In the Spotlight
R & S Waste: Keeping the Right Attitude
With more than 35 years of business under their belt, R & S Waste Systems not only stay connected with their customers and communities served, but they also maintain a proactive stance when faced with industry challenges.
R & S Waste Systems Inc. was established on October 1, 1976 in Defiance, IA by Ron and Sally Weihs. When the couple was first married, they initially wanted to get into farming since that was what Ron Weihs grew up doing. However, with farmland at astronomical prices and extremely high interest rates to borrow money for equipment, the option just was not feasible. At the same time, a local trash hauler had to sell his small route and since the Weihs’ were looking for a business, they decided to purchase it.Beginning with four small towns in southwestern Iowa, over the years they have gradually added towns, many additional rural customers, compactor services, roll-off services, tipper carts, onsite storage containers, curbside recycling and drop-site recycling services. With a staff of 10 employees and a fleet in eight vehicles, R & S Waste now serves the counties of Shelby, Pottawattamie, Harrison and Crawford in southwest Iowa. Covering approximately a 75-mile radius of their hometown of Defiance by dealing with non-hazardous commercial and residential solid waste as well as recyclables, R & S Waste’s serves about 3,000 residential and 800 commercial accounts, plus the roll-off business that varies from day to day.
Taking a Proactive Stance
According to Ron Weihs, President and founding owner of R & S Waste, the economy has not really affected their organization since the rural areas that depend on agriculture are doing pretty well right now. “We try to be proactive in providing service that our customers want such as varying schedules, i.e. every other week, monthly or weekly service depending on their needs. R & S Waste also puts together a newslettercalled Trash Talk which is sent to customers with statements in the spring and late fall. The newsletter is mailed out along with customer statements. to inform customers about the different items that we deal with such as what to do with hazardous waste, electronic waste etc. They also maintain a company Web site with information on the service territory, the holidays observed, different services offered, how to handle special waste items, recycling information, how to pack a storage container securely for moving and recycling videos on how to “do it right.” Customers can also make payments on their accounts and there are past articles from newspapers and magazines about the business to view as well.
Weihs points out that he is particularly proud of the company’s growth their focus on customer service When a customer signs up for non-weekly service, a welcome letter, a notice of what can be picked up, payment information sheet, a yearly pickup schedule calendar, R & S Waste preprinted mailing labels and small stickers are sent out. Those with weekly or multiple weekly services get a welcome letter with everything but a calendar. Then, each December Sally sends out a new yearly calendar and the little stickers for the customers to put on their own calendars as a reminder. “These calendars are very popular with customers and save a lot of phone calls to the office for scheduling questions,” says Weihs. In addition, all types of payment options are offered to customers for their convenience. For example, they can have their monthly charge automatically debited or charged to a credit card each month, make an online payment on our website or phone the payment in.
R & S Waste also supports many of the local clubs and organizations in the towns they serve bysupporting the local fire departments, schools, churches and civic organizations with cash donations and buying advertising for their events. They also belong to many the small towns chambers of commerce and business organizations. The company has their own big projects going on as well, such as the books Ron Weihs’ wife and co-owner, Vice President, Sally Weihs, has written. “Living in a small town, Ron and I have always been very active in the community serving on many civic and church organizations,” she says. “Now, I am busy with book readings for the local schools and libraries.”
Sally Weihs explains, “When our company celebrated 25 years in business in 2001, I wrote and put together a cookbook entitled You Eat the Best We Take the Rest. The book contained more than 800 recipes that were collected from our customers and family members. We sold more than 600 copies of that book and raised a little over $8,000 which was divided up among the four county food banks in our area.” For her second book, Sally Weihs wrote a children’s story focusing on recycling. Big Blue Goes Green debuted in April 2012 and tells the story of a garbage truck named Big Blue who learns a valuable lesson in what in means to go green. While at the landfill Big Blue meets a new friend, Rita Recycler, who teaches him how to lighten his loads through recycling. This book’s proceeds will go to Teen Challenge of the Midlands, a program that focuses on drug and alcohol addiction. “Garbage and recycling are what I know,” says Sally Weihs. “R & S has been instrumental in setting up several recycling programs for our customers and it seems like there is never enough education. Kids are sponges for learning and it is never too early to start them doing it right” (see Big Blue Goes Green: An Interview with Author, Sally Weihs sidebar, page xx).
Training and Safety
R & S Waste keeps up with safety by holding safety meetings once a week to talk about issues like children at play in the summer, the icy road conditions in the winter, watching for overhead wires, safety getting on and off the truck. High visibility uniform shirts and leather gloves supplied by the company must be worn and all of the trucks are equipped with backup cameras. R & S Waste also has an employee handbook that states what the appropriate conduct and behavior expected of our employees and of course they are subject to drug testing.
Facing Challenges Head On
Weihs stresses that the weather is always a challenging factor in their part of the country, especially when they faced three major blizzards a couple of years ago. “It was the first time in our history that we did not get out at all. That was a tough time. The towns and cities were taken care of as soon as we were able to get out and about and the other rural stops were just caught up over the next several days. We ended up running routes on Sunday in order to catch up.”
