Building a Better Restroom Experience: Lessons from Tex-San with Roy Baring

Pete: 00:00:17

Hello and welcome to Get Flushed, the world's favourite sanitation podcast. I'm Pete.

Over the past 18 months, I've been really lucky that many of the people I've met and spoken to through the podcast have become really good friends outside the show, and with that in mind, I'm really excited to welcome back one of those friends to the show this week. I first met Roy Baring when we recorded season two, episode five, which featured Roy and his business tech sand site services.

I was hoping to travel to Texas last year to join Roy and the team at the PGA Valero Texas Open, where they deployed 200 plastic units and the Sanitrax demonstration modules. Now, unfortunately, I wasn't able to do that because of COVID but I've kept in touch with Roy and I've got to know him pretty well.

Over the past year, he's joined a few sessions of the sanitation conversation on Clubhouse, and we swapped regular messages on social media.

Pete: 00:01:08

I caught up with Roy a couple.

Pete: 00:01:09

Of weeks ago to record this episode, and the conversation ties together a lot of the themes that I've explored this season. I think you're really going to enjoy it. But before we meet Roy, I'd like to share a few announcements.

Firstly, I'd like to thank everyone who's let me know they voted for get flushed in the New Zealand podcast Awards. Voting is still open, and if you'd like to do that, there's a link in the notes.

But today I'd like to thank Wendy Cross and everyone at service Corps, Jennifer Corrigan at JW craft portable restrooms in Naples, Florida, Angelic deniman at Airvote, Tony Volp in Canada, David and Tanis and everyone else on the team at J Bar in Texas, Tim and Becky Peltzer and the rest of the team at Waste Solutions of Iowa, Philip Kovik and his family and the rest of the team at Prestige Loos in Auckland, Billie Joe Hohepper from B Day and my old partner in crime, Wendy Brown in Auckland. There's still time to vote for the show, and as I say, there is.

Pete: 00:02:03

A link in the notes.

Pete: 00:02:04

I'd really appreciate your support, and if you do vote, please let me know and I'll give you a shout out in next week's episode. I also thought it would be fun to include a new weekly feature, which I'm calling the workplace shoutout.

This is for anyone working in a restroom operation or any other listeners around the world.

All you have to do is comment on my posts on social media and I'll add you to the script, the very first workplace shoutouts go to Melissa and Sean Petro at Petros Elite Sanitation in Mississippi. Justin Lucero at Sanitation one in Arizona. Adam Wilson at Ray sanitation in Oshkos, Wisconsin. Ashley Rando in Marathon, Ontario.

Everyone at three, a portable toilets in Altus, Oklahoma. Zack Wester at J and J services in Moscow, Kansas. And Bill la Pala at Tula toilet and septic in Michigan.

I'll add there that Bill also posts some really good videos on YouTube which are worth a look. Just search for Tula toilet and septic and you'll find his channel.

And while I'm talking about YouTube, I have a special mention for Alexei Pimenov at Sanexpert in St. Petersburg, Russia. Alexei messaged me to say he was enjoying listening to the show.

However, English is not his first language and he asked if it would be possible to publish the show on YouTube with subtitles. Well, the answer, of course, is yes. And after a busy week, the Getflush channel on YouTube is now up and running.

It includes every episode of the show so far, and they've all got subtitles. Just click on the CC or closed Caption button and you'll bring them up.

I'll put a link to the channel in the notes for today's show, but just type get flush podcast into YouTube and you'll find it easy enough. Okay, that's enough admin. Let's hear the interview with Roy.

Roy: 00:03:49

All right.

Pete: 00:03:50

G'day.

Pete: 00:03:51

How are you?

Roy: 00:03:52

Really good. How's everything going over there? We're pretty good when you're coming over, man. We've been talking about this for a year.

Pete: 00:04:00

The drama at the minute is you can't get out of New Zealand and you can't get back into New Zealand. You have to go into government managed isolation.

running it and they released: 3000

Roy: 00:04:15

So you have to go to a military base or what?

Pete: 00:04:19

No, the military are controlling. They've got maybe, I don't know, maybe ten hotels. Okay, well, it's actually more complicated than that, Roy.

If you get diagnosed with COVID if you have a COVID test and they say you've got Covid, they take you into a managed isolation facility.

Roy: 00:04:35

No shit.

Pete: 00:04:36

You essentially get arrested and then they cart you off to some facility in the middle of wherever.

Roy: 00:04:41

Oh my gosh.

Pete: 00:04:42

It's actually really scary, eh? Really scary. Anyway, you've had a really busy year, haven't you?

Roy: 00:04:49

It's been busy. It's been exciting. You know, it's been everything, getting new team members on board.

We've been getting full loads of plastics in every month, sometimes doubling that. And that's been since last June.

