It started with a $5,000 1972 Ford 700 Series fire tanker truck for Mike and Rene Russell, but that was 23 years and many trucks ago.
Mike was working for another company, one that was owned by Rene’s family, but the time came for them to go out and make a name for themselves. “They were looking at getting out of the business, and I saw a need in my area because we were about 60 miles from them,” Mike says. “There were only two older companies in our area, so we figured that there might be an opportunity.
It was 2002 when they opened Albemarle Septic. Their first big purchase was the 1972 Ford fire truck that was set up for pumping by the previous owner. “I drove it home with no power steering,” he says. “I drove that truck for about a year and a half and just stuck my neck out there. I handed out business cards and picked up one or two tanks a week until the business started growing.”
By 2004, he was ready for an upgrade. “I found a used truck in
Pumper in Kansas City that we flew out for,” Mike says. “We stuck our neck out again for a lightly used 2002 Freightliner with a 3,600-gallon tank on it.”
The gamble paid off. They got busy and for the past two decades they have continuously upgraded pumping trucks, with their latest purchase finding its way from their location in Camden, North Carolina, all the way to the cover of Pumper magazine as the 2025 Classy Truck of the Year.
The top dog
The dozen trucks featured over the past year created a stacked lineup making a tight race for this year’s top honors, but Albemarle Septic’s latest addition to their fleet was selected by a poll of our readers and a committee of COLE Publishing editors.
The truck is a 2025 Peterbilt 567 with a 4,500-gallon steel tank and NVE 4310 blower built out by Integrity Tank. A 500 hp Cummins engine powers the rig along with an Allison 4500 automatic transmission. Mike and his son-in-law, Darren Speight, who works for the company drive the truck and use it for mainly residential septic and grease pumping.
It’s rigged to be a Swiss Army knife of a pumping truck with 4-inch valves on the front and rear, right and left sides, a 6-inch air discharge valve for land applications, a 75-gallon aluminum freshwater tank, a 600 psi freshwater pump with 200 feet of hose on an electric reel, a stainless steel toolbox and LED lights. This truck also carries a 4,000 psi Pressure Systems jetter.
The bright red pumping rig with bold yellow decals provided by R.O Givens of Elizabeth City, North Carolina, jumps off the tank and showcases a perfect example of what can be described as “classy.”
The build
The Russells had a pretty good idea of what they wanted when it came to order a new service truck. “I’ve been around trucks a good while,” Mike says. “I like the look of Peterbilts, and I like the quality of the little things with them.”
And as for the truck’s builder, they didn’t have to go far to find Integrity Tank, which is located in Wilson, North Carolina, only a couple hours away from Albemarle Septic. “I’ve dealt with Integrity for a while,” Mike says. “Actually, if I go back to the 1972 truck, it had Lely mud flaps [now Integrity]. That’s how I got tied up with them.”
Back then, Mike’s main contact was Chad Davis, Integrity’s parts guy. Now, Chad is the vice president of operations and the general manager, but remains the go-to contact for the Russells. “It’s nice when you have experience with someone and can trust the direction they’re pointing you,” he says. “Chad is patient with my pickiness. He’s always been there to explain how to get the equipment to work right if you’re doing something wrong, or giving us ideas on if we should do something a different way. He answers the phone and he’ll call you back no matter what, and he’s just hands-on with you.”
What works for them
As Mike stated, he can be a little picky. But that’s because he knows what works for his business and all those thoughts went into this build.
Their previous trucks only had intakes on the back. This time, they had intakes installed on all sides. “Having those options will sometimes save you from dragging an extra 40 feet of hose or more. If I’m 10 feet short because I had to go around the truck to reach the tank, I would need to pull another 40-foot section of hose off the truck. Now I can pull in or back in any way and have easy access to an intake.”
As for air discharge on the back of the truck, it gets plenty of use as the company land-applies to empty. When Albemarle Septic first got into the business, land application was the only disposal option in their area, so finding a farmer to work with was crucial to success.
“The farmer that let us land apply, he took a chance on us and let us do that back when land application was the only disposal option,” says Rene. “Without him letting us do that, we would never be in this business.” That farmer is John E. Ferebee, and Albemarle Septic still offloads on that farm to this day.
Other options they chose that they can’t live without are the freshwater tank and hose along with the onboard jetter. “We want to try and take care of the customer and not have to make two trips back to do that,” Mike says. “A lot of times at restaurants we might have a line clogged up and we can jet it out real quick. We also jet low-pressure systems out at residential sites too.”
Look the part
Mike and Rene plan to hang onto this truck for a while. They work hard to keep all their service vehicles maintained so they last as long as possible. They wash their trucks at least every two weeks and Mike does maintenance and servicing in house every 10,000 miles or so.
The company has stuck with a uniform look since the beginning as well, keeping the fire-
engine red color that came on their first pumping rig as a signature of their company. “People know when they see a red truck coming down the road, that’s Albemarle Septic right there,” Mike says.
He also says not only do they notice the color, but the condition. “You’d be surprised at the people that say, ‘I called you because your trucks are clean and look good, and I felt that the work you do will be the same,” he says. “Or, we’ll be on one job and the neighbor will walk over just to tell us that we have such a nice looking truck.”
The Russells understand that their pumping trucks are a symbol of who they are as people and how they run their business, something they take a lot of pride in. They live by the simple rule, “We just treat people the way we want to be treated,” Rene says.
Mike adds, “We give an honest price and work hard, and it’s worked out very well for us.”
And that it has. From a $5,000 1972 fire tanker to a 2025 Integrity Tank-built Peterbilt, Albermarle Septic proves a little help from people that believe in you and a lot of hard work is a recipe for success in this industry.
Rene says, “We wouldn’t have been able to get our first truck or get started without my mom and stepdad, so we’d like to thank them for having the trust in us to pay them back, work hard and be successful pumpers."
