Russell Reid and Mr. John yields an extraordinary amount of savings and efficiencies by deploying the AMCS Platform.
By Nancy Byrne
Russell Reid is a family-owned and operated waste management company headquartered in New Jersey. The company operates under two brands: Russell Reid and Mr. John. The company has been in business since 1964 and currently has seven locations, 312 employees and 200 vehicles. They service all of New Jersey, the five Burroughs of New York City and Eastern Long Island, Eastern Pennsylvania, Philadelphia and Northern Delaware.
Russell Reid, is a non-hazardous liquid and solid waste company. They run a large fleet of vacuum straight trucks, vacuum tractor trailers, roll-off trucks/containers, vacuum containers and supply a wide range of environment services to environmental concerns, construction companies, utilities, municipalities and a whole host of companies that require their services.
Mr. John, is a portable toilet service company. They own a large fleet of rental equipment, including individual portable toilets, high-end restroom trailers and other equipment to service the construction and special event industry.
Access to Critical Information Allows Company to Respond to Customers’ Needs More Efficiently
“Innovation has always been important to our company. Early on, we made the decision to invest in an enterprise management solution, which enabled our company to grow and run more efficiently. The AMCS Platform continues to give our organization flexibility and scalability,” says Gary Weiner, President of Russell Reid.
The Enterprise Management Solution is at the heart of the AMCS Platform. It is very robust and has accommodated various customers’ needs in the waste industry over the years. It offers an end-to-end solution that gives us visibility into day-to-day operations and provides critical, real-time information that helps streamline processes and improve overall efficiencies. According to Weiner, it continues to support Russell Reid in their growth, allowing for greater profitability and productivity.
“Our customers’ satisfaction is our highest priority. In order to support this vision, we have invested heavily in our people, equipment and technology to continue my father’s legacy. The AMCS software is great for crawl, walk, and run. It was the best choice for us—the software continues to scale with the growth of our business. We are running pretty hard right now after 15 years and we see all kinds of opportunities to do it better and to continue to stay innovative,” says Weiner.
Yasi Alemzadeh, AMCS’ Vice President of Customer Success, explains, “I have been with AMCS for over 15 years now and have had the pleasure of working with Gary Weiner and the team at Russell Reid and Mr. John company. They have been a loyal and valuable customer through two acquisitions, and together we have seen considerable growth for both organizations over the years. They have always been on the cutting edge of technology and have partnered with us to provide critical feedback that has helped us to improve our overall operations, customer service and technology advancements.”
The Key to Success is the Efficiency of the Business
Rob Suessmann, Logistic Manager, agrees, “The most exciting thing for us was when AMCS introduced a mobile solution that integrates with our Enterprise Management solution. In the past, everything was a manual process. Deploying mobile devices to our field service group was really transformative.”
He continues, “We are able to track the beginning of the order at the dispatch department and process it all the way through to the driver’s mobile app and then back to the home office. For us, knowing where the trucks are at any given time has allowed us to handle on-call and emergency status work. By pinpointing the location of the vehicles and what their capabilities are, we can delegate the work more efficiently to the appropriate resource and therefore, make our response to our customers much better.”
Going Paperless
“We have also been working towards eliminating paper entirely and think eventually the tablets will be able to be programmed to support a 100 percent paperless transaction. Today, we have produced incredible returns in terms of efficiency using the mobile solution by AMCS. The company no longer has to print and distribute daily routes for every driver because they are captured electronically in the field. We had a particular cover sheet we eliminated, and I did the calculation on the cost of the toner, the collating time, the handling time, the cost of the paper, and it added up really quickly,” Weiner says. “Just eliminating that one printed sheet saved us about $20,000 annually.”
The Main Benefit of Using the AMCS Platform is Visibility Into Daily Operations
The Enterprise Management solution has been the heart of Russell Reid’s operation. The real benefit is having visibility on what is going on daily in the company’s entire operations. With 200 vehicles on the road, there are a lot of moving parts with coordinating, arranging and re-arranging schedules and Russell Reid needed to do this in the most cost-effective and efficient way possible. The AMCS solution gave them:
- Streamlined processes and increased productivity
- Higher level of customer service
- Scalable system to support company growth
- Insights into business performance
- Improved communication from office to the field
- Incredible return on investment
Says Weiner, “The biggest challenge I see for the future is the investment in people. Everyone who works for us is ultimately a volunteer—they work for themselves first, then they work for the company. My goal for the future is to be the employer of choice in our industry. I’m dedicated to my employees and offer them great software and tools to use, teach them to work independently in the office and out in the field and enable them to make effective decisions. They are my number one resource and I believe this investment will attract the best people.”
Nancy Byrne is Director of Marketing and Communications for AMCS Group, North America and has been with the company since the fall of 2016. She has been in marketing and communications in the high tech industry for more than 20 years. Nancy can be reached at [email protected].