Pete: 00:05:03

You've been able to maintain your supply chain that have been coming through.

Roy: 00:05:07

Yeah. So if we weren't ordering in the capacities that we were.

Like for instance, you know, example, if I had to order 120 units today, I wouldn't be able to get them till probably next February or March.

But since we've had such a long run of ordering full loads at a time, we've been able to stay ahead of the plastic run and been able to use that as just momentum to stay in the front of the line because I think we've ordered more from them than you know. I don't know of any competitor that's ordered that many from them in the last twelve month period.

So doing that in sync and working with our salesmen, it's been pretty good. They're working with another provider as well to maybe start using another facility to start blow molding and things like that.

So they say they're going to be able to turn out 30,000 units a month. They're still kind of finishing off the final details there.

But it should be good because I mean from now till April we're going to be on hyper drive on getting units in.

Pete: 00:06:05

Oh cool.

Roy: 00:06:05

We've picked up some more customers are going to need seven times the amount we bring in. So trying to put all the pieces together.

Pete: 00:06:12

What's your utilization like? Your yard must be pretty empty.

Roy: 00:06:15

Yeah, we stay about 95% rented by design. I would do that on our own accord, but right now and like that, just keeping orders coming in to. We'll get a lower each month in the first week.

By day 31 of that cycle we're down to about seven.

Pete: 00:06:32

Where are they all going, Roy? Where's the demand coming from?

Roy: 00:06:34

New customer base has been huge.

You know, the folks we've been calling 612, 18 months have finally kind of realized, man, these guys are pretty good operators, stayed in contact with us. The owner is calling me and that's been a lot of it.

And then it seems like our current customer base that we've had are just doubling tripling project. Our multifamily builders, you know, for our apartment complexes and condos, they would usually have six or seven projects going on at a time.

And now they've got ten or twelve.

Pete: 00:07:05

Wow.

Roy: 00:07:06

I think it's a lot of folks moving to Texas for one. And then finally I think it's kind of the evolution of what's going on here in the state.

And it's just been nonstop in each market in San Antonio and in Austin.

Pete: 00:07:19

And are they all going on weekly service?

Roy: 00:07:22

Yes, most are weekly. Our larger projects are on twice a week or three times a week service. And then we've got some government stuff that are on daily service as well.

So it's kind of a mixed bag, man.

Pete: 00:07:32

Your team must be flat out.

Roy: 00:07:34

Yeah, flat out. We've gotten so efficient with our pro software program that we're using now to make sure these routes are really efficient.

Getting some new bumper trucks in to make sure everybody's staying within their hours to work in so we're not overworking anybody and burning them out. So it's been, you know, kind of a juggling act.

The vehicle side is where we're getting tight, trying to find the chassis to put your tanks on everything. With this microchip shortage thing, everybody's kind of hanging back on those.

And getting inventory in has been damn near impossible with some of our suppliers.

Pete: 00:08:07

Honestly, the effects of COVID have been so far reaching, nobody would have predicted this.

Roy: 00:08:12

Some of the stuff, you know, I can see. But there's no reason why all those ships should be in the middle of the ocean right now.

Pete: 00:08:17

Well, they've stopped coming to New Zealand. United States post aren't handling any freight to or from New Zealand at the moment.

Roy: 00:08:24

There's no solid reasoning why we can't get ships to port here.

Pete: 00:08:27

It's worrisome, to say the least. Last time we spoke, you were gearing up to go to the PGA Valero Texas open. How did you get on there?

Roy: 00:08:35

Oh, man, that was amazing. The event was thought on, you know, everything went off without a hitch. We had roaring reviews from the team there. They loved our response time.

We had so much going on with the air vote system that we implemented there. We were reactive on any kind of paper shortage, anything. We never even got a radio call during the event, and they're like, that's impossible.

You know, so it was. It was a really good time. We were able to implement Santa track there, which was a great hit. Everybody loved that.

I think last year we had maybe eight modules. I think this year they want to do 38 modules of Santa tracks of Santa track. It's exciting.

That's going to be almost 120 actual seats of the freshwater flushing unit on site. They've got a large concert that's going to go on for their 100 year anniversary. So it's going to be a big deal.

ar they were limited to about: 5000

I think we did 200 plastics last year. We're probably going to be around that 300 range this year, along with our sinks and sanitizers.

Pete: 00:09:47

Have you kept a float in hand? We've been so busy. Have you got enough plastics?

Roy: 00:09:51

Yeah, the plastics have been good. Like I said, we like to bring new products in for that event. It's such a popular event. A lot of eyes on.

We get J and J to deliver the amount we need for that event, like on site a week beforehand. You don't have to do any repairs. Everything is spic and span. You add your stickers, add your air, vote.

Pete: 00:10:11

Oh, they're all brand new from the factory.

