ne thing leads to another.In a nutshell, that old adage describeshow Adkins Sanitation Ltd. in Fremont,

Ohio, went from a one-truck outfit to a multi-service company — not to mention persever-ing long enough to become a fourth-genera-tion, family-owned business that’s still goingstrong after more than 50 years.

“In this industry, you start one thing and ittends to lead to another,” says John Adkins,who owns the business along with his father,Jim. “It all kind of snowballs.”

When Jim Adkins started the septic pump-ing business in 1957, he had no notions aboutdramatic growth. After being laid off from afactory job, it was strictly a matter of survival.

Equipment-wise, all he had going for himwas a 1951 Ford truck outfitted with a 1,000-gallon tank and a 4-inch centrifugal pump. “Ididn’t even have any Yellow Pages advertisingbecause I missed the deadline for publica-tion,” Adkins says. “If I didn’t have any work,I’d just leave the house at 7 a.m. and drive

around and knock on doors. Sure, it wasdaunting. But it paid off in the long run.”

TODAY’S EQUIPMENT Today, Adkins Sanitation owns four vacu-

um service trucks. Two of them are 2009International 7500 models with 4,000-gallonaluminum tanks. One was built by Tri StateTank LLC (TST LLC), a division ofWalker Group Holdings LLC,and features a Masportpump. The other was builtby Transway Systems Inc.and uses a Wallensteinpump. The other two rigsare 1995 Ford 9000 models,built by MarengoFabricated Steel Ltd. with4,000-gallon steel tanks,and using Wallenstein andJurop pumps.

The company alsoowns two combination

vacuum trucks: a 2005 Sterling built out byVac-Con with a 16-yard-capacity tank and aRoots 824 PD blower, made by Dresser Inc.;and a 1993 Ford 9000, also built by Vac-Conwith a 12-yard tank.

One of two Adkins Sanitationtrucks is parked on the MillerFerry for a trip to Middle BassIsland. (Photos by Jason Werling)

O

For more than 50 years, the Adkins family has continually taken on a new and variedworkload to answer the shifting demand for local liquid waste services

For more than 50 years, the Adkins family has continually taken on a new and variedworkload to answer the shifting demand for local liquid waste services

By Ken Wysocky

THE MENUTHE MENUEXPANDINGEXPANDING

K.C. Collins attaches a hose to the back of anInternational vacuum truck at Adkins Sanitation in

Fremont, Ohio.

In addition, Adkins Sanitation owns tworestroom service pump trucks: one a 2005Peterbilt 335 with a 2,200-gallon aluminumtank and a Masport pump, built by TranswaySystems, and the other a 2000 Ford F-550 witha 900-gallon steel tank and Jurop pump.Adkins also owns two jetting trucks, a trailer-mounted jetter and a camera-inspectiontruck.

Septic pumping generates about 60 per-cent of the company’s business volume; tele-vising and cleaning pipelines contributesanother 25 percent; and the balance comesfrom portable restroom rentals, Adkins says.

Jim Adkins knew modern, productiveequipment would be critical to success, so inthe mid-1960s, he made his first major capitalinvestment: a 1962 Ford vacuum truck builtout by Pearson Brothers. The cost? About$2,500, Adkins recalls.

Adkins slowly gained business throughword-of-mouth referrals. As business grew, hebought a second vacuum truck. “For thelongest time, we had two trucks,” he says.“John would take one truck, and I’d take theother. A lot of times, I wish it was still like that.

It was all a lot easier and simpler.”But by the 1980s, he knew he couldn’t

remain a two-truck, one-dimensional busi-ness for much longer. With John and two step-sons working for him, Adkins needed to gen-erate more work to keep them all going.

“So we bought a combination truck andstarted cleaning catch basins and sewers forlocal municipalities,” he says. “At that time, alot of guys were using a regular pump truck toclean catch basins in emergencies. That’s justhow it was done. But that’s what led us to get acombo truck. I saw that work was available —saw a different direction we could go with theright equipment.”

TWISTS & TURNSThe business continued to grow in unex-

pected directions. Seeing the need forpipeline video inspection work, AdkinsSanitation invested in a camera truck and tel-evising system from CUES Inc. That, in turn,led the company into pipeline repair work,says John Adkins.

