Submission for New Zealand Podcast Awards 2024

Pete: 00:00:17

Hello and welcome to Get Flushed to the world's favourite sanitation podcast.

Pete: 00:00:20

I'm Pete.

Pete: 00:00:21

Way back in March last year, I released the first episode in a series about using vehicles safely at work. I followed up with a subsequent episode about managing driver behavior in July and another about vehicle checks in August.

Life sort of got in the way after that and I wasn't able to finish off that series as planned. I got my mojo back during December.

Pete: 00:00:41

With my series of daily shorts and that has given me the momentum to.

Pete: 00:00:45

Pick up the script and come back to this episode, which is all about.

Pete: 00:00:48

What to do if you or your.

Pete: 00:00:49

Staff are involved in a motor vehicle related accident while driving for work.

Pete: 00:00:57

I'm back today with an episode that was prompted by a message from a restroom operator who listens to the show.

He asked me not to share his name or location, so I'm just going to say he's been in the industry for a few years and I'd describe his company as a medium sized operation. His note said, hi Pete. Some of the operators in my region are offering restrooms for as little as $22 a week, including a clean.

I've already lost a few customers and others have asked me to match those prices. How should I respond? I'll start by saying this news really doesn't surprise me. Economic conditions are tougher than we've seen for many years.

Inflation has been high, interest rates have climbed, energy prices are through the roof, business has slowed down, and a lot of people are really struggling to make ends meet. Here in New Zealand. The market has really cooled down, home builds have slowed.

There don't seem to be as many large scale civil projects on the go, and even our local a and p show, our country fair, has been cancelled this year. The organizers of that event said that challenging financial conditions were the main reason behind their decision not to go ahead.

I've often said that there are very few barriers to entry for anyone who wants to set up as a portable restroom operator.

We saw a boom in the number of operators in the market in the immediate period after the COVID lockdowns, demand for restrooms was at an all time high, and for a while, restroom manufacturers around the world really struggled to meet demand.

In my city alone, I can think of five or six new companies that came into the market or added portable restrooms to their existing portfolios in the past two years. Now that things have slowed down, I'd hazard a guess that some of those new operators are probably among those that are offering low prices.

I've seen it before you see, operators cut their prices because they think that's the best way to attract more customers.

And of course, many customers, especially those in construction, price led because they're working to fix budgets or trying to maximize their profits. In those conditions, offering lower prices can be an effective way to attract more business and offered a cheaper price.

I can understand why customers would jump ship and move to a cheaper provider, but I'm also a great believer in the old adage, you get what you pay for.

Pete: 00:03:06

Today's question was posed by listener Ryan, who said, hey Pete, should I hire a sales professional to help grow my portable restroom business? Ryan, this is a great question for smaller scale pumpers that work alone or maybe have just one or two staff.

The key factor here is whether you as the business owner, have the capacity to work on your business rather than in your business. Let me explain. There are very few barriers to entry in the portable restroom industry.

All you really need is the cabins, a truck with a vacuum pump and tank, somewhere to dump and somewhere to operate from. I know a lot of pumpers that started just like that, small scale, perhaps even part time around another job.

Over time, they were able to grow their business into a full time venture.

Following this route, though, does mean that you pretty much have to do everything yourself, delivering, pumping, collecting, repairing, selling, order, processing and invoicing. When pumpers at that level do hire extra staff, it's more often than not a second person to do some servicing or carry out jobs in the yard.

The lack of support means that owner operators often find themselves working long hours, weekends and holidays to get everything done, and that means they're less likely to have the luxury of time, and that time is needed to develop sales plans and other strategies for business growth. For me, the role of a salesperson is to represent the company, prospect for leads and secure future business.

To do that, sales staff have to develop and maintain relationships with existing and potential clients, establish what each customer needs, offer the products and services that meet those needs, and then convert those offers into sales.

All of that takes a huge amount of time, effort, persistence and skill, and those things may not be something that a busy operator has the capacity to do. At that stage.

Pete: 00:04:53

A lot of operators will bring in.

Pete: 00:04:55

Somebody to help with the admin and maybe somebody to do the books. Whether or not you bring in a sales professional depends on whether or not.

Pete: 00:05:02

You've got the ability to meet the.

Pete: 00:05:04

Extra demand that higher sales will inevitably create. Whenever you sell, you have to meet your customers expectations.

If you let them down, you may not get a chance to make a better impression the second time around. And therein lies the catch 22.

If you're going to grow your business by selling more, you need to make sure you've got the trucks, the restrooms and the staff to meet that extra demand.