Roy: 00:10:13

Brand new. That way everything is straight up.

Pete: 00:10:15

Oh, that's awesome.

Roy: 00:10:16

Yeah. And we've been lucky to be able to do that.

Pete: 00:10:18

J and J must be loving you.

Roy: 00:10:20

Yeah, it's been good. It's a good unit, though. You know, it's really easy to clean.

They seem durable enough and all of our customers have liked the new look, so it's been pretty good. And then they worked really well out there during the event, so we're excited to have it again.

Decided to get some more new technology out there and make it work. You know, they've got a lot of restroom trailer needs that we're putting together, so it's going to be a full bag event for us this year.

And we're, we're getting geared up already.

We've already had three conference calls to make sure equipment needs are there, what we need to order ahead of time exactly for the supply chain hiccups or road bumps that we've seen. So we want to make sure be way ahead of schedule if we need to be.

Pete: 00:10:58

I can't imagine that many operators deliver brand new units to an event every year. Year on. I mean, that's just incredible that a, you've decided on that strategy and b, that you've been able to implement it. That's awesome.

Roy: 00:11:10

Quality is the way we've built our business. A competitor of ours, they had the event.

They took a bunch of basically used units out there that they've been using in the field or events or whatever, went out there, rebuilt 75% of them and left all the debris there in a corner.

Pete: 00:11:28

Well, there's no wonder they lost the contract then, is there?

Roy: 00:11:30

That's one thing, but how many man hours did it take to rebuild all the units that were going to go into the field? You've got a first class event, you know, a little upfront cost to get year over year commitment from the people at Valero.

It's a no brainer to be able to have that investment there and then be able to spin around, just around the corner. You're hoping there's that 100, 200, 300 unit client that you've been working on, and they're ready to roll out.

So we've just been kind of lucky in that regard to where they've already got the next one kind of in the wings, and as soon as that's done, we're able to reload, come back, sanitize power, wash, have them ready to go out into the field so it keeps that inventory really, really fresh. Just on your day to day business.

Pete: 00:12:15

That makes it really difficult for any competitors to muscle in and take your ground there because they're starting from so far behind where you've managed to get your business to and get the level of service to that event, too. It would be really difficult for a competitor to pick that up from scratch.

Roy: 00:12:32

Yeah. And, you know, we over commit on our communication with the folks there. They were wondering how many radios we needed.

I'm like, I need a radio for each team member, no matter if it's a restock person, if it's my project manager, if it's my operations manager, I want a radio for every single one. And I thought I was crazy, but at the end, they never heard peep out of us.

We were all communicating with ourselves on an off channel or with the push to talk, you know, on our phones. We google map every single unit on the course, and that way we could overlap that with our restroom software.

And it was like, basically three live routes within the golf course. And, I mean, it was seamless. My operations manager did a heck of a job organizing that. It was. It was unbelievable.

Pete: 00:13:17

And you put air vote in every unit, didn't you? Not just the sanitrax. It went in the plastics as well.

Roy: 00:13:22

Every unit. And that, I mean, our reaction time was, you know, within minutes because we had three restock teams within the field of play.

And that way if we saw something in sector two, we could say, hey, look, we got a note that there was low on paper, and usually it would be one roll, but we appreciated the communication throughout the event.

And, like day two, three, everybody really started using them, really started reacting, leaving comments, you know, that way it helped us react to things in the field. I mean, our response time was great. The team there at Valero was really happy and appreciate that response time, the communication.

We had a follow up meeting, an exit meeting, and they were like, okay, let's get started for next year. So we were real happy to hear that. You know, it's always good to get a pat on the back like that and kind of be the ghost in the darkness.

Pete: 00:14:09

That's really good.

Roy: 00:14:10

You know, that's what the potty guys are supposed to be. They're supposed to be the silent ninjas that are in the dark.

You know, you're not supposed to see them, hear them, and not even know they were there. So it was pretty cool. Pretty cool event.

Pete: 00:14:20

Dimitri and Angelica Airvote have been so responsive because I had a few people comment and say, oh, you know, why would you bother using Airvote? But you've proved the value of it. It's getting the immediate feedback from the user that there's an issue. That's the real gain.

And as you say, you took all of that communication out of the hands of the course marshals and the event manager, and it was direct chat between you and the person who's in the bathroom. That's just brilliant.

Roy: 00:14:44

And my first thoughts were, let's use this on special events, you know, like these big events. We can get some reaction time. Everything can make tip top all the way through the event.

And then those units actually rolled out into the construction field, into the industry.

And there was a couple of guys that were making funnies on your comments, but there was some actually constructive criticism out there, or, like, praise. This is the cleanest bathroom I've ever been in. Hey, somebody knocked this unit over and the paper got wet.

