Rural Pumpers Can Benefit From Odd Jobs

Rural Pumpers Can Benefit From Odd Jobs

Reid Hanson of A-1 Evans Septic Tank Service pumps a commercial floor drain in Minot, North Dakota.

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Operating a business and owning big equipment in a rural area adds up to opportunities for extra income from odd jobs for A-1 Evans Septic Tank Service in Minot, North Dakota.

Reid Hanson and Cole Ritter purchased the 33-year-old business in 2016 after work for their previous business in the oilfields slowed down. Between “knowing everyone” and the company’s fleet, including semi trucks, the partners don’t pass up job opportunities in addition to pumping and servicing portable restrooms.

“In the summer, we are using the large semis to run side dumps for road construction,” Hanson says. A friend provides the side-dump trailers and they use a 2005 Peterbilt 379 and a 2006 Kenworth T600 that also pull 5,000-gallon vac trailers for pumping tanks. 

Winter in the frigid state of North Dakota offers other opportunities. With an abundance of snow, they were asked to use the trucks and side-dump trailers to haul and dump snow for a contractor who clears parking lots. 

Friends gave them an even more unusual job.

“Last winter we flooded a couple of ice rinks for people,” Hanson says. “We have some big 2,200 and 1,600 poly tanks that we put on trailers, and we used a trash pump to pump the water out.” The ice rinks were fairly big, and it took all day to haul enough water. 

Those aren’t the kinds of jobs they typically advertise for, but the work is welcome.

“It’s just people we know,” Ritter says. “Everybody knows everybody. Being in a rural community has its benefits.”

A-1 Evans Septic Tank Service is happy to take on varied and unusual challenges to keep its equipment productive year-round. “When we get phone calls for odd jobs, if we have the means to do it, we’ll sure take a stab at it,” Hanson says.



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