Another challenge for R & S Waste has been fires in their trucks. “We have lost two trucks due to fires in the packers of the trucks because of negligence from customers throwing away hot embers.”In order to educate customers on this hazard, a customer information flyer is sent out that specifically states the policy on hot ashes and embers and the company also runs ads in the local papers to educate customers on the dangers. They also have had a fire in the cab of one of the trucks while in the shop due to an electrical fire. While the fire burned the truck and did major damage to our office and shop, Weihs points out that it took seven months to repair the building and get a new truck replacement. In the meantime R & S Waste rented a small office in town and rented a garbage truck from an equipment rental company to get by. “We do the best we can and move on,” stresses Weihs.
Right now, R & S Waste is dealing with the high cost of fuel and insurance costs, which Weihs believes is the waste industry’s main challenges as well.“These two items are escalating faster than any other cost that we deal with,” says Weihs. “We have had to raise our fees to cover the additional cost of fuel and are continually optimizing our routes to be the more efficient but we have never charged a fuel surcharge. We are also contracting fuel for six months at a time so we know what the costs are going forward.” Currently, R & S Waste has no plans to change over to alternative fueled trucks because of the cost and the fuel infrastructure isn’t in place at this time in their area.
And even though R & S Waste has not had an insurance claim for many years, Weihs points out that the solid waste and recycling business is considered to be high risk which, in turn, makes the rate for worker’s compensation high. “Many of the businesses that we deal with require waivers of subrogation and high limit liability insurance which is very expensive,” says Weihs.
Growing the Company
Weihs intends to keep R & S Waste growing by becoming more automated through using tipper carts and eventually going to auto side load trucks and continual marketing strategies to keep their business name out in the surrounding communities. “Our theory has always been to grow slowly which we are still doing,” says Weihs. “We send out marketing flyers to different areas we serve to inform people that we would love to provide them with trash removal service. We also advertise on the radio but probably our best advertisement is our logo which is a plain bright blue sign with the name R & S Waste Systems and phone number on it. It is a very clean simple design. We have them on everything and people often comment that they see our blue stickers on containers everywhere.”
Sally Weihs agrees, “The solid waste industry has been our life for more than 35 years now. Ron and I are truly dedicated to continually put our customers first and believe that we have been an integral part of improving the environment.”
For more information on R & S Waste Systems, (712) 748-3471, e-mail[email protected]or visitwww.rswaste.com.
R & S Waste worker pickup up house-to-house recycling.
R & S Waste worker picking up tipper carts.
R & S Waste worker pickup up regular curbside trash.
Rear load 25-yard New Way packer.
R & S Waste Systems, Inc. fleet.
Photos courtesy of R & S Waste Systems.
Sidebar
Big Blue Goes Green: An Interview with Author, Sally Weihs
What inspired you to write this children’s book? I have always liked to write short stories. Children are fascinated with garbage trucks, especially little boys. After looking at other children’s books on recycling, I decided it would be fun to write an educational yet fun book about it. We have five grandchildren who love to read so it was a logical choice.
Where there any particular inspirations that you drew up during the writing process? Garbage and recycling are what I know. We have been instrumental in setting up several recycling programs for our customers and it seems like there is never enough education. Kids are sponges for learning and it is never too early to start them doing it right.
How long did it take you to write this book? It took me about a half hour to write the story but the process from start to finish took about nine months. It wouldn’t have taken that long if it were not for my regular job of helping my husband run our business, R & S Waste. Initially, this book was to be in conjunction with our business’ 35th anniversary but I didn’t make my October 1, 2011 deadline—life happens. Also, the artist, Ryan McCoy, who is my nephew, was still in college plus working a couple of jobs so it was process. I took pictures of our trucks from all angles and e-mailed them to him. From there, he made them into cartoon characters. I would tell him what I had in mind on each page of the book and we e-mailed ideas back and forth. He did a beautiful job.
What made you decide to donate the proceeds to Teen Challenge of the Midlands? I was looking for a charity that was run on charitable donations that did not receive any government aid. Drug and alcohol addiction are devastating to families and is something that does not just affect any one area in the U.S. or just any social or economic sector. Their program is faith based, which was a main factor for me too. I believe that we all need to have God in our lives. After speaking with Pastor Hunsberger in Des Moines about their program, I decided that Teen Challenge of the Midlands was the charity for my project. My initial goal is to sell at least 1,000 copies of my book in order to be able to give a decent sized donation to Teen Challenge. The book will always be out there for sale. It has an ISBN number and is listed with the Library of Congress so proceeds will always be given to Teen Challenge.
What kind of marketing strategies have you used to get the word out about your book? I have contacted the local newspapers who have done nice articles on the book. We also went to the Waste Expo this year in Las Vegas and took orders there. I have contacted a few of the national magazines, such as Waste Advantage Magazine. I have a huge list of names of businesses and publications that I will contact little by little. Since I am self-employed I didn’t want to be overwhelmed with too many obligations all at once. I have had a couple of book readings and book signings and this fall, I am going to contact the schools to see if they would be interested in the book. I also plan to donate a few of the books to local libraries.
Will you be planning a follow up waste/recycling book in the future? I have thought about having a follow up book about an adventure with Big Blue and Rita Recycler but it probably would not happen for a few years.