You know, there was things we could react to without the business owner or whatever. Hey, two days later, when he finally showed up with the superintendent, this thing got knocked over from the wind. Can you come over here?

So it actually was starting to work in the field.

So we're going to start implementing that actually out into the field because we saw the workers actually using it in our favor, which we thought it was just going to be a bunch of jokes and, you know, the normal jokesters out there, but it was actually good feedback. So we were able to kind of use that for special instances when something happened. But also it was kind of an inspection frame board.

We were like, hey, maybe this driver needs some assistance out there. Maybe we need to focus on that part of town. So when the project manager goes out there and does these on site inspections on his daily, weekly basis.

Hey, look, go check out airvote this number because it's sequenced to your QR code or your identification code in your toilet. Hey, go check this number at this address. Boom, it comes in on his route sheet and he can go check it out. So it keeps everybody accountable.

Pete: 00:16:21

And it's that level of innovation as well that every time you implement things like that, you're just lifting the quality that you're providing for your customers. Constant improvement, isn't it?

Roy: 00:16:31

It is, and that's what you have to do. And I think that's what helps us be successful.

I go into the field now, and it gets the point where you're almost aggravated that a competitor is not leveling up to what your customer needs in the field. We go out there, take pictures, the units are missing items. It's not a full functioning unit.

They've got a toilet seat that looks like it came from a remodel in a house. I mean, graffiti all over the place, and you've got our sitting next to it with none of that. Everything's fully functioning.

It's clean, it smells great. And I don't know why they're not getting that picture.

It's disheartening, and it makes me, you know, I apologize to customers that have that kind of service. I'm like, please, let us help you. We've kind of, you know, made the move here. We can bring you this and that.

We show pictures of what our units look like after a service versus competitors.

We have all those pictures to kind of help us sell ourselves, but it's just like, guys, please, for the industry sake, we need to kind of get on the same page here.

I know everybody can't buy new units every month, but at least get some repairs done in the yard so that the customers are paying for a fully functioning unit in the field. I mean, it's the first thing on and it's the last thing off. So it's a pretty important thing that needs to be on there.

Pete: 00:17:49

It is.

And what we've seen over the last year, I don't know whether I've noticed it because I'm doing the podcast, but I think we've seen an influx of people who have approached the sanitation industry and seen it as an opportunity because it's been one of the few industries over the past year that's been in really high demand. And there's been a lot of people, I think, coming as new entrants.

And it's really important that they understand that, that they don't offer the lowest price that they don't offer a dirty service because it just takes the rest of us backwards, doesn't it?

Roy: 00:18:17

Cost to entry is pretty low for this.

Pete: 00:18:20

There's very low barriers to entry. Yeah.

Roy: 00:18:22

So folks kind of see some margins from a business that's doing great, you know, really good and see expansion everywhere and want to jump off with 28 units, that's great. But you also need to keep that quality of service up. Ask some people that have been in business a long time, listen to the podcast, get some ideas.

All the people that have been on with you, listen to what they have to say, kind of take those opinions, meld them together, and then kind of do your own research and do field inspections on your own and see who's doing what, what's working and what's not working. And that way you can stair step and get ahead and be successful yourself.

It's a relatively easy business, but folks get kind of lazy in it when they've been in it a long time and don't keep that level of service up and that level of quality.

And if you do that, you know, you start making inch forward, inch forward, then you got a yard forward, then you're a mile ahead and your team knows exactly what you expect. We are redundant in our inspection. My project manager is in the field doing inspections. We've got our pro software program that is real time.

We can see when they're scanning these units serviced, take pictures. We've added all of our service stickers inside the unit as well.

So even though we're scanning it, and that way we know it's service for the superintendent to see, it's just one more step. And that way if it's blocked by a vehicle, we can put in there.

You know, we've got a small legend at the bottom that has a few acronyms that notate if there was a miss service that we just had to restock because the roofer wouldn't move or they were unloading trusses or it was too muddy to get to the location.

So all these things kind of being proactive have really helped kind of expand that communication by one, but also kind of keep our integrity intact when we say, yes, we were there, please look inside the unit and we can also send you a report with a gps timestamp. And then the conversation ends. Thank you, Rory. Please, can you make it back within 48 hours, which is no problem for us.

We hit so many parts of town multiple days a week that we can do that for them. And it's in the discussion, nobody's upset.

And that's really helped us a lot by, I call them redundancies, but it's just keeping everybody accountable and going through our sops, you know, our procedures, our playbook, making sure all that is reiterated in our weekly and monthly meetings, the new guys coming on board, new team members to make sure they understand what the expectations are, the metrics that they are held accountable to each quarter, which affects their bonuses. So, you know, we've got a lot of things in place that really keep folks accountable.

And then if we see too many dings, well, we just kind of have to take corrective action. But everybody seems to kind of get on board when they understand, hey, it's a responsibility.

