As a long-time customer of Diamondback Products, Steve鈥檚 Sanitation has appreciated the value that their cart tippers have brought to their daily operations, not only with improved efficiency, but also with less working components and needed maintenance.
Based in Otter Tail County, MN鈥攈ome to more than 1,000 lakes鈥擲teve鈥檚 Sanitation was started in 1986 by Kelly Melgard鈥檚 father. The company has grown over the years, acquiring another company in 2004 and a second in 2017 moving the company into Becker County. When Kelly鈥檚 father retired in 2015, Kelly and his brother, Casey, took over as Owners/Operators. Then, in 2021 Steve鈥檚 Sanitation acquired an additional hauling business in Otter Tail County, completing the coverage of the area. Working with 30 trucks, including roll-offs, and 33 employees, the company services about 20,000 customers during the summer when the area is at its peak with visitors.
Battling Downtime
Back in 2010, Steve鈥檚 Sanitation had a problem鈥攖hey were using cart tippers on their vehicles that would deteriorate quickly鈥攖he bush bearing would wear out very fast, causing a lot of expenses and downtime. Employees would have to do maintenance and upkeep on them constantly, as well as replace parts or rebuild them every six months. Kelly said they were in search of a better solution. When he attended Waste Expo that year in Las Vegas, he ended up looking at what Diamondback Products offered. 鈥淲hen I was at the show, I met Jeff McDonald, who was the Regional Sales Manager at the time. What really caught my attention was the simplicity and the thickness of the steel on the main components. Whereas what we were using at the time had a lot of moving parts and was expensive to upkeep, Diamondback tippers were very simple and straightforward and that is what I really liked about them.鈥�
鈥淚 had the pleasure of meeting Kelly, his brother Casey, and his father at Waste Expo in Las Vegas. I read his badge and asked Kelly if they used cart tippers in their daily operations. Kelly said they do, and they were attending the show to look for a better cart lifter and research the latest technology in rear load refuse vehicles. When they stopped at our display booth, I gave them a demonstration of all our cart tippers and explained the value of Diamondback Products鈥� 3rd Man Cart Tipper,鈥� explains Jeff. 鈥淚 highlighted that our cart tippers are manufactured with less working components, meaning fewer parts to break and to keep in their inventory. Our competitors鈥� tippers generally require more maintenance and a more substantial list of parts to stock. I explained that we at Diamondback Products design and manufacture every part of our cart tipper except the nuts, bolts, and the rotary actuators.鈥�
Diamondback Products does not subcontract any parts to be made outside of their two facilities in Lexington, NC. Due to the fact that they manufacture every part themselves, items are always in stock and ready to be shipped immediately, often on the same day as a purchase order is received. Larger quantities are usually scheduled by 鈥淪tocking Dealers鈥� for future ship dates. Oftentimes, they are waiting for refuse vehicles to be delivered from the OEM, before installing Diamondback鈥檚 cart tippers upon receiving their trucks.
Photos courtesy of Steve鈥檚 Sanitation and Diamondback Products.
A Game Changer
After the demonstration at Waste Expo, Kelly set up a meeting with Jeff to visit their site and do a test run with the cart tippers, so Jeff made his way to Perham, MN with this demonstration vehicle to visit the team at Steve鈥檚 Sanitation and give another live demonstration of Diamondback Products鈥� line of cart tippers. 鈥淢any years ago, our company President, Eric Surratt had the idea of building custom vehicles to give live demonstrations at customers鈥� facilities. These demonstration vehicles were a 鈥榞ame changer鈥� and really helped increase sales, as you can compare the 3rd Man Cart Tipper to what the customer is currently using,鈥� said Jeff. 鈥淚 pointed out how our bottom bar latching system virtually eliminates bottom bar cart damage, solving an industry-wide problem. For example, if each tipper breaks one cart per week and your fleet consists of 20 to 40 rear load refuse trucks, that can exceed tens of thousands of dollars per year in wasted revenue.鈥�
After doing a direct comparison to competitors鈥� products, the team at Steve鈥檚 Sanitation realized the overall cost savings and deciphered the difference in tippers. They were impressed with the heavy duty and robust design, as well as the aforementioned cart saving features of all of the products. Because they also pick up commercial containers with the rear load trucks, Kelly and his team decided on the Model 600, one of Diamondback鈥檚 most popular models, which also happens to be installed on the largest public and private sector haulers in North America. Some of the features include that it is kicker bar friendly, eliminates bottom bar cart damage, has easy cart engagement, has a high/deep throw into hopper allowing for speed of emptying carts, and the cart lifter rotates back under the hopper, allowing for the most possible ground clearance available.
