No More Ping-Pong

A fleet of specially designed drain-cleaning trucks helps a Pennsylvania contractor keep its technicians productive and serve customers well

Several years ago, employees at Kline’s Services Inc. in Salunga, Pa., felt more like ping-pong balls at times than drain-cleaning service technicians.

“Our vans couldn’t carry everything we needed for a job,” recalls Brad Brubaker, wastewater management specialist. “We’d dispatch a driver, and he’d arrive at the job only to find out he needed a jetter. Since the trucks couldn’t carry a jetter, he’d have to drive back to the shop to pick one up, then drive back to the job. A technician could easily burn up an hour and a half in hours on the road.”

Those days are long gone, thanks to a fleet of Mitsubishi FE180 trucks outfitted with 14-foot aluminum service truck bodies from Morgan Corp. Kline’s owns five of the trucks, all designed specifically to carry jetter equipment.

Doing more business

Kline’s works in a 75-mile radius in Lancaster County in southeast Pennsylvania, offering residential and commercial line opening, industrial waste removal, and septic tank installation and service. While Brubaker can’t quantify the trucks’ financial impact on the business, he points out that the drain-cleaning division is now one of the most profitable in the company.

“We’ve increased the number of vehicles and technicians, and we’re doing more work than we ever did before,” he says. “We have five technicians, and we keep them on the road all day. These trucks are much more efficient. It’s like having everything but the kitchen sink right in the back of the truck.”

Three trucks carry Model 184 jetters from Mongoose Jetters, delivering 18 gpm at 4,000 psi. The others carry Model 4018 jetters from US Jetting Inc. that produce 15 gpm at 4,000 psi. Each truck also carries 3/8-, 1/4- and 5/8-inch cable machines from Duracable Manufacturing Co., as well as large and small SeeSnake cameras from RIDGID, says Shawn Perry, project manager.

Kline’s fashions its own shelving for the trucks, which are geared toward convenient access to the large, heavy, skid-mounted jetters. “The jetter sits at the very back of the truck,” Perry says. “All the trucks are set up the same way — just open the tailgate and the jetter hose is right there.”

‘Those nice clean trucks’

The distinctive silver and red trucks, bearing the company logo and slogan — “Doing the Job Right!” — also serve as rolling billboards. “Our trucks are incredibly recognizable,” Brubaker says. “They’re washed every day. They’re spotless. We’re known for our clean trucks. When people hear our company name, the standard response is, ‘Oh, you’re the guys who drive those nice clean trucks.’

“That helps us stand out, because there are a lot of beat-up trucks in this business. The message behind a clean truck is that we’ll take care of a customer’s property the same way we take care of our own equipment.”

The trucks also display the company’s web site and several phone numbers. “We cover a wide area, so we put several phone numbers on the truck,” notes Brubaker. “Most people feel more comfortable calling a local number.”

And those familiar trucks arrive at jobs a lot sooner, now that technicians no longer play ping-pong.



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