They see their units out there with their names on them, you know, with that service ticker, it's almost like a sense of pride that their actual initials are on there when they serviced it. But we're trying to communicate that as a prideful thing rather than just the Porta potty technician is really helped out.

You know, kind of get our message.

Pete: 00:21:29

Across as well with that downward creep, with competitors. I've seen that a lot where you get an established company and at one point they must have had brand new toilets.

I open a lot of doors as we've been traveling around.

If we pass a site and there's a toilet on it and I don't have to climb over a fence or unlock a gate, I'll go and just swing the door open, have a look because I'm naturally interested. But I see that creep a lot where the standard of cleanliness and hygiene has just gone down and down and down and down.

And I saw some of your pictures last week and some of those units, there was scale on the urinal and the graffiti, as you say, and they were filthy. As a driver, I couldn't leave a unit in that state.

And I just wonder, what do you think it is culturally what happens in a business for that to become the norm?

Roy: 00:22:13

A lot of it is training. You know, you have to train your people and explain your goals.

I know a lot of these bigger companies, you know, I don't think their goals are explained as much as I would think they would need to be. But your training is minimized because everybody's trying to do 100 plus units a day and then get back home and do all their personal duties.

But the repairs, I think are manageable if you start from the beginning, if you get thousands of units out there that have so many damages and you don't have any follow up on that.

Pete: 00:22:44

Oh, you'd be playing catch up forever.

Roy: 00:22:46

Yeah, I mean, it's unattainable. You know, you can't do that. So then you would be into buying more inventory. The other stuff would just be basically thrown to the wayside.

So expressing your goals, making sure the managers are involved. I had a gentleman come through the other day looking for a position. He's been there two years, and he said he's never met his manager.

Pete: 00:23:08

No way.

Roy: 00:23:09

Which I was like, no, that can't be possible.

Pete: 00:23:12

That can't be possible.

Roy: 00:23:13

He said, I'm dead serious with you. He's never met his direct manager in two years.

Pete: 00:23:18

That's just insane. How can you run a business like that?

Roy: 00:23:21

So when you have that kind of communication going, lack of inspection in the field, it's inevitable. We do a lot of inspection, a lot of follow up between the partners we have, between our teammates. It's more like a family here.

So it's a lot of things going on. You lose that when you get really, really big, multiple owners, different views about, you know, you're just looking for the bottom line.

But, you know, you need to kind of develop your people personally as well. You know, they're just not numbers on the uniform.

Everybody has bad days, and unless you're out there kind of mixing it up, making sure what's going on, or have somebody that can do that, make sure they're truthful. That's where your operation manager comes in, your yard manager, your project manager.

,: 1520

You know, everybody has bad days, and it's understandable, but you could mitigate that easily.

Pete: 00:24:26

The portable restroom industry is very task led, and I think what I've seen in a lot of organizations is that people get dragged into doing the functional tasks. So driver calls in sick, and then you get managers who get dragged into being hands on.

And the opportunity for people to work on the business rather than in the business gets lost in just the pressure of daily demands.

I've seen that happen in a lot of restroom companies, whether it's a resourcing issue or whether it's a prioritization issue, the time for managers and team members to stand back and just draw their breath and think about, what are we doing here? And all credit to you that this hasn't happened at Teksan overnight. Is it?

This has been a deliberate strategy over a number of years, and you've all worked really, really hard to achieve this from day one.

Roy: 00:25:12

ands of services. We're up to: 7000

And the program that we use on our restrooms beforehand, before we rolled this one out, he's like, that's impossible. I don't have anybody that can do that. I'm like, well, let's talk about that when we get to 20,000 services. What do you think?

He says it's impossible to do. So that's when we had to kind of revamp and get this. And we knew that had to happen because our growth goals are so aggressive.

You've got to be able to track these things. We spot check pricing every month. You know, we do different things with our competitors, which is what you have to do in this business.

And we'll call their office. There was five units on a road the other day, and no one knew that they were there. There's a few things that happen.

Lack of service, because it's not on a route. Billing from a vendor standpoint, that you're not getting paid for your units in the field.

Then the units end up at the end of the street and you lose inventory. So there's loss everywhere.

If you can't keep track of this stuff, we'll see identification numbers here every once in a while, but it's hard to roll that out. So if anybody's getting started, I would say make sure your identification numbers are big and bold.

If you go into a restroom system with a barcode or a QR code, all of that is done before you get in the field. It takes so much time out the labor side of things. You keep track of things. You don't lose equipment, and it just helps the whole process.

Pete: 00:26:48

Just on that, Roy, I'll throw this in. I was talking to TJ Lombardi last week. He's a pro from up New York state. He's been stamping his numbers on with an indelible military die.

He bought a big stamp with numbers on it, one to zero and maybe six digits long. And he's found this military ink that's absolutely permanent and impervious to all conditions.