“We’d camera a line and see problems, sowe’d also make the repairs,” he says. “We did-

n’t do line repairwork before, but alot of contractors did-n’t want to do smaller jobs, so (camera) cus-tomers started asking us to do it. We didn’tneed a license back then, and it was prettybasic work, so we did it.”

The next logical extension of service wasportable restrooms. Existing customers keptasking if Adkins Sanitation had restrooms torent, so the company started buying smallquantities. They eventually bought two serv-ice trucks, too. The company currently ownsabout 300 restrooms — mostly from SatelliteIndustries Inc. and PolyJohn EnterprisesCorp., and plans to buy more. “They’re likemushrooms,” Adkins says. “They keep pop-ping up.”

Entering the portable restroom field was arisk, to a degree, he notes. But that risk wastempered by the fact that customers kept ask-ing for them, which indicated strong demand.

“THIS IS A SEVEN-DAY-A-WEEK JOB, AND YOU HAVE TO LET YOURCUSTOMERS KNOW YOU’RE DEPENDABLE. IF A CUSTOMER PLUGS UPAT MIDNIGHT ON THE FOURTH OF JULY, THEY WANT SOMEONE THERE

RIGHT AWAY. THEY NEED TO KNOW THEY CAN DEPEND ON YOU.”

John Adkins

Adkins Sanitation Ltd. Fremont, Ohio

Owners: Jim and John Adkins Founded: 1957Employees: 15 Services: Septic and grease trappumping, septic tank installation,jet rodding, camera inspectionsand portable sanitation Services area:50-mile radiusin northwesternOhio

Profile

OHIO

★

The Adkins Sanitation team includes (front row, from left)Jimbo Adkins, J.R. Adkins, Joey Adkins, John Adkins, JimAdkins and Jed Adkins. Back row (from left) are Wilma Rapp,Dan Licursi, Laura Williams, Jon Ottney, K.C. Collins, JohnSeamon, Tom Fisher, David Reyna, Sara Reyna and Dan Fisher.

Adkins says the companydoes not finance equipmentpurchases.

“You’ve got to put some-thing back (save money),” hesays. “I learned that from mydad. You’re always going tohave to repair or upgradeequipment, so you’ve got tokeep something back. We’vebeen very fortunate in thatrespect.”

DIVERSITY PAYS DIVIDENDS

Through it all, developinga diverse business base andservices has been a boon toAdkins Sanitation. If one busi-ness sector slows down, the others keepemployees busy — and maintain cash flow.

“Lately, we’ve been doing an awful lot of

televising, cleaningand pumping,” JohnAdkins says. “We

e v e nw e n tto Iowafor twoor three weeks to do catch basinand sewer line cleaning, a job weobtained through an environ-mental company for which wedo a lot of work.’’

Adkins Sanitation’s diverse customer baseincludes an unusual arrangement: a contractwith a nearby town to pump out 1,500 septicsystems — hooked up to its sewer system —every two years. The regular pumpings help

ADKINS TAKES ON DISPOSALTired of burning daylight and gasoline to haul septic waste to treatment plants —

and paying ever-increasing disposal fees, to boot — Adkins Sanitation Ltd. inFremont, Ohio, decided to treat its own waste instead. In 2003, the company invest-ed in a Maximizer from Lely Waste Solutions LLC, and the purchase has been pay-ing dividends ever since, says co-owner John Adkins.

“It’s great because our trucks can dump here and leave empty every morning,”he says. “It eventually pays for itself over time. We pay four to five cents a gallon forlocal waste disposal.

“Plus, most treatment plants in our area are about a half-hour to 45-minute driveaway,” he continues. “That meant our trucks were spending a lot of time driving tothe dump … which costs us in terms of gasoline and labor.”

The system can process 30,000 to 40,000 gallons a day. However, thicker loadscan decrease that rate to 10,000 gallons a day, Adkins says. “We try to take those(thicker) loads to the local treatment plant,” he says. “Our drivers use their own discretion.”

Aside from saving time and money, the company plant also keeps AdkinsSanitation from being overly dependent on municipal disposal options. “If they havea problem and cut us off, we still have a place to go,” he says.

