Several years ago, Waste Advantage Magazine profiled Waste Pro’s history and growth. Now, we are catching up with the company to find out how their business strategies have changed and how they have spread their footprint nationally.

As a second-generation garbage man, John Jennings, Chairman and CEO of Waste Pro, has prided himself on steadily growing the company through a handful of strategies that have been implemented over the last several years. Originally a municipal services, organic grower, Waste Pro has now built a large base in a 10-state footprint. They have also expanded their commercial side of the business by marketing and acquisitions. In 2016, Waste Pro made 11 acquisitions alone. Waste Pro’s municipal service, which was once about 70 percent of the business, is now below 50 percent and they have added landfills, transfer stations and MRFS to the base of the business. “We’ve grown considerably over the last few years. We currently have 3,100 employees, 2,200 vehicles on the road and 74 locations in 10 states,” says Jennings.

Establishing a Brand and Positive Culture

With a brand platform that is founded on best service, best people and best equipment, Waste Pro’s goal is to establish a culture that is all about communication. “We have constant input from our drivers and helpers because we believe that they are the face of the company on the street; they are of critical importance to our service, whether it is a municipality, business or individual customer,” says Ron Pecora, Waste Pro’s Chief Marketing Officer.  With a tagline of “Caring for Our Communities”, Waste Pro prides itself on being involved in everything from birthday parties to greeting school groups and not for profit organizations. Jennings agrees, “By making it personal, it establishes a brand and culture that has really built Waste Pro into the company it is today and as a result, we decided to expand the services in the footprints where we are located at in order to better service our communities.”

With one of their goals to be a 100-year company, part of the things that Waste Pro continually markets is developing careers for their employees by getting caring, professional, career-oriented employees out in the neighborhoods. Twenty-seven percent of their truck drivers are college graduates and Jennings feels like the company has attracted these types of people because of Waste Pro’s culture and brand. He is especially proud of the fact that now they are a millennial company with a group of young leaders (24 to 32 years old) that have important positions in the company, from route managers to supervisors to division managers and MRF operators who meet periodically to go over ways to be creative from a business standpoint and push the boundaries of the industry. “Ron and I recognize that while we are competent people, we are smart enough to know where this world is headed and we are fortunate enough to attract people that know where the career opportunities need to be in the future.”

The biggest thing that Jennings has learned from working with millennials is that people from the older generation are workaholics. Instead of a traditional 60 to 80 hour a week that the industry is known for, many of the younger employees want a balance in their life. They want to do the job, but they want to do it within a reasonable time period so they can balance their work with their outside activities; so through Division Manager, Sean Jennings’ (son of founder John Jennings) direction, the company has now gone to an eight-hour, five-day operation. “We balance our routes so that our people can be part of our communities. They work with the police departments on crime watch, we have saved lives because no one is rushing through their routes; employees are providing the service level and the participation in the community that is so different than before. We have really seen that this world has changed and that the new, younger employee is motivated by different things than what we’ve been used to for 40 years,” says Jennings.

In order to recruit younger talent, Waste Pro looked at their footprint and started advertising at different colleges, through referrals, etc. Although, the company hires any college graduate, they all have to start on the back of the truck, work in the shop, then in the office handling calls and customer service, and finally, must get a CDL license. Whether or not they are going to drive a truck, Jennings wants them to be familiar with what the driver is responsible for and why everyone needs to respect them and what they do on the back of the truck.

“When I went through the CDL program, we had an instructor that was incredibly captivating, positive and informational and after the class ended, he and I talked and both of us decided that it was beneficial for him to come to work for Waste Pro,” says Sean Jennings. “Now he trains our experienced helpers that may have been working on the back of the truck for 10 years, but they just happen to have the opportunity to get their license, so he helps them and trains them and usually they end up becoming great drivers. I think that is an incredible resource that we have for people to give them a career because when you have a license, it allows you to grow so much.”