And he's been stamping the numbers on each side of the unit in inch high characters.

Pete: 00:27:14

And I thought that was a really.

Pete: 00:27:15

Innovative and very affordable solution. As long as you've got one person in charge of that process and taking responsibility for it.

So the right numbers put on the toilet, that stamp with the military ink. Seems such a good idea to me.

Roy: 00:27:28

Yeah. And then you can basically, your other code will interact with that unit number so you can track that wherever it goes when it's scanned.

And we keep duplicates here in the office in case we need to resticker that unit as well. But his process is pretty neat.

It's better than, like, the stencil deal that you've got a lot of overspray and, you know, where it doesn't look as clean as that, but that process he's doing sounds pretty good. I kind of like that, you know.

Pete: 00:27:54

Yeah. As long as you've got a system in place, I checked it out, and you can buy these stamps for $50, and you can buy the ink to replenish the pad itself.

Because actually finding a way to mark the units that everyone can see from a distance and, you know, immediately I spoke in one of the episodes about, I always put the numbers to the right of the door so that you could see it from the front as you looked at it. And every unit must have the number in the same place so you know where you're looking. But TJ's method seemed to be just as good to me. Really did.

Roy: 00:28:23

Yeah. Because some of these neighborhoods, they request the door to the project.

So if it's on the back and you've got to walk around and you're not a pro, then you would have a problem finding it. And then you got, you know, wasting time getting around. Four sided is pretty neat. That's a very good idea.

We do one corner just because the most of the service guys are ones looking at the number, and our project manager, or the inspector has to get out and check the unit anyway.

Pete: 00:28:45

Well, I was just intrigued about the ink because I said to him, like, mate, that surely that's going to wash off. And he's like, no, man. They put this stuff on tanks, you know?

Roy: 00:28:52

Yeah. Oh, that's pretty neat.

Going back to your structure, your ABC of a regular day, we've started kind of changing that up where we're going to start moving technicians to different areas of town. So that way it's a little different, rather than your same old road up and down there.

Twelve months at a time, but also can check how the other drivers are doing. Kind of a self reflection on the team.

Pete: 00:29:19

So like a rotation amongst your drivers, correct?

Roy: 00:29:22

Yeah. And we've got it kind of split into quadrants and with our program we can basically flip flop drivers at the click of a button.

You know, they're all geocoded where they'll know exactly where to go. So that's helped us move those guys around.

That way they can see, hey, this guy's kind of doing something different over here that I didn't realize I was doing. And it kind of helps cross examine some of these guys that kind of get in that rut, man. This is the same old, same old.

But also we tell them, look, we understand it's structured, we know there's a lot of redundancy, but look at what you're growing. Look at the size that we've become in a few short years.

We're basically in our infant stages of the business and we're already at this stage of the game.

And the process that we've implemented, the people we've met, the partnerships we've made, everything is rolling in the correct way and it's because of what you do in the field, the different things we're implementing, and I want you to be proud of that. So. And that's reiterated every single Monday morning meeting that we have for our drivers.

Just to kind of recap the last week, fresh stuff that's coming this week. If there's any things we've got to go over in regards to maintenance or anything like that.

So it always keeps that top of mind that we understand, hey, this is, you know, you get in the grind, it's kind of tough sometimes, but there's a lot of good things happening. You have a lot of future here and kind of get them on board with that.

You know, these guys come from different backgrounds trying to buy houses, trying to buy cars, got new babies coming along. So we're trying to get them paid right. Not working my dogs to make sure they have a happy life, a full for life, you know, it's.

You got to think about your team.

Pete: 00:31:00

Yeah, you do. And hats off to you for that.

Roy: 00:31:03

You got to put them up front. They got you here.

Pete: 00:31:04

You know, you're empowering them and you're giving them a sense of ownership and involvement. And they're not just numbers, they're now techs and people, aren't they? That's brilliant.

Roy: 00:31:12

Yeah. And it's basically their own little business within the town. So we try to say, look, this is basically your business.

You're the owner of that territory. So whatever happens there, new customers retention, that is basically on your plate, we will help you. We will assist you wherever we can.

Bend over backwards.

only thing that happens from: 06:00

Pete: 00:31:43

You ever consider moving to, like, a share option or owner driver option when.

Roy: 00:31:48

We get to a size where I can, you know, do that and the inventory purchases aren't as much as we've had to keep up with where that would actually be feasible for the guys. Totally. And we've already talked about a program like that. We're just not at that point yet. That's definitely in the cards for sure.

Pete: 00:32:02

I've got a friend who runs a dumpster business, and he's done that.

He started off, he was buying all of his trucks and buying all of his dumpsters and running it himself, and then he thought, actually, there's got to be a better way. So he moved to an owner operator business, and he's got half a dozen guys now.