John Seamon prepares to processa load of waste with the LelyMaximizer at the company’sFremont, Ohio, waste facility.

The Maximizer canprocess 30,000 to 40,000gallons of waste daily.

ease the load on the municipality’s treatmentplant and allow it to generate cleaner dis-charge, an important step in meeting federalwater standards.

Adkins signed the contract three or fouryears ago, and it has proven valuable by pro-viding fill-in work. “We might have half a dayscheduled for emergency work, and we’ll fillin the rest of the day with the contract clean-ings,” Adkins says. “That’s the best thing aboutit. It also leads to more work … if we’re work-ing out there and we see something elsethey’re going to need done, that’s the time toapproach them.”

FAMILY TRADITIONAdkins Sanitation is a family operation

through and through. The company employs

John’s three sons— Jimbo, J.R.and Jed — andJohn’s grandson,Joey. Moreover,Jim’s sister,Wilma, has beenthe company’ssecretary since1977.

The heavyfamily involve-ment presentsJohn Adkins withhis biggest chal-lenge: figuring out how to position the com-pany so it remains a viable business for hischildren. Part of his concern stems from an

area trend toward fewer septictanks.

“Around here, one neighbor-ing county wants all residents onits sewer system within 20 years,”he says. “There are fewer andfewer tanks to pump every year. SoI’m always thinking about whatdirection to go — what to get into,like pipelining, for example.

“I go to the Pumper & CleanerExpo to see what piques my inter-est. That’s the best way to getideas. We also listen carefully toour customersand see what theirneeds are.”

Keeping afamily companyrunning harmo-niously requiresan emphasis oncommunication.So Adkins says thefamily periodical-ly makes time totalk about issues.

“Sometimeswe get real busy,and everyone’srunning in differ-ent directions, soit’s important to

make time to sit down and talk,” he notes.“With more people come more opinionsabout ways to do things, so talking helps keepus all moving in the same direction.”

One thing that everyone in the familyagrees on is the importance of customer serv-ice. Jim Adkins puts it best:

“The key is hard work,” he says. “This is aseven-day-a-week job, and you have to letyour customers know you’re dependable. If acustomer plugs up at midnight on the Fourthof July, they want someone there right away.They need to know they can depend on you.”

That philosophy just might carry AdkinsSanitation to another 50-plus years of service.But what direction it’ll go is anyone’s guess. ■

“I GO TO THE PUMPER & CLEANER EXPO TOSEE WHAT PIQUES MY INTEREST. THAT’S THEBEST WAY TO GET IDEAS. WE ALSO LISTENCAREFULLY TO OUR CUSTOMERS AND SEE

WHAT THEIR NEEDS ARE.”

John Adkins

Chandler Equipment Inc.800/342-0887www.chandlerequipment.com

CUES Inc.800/327-7791www.cuesinc.com

DRESSER Roots877/363-7668www.rootsblower.com

Lely Waste Solutions LLC800/367-5359www.lelywaste.com

Marengo Fabricated SteelLtd.800/99-2652www.mfsltd.com

Masport Inc.800/228-4510www.masportpump.com

PolyJohn Enterprises800/292-1305www.polyjohn.com

Satellite Industries Inc.800/883-1123www.satelliteindustries.com

Transway Systems Inc.800/263-4508www.transway.on.ca

TST LLC800/255-0008www.tstllc.com

Wallenstein Pumps - ElmiraMachine800/801-6663www.wallensteinpumps.com

Vac-Con Inc.904/284-4200www.vac-con.com

MORE INFO:

Four generations of the Adkins Family attended the 2009 Pumper & CleanerEnvironmental Expo in Louisville. Pictured at right is company founder Jim Adkinsand (from left) grandson J.R. Adkins, great-grandson Joey Adkins and son JohnAdkins. (Photo by Sherry Dobbins)

Dan Licursi cleans amanhole with a 2005Sterling combinationtruck by Vac-Con.

Reprinted with permission from Pumper® / June 2010 / © 2013, COLE Publishing Inc., P.O. Box 220, Three Lakes, WI 54562 / 800-257-7222 / www.pumper.com