Changing Business Strategies

When the economy was down, Waste Pro parked almost 50 roll-off trucks and 4,000 roll-off containers. However, as it turned around and the commercial side of the business has blossomed, the company now has 24 roll-off trucks on order and has already purchased 15 in the first quarter of 2017. One of the things Waste Pro learned from the downturn was that they were interested in not only getting jobs, but they also wanted jobs that were profitable and gave the return. Once again, the millennials and generation X-ers stepped up and recognized that on construction sites, if Waste Pro was going to be the company that services customers and allows them to be LEED-certified, then the company needed to recycle off of the construction sites. Now this strategy is in place and Waste Pro showcases MRFs in Florida, Ocala, Sarasota, Atlanta and other cities. “We had gone two or three years where we had lost $2 or $3 million on recycling. Sean and one of our Executive Vice Presidents, Ralph Velocci, traveled to Europe to look at some of the ways the mature economies deal with recycling. One of the things that Ralph recognized and recommended to us was that this is a commodity business. It is supply and demand that determines the price and the fact is there is more recyclable material that can be profitability sold, so, therefore, the materials that you produce out of your MRFs better be the best and cleanest in order to have a market that you can sell to,” says Jennings. Velocci noticed that many of the MRFs in Germany had employees who would re-clean the material that had already been picked and processed, so as a result, Waste Pro has put different trommels into place along with optical sorters. In addition, Sean Jennings implemented a process to run the material twice. While it may knock down the productivity, the material is very clean and now Waste Pro is getting $25 to $50 above the market price for their material.

Sean Jennings and Velocci also took a trip out to Ireland to get different ideas on how the company could handle plastics and what different markets there are for all of the different streams of recycling. The result was that an Irish company has now invested more than $22 million dollars in Waste Pro’s Atlanta recycling plant. “We really are fortunate to find these good partners who have had experience with mature economies. Just this week their representatives have been looking at ways that we can economically ship plastics to them so they can package it and sell it to their end users,” says Jennings.

Efficient Programs

One of the areas that Jennings is particularly proud of is a process that is called the Safety Lane, which is part of their driver communications program. It develops a relationship between maintenance and operations, getting everyone focused on the same goal. Every day as the trucks return from the routes, the supervisors call the shop and alert them to the fact that they have a specific number of trucks coming in from a location and when they will arrive, so when those trucks come through, there is a line of mechanics waiting for them. These safety lanes allow work on four trucks at a time and every driver spends time with the mechanic. While they are going over the truck checklist, crawlers are underneath the trucks checking for loose fittings, evidence of hydraulic leaks, checking the tire pressure and for any indication of gashes. The mechanic and the driver go from the front to the back of the truck and the mechanic asks the driver if he felt anything that was unusual while driving, right down to seat comfort. Then, he writes everything down and immediately communicates it into the shop where a work order is printed. When the night crews come in, the manager assigns the vehicle’s tasks, so it is ready for the route when the driver comes in the morning. This has resulted in happier, motivated drivers, who, in turn, will take better care of his or her truck, better care of the customers, and is working less hours so he has more time to spend with their family or outside interests.

In addition, the integration of maintenance and operations has tremendously impacted Waste Pro’s safety programs. Although they have 360-degree cameras, GPS and every type of technological advancements on their trucks, the fact that maintenance and operations are working together has been the biggest safety advance Jennings has seen over the last four years. “This is an industry that has traditionally had a higher turnover, so we pay incentive bonuses to our employees. Every three years a CDL-licensed driver and a non-CDL licensed driver receive bonuses of $10,000 and $5,000 if they have operated in a safe manner, if they have not had a driver-caused breakdown on their vehicle, have not had a legitimate customer complaint, no accident or property damage. It makes me very happy to see that we are on our third and fourth issuance of the checks.”

Expanding their Footprint

Currently, Waste Pro is planning to continuously expand their footprint, filling in the southeast and moving father to the west in states like Texas, Oklahoma and New Mexico. Says Pecora, “We have a very systematic approach towards municipal marketing and a databank where we track every contract in our footprint. We believe in a relationship marketing program supported by this data, so we’re creating relationships 18 months to two years out. Our pattern is very intentional; we gain the residential, then we start to fill in with the commercial services—that is why right now it is so important for that part of our business. When an opportunity is readily available, we are smart enough to take advantage of that.” As a decentralized company, he points out that regional vice presidents, managers and marketing teams are on the ground and CEOs of their own operations, while upper management’s entire role is simply to support these regions and divisions. “We are able to differentiate ourselves in the marketplace successfully and we are mentoring our young leaders and learning from them. It’s not easy with the amount of growth we’ve had in 17 years. It’s all about maximum communications back and forth and its working. It’s a very unique company, we are financially stable, we’re growing and refining what we do and learning and I think there is a bright future.”

Jennings agrees, “We are trying to create a difference in this industry and for our company. We want to be a career company for our employees and for our customers. It’s a new world out there and I’m learning to be part of it.  We’ve been in the industry for a long time and expect to be in it for another 100 years.”

For more information, contact Ron Pecora at (407) 869-8800 or e-mail [email protected].

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