Their trucks are drawn up in the colours, but the driver owns the vehicle. So therefore the driver's responsible for the maintenance and the upkeep, and the driver's responsible for the quality of the service.

He's been really successful in doing that. And I've often wondered why restroom operators that are looking to grow haven't adopted that.

Because the most common model you see for me is where larger companies like you united, buy out the smaller operators and they just keep adding and adding to the portfolio. But I don't know if that's as successful in terms of maintaining the standards and the quality that you've achieved.

Roy: 00:32:52

Yeah. And if you maintain control of your company, where you can make those decisions and really be for your people, I think that's a heck of a game plan.

And it just brings more ownership to the table. The bottom line, basically, you have to work towards that. So everybody's on the same goal even more in a share program.

I have seen some in this business where the guys bought their trucks and things under the umbrella, but if they get in a jam, their personal vehicle is going to be the most important. If it breaks down or something, and then you come into a situation where I.

If the pump is down on the truck or if they got to change tires or it's a dot situation and get inspected and they can't afford to get it repaired, you're down a truck. It's funny you mentioned the dumpster business. We started our roll off division last month.

Pete: 00:33:42

Oh, did you really? I didn't know that.

Roy: 00:33:44

Yeah. How's that going great, actually. We've got 200 cans coming in. We've got our 1st 30 on the ground. They were out in the field within eight days.

It was unbelievable.

Pete: 00:33:57

Did you buy everything from new, or have you acquired an existing business?

Roy: 00:34:00

Both the preliminary loads we've got from an asset buyout, but we've also got new units coming in. But it's a four to six week process to get those built. So we had to find these quickly because we already had orders coming in.

And now that these new ones are coming, it's going out the door as fast as they can. Good things are happening. We're trying to stay on point, keep everybody focused on our goals.

This year is another derby winner for us, so we're hoping to just keep pushing that forward, get another depot under our belt next year, and keep on pushing.

Pete: 00:34:34

Please tell me that Roy is taking time out to enjoy the family and some r and r away from the front end.

Roy: 00:34:41

I've hired my friend Raymond. He's our operations manager, and he's taken a pretty good load off of me, so we're able to kind of see some top line stuff.

He's been able to get in the trenches for me because everything goes to my cell phone at the end of the day.

So those seven, eight o'clock at night calls, he's kind of been able to handle some of those, but I like talking to the customers in the field and making sure everybody's happy and following up with them.

So it's kind of customer relations based now that we've been able to kind of move some people around and get some folks in key positions to kind of help take some of that load off of my shoulders.

Pete: 00:35:15

That's important. You can't keep burning the candles both ends, man. You really can't.

Roy: 00:35:19

No. And the kids are getting big, you know, I've got six, four, and going to be two this weekend, so he's growing like crazy.

And my wife likes us to be around on the weekends, so it's been fun.

Pete: 00:35:29

So your eldest be getting into weekend sports and stuff like that now?

Roy: 00:35:33

Yep. Loves baseball, so he's doing great.

My little girl, she's our middle child, and she's gotten a t ball now, and she's a our little ballerina, so she's doing both of those and loving both. And then my youngest, Ronan, he's just a tornado right now.

Pete: 00:35:49

Are you still doing the animals as well?

Roy: 00:35:51

Yep. Still doing some ranching.

Kind of had to put that kind of on a back burner just because everything's been so busy and trying to get the container division started and training everybody on that billing wise program set up and things. It's still there. But it hasn't been as hot and heavy as it was a year ago. Just because everything has been so aggressively growing here.

Pete: 00:36:12

It sounds like you've had a full on year Roy. And horizons look really sunny despite the gloom and misery that Covid's inflicted on the rest of us.

It sounds like Texans going absolutely brilliantly.

Roy: 00:36:23

Yeah. And you know we talked about that buzz, that frequency that's out there. You know, you can only control what you can control.

I've limited news watch just the social stuff. There's a couple of things I look at for used assets, truck purchases and things like that.

But all that other stuff you kind of got a step away from it and focus on your own game and man when you do that that other stuff kind of gets drowned out. Focus on your stuff and you'll keep moving forward.

Pete: 00:36:48

And will you get to any of the conferences that are coming up, any of the industry shows?

Roy: 00:36:52

I've got the nothing bolts conference booked.

Pete: 00:36:54

Yeah.

Roy: 00:36:55

And then the wet show when they get that finalized I've got a couple guys want to go do that.

So me and Crystal are going to go to the nuts and bolts conference since that one's a really good conference for the industry and then kind of work through the others.

Pete: 00:37:08

I'm really hoping I can get over to the states next year. I need to work on my bikini bod before I come over though.

Roy: 00:37:16

Better start doing some last round of block bro.

