Tidy Services does it all. The company delivers a wide range of services across multiple locations and still has time to take their knowledge to experience to platforms that help grow the industry.

With locations in Christiansburg, Ridgeway and Salem (all in Virginia), the company offers portable restrooms and restroom trailers, plus septic tank cleaning, roll-off dumpsters, grease trap cleaning and temporary fencing. When Gary Phillips founded the company in 1994, it only had a few people on the payroll, but now, the ever-expanding company has 60 employees.

“Gary used to work for Waste Management,” says Steve Ritter, general manager of Tidy Services. “When he got laid off he decided to go into the sanitation industry himself. That’s when he started Tidy Services, renting portable restrooms out of Salem. We’ve expanded into other areas since then and now have three locations in the state of Virginia. About 15 years ago, Gary’s son Alex bought the company from his dad, and he’s still running it today.”

Today, Tidy Services has about 4,500 portable toilets in its inventory. “The majority of them are from Satellite Industries, but we have some PolyJohns as well,” Ritter says. “We have about 200 ADAs that we call ‘West Virginia condos,’ plus 10-15 large ADAs, 30 restroom trailers with anywhere from two to 10 stalls each, and about 200 hand-wash stations made by Satellite or PolyJohn. We have a fleet of about 60 trucks, plus about 340 roll-off dumpsters and about 15,000 feet of fencing.”

Substantial growth like Tidy Services has seen is the result of many things — good management, wise decision making in expansion opportunities, hard workers and aligning themselves with organizations and people who are willing to share, learn and work to better the industry as a whole.

Tidy Services is a big advocate of PSAI and believes the organization can be a big benefit for businesses in portable sanitation. “The Portable Sanitation Association International helps to create a community in an isolated industry,” says Ritter, who volunteers as the PSAI’s secretary. “Not many members of the public really want to talk to people that deal with portable sanitation, and so the PSAI helps to build a sense of community. As well, it promotes high standards and professionalism in the portable sanitation industry, and is trying to get better at providing representation and advocacy on local, state and national issues.”

Tidy services klw 1 2 — Service Driver Tim Dixon knows when driving the well-branded 2024 RAM 4500 built by FlowMark, he must represent the company well. Donning the proper PPE, he unwinds a hose and gets ready to service a line of restrooms along the Roanoke River Greenway.

FIVE TAKEAWAYS ON THE PSAI’S POSITIVE CONTRIBUTIONS TO PORTABLE SANITATION COMPANIES:

1. Providing useful comparisons with other companies

When you’re working in a socially isolated business such as portable sanitation, it can be difficult to know what you’re doing right and what you could be doing better. As a PSAI member company, Tidy Services has access to the association’s courses and industry intelligence. This allows Ritter to assess his company’s current practices and what he can do to enhance it further.

“Belonging to the PSAI has helped me standardize what we should do at our company. I’m able to compare what we are doing now with what the PSAI teaches and brings forward,” Ritter says. “I’m also able to visit other companies and shadow their people for a day, to see what’s happening, observe their best practices and learn some great ideas from them and try to implement them here.”

Tidy services klw 20 — Tidy Services has recently begun putting their employees through PSAI’s Basic Service Technician Training. Because of that, the team here is made up of prepared individuals. Front row, from left, Zack Gauldin, operations supervisor-service; Lee Gates, pad crew; Latisha Brown, dispatcher; Dom Butler flex tech; Ben Curtis, fleet manager; Tia Williams, CSR; Steve Ritter, general manager; Tiffany Robertson, CSR; and Allen Crawford, billing manager. Second row, from left, Erik Evans, operations supervisor/P&D; Clark Wade, controller; Mike McNiel, IT coordinator; Darian Monard, operations manager; Seth McDaniel, mechanic’s assistant; and Isaac Mullins, mechanic. Back row, from left, Thomas Richardson, dispatcher; Jay Jones, shop foreman; and Preston Short, mechanic.

2. Education that matters

Training employees to work successfully in the portable sanitation industry is vital to their success and the success of the companies who employ them. This is why the PSAI Learning Center offers live virtual programs and on-demand courses to support portable sanitation certification, training and continuing education.

“We have a course that we’re starting to put all of our employees through called Basic Service Technician Training,” says Ritter. “It’s a certification course that the PSAI offers, that helps me ensure better safety practices and operational standards for my guys.”

Tidy services klw 2 — A restroom fresh from the field is back on the lot and shop hand Seth McDaniel pulls it into the shop for repairs and cleaning. This one won’t see service again until it’s up to Tidy’s pristine standards.

3. Sharing solutions

As Steve Ritter has mentioned, belonging to the PSAI allows portable sanitation companies to join a community of common goals and shared solutions. “I involve many members of my team in the PSAI so that they can be exposed to people in the industry whose companies face the same problems that we do,” he says. “We can see how other companies have overcome these problems — maybe the way they do it is better than us, or perhaps we can share ideas with them that have worked well for us. In doing so, we form relationships across the industry that help all of us.”

4. Ideas on tap

Need practical ideas to run your portable sanitation business better? The PSAI can help with that. “Their resource center has lots of great materials that you can draw upon, such as great spreadsheets and other items to help me run my business better,” says Ritter. “They’ll help you run your business better too.”

Tidy services klw 3 — With the substantial inventory of restrooms, hand-wash units and service trucks like Tidy Service has, having an in-house shop foreman and senior technician like Jay Jones to make repairs and perform maintenance is vital to the business.

5. Building leadership skills

Leadership is a skill that needs to be taught. Taking part in an association like the PSAI is a great way to learn how to lead, both by working with experienced leaders who are managing it today, and taking on responsibilities that help you grow as a person.

“The best thing that I get from being in the PSAI is my involvement in the leadership.” Ritter says. “I’ve been on the PSAI board of directors for a couple years, and I’ve since moved to the executive track at work as a result. I’ve been able to really grow in my job due to my relationships with all these different people — seeing the challenges that they overcome and the great ideas that they have. All of them just bring so much to the table and so it’s just been pretty incredible for me to be involved in this way at the PSAI.”