Honey Dippin
 

I have a chance to buy a honey dipping company (septic truck). In like 6months i have been waiting for this day :D . Problem is the 40k price tag. The truck is JUNK a 1988 ford F-800 with a 3,000gallon steel Tank. Customer base of about 375-400. Guy did this part time and wants to get out of it it is getting to big for him. Kind of a 1/2 azz friend of my dads. He works at the quarry full time the one my dad hauls out of.

I know him from when i drove honey dippers for almost 3 years. I think i can make some money with it. ITs not like normal trucking. When fuel goes up over night you can add a 5.00 per stop fuel surcharge on the bill if you wanted. Well i got about 10k in the bank and my oldman is more then willing to help me out. He just doesnt want to see me buy a dump truck or tractor.

Just to give you some inside info. We used to pump houses out for 195 a pop could do about 6 a day 10hrs give or take. Thats almost 1200 dollers for a day. Dumping fee was 0.02 cents a gallon so you have to take that out. One day i pulled off 9 houses in about 12hrs. That was a money makin day. All the houses where in about a 10mile radius. Some house you can do in 15mins other ones are 2 1/2hrs depends on where the tanks are at how far in the ground etc etc. So maybe if i play my cards right i can be some what of a O/O soon. But i will need more customers to go full time for one truck to work 8hrs a day you will need about 1500 customers. I would go into more detail about the truck but i dont think anyone on here knows about septic pumps and all that good stuff.

My old boss who sold out to the last company i worked for has a 5year work cont. that will be up in about 2years. Once that is up i know he will help me out big time. Cuz he aint to happy with the company who he sold to with what they are doing. Plus he is real good friends with my dad thats how i got the job there to begin with.

Well i just put that all out there for you all. Me and my dad do alot of talkin all the time about trucks and i just doint think in real truckin for all you have on the line it is not worth it so this may be a good way to go.

Well, I would say that is definatly a nitch market.....but YUCK!!

In Oregon they charge 400.00 + for the pump out service!!

tootie

My 2 cents. Put out some flyer's with your price for pumping out. Get yourself a web page so customers can book a pump out online. Get yourself setup with E-Commerce so they can also pay by secure credit card online.

Many people want to shop online and getting your tank pumped out is no different.

What a treat for me to be awake at 2am on Monday morning online doing my bills and oh, by the way, let me bring up that guys web page and get my tank pumped out before winter.

400+ :shock: how many gallons are they takin. Is it septic or cookin grease. We would take out 4200gallons for 375.00(of septic) the price of 195 is for 1250gals. or less. them 4200gallon loads are alwasy old cesspools.

That will be the 1st thing i would do is a webstie then get it put all over the trucks tank. with my name in big azz. letters. Also have to take credit cards. My old company never took CC for some reason. We deal with alot of people with BIG MONEY and for some reasons them yuppies always wanted to use there CC for pump outs.

Yup, credit cards and debit cards which are the same is the way to go. I want to point, click and be done with it. You take care of the rest.

You may have to hire someone to do your webpage correctly. One feature you should have is the ability to let the customer pick the date they want to be pumped out. Your web page could show green on the dates you have open and red for all booked up. The reason I say this is because right now, I don't feel like going out into the back yard to find and mark my tank so I don't want it pumped out till next Thursday.

Don't forget the add on options if there are any.

Crude cleaner
Inspection
Scented septic cleaner
Re-cover top with soil
and so on ( I actually have no idea what I'm talking about)

I would think if your ahead of schedule one day you could see who is ready on the next day and show up then you could get on your laptop and modify your web page and free up a slot for the next day also.

You could also offer frequent pooper points to repeat customers. It could be like little piles of crap that indicate how many points you have. Like shower credits.

Geezus man, I'm on a roll here. (roll, get it)

I think it sounds like a good opportunity, you know the business, don't mind the work, are willing to do what it takes to grow the business, shouldn't have overwelming debt, go for it if its what you want. just remember owning your own business you get to work 1/2 days, 12hrs :D :lol:

Yank the tank off of the Ford, put it on a Mack, and start pumpin' sh*t!!!!!



The yuppies bought their food with a credit card, why wouldn't they want to use a credit card to get their used food hauled away? :lol:

Anyhow, I would say go for it if you think the numbers will work out in your favor.

I had a 2-tank system in WA, total of about 1300 gallons. $400 was just for the solids tank. Closer to $485 where I was.

