The Long Haul: Trash and Stash has junk removal covered from Amelia to Zane
Meet Zane, the newest member of the Trash & Stash crew.
He’s not flesh and blood, but he was born to be a workhorse nonetheless.
He’s a 2011 Ford F-350, V8 Super Duty diesel pickup truck that just had a quick visual makeover and is now sporting the Trash & Stash logo, lettering and design motif featuring our racoon mascot Stashy – and he’s ready to roll to a neighborhood near you.
The Evolution of Zane
But don’t let the slick exterior fool you – Zane was designed to get down and dirty, handling heavy loads and hauling. This truck boasts an estimated 16,000-pound towing capacity, thanks to its ability to generate 400 HP (horsepower) and 800 pounds-per-foot of torque.
With Zane joining the company’s original workhorse Amelia, our beloved 2020 Ram Promaster commercial van, Trash & Stash has your junk removal needs and moving help covered from A to Z.
This addition means Trash & Stash now technically has its own fleet: “a group (as of ships, planes, or trucks) operated under unified control,” according to merriam-webster.com.
“It really does give us a true fleet,” said Trash & Stash founder/owner Cameron Ungar. “We have two trucks each running a full day’s work, programmed and scheduled accordingly.”
What’s the deal with Trash & Stash vehicles having proper names, you may be asking yourself?
“Just from a process standpoint, I figured we’d name the vans in descending alphabetical order using girl names (hence Amelia) and with the pickup trucks, name them in ascending alphabetical order using boy names,” explained Ungar.
“That way as the fleet and organization grows we know which vehicle is which. When I worked at the Olympic Training Center (CVEATC), I managed a fleet of vans. They were numbered. It’s stupid, but it was hard to remember which van was which when they were just numbers… especially when you’re not the one actually driving or using them. Plus, for us, the trucks are a part of the team… we should address them by name!”
The trucks are a part of the team... we should address them by name!”
Adding another work vehicle to Trash & Stash’s arsenal is a significant milestone as we celebrate another uber-significant milestone – our 1-year anniversary as an independently operated business serving the South Carolina communities of Indian Land, Fort Mill, Lancaster, Clover/ Tega Cay and Rock Hill as well as North Carolina’s Waxhaw, Pineville, South Charlotte and Ballantyne.
Flexibility
In a word, it increases our flexibility, which allows us to better serve our customers like you.
We’re now more flexible in the types of jobs we can handle.
We’re more flexible in the places we can go.
We’re more flexible in the amount of jobs we can service.
“From a business standpoint it will allow us to basically double our work capacity,” said Ungar.
“The goal has always been four jobs per day per truck – by going up to two fulltime working trucks that brings us up to the potential to do eight jobs or more per day. So that’s the immediate effect.”
Here are just a few of the myriad ways Zane will improve the Trash & Stash experience for customers:
Scheduling
First and foremost, more wheels on the road means more availability to our clientele, more windows of opportunity to schedule time with our crew and shorter appointment windows. Essentially doubling the capacity of our work days means we can serve more customers on same-day and next-day requests. We’re striving to narrow the appointment window down to two hours, and confirming appointments further in advance as well.
The extra truck means we can provide shorter appointment windows further in advance. We want to be respectful of people's time. Nobody wants to wait around all day and a 4 hour service window isn't good enough.
Costs
Because of Zane’s huge towing capacity, estimated as up to 16,000 pounds, we can carry away large loads in one trip instead of having to make multiple runs or renting another truck, therefore saving fuel, rental fees and time, passing those cost savings on to the customer. Also, explains the bossman, “for multi-step moves we can dispatch crews to different locations essentially working a job in parallel rather than serial which is a more cost-effective use of man-hours” which again, results in lower fees for our patrons.
In this business, we want to batch work as much as we can. Combined loads means less time on job and fewer trips. Zane's capacity allows for this. It's a direct cost savings for our customers.
Capability/ Versatility
It all relates back to the flexibility Zane gives us – increasing our capabilities and boosting versatility, which is all in the pursuit of improving the customer experience. For instance, this truck allows us to take on bigger demolition and hauling jobs that Amelia just doesn’t have the capacity for (bless her heart), which means we don’t have to spend money on rental equipment and it also accelerates our timeline on completing jobs. It improves logistics with more effective routing as each vehicle can be assigned batches of jobs based on geographic proximity. “If we’ve got four jobs in Charlotte, and four jobs in Fort Mill, then we spit it up – one truck is going to Charlotte and one truck is going to Fort Mill, instead of criss-crossing each other, which is a huge benefit of the second truck,” said Ungar.
The 2nd truck gives us geographic flexibility. We send each truck out on a geographically efficient route, so they're not driving all over town. More economical and more sustainable. We can also route jobs based on vehicle capability. They're like golf clubs. It allows us to use the best tool (vehicle) for the job.
As outlined in a Thanksgiving blog post, having two company-owned trucks up and running fulltime by Spring 2022 has been our boss’ goal – and now it’s a reality. It’s another aspect of scaling the business for growth while providing the best customer experience in the
Fort Mill-area market, in tandem with the recent rehiring of original crew member Chase Waychoff as the new Vice President of Administration, and promotion of our other Day 1 guy, Robert Mohorc, as Vice President of Operations, who is in charge of the fleet.
Meanwhile, another tenet of Trash & Stash’s corporate culture is sustainability, and Zane/F-350s are somewhat surprisingly fuel-efficient and this model’s diesel engine has significantly reduced emissions compared to earlier models. Diesel engines get better mileage than gas engines overall, and it is estimated that Zane will average 20 miles per gallon on the highway, depending on the weight of what’s being hauled, of course.
As we welcome Zane into the Trash and Stash family, the burning question remains: Will he also get his own coloring book like the free downloadable one the boss created for children about Amelia?
“(Laughs) I don’t know,” said Ungar. “If the urge strikes me.”
Have Zane work for you. Schedule your free estimate here and meet him in person!
