In the Tri-State area where Iowa, Nebraska and South Dakota converge, mammoth meat packing plants dominate the landscape. And many drain-cleaning companies compete to serve them.
To compete effectively, Joe Schatz, owner of Speedy Rooter of South Sioux City, Neb., knows that ordinary work just won’t do. He focuses on providing Grade A service by retaining skilled employees, rigorously maintaining equipment, and fostering a tenacious, failure-is-not-an-option mentality.
There are about a dozen meat packing plants in the Siouxland area, which includes Sioux City, Iowa, and North Sioux City, S.D. “So there’s a lot of work,” says Schatz. “I know at least four other companies that own jetting and Vactor trucks around here. To remain competitive, we need to do whatever it takes to get the job done.
“That attitude is why we are where we are. The maintenance guys at the meat plants have a lot of problems to deal with every day. But once they call us, they know they’re done with drain problems because they know we’ll take care of it. They can scratch that problem off the list.”
Contending with pipeline clogs is tough on employees and equipment alike. Emergency calls often come at night, because that’s when plant crews hose trimmings and other debris down drains as they wash floors.
“If a drain backs up in a production area, the plant shuts down until we can fix it,” Schatz says. “When they shut down, they lose thousands of dollars, so we’ve got to really hustle to get things up and running. We just had guys and a Vactor truck working almost 30 hours straight at one plant. You just don’t know what’s going to happen until the phone rings. It might be a half-hour job or a 30-hour job.”
Tough on workers
Schatz estimates that area meat packing plants provide 40 to 50 percent of his business. The rest is municipal drain cleaning and residential plumbing. About 25 percent of the plant work involves preventive maintenance. Most lines in the plants are 4 to 8 inches, but some are as large as 24 inches.
A typical large packing plant is like a small city, with its own waste treatment system. “They have their own storm lines, their own wells, their own water-filtration systems,” Schatz notes. “One plant has a mile-long pipe that carries chemicals used to treat animal hides from the plant to sealed lagoons, where they’re stored and treated.”
The variety of work is endless. Animal trimmings might clog floor drains on the slaughterhouse floor. Cookers that cook tallow off animal bones may spill over, stopping up lines. Debris and chemical tanks require periodic cleaning. “It’s demanding work, 24/7,” Schatz says. “It’s the nature of the beast.”
Since most of the work involves nasty, unpleasant jobs, Schatz has to work hard to attract and retain top-notch employees. To keep people satisfied, Speedy Rooter offers paid holidays, health insurance with an affordable monthly premium, and overtime pay on weekends and after 5 p.m. weekdays. Schatz also accommodates employees’ needs for time off whenever possible, especially after they pull an all-night shift.
Each employee also receives a company-paid cell phone they can use for personal calls. “They can use it 24/7, but they also have to answer it 24/7,” Schatz says.
Creature comforts
Schatz also pays attention to creature comforts, such as uniform shirts made of a moisture-wicking material. That might sound trivial, but it tells employees that the company cares about their comfort, and it encourages them to keep their shirts on instead of shedding them when they get hot and sweaty.
“Uniforms are very important,” Schatz says. “First of all, if the guys wear jeans every day, they’re going to get dirty and look terrible. I want our employees to look respectable and clean-cut. We hire a company to wash our uniforms so the guys always have a clean uniform every single day.
“I also want uniforms that are comfortable, so the guys will wear them. I selected a shirt style that looks good and stylish, whether they wear them tucked in or untucked.”
But the biggest perk of all is a family-like atmosphere where employees feel the company truly cares about their well-being. “We’re one big family, and we care about each other,” Schatz says. “Our employees aren’t just numbers to us. They’re people, and to me, that’s huge. When we work, say, 26 hours straight, I don’t hear anyone complain. The bottom line is that I didn’t build this company to where it’s at today. We all did.”
Critical maintenance
Schatz also retains employees by keeping equipment in good working order. That also boosts customer satisfaction by minimizing delays and work stoppages. The stable of equipment includes two 2100 series Vactor trucks with 10-cubic-yard debris tanks, made by Vactor Manufacturing, and a trailer-mounted 4018 water jetter (4,000 psi/18 gpm) with a 300-gallon water tank, made by US Jetting Inc.
The company also owns five service vans, each equipped with a DM55 cable machine from Duracable Manufacturing Co., and a Ken-Way Jr. compact drain cleaner, made by Ken-Way Corp.
Speedy Rooter employs a full-time mechanic, which saves money on repairs and minimizes equipment downtime. “We don’t have the money to buy new equipment, so we’ve got to make what we have last as long as possible,” Schatz says. “For example, right now, our mechanic is going over the Vactor truck we had running for almost 30 hours straight, cleaning the filters and checking things out.
“Once we had a bad drop box on our 1997 Vactor, and it would have cost $16,000 to $17,000 to buy a new one. But our mechanic put in new gaskets and replaced a shear pin, all for $300. Another time he rebuilt the pump on our jetter for less than $1,000. That’s why we have a full-time mechanic.”
The company’s facilities include a 50- by 100-foot shop with 20-foot-high ceilings and 14-foot-tall service doors. It’s outfitted with a plasma cutter and three welding machines, allowing the company to do its own fabrication work.
Diverse career path
Schatz entered the drain-cleaning industry in a roundabout way. He was produce manager at a grocery store, but got tired of being indoors. So he took a job at a national drain-cleaning franchise, where he later became the service manager. But he yearned to own a business, and so bought a plumbing shop and started Speedy Rooter.
A master plumber from the purchased company stayed on to supervise the plumbing crews while Schatz concentrated on the drain-cleaning business. “I foot-pounded a lot – knocked on a lot of doors,” he recalls. “I also knew people from my previous job. It grew so fast that I sold the plumbing shop. But that fast growth really hurt our business. Our first year, we had more calls than we could handle, so the service wasn’t where it should’ve been.”
Speedy Rooter now has a plumbing division, which increases the company’s business base.
“We’re the only drain-cleaning company in the Siouxland area that’s also a licensed plumbing outfit,” Schatz says. “That means when we go into someone’s house, we can take care of the problem, whether it’s a plumbing or a drain-cleaning issue. That’s much better than having to refer a customer to another company.”
More importantly, the company is licensed to do plumbing in Iowa, Nebraska and South Dakota. That’s critical in a multi-state area.
Knack for marketing
Schatz has no formal marketing training, but he understands the value of a marketing campaign that ties together everything from trucks to uniforms. As a result, he hasn’t done any cold calling for years, and he is considering reducing his phone directory presence from a full-page ad to a half page. “Our vans and equipment are lettered to the max because they’re rolling billboards,” Schatz notes.
Looking back, Schatz is amazed at how his company has grown in seven years.
“I started out with an old van that I spray-painted to hide the rust,” he chuckles. “I couldn’t get financing to buy a jetter. Now I’ve got bankers that bank with me all day long. It’s unbelievable how we’ve grown.”
Part of that success stems from his own strong convictions. “To sell a service, you’ve got to believe in it, and I do,” he says. “We’ve got the equipment and the manpower to do the job. If it’s an all-nighter, we’ve got enough employees that we can send one crew home and rotate in another one. Customers know we’ll get the job done.”