Them prices are crazy you would never be able to get that where i live. There dumping prices must be sky high. a normal system around here is 1,000gal. tank or 1250gal. tank or a 2 tank system one 1,000 and then a 2nd 500. for a 1500 gal. system never saw a 1300gal one. Depends on bathrooms and bedrooms etc etc. how big of a system to put in.

Steve you have to have a license from the state to inspect septic systems. Which is a so many hr course and then a test. In the state of delaware you have to take a test just to pump the shit. <----(which is a joke)

Steve is on the right track......

How about a signature service? Plant daisies on top of the tank. They should flourish. Make yourself stand out, and give them something to talk about. This won't cost hardly anything, and could be pretty funny if you get known by it. Include the daisies in your website somehow. :D

I always run my business with this motto,

"Give em what they paid for, and just a little bit more"

and I had tremendous repeat business, which is what you want. You don't want to have to sell yourself over and over again, but spend your time, selling your services to repeat customers, who will in fact recommend you.

Good luck to you young man. Go after it, it's yours.

jonboy

Just had mine done last week, $210.00, guy had a Mack tri-axle, don't know how big the tank was on the truck.

Guy was in and out in about an hour.

I would get his last three years p&l statements and take them to an accountant. Discuss every aspect of this venture with the accountant, and see what he says. It's really worth it.

If it looks good go for it, no one else is going to make you wealthy, except you.

I think there was some good ideas mentioned above, and I'm sure there's more to follow.

Just remember, if this venture does work out and you find yourself with a bank full of money, don't walk around like you're King $hiT. :lol: sorry, I had to.

Good luck, keep us posted

This was a normal 1500 septic tank. We were living in OR and staying on a ranch taking care of horses for rent (Bo was on the road with Arrow lease truck) anyway they had to have the tank pumped and it was OVER 400.00 for the job.

tootie

Came up with a few motto's.

When your knee deep in crap, let us take the sh** for you.

Don't take any sh** from anyone except us.

Sh** happens and we will be there.

We are the sh** brothers, call Jack, Giva, Little or Know for immediate service.

Or...

you could paint your truck brown and call yourself UPS (Ultimate Pro Shitsuckers)

"What Can Brown Do for You?"

How about: " We want to clean out your tank, not your pockets".

Great, here we are having fun and then you come along with a perfect clean one!!! Damn moderators.

Sluuuuuuurrrrrrrppppp.....kaaachuuunk...gurgle....

Ahh...the sound of $$$$

we are #1 in a #2 bussiness
we pump what you dump
No one sticks there nose in our bussiness

Good ideas. :D

I called the guy today he said he was lookin for someone to help him on the weekends i said i will be more then welling to drive on the weekends for him. SO that is a plus. Let you guys know how it goes. Like i said it might be around 6 months or so. But that give me time to save for $$$$ and think about what has to be done.

I called my oldboss today. There is alot of paperwork involed. in owning a honey dipper. Well you got all the DOT stuff which you guys know about. Plus you have DEP stuff. Stuff for the health dept. some twp. and countys require waste permits. dumping sties you have to keep your waste manfiests for up to 1 year and so on. :shock: But he said he wife did all that and iof i was for real she would be more then willing to help me out intill i know what am doing.

That sounds good Mackman, you'll get to know some of the customers by working weekends, and the old bosses wife is willing to help out also. I would definitely take her up on that.

By 6 months or so you should feel pretty confident to take over and run with it.

Re: Honey Dippin
 

I worked for a guy who had one about 20 years ago, in his ad, it said
" 100 feet of hose, we pump from the street!" I cant tell you how much business he got just because of that, people like it when you dont drive in their yard, just a suggestion.. also if you live in an area where there are farms try to work out a deal to dump there, I lived in Florida, we dumped in an orange grove for no charge, they were glad to have the free fertilizer.

we also pumped form the street as long as it wasnt busy highway. And it was about 75ft away. any longer then that we used the driveway if it was closer. I know about the farm thing but my oldboss says there alot of BS with that as far as DEP goes. thats why he never did it. He said he would rather pay the small dumping fee and not have to deal with all the BS with land applying it and the DEP.

SH*T happens! Who you gonna call?

"Who you gonna call? Sh*tbusters"!!!!

*A flush beats a Full House*

I must admit Mackman, I was a little askeered to click on that link. There was some hesitation, which is rare. 8)

i was laughing so hard when i was lookin at that. I had to post it. :wink:

:D :D :D

Is anyone else even a little uneasy about the term "honey dippin'"? :shock: :? :lol: