Case Study
Waste Pro Cuts Costs by Streamlining Oil Maintenance Routines
Oil Purification Systems’ patented fluid cleaning technologies help Waste Pro cut maintenance costs, while also pro-actively expanding its green initiatives
Waste Pro USA (Longwood, FL) is a full service company offering complete solid waste and recycling services throughout Florida, Georgia, South Carolina and Alabama. Holding 83 exclusive city and county franchises, 34 non-exclusive city and county franchises and five major military and federal government contracts, Waste Pro is currently contracted to provide solid waste and recycling services to more than 800,000 residences and more than 32,000 businesses.
As Waste Pro has grown and evolved, they have pro-actively entered the green age by purchasing environmentally conscious vehicles to help reduce the carbon footprint and creating LEED certified pick up for customers. In the summer of 2008 Waste Pro acquired American Recycling with operations in Atlanta, GA and Birmingham, AL. Contingent with this acquisition, Waste Pro was awarded a long-term contract for the Atlanta Hartsfield airport for all of its recycling and waste collection, resulting in the first large U.S. airport with such an extensive recycling program.
The Challenge
WastePro operates in a business that is very asset dependent—and very hard on equipment. The typical WastePro collection vehicle is used at least 50 hours per week. In situations where the business is growing rapidly these trucks are running well over 3,000 hours per year.
With typical oil change intervals around 300 hours this creates a backup in oil maintenance, and the average expense per year is more than $1,200. WastePro knew they needed to find a way to improve operational performance and lower cost.
A Better Solution
Waste Pro first became aware of Oil Purification Systems (OPS) (Shelton, CT) through Skip Berg, a principal at Environmental Strategies, LLC, and a 35 year industry veteran. Familiar with the success achieved at Casella Waste, and confident that with the combination of economic and environmental advantages OPS technology would be of interest to the fast-growing Waste Pro organization. Berg introduced the OPS to Tim Dolan, Regional Vice President of Operations at Waste Pro.
After meeting with representatives of OPS, Waste Pro initiated a process to learn more about the benefits of supplemental filtration. First, they checked in with several Over-The-Road fleets that were using the product and quadrupling their Oil Drain Interval (ODI). Perhaps most important in Waste Pro’s due diligence process was the company’s conversations with Casella Waste Systems, a company similar in size to Waste Pro that had deployed more than 1,000 OPS units on its entire waste collection fleet as well as its off-road equipment. Casella’s overwhelming evaluation was that the OPS technology was consistently delivering clean oil at four times the current drain interval. After discussing several competitors, Waste Pro selected the OPS product based on their patented technology and strong industry track record.
OPS’ certified technicians installed Waste Pro’s initial 67 evaluation units in Jacksonville, Orlando and Tallahassee early in Q4 of 2008. By the end of Q1 2009, it became clear that Waste Pro would be able to extend their normal Oil Drain interval from 300 hours to 1,200 hours company wide. The company then deployed the system on all of their newer heavy equipment, and now have more than 600 trucks benefiting from OPS technology. According to Vince Polentes, Vice President of Sales at OPS, “WastePro was great to work with. They are a company experiencing fast growth and in transition from decentralized maintenance to a more efficient ‘Best Practices’ driven company. Working with the original site managers including Joe Majzer in Jacksonville and Steve Churchard in the Panhandle and others was a very positive experience. They are professional and data-driven, so when the lab results arrived, they all contributed to the decision to make this a company-wide initiative”.
The Bottom Line
“The savings is over $600 per truck annually. Installations started in April 2009 and were pretty much completed by the end of September, although we continue to add OPS units as we grow our fleet,” says Steve Judge, Waste Pro’s Corporate Maintenance Director.
An Unexpected Benefit
One of the unexpected wins for Waste Pro as a result of implementing this technology has been the market trend to look for companies doing everything possible to “Green” their fleets. Most of the municipalities they work with are impressed with the fact that Waste Pro has reduced dependence on lubrication oil. Judge stresses, “In the case of this technology, it has reduced our consumption by 75 percent. It has made a difference in several competitive situations where Waste Pro has come out on top.”
Long-Term Partnership
Today, Waste Pro looks at OPS as one of their best vendors. Since Waste Pro has deployed the OPS technology, the company has also changed oil analysis labs. Waste Pro now uses the OPS Tru-Test program for its proven customer service, state of the art facilities, quicker turn-around time, and in-depth reporting which allows Judge to see trends across his fleet. Judge concluded, “What was most impressive was the OPS support team’s knowledge and consistency in contacting my shop managers with valuable information regarding what the oil is saying about the health of our fleet. I can say in conclusion that the OPS team is a partner we rely on to help ensure the safety and long-term serviceability of our fleet.”
For more information on Oil Purification Systems, call (866) OIL-PURE or visit www.ops-1.com.
For more information on Waste Pro, call (407) 869-8800 or visit www.wasteprousa.com.