Customers dealing with Pinto Site Services rarely if ever hear the word “no.”

If they ask for some special restroom modification, or a short-notice delivery, or a project involving a long road trip, owner Giorgio Panepinto and his team will find a way to make it happen. 

“The answer is always ‘yes’ — it’s just a question of how much it’s going to cost,” says Panepinto, who founded the business in 2023 and in less than two years grew its restroom inventory to nearly 400 units, doing about 95% of the business in construction. “We work with customers on solutions. Customers know what they want, but they don’t know what they need. It’s our job to come up with solutions for them."

While the company “will go anywhere to help existing customers,” its home base is within a 30-mile radius around Buffalo, New York, Panepinto says. “Our range is very dense and small. There’s billions of dollars of construction within 30 miles. There’s tons of opportunity here and no reason to expand outside this territory at the moment.”

Pinto Site Services is built on a sterling century-old reputation that dates back 100 years. Most of its customers already did business with at least one other company under the family umbrella: Pinto Construction, Pinto Equipment (a rental business) or Pinto Contracting.

Getting started

Pinto Site Services was a natural extension of the family enterprise. “Our construction and trucking companies go back 100 years in western New York,” Panepinto says. “Right out of high school, I started working in the construction business, pouring concrete, digging foundations, doing commercial work. 

“After a couple of years driving for the family trucking company, I started my own trash and recycling business in 2013. In 2020, after we built a base of 10,000 customers, we were acquired by Casella Waste, a publicly traded company. I took a couple of years off enjoying the family life with my kids and doing some consulting, but I became really bored and my entrepreneurial spirit was still alive. 

“I remembered while I was in the construction business attending the Pumper show (now the WWETT Show) and looking at hydroexcavators.” There he discovered the portable sanitation industry and saw its profit potential and its fit with the construction sector. So, in late 2023, he jumped in.

With ready cash from the sale of his waste business, he was able to buy two new vacuum trucks and a large restroom fleet and start contacting customers of the Pinto businesses. He first built up the restroom rental side, but the longer-term plan is to add other site equipment like temporary construction fencing, traffic barriers and storage trailers.

Team members include his wife and secretary Lisandra, office manager Susan Panepinto, and service technicians Mathew Roeder, Andrew Doyle and Frank Fanara. 

Into the big time

The best example of the company’s “always yes” approach is a contract to support construction of a new stadium for the Buffalo Bills, scheduled for completion in August 2026. Pinto won the contract through competitive bidding just eight months after startup. That multi-billion-dollar project called for serious innovation.

“The project manager said they needed bathrooms on the 300 level,” Panepinto recalls. “I said, ‘All right, how am I going to service them? I can’t get a truck up there.’” The solution was to connect to the site’s water service and pump water up to eight modular units. 

Those units flush into an insulated and heated pipe down the side of the structure, emptying into a ground-level waste tank accessible to the vacuum truck drivers. Technician Fanara regularly services, cleans and restocks those restrooms and a dozen restroom trailers built by Ready2Go Restroom Trailer Sales. 

“They have four to six stalls and include an Arctic heat package for our cold winters, air conditioning, Bluetooth stereo and all the bells and whistles,” Panepinto says. 

For the construction workers’ breakroom on the mezzanine level, Panepinto helped design 16 temporary bathrooms built from plywood and drywall; these are also plumbed into the ground-level waste tank. Pinto also services the site’s drug-testing and office trailers. 

Equipped for success

For more routine business, Pinto Site Services can draw from a diverse inventory. PolyJohn is the sole supplier of basic restrooms, which include standard construction units, crane units, flushable toilets and ADA units. The company also provided two dozen dual hand-wash sinks. 

J&J Portable Sanitation Products supplies all air fresheners, liquid deodorizers, hand sanitizers and cleaning supplies.

The truck fleet includes two 2023 vacuum units fabricated by Imperial Industries. A diesel Isuzu NRR PRT carries a polished aluminum 700-gallon waste/299-gallon freshwater tank. 

A 2023 Ford F-550 diesel is outfitted with a polished aluminum 900-gallon waste/400-gallon freshwater tank.

Each truck is equipped with a Masport HXL-4V air-cooled vacuum pump, Moro DC 10 washdown pump, dual-service package, four LED spotlights, aluminum hose trays and an aluminum two-unit carrier/hauler toilet gate with integrated receiver hitch.

The fleet also includes a 2020 Chevrolet Silverado 3500 pickup with a slide-in polished aluminum tank (200 waste/100 freshwater), 5.5 hp Honda electric-start gas engine and 70 cfm Conde SPR6 belt-drive vacuum pump (Westmoor). A 2023 Pik Rite trailer hauls up to 10 standard restrooms without straps or chains and can be easily loaded and unloaded by one person by hand. 

Strong foundation

Panepinto has built the business on the family’s three core values: Service, quality and trust. “We take pride in our work and pay special attention to detail,” he says. “We use new, high-quality equipment to ensure that jobs are done safely, effectively and efficiently. When I started, I did my research on what was the best: What was fastest, what looked the best, what was the easiest to work with.

“Our drivers wash our trucks every day. When they come back to the shop, the trucks get washed with soap and water and restocked. They don’t get parked dirty. We detail the insides of the trucks every Friday. 

“We deliver same-day service. If someone calls and says they need a unit ASAP, we’ll jump off a route that can be done anytime and make sure the person gets delivery that day.” 

Restrooms are thoroughly washed down and dried every time they are serviced. Technicians don’t skimp on chemicals: “We overindulge in the blue that we charge the units with,” Panepinto says. “We buy the best and the strongest. We’re known for being the cleanest option, not the cheapest. If someone wants a half-price porta potty, they can call someone else. We’re not going to sacrifice quality for price.”

Pinto’s prices include some items that in the industry are commonly charged as extras: hand sanitizer refills, winterization, locks and keys: “Basically, we do not have any extra fees.”

Primed for growth

Team members buy into company policies that ensure customer satisfaction. They’re encouraged to communicate closely with customers, keeping them apprised and working around their schedules and site constraints. 

As the business grows, “always yes” remains the watchword. “When they call our number, they get the owner,” Panepinto says. “If a construction site calls me for a half-dozen five-stall units, I’ll make it happen.

“We emphasize innovation across our services and will customize restrooms to meet customer needs. One customer ordered a flushable unit for a boat dock. Then he said his wife didn’t want her face so close to the urinal. So we removed the urinal and buttoned it all up. It’s all about customer satisfaction on a daily basis.”

Word of mouth and repeat business have enabled explosive growth without advertising or social media presence. Under a rewards program, customers receive a special high-quality gift on reaching a threshold of spending with Pinto.  

“We focus on organic growth, choosing clients strategically to maintain service quality,” Panepinto says. “We’re actually choosing the companies we want to work with. We know who the reputable ones are, the companies that want and understand our quality and level of service. We don’t have to sell ourselves to them.

“We expect to double our size every year for the next three to five years. Site service ancillary equipment will be a big growth area.” 

With the Bills stadium project well in hand, Pinto last summer started work on a three-year project to support construction of a billion-dollar data center at Niagara Falls. The contract will include multiple restroom trailers. It seems that little word “yes” goes a long, long way.