The Team
Peter Hall heads up the Tampa division of Comfort Zone Portables, headquartered in Atlanta. He is assisted locally by his lead driver, three service route drivers, and one yard man. But the Atlanta office is involved, as well, handling paperwork, administration, and marketing. Especially valuable is the office manager there, Beth Southall, a 13-year veteran with the company. Hall is usually found out in the field. “My office is my cell phone and my laptop,” he says, although they do have an office at their maintenance and storage facility.
Company History
Two years ago, Mark Slade, president of Comfort Zone Portables, expanded into Florida by purchasing a small portable restroom company in Tampa. Last year he hired Hall to be the division manager. Hall grew up in the business, working in his father’s and grandfather’s portable restroom company. After they sold that company, Hall spent five years in the mortgage business. While Slade was looking for a manager for the Tampa location, he ran into Hall’s father, who was doing consulting work in the industry. “I got a call from Mark one day. We had lunch, and here I am,” says Hall, who was glad to be back in the business.
The two divisions share manpower and equipment. Hall credits Slade’s hands-on leadership style for promoting a commitment to customer service, creating a sense of pride in the 25 people who work for the company and fostering the strong working relationship the two divisions have. “We’re big as far as dollars, but small as far as having that close-knit feeling,” says Southall.
Making Connections
Hall’s past really paid off when it came to growing the Tampa division. “The minute I got back in the business with Mark I started calling a lot of my old contacts. Because of the level of service we had given them, they remembered me.” It wasn’t hard to convince the Festival of States chairperson to hire them, because Hall’s family had serviced that event for many years.
The Main Event
In the early 1900s, winter residents in St. Petersburg organized themselves into state societies, primarily for social purposes. In 1921, the annual George Washington birthday celebration was renamed for these societies and officially became known as the Festival of States. The city used the event to entice seasonal visitors to prolong their stay. It included a little bit of everything — athletic tournaments, dances, fireworks, and a parade for which each society provided a float and a queen.
Today, although these societies no longer exist, the name and civic celebration remains. It still includes a little bit of everything in a series of mostly one-day events — a 5K run, KidFest, the Pet Festival, an arts and crafts show, concerts, etc. — all held along the Tampa Bay waterfront. The parade now takes place at night, concluding with a fireworks display. Most activities occur during the first two weeks of April, following preliminary events in March, such as the fund-raiser Coronation Ball & Pageant for the coronation of Mr. or Ms. Sun, as well as the crowning of the Sungoddess.
By the Numbers
Comfort Zone Portables provides restrooms for the outdoor events. All of its units are from PolyPortables Inc. They include 45 green standard restrooms (Integras), five wheelchair-accessible units, and four hand-wash stations. In addition, there are two Ambassador units in the VIP tent area.
Let’s Roll
This year, action began Friday, March 30, when Comfort Zone delivered one wheelchair-accessible and seven standard units to three parks along the waterfront. These units were returned to the company’s yard the following Monday until the weekend of April 13 when they were set up for the Friday night parade. The team started delivering those units at 6:30 a.m. to 10 locations along the parade route, including the float staging area, the bleachers, and the picnic grounds. Units were locked with zip-ties until 5 p.m. when people start arriving to get good seats and enjoy picnic dinners. During the night, the units were serviced and moved to other locations along the waterfront for Saturday’s activities. After the Saturday afternoon KidFest, the units were cleaned and moved to the stage area for the evening concert. Eight standard units and one wheelchair-accessible unit were set up all weekend for the two-day arts and crafts show. All units were picked up on Monday.
Comfort Zone used a 2005 GMC 5500 flatbed truck that can haul 26 units — six on the flatbed and 20 on an attached trailer. Drivers wore logo T-shirts. “The crisp polyester button-downs, although they look nice, do not work here because of the heat and humidity,” says Hall. “The guys are doing a hard job, and you want them to be comfortable.”
Keepin’ It Clean
Service between events is usually done overnight to avoid interfering with public activities. “People don’t want to see us cleaning toilets,” Hall says. After a pressure wash inside and out, floors are scrubbed, toilets are recharged with fresh deodorizers (J&J Chemical Co.’s Ever Pro self-mix tabs), and units are replenished with paper and urinal blocks.
Comfort Zone uses three service vehicles, all with Masport pumps. The 2005 Ford F-550, built by Progress Tank, and the 2004 Interna-tional 4700, built by Best Enterprises Inc., both have aluminum tanks that hold 1,100 gallons of waste and 400 gallons of freshwater. The 2005 GMC 5500 flatbed vacuum truck has a Crescent 800 gallon waste/300 gallon freshwater flat steel tank.
Customer Contact
Hall works closely with a Festival committee to ensure everything runs smoothly. Working directly with customers is an aspect of his job that he especially enjoys. “I like to give them a warm handshake, a very big smile and a look in the eyes,” he says. “I want people to know I care about what I do. I like to meet them face-to-face and give them that warm, fuzzy feeling.”
