanks to capacity. But having extra storage ensures they don’t have to haul to a waste treatment plant.

In Pennsylvania, certified tanks with liners are required, and the waste is tested a couple times a year. It is screened and stabilized with lime to raise the pH to 12 before being spread on fields. The Smiths use an 8230 4WD John Deere tractor and 7,400-gallon Jamesway spreader with flotation tires. By spreading during the summer and fall when soils aren’t too wet and on no-till fields, there is minimal soil compaction.

For Stephen, who spreads the septage with the help of a neighbor, a big part of the job is paperwork and planning. “The amount of gallons is based on nitrogen in accordance with the crop in the field,” he says, explaining he figures the nitrogen conversion based on the test results. Septage can only be spread on hay and field animal crops such as corn.

“We have more land than material, so it makes it more selectable when you are spreading,” Smith adds.

With the farm and storage tanks located centrally in the business’ service territory and 12 miles from the shop, it is convenient and saves time for employees to empty loads and get back on the road quickly. At the same time, if it makes more sense they have the option of going to a treatment plant.



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