Pete: 00:37:18

We're coming into summer now so I'm hoping that I can be out running every day and oh you gotta focus.

Roy: 00:37:24

On that health man. That's the first thing of the day.

Pete: 00:37:26

Yeah. Hugely important.

That's my concern for you that you're pushing hard in the business and I just hope that you keep an eye on the roy situation and you don't get overwhelmed with it all because it happens. You know, it really does happen.

Roy: 00:37:39

Oh for sure.

You know you've got to get up an hour earlier, kind of focus on yourself, meditate a little bit, get that gym in, you know, get your hour there and that just kind of jump starts your day. I've been doing that for the last two years now. Started that and it really gets you primed for what's going to happen.

You know you can kind of emotionally control a little bit more. Just kind of get yourself centered if you kind of get yourself away.

1st 30 minutes, hours a day and kind of really get controlled and focused on your goals and plans and. And try to execute at the highest level that you can and try to put a w on that base column.

So that's kind of where we're stuck and that's kind of way we explain it to our team. Get here early, try to see everybody, shake hands, make sure everybody's having a good day, and we're on the road.

Pete: 00:38:24

Tek sand sounds like an awesome place to work, that you've got a great culture, a great business philosophy, you're delivering great service for your customers. And I think a lot of other operators will be looking at that thinking, man, that's where we want to be.

Roy: 00:38:37

I appreciate that. We're always here, we're online, and if anybody needs help, I'm always available to talk.

I was talking to a pro south of us for about an hour and a half the other day. You know, he had some ideas and I, some questions that I think we helped him with.

And we're always willing and able, passing along good deeds and making sure everybody's successful and kind of helping the industry and making it better. And we appreciate you, man.

Pete: 00:39:01

Thank you for that. Roy, I've been touched this week.

I've had a couple of emails and messages come in from other restroom users who've asked me to either facilitate an introduction to someone who's been on the show or a previous guest, or they've asked for advice on inspection regimes. And it's really cool that people are starting to recognise get flushed as a vehicle that can make that happen. But I'm with you absolutely on that.

Playing it forward. I spent an hour on the phone yesterday.

There's a young lady up in Auckland here who's published four episodes of her podcast and she was struggling a little bit. I messaged her and I spent an hour on the phone yesterday and I'm going to do a few things with her.

And I think that playing it forward attitude just makes you a richer person than yourself.

Roy: 00:39:40

Sure, there's a lot of folks that will ask you a bunch of questions and not do one thing that was on the list of ideas or options. That's their deal. But the man, the ones that do take the ball and run and you see them be successful.

I've seen a lot of guys that were in our industry from the customer side, jumped off, started their own construction business, started their own home building business. And, man, it's so exciting to hear that because you can kind of hear the stress in their voice.

You know, you've got managers down your throat, you got different things going on.

But to be able to step out, do your own thing, have the pride in your finished product, you know, it's really important to me, and seeing some of those guys do that, and they call them, you know, they're from different areas of the business, construction side, different backgrounds, and to kind of help them just find an insurance carrier, find the CPA that they need. What do you need to start an LLC? You know, those little things that they have zero idea about.

Just huge reward to see them being successful going forward, helping their family have more time for their family, gives you chills just thinking about helping those guys out, man. And it's a really special thing when that happens.

We're excited to help where we can, and like I said, anybody needs anything, you can introduce them to me and I'll help where I can.

Pete: 00:40:52

I appreciate that, Roy, and I'm sure a lot of listeners will as well.

Roy: 00:40:55

We try to get involved as much as we can. We're excited to be on pro monthly again, share our story, and we always like that publication and a lot of good, good information in there.

Pete: 00:41:04

I emailed Jim, the editor, last week and said, hey, jim, you keep asking for stories. You know, I've been running the podcast for 18 months. Be happy to chat about whether you want to do a feature or even collaborate.

I'd love to collaborate with them to get some episodes up. Do you know what he said when he replied, I've listened to your Roy Bering episode.

Roy: 00:41:23

Golly, that's awesome. I appreciate it. Thanks, Jim, for the punch there. That makes me feel good.

Pete: 00:41:29

I always enjoy talking to you and I appreciate your time and, you know, kind regard to the family and the rest of the team at Texan.

Roy: 00:41:36

You too. Thank you very much. Talk to you soon.

Pete: 00:41:42

San only began to operate in: 2015

A lot of the success is down to the fact that Roy and his team have got a very clear vision and a dynamic strategy for growth, and they're driving that with solid values that deliver great service. As Roy said, all of these things are achievable, and if you'd like help developing your business, please get in touch.

Before I end today, I'd like to say that GetFlush is an original podcast which is independently owned and produced, although I share it freely on lots of different podcast platforms. I'd be really grateful if you could support the show in one or more of the following ways, visit our social media pages and leave a comment.

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