Rodeos are popular events around Adkins, Texas, where Tex-San Site Services is based, and 2024 was the business’ second year providing portable restrooms and other services for the San Antonio Stock Show & Rodeo. The 18-day event required 14 workers and three managers taking turns overseeing daily operations — owner Roy Baring, COO Raymond Gonzales and sales manager Russell Story.
Working with experienced employees (70% staff on hand), newer workers received valuable training for events. In addition, Baring purposefully overstaffed the job so that workers could take breaks before working regular routes.
COMPANY HISTORY
Baring and his wife, Krystal, started Tex-San in 2014 after Baring had worked with a friend’s portable restroom business in the oil fields. Baring decided a PRO business offered a good opportunity to run his own business. They started with two route drivers and 100 restrooms. A decade later they have a staff of 35 and 5,000 restrooms and have expanded into construction and events including the addition of trailers and roll-off dumpsters.
Baring has been pleased with how the company has surpassed his goals for contracting with events. With dependable workers providing quality service, Tex-San adds new events every year, such as the prestigious San Antonio Stock Show & Rodeo.
The rodeo has been on Baring’s radar, and in 2023 Tex-San was awarded the contract. By serving on committees and following management changes, he focused on building relationships and demonstrating that Tex-San had a big enough fleet and workers to commit to providing great service.
“A multi-year agreement [with the rodeo] is proof of our services,” Baring says.
THE MAIN EVENT
The Feb. 8-25 San Antonio Stock Show & Rodeo at the Frost Bank Center attracts more than 1.5 million visitors over two weeks. During the day, the fairground features family-friendly activities with numerous expo halls, food including a barbecue cookoff, carnival and shopping. Livestock shows and competitions such as the nation’s largest junior livestock show draw big crowds and RVs. In 2024, there were 22 Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association-sanctioned competitions including bull riding, barrel racing and bronc riding.
BY THE NUMBERS
Based on exit notes from the 2023 rodeo, the number of restrooms increased by 50 to 195 to add to some of the banks of restrooms. “There are three areas of operation — two banks offsite for livestock check-in and parking, the grounds section for the rodeo and then for the carnival area that is fenced off,” Baring says. “We needed larger banks by the carnival and also in the check-in lots to accommodate the traffic.”
Most of the company’s 5,000 restrooms are Tufway units from Satellite Industries, and Echo units manufactured by J&J Portable Sanitation Products. The business also owns 40 ADA-compliant restrooms from PolyJohn and 30 from J&J; 200 hand-wash stations from PolyJohn and J&J; 100 sanitizer stations from PolyJohn; 100 250-gallon holding tanks from PolyJohn; and 10 holding tanks from Duraplas.
Prior to the event, Tex-San purchased new J&J Portable Sanitation Products Echo portable restrooms. “We like tan because we have dusty conditions and it shows less grime. We have all four sides stickered so we are easy to contact,” Baring says.
Tex-San staff also set up four JAG Mobile Solutions restroom trailers (4-stall) and 20 hand sanitizer stations. They also provided 20 graywater tanks and serviced 20 RVs totaling 360 pumpouts each over the 18 days of the event.
LET’S ROLL
Though the rodeo didn’t start until Feb. 8, Tex-San staff started delivering and setting up as many as 75 restrooms at a time on Feb. 4 to accommodate people arriving on Feb. 6. The 195 restrooms were set up in 10 banks.
At the shop yard 20 minutes away, a Dragon Products 5,000-gallon vacuum trailer pulled by a 2018 Freightliner semi-tractor was set up for service trucks to pump into during the event. Employees were instructed regarding the logistics about the secured locked areas and the keys and passes required. Also, equipment was checked to make sure the trucks had connections to pump RV trailers at the rodeo.
Each day’s services required five of Tex-San’s trucks including Chevy 5500s and 3500s and Ford F-550s with Best Enterprises stainless steel tanks (600-gallon waste/300-gallon freshwater) and a Freightliner truck with a 2,000-gallon stainless steel Best Enterprises tank. All carry Masport, National Vacuum Equipment or Westmoor pumps. The bigger trucks worked the perimeter to service RVs, while the smaller trucks maneuvered through the tighter spaces of the fairgrounds.
GPS maps helped Tex-San employees wearing headbands with LED light bars find their way in the dark to service restrooms from 4:30 to 6 a.m. each day.
TRACKING USAGE
Baring credits AirVote technology for providing analytics for better efficiencies. Restroom users can scan one of three QR codes (happy, neutral and sad faces) to send information via cellphones about restroom conditions. The results of that information in 2023 helped determine the need for more restrooms in 2024, he says. Results will be compiled again in 2024 and appeared to reflect more happy faces, Baring says. With more units, toilet paper didn’t run out as often, for example.
That experience and data from AirVote will impact planning for next year’s event so they can be proactive, Baring says, and may include a six-stall trailer to be on standby.
He was pleased with how smoothly everything went the second year contracting with the rodeo. Workers were often ahead of schedule, finishing servicing in about 75 minutes, so there was time to double-check things and deal with anything else that came up.
For example, when a fairground septic line at the hospitality house broke, Tex-San added a three-stall JAG trailer and increased service for trailers in the area for the remainder of the event.
WRAPPING IT UP
As soon as the rodeo finished on Sunday, workers started pumping to get all units back to the shop yard to be sanitized and ready for the next rodeo in Austin in March. Typically, it’s a two- or three-day process.
“There was 50 mph winds and toilets were blowing around, so we had to speed up to get them out of there,” Baring says, within a day or so.
Baring appreciates the opportunity to take Tex-San to important regional events including the rodeo.
“Being involved in these events that benefit our community is really important to us and our partners. And seeing us outside of the construction industry really drives that home, that we want to make the best of each event and the best service for all of our Tex-San partners,” Baring says.
