TIPS FROM THE TRENCHES

When you're a small player in the waste business, its pays to look for any and every advantage you can get, especially if you don't have the resources to provide your own maintenance or the clout to get priority service at a dealership.

Rick Galliher, a 1-800-GOT-JUNK? franchisee since August 2003 and the owner of six trucks, knows this better than anyone. Despite being part of a nationwide network of fellow franchisees (and one of the largest, racking up $1 million a year in sales), Galliher still must contend with the headaches common to all small fleets. He shares some of that hard-won knowledge below:

Talk with your peers: Galliher constantly networks with other GOT JUNK? franchisees across the country to find solutions to common and not-so-common problems. “For example, we have to cover our loads with a tarp — it's a regulatory requirement,” he explains. “We used to buy bigger tarps, cut them down and re-sew them with a fishing line to fit over our special dump bodies. But a fellow franchisee told me a company in Missouri made tarps in exactly our size for only $40, saving us a lot of time and expense.”

Galliher, in turn, found a local parts store that stocks hard-to-find hitch pins for securing the rear doors of his dump body and regularly supplies them to fellow franchisees that can't locate similar parts in their areas.

Spare trucks wanted: In a big fleet, having spare trucks on hand is anathema, tying up capital and maintenance dollars. But for a small fleet, having access to a spare truck can be a big benefit. “If we have a truck break down — mechanical issue, flat tire or otherwise — we can redistribute the workload onto the other two until we get the third back up and running,” Galliher says.

Find a maintenance partner: After Galliher bought his first truck, a Nissan UD, he had trouble getting it serviced at the local dealership. “I had to schedule an oil change two weeks in advance with them, then they had my truck for a week and never changed it,” he says.

By sheer luck, he discovered G&C Express Auto Service, a local fleet maintenance shop that offers both preventive maintenance and warranty work but, most importantly, has become a one-stop resource when problems occur. “If we have a breakdown, my crews call G&C and they line up a tow truck for us to their facility. That helps us keep costs under control.”

Seek alternate solutions: One of the aggravations Galliher faces as a small player is how awkward truck specs impact his operation, often leading to sustained maintenance issues. “For example, the fuel fill line on our medium-duty cabovers is between the rear tire and the mud flap, back under the truck, so not only was it hard to refuel, mud was literally getting into our fuel tanks,” he says. “We said, ‘that won't work,’ so we had G&C go under the trucks and extend the fuel refill line for us.”

G&C also designed custom metal flanges to prevent flying road debris from damaging back up alarms installed on the back of Galliher's trucks.

Think ahead: Galliher serves a four county area in Northern Virginia. He says it's paid handsome dividends to locate suppliers of truck parts and tires in each area in the event that his crews are stranded by a problem. “The nature of a small fleet is to address a problem only when it happens,” he says. “We went a year without a flat tire and then we had one. Suddenly, it's like, ‘where do we go for a new one?’ Because truck parts and tires aren't sold at the [do-it-yourself auto parts store] around the corner.”

Galliher lined up four or five parts providers — what he calls “little truck places” — so if his crew loses a tire, they know where they can go to get a replacement without having to scramble. “It just makes it easier to have places like these mapped out in advance before you need them,” he says.
— Sean Kilcarr