Kelly says that when they installed the tippers on a couple of their vehicles, 鈥淲e fell in love with them right away just because they were so much easier to work with when grabbing the cans. We implemented the cart tippers on a couple of our vehicles for a trial run and then decided to put the tippers on the rest of our fleet.鈥�
The Keys to Success
Once Diamondback cart tippers were implemented on Steve Sanitation鈥檚 initial trucks, they decided that from then on whenever they acquired new vehicles, Diamondback tippers were a must to use on regular routes. 鈥淥nce we tried them out, we decided to put them on all of our trucks we had and anything going forward. We鈥檝e now been using Diamondback cart tippers for about 15 years,鈥� explains Kelly. He goes on to emphasize that those cart tippers are one of the keys to their success and credits them with upping their operational route efficiency. 鈥淲e continue to use them, with no plans to look at any other company鈥檚 solution. It has been a great experience. These cart tippers are so efficient and part of the reason why we are so successful.鈥�
Kelly also explains that the ongoing customer service is stellar. 鈥淚f we need a part, Diamondback sends us a part but that doesn鈥檛 happen very often. And when it does, it鈥檚 something simple, like a spring. We used to keep a couple $1,000 worth of different parts in inventory for a few trucks and now we have about $100 worth of parts鈥攋ust two bins in our shop with a few parts to keep on hand for repairs.鈥�
As a longtime customer of Diamondback Products, Steve鈥檚 Sanitation plans are to continue to work with them as they acquire additional trucks and other companies. 鈥淚 don鈥檛 see any reason to ever change tippers. They are simple, sturdy, and well built. The thing that I that I love most is that they don鈥檛 require very much maintenance, just greasing,鈥� explains Kelly. 鈥淪ure, while you may have to replace the spring on the latch every so often, it is not like our last ones where the pivot points on the bearing blocks were horrible with nylon bushings. As a result, instead of paying $20 for a nylon bushing, we were paying $80 for a bearing block, resulting in need to keep a lot of inventory on hand. It was very frustrating, but now the process is much simpler and more efficient.鈥�
A Great Experience
鈥淯pon meeting Kelly and Casey at Waste Expo all those years ago, I invited them to accompany me to one of the industry events that evening in Las Vegas. I met them at that function, and we had such a great time and have since become lifelong friends. I went out to their facility after they became a customer, and Kelly even took me fishing and we had a great time! I don鈥檛 believe we even talked about cart tippers. Maybe 鈥楬ow鈥檚 business? Good!鈥欌�� laughs Jeff. 鈥淲orking with the team at Steve鈥檚 Sanitation and watching how they have grown is truly an honor to be a part of their organization. We couldn鈥檛 ask for a better customer, and that鈥檚 why I always say that the refuse industry is the best group of people I will ever know. People don鈥檛 leave the waste industry. They may change positions and/or companies, but they stay with the industry because everyone just wants to make a living, and are fortunate to work with such a great group of people.鈥�
Kelly emphasizes that Diamondback Products is a great company, and Jeff is an amazing person to work with. 鈥淗e is one of my favorite people. If we need something that we don鈥檛 have on hand, or have an issue with a part, we get another one right away. I have never had a complaint with their service and my experience has always been absolutely great.鈥� | WA
For more information, contact Jeff McDonald, Regional Sales Manager, Northern Territory at (336) 528-3979 or [email protected], or Curtis Hipps, Regional Sales Manager, Southern Territory, at (336) 528-3978 or [email protected]. For more information on Diamondback Products, call (888) 313-1424.