Pete: 00:05:29

Today's topic is what should I do with part used rolls off toilet paper? Toilet paper is a necessary and essential part of western sanitary practice. I say western because people in some cultures prefer to wash and dry.

But for people in most parts of Europe, America and Australasia, wiping with toilet paper is part of their regular toileting routine. Portable restroom operators generally refer to toilet paper as a consumable, which means it gets used up when they service a cabin.

Operators need to leave enough paper to last until the next service.

Leave too much and you're carrying extra costs that you could avoid for one or two rolls that might only represent a couple of dollars, but across a fleet of several hundred cabins, that will soon add up. Conversely, if you leave too little and the roll runs out, you will compromise the next restroom user.

And if and when the hirer or site manager gets a complaint, you'll get the angry phone call and no doubt incur the cost of an extra trip to drop off another roll. And if that pattern continues, you could very well lose the next hire.

The solution is to make sure that the restroom is adequately supplied with paper, which means you need to find a balance that works for both you, the hirer and the restroom users. My preference is to fit cabins with a double jumbo dispenser. These are the big rolls that hold at least 300 metres of paper.

By comparison, a domestic toilet roll typically holds about 30 metres of paper. Here in New Zealand, double jumbo holders are supplied by the toilet paper distributors.

They're lockable so the paper can't be removed unless you have a plastic key. I've fitted those double dispensers into every restroom I've assembled and I've never fitted factory supplied holders.

They're usually some sort of pin and bar under a plastic cover and they usually hold standard rolls. There's nothing wrong with those, but I prefer to fit a double jumbo.

When I deliver the restroom to site, I fit one full jumbo roll and one part used roll. And by part used, I mean a roll that has at least a third of the paper or more left.

I don't use any rolls smaller than that because there's no point leaving a skinny roll that's almost been used up. And if I find a skinny straggler when I service the cabin, I replace it with a fuller one.

That strategy is designed to keep the cabin in paper, but it does mean that you end up with a box full of skinny rolls on the truck. They're not really big enough to leave, and they're too full to simply throw away.

Some operators leave those on top of the dispenser where the next user can see them. Hopefully they'll use them. I've tried that, but it becomes a pain when those part rolls end up in the toilet tank.

Collecting the odd part used roll won't incur a huge cost, but across the fleet of several hundred cabins it will. Throwing them away is simply wasteful.

So I'd use them in the yard, let the staff take them home, or donate them to a worthy cause like the city mission. I have heard that some operators rewind their skinny stragglers to make full rolls.

I've seen a few homemade devices, and at one time a company in the state sold a machine that took part rolls and wound them into full ones.

That's great if that's your thing, but in my opinion, life's too short to sweat the small stuff, and I can think of a much better way to use business hours than rewinding part used toilet rolls.

Pete: 00:08:35

I'm very sorry to tell you all that my good friend, sanitation expert, podcast collaborator Bon Viveur, and fellow raconteurous Dave Andres passed away suddenly from natural causes at his home in Houston on the 7 January. That news came as a complete shock because Dave was possibly the most energetic person I know.

The number of tributes paid to Dave online since his passing are testament to his work and personal style.

Pete: 00:08:58

He was the first to admit that.

Pete: 00:09:00

Some people didn't get him or didn't know how to handle him. He could blow in like a hurricane.

Pete: 00:09:04

And it could be hard to get.

Pete: 00:09:06

A word in edgeways when he was in full flow, but he was genuinely the most open and honest person I've ever met. He was always willing to share his knowledge and ideas to help others improve.

p one Saturday evening in May: 2020

I've listened to your podcast and I'd like to buy the naming rights for the show.

Pete: 00:09:29

I'd never heard of the guy, let.

Pete: 00:09:30

e hit it off straight away at: 11:00

on Saturday in Texas. David literally spent the whole night talking with me.

If you've listened to the first 70 episode of Get Flushed, you'll know that Dave gave a lot to my show and he featured in several episodes.

The one I want to share today is an abridged version of his account of the sanitation response at Ground Zero following the terror attacks on the World Trade center on 911.

niversary of those attacks in: 2021

This episode is not meant as legal advice, but to help you reflect on the policies and procedures within your company and help you discuss this topic with the members of your team. Please have those conversations now. Don't leave it until something terrible happens on the road. I'll be back soon with the final

Pete: 00:10:33

part of this series.

Pete: 00:10:34

In the meantime, if you have any questions or feedback, please email Petef at get flushed dot online thanks for your time. I've been Pete and you've been listening to Get Flushed, the world's favorite sanitation podcast.