Times have changed since Wayne Barme and his wife Dot started Wayne’s Drains in 2000. From a basement-based business, to a 30,000-square-foot building, the duo has seen expansion at every level, including the rigs that power their success.
The Burlington, Massachusetts, based company that serves the Boston area started with drain cleaning, relying on another company to come pump when necessary. It wasn’t until 2005 when they started doing their own pumping and Barme bought his first pump truck, a 1979 International with a 500-gallon tank to pump grease traps.
“Now, here we are 20 years later and I have 10 pump trucks,” he says. “We worked hard and never gave up on anything and now we have over 30 pieces of equipment and 30 employees.”
Even with the career years adding up under his belt, Barme, now 60 years old, isn’t slowing down when it comes to business expansion. “My daughter now runs the office for me, my son works for me, my two son-in-laws work for me, along with the rest of the team here, so the future is in my kids hands moving forward. I’ll always be there to guide them in the right direction.”
With the future of the business at the forefront of his mind, Barme added another new truck to his fleet, a 2024 Kenworth T880 sporting patriotic decals that took the honors as the 2024 Pumper Classy Truck of the Year.
Sticking With What Works
Barme bounced around in the beginning of his career with a couple truck manufacturers before landing in a Kenworth in 2017. “I really liked the features of the Kenworth and the reliability, so I stuck with them and I own five Kenworth’s now.”
As for what the Kenworth is packing, Barme owes that to TSI Tanks Services. It’s carrying a 5,500-gallon aluminum tank and National Vacuum Equipment 4310 blower.
“Look, I know everyone is out to make money. Don’t rob me and I won’t rob you,” says Barme. “Treat people the way you want to be treated. That’s the way I do business.”
It’s that thinking and his relationship with the company that keeps him going back to TSI. “Jerry Blake [owner of TSI] has been very good to work with. He does what he says he’s going to do and for the price he says he’s going to do it at. I couldn’t be happier with the work they do.
“For a while we were building our own pump trucks and jetters, but now having a guy like Jerry and TSI that we can just hand everything to them, tell them what we want and have them call us when it’s done for pickup, I couldn’t be happier.”
Barme is in the process of ordering two more Kenworth trucks at the moment. Like this year’s winner, both units will sport aluminum tanks from TSI. Something different though is each new build will feature a jetter, something the 2024 truck does not have.
“I’m the type of guy that sticks with what works,” says Barme. “If something’s a little cheaper it doesn’t mean it’s better. If it costs a little more but I know what I’m getting and who I’m dealing with, it’s worth it to me.”
Decisions, Decisions
The truck is powered by a 485 hp engine and Allison 4500 RDS automatic transmission, both of which Barme chose for good reason.
“My first pump truck I had was a 1979 International that I bought from Vacuum Sales in New Jersey. It had two shifters in it with a quad box. I had to figure out how to drive it home,” laughs Barme.
He also says he’s a big believer in high-horsepower engines so they aren’t overworking something underpowered. A big advantage of the automatic transmission is when looking for new hires and retaining them. “I’ve had prospective drivers ask right out if we have all automatics. When I tell them no, they say they have no interest in driving a stick.
“I’ve fallen for it too. I’d rather drive an automatic transmission. I mean, we are in Boston and when I’m driving downtown and it takes an hour to drive 10 miles, driving a stick is hard.”
The rig also features hose hooks, LED lighting, four 5-inch sight glasses, Garnet SeeLevel Annihilator and heated valves. Barme, the primary driver, rides in comfort with heated leather seats, air-ride and navigation system.
“I’m picky about certain things when buying a new truck,” says Barme. “There are things that I definitely want and things I don’t want. And my thought process has changed a lot over the years and still is with all the new technology.
“For instance, we do a lot of pump chamber cleanings and for those we usually send two trucks to a job for pumping and jetting,” says Barme. “But now these new trucks we are building will have the jetters rigged on them, so we only need to send one truck out.”
With the latest technology and more advanced features available and being used, something else has changed over the years; the cost. The featured truck ran up a bill of approximately $350,000. “It’s been about 10 years since I bought my first 5,000-gallon truck, and this one cost well over $100,000 more,” he says.
But he understands why and doesn’t plan to stop investing in new equipment, noting the use they get and the reliability they offer make the investment very much worth it for his company. The truck has been in use for a number of months now mainly pumping septics and so far, Barme has no qualms.
Keeping It Classy
The truck’s cab sports bright white paint with blue accents and prominent Wayne’s Drains decals with a stainless steel sun visor. The real headturner is its polished aluminum tank with large American flag vinyl along the side.
Each truck in the company’s fleet has its own individual and unique set of graphics, but follows the same patriotic theme. “I have crane trucks, jetting trucks, other pumping trucks and they all have the same theme with the American flag and eagle.”
Barme was the brain behind the concept, but not without some artistic assistance. “A friend of mine at 428 Graphics does the wrapping of the vehicles and he’s pretty creative. I gave him guidelines of what I wanted and he came up with the final idea.”
Keeping this truck and all the others in his fleet show worthy is par for the course. “The guys are in charge of keeping their truck clean and everything gets cleaned at least once a week whether it needs it or not.”
They also follow a stringent maintenance plan sending trucks back to the dealership for routine scheduled maintenance or if they need fixing.
The company has some big time clientele, so appearance means a lot. Pumping jobs takes Wayne’s Drains to Harvard University, Fenway Park, Boston Medical, Charlestown Navy Yard and multiple large hospitals.
“If you pull up into someone’s yard with a truck that isn’t well-kept and it’s leaking fluids in their driveway or something, it’s not a good look,” says Barme. “Plus, then you have to take time to clean the mess.
“I don’t spend a lot of time or money on advertising. I don’t follow the norm around here with radio or television ads. I let the equipment and our experience and the quality of our work do the talking for us.”
And his approach is working. Business is good and ever-growing thanks to word-of-mouth advertising and some help from his eye-catching fleet of service trucks. Barme says when he’s out and about with the truck, it gets attention, sparking passersby to comment, “Wayne’s Drains! Nice looking truck!”
