Pittsburgh, PA -

When Waste Management needed to relocate some recycling equipment in Michigan to one of their processing facilities near Pittsburgh, we were called to manage the offloading. The load included a 107,000 pound horizontal baler, and two large conveyor systems. They arranged their own transportation, so our job was to unload and stage the equipment on site.

Unfortunately, the day before the move, one of the trucks they had procured broke down. A replacement truck that has the capacity to haul a 55-ton machine is not something that is readily available, but after finally locating another option, they discovered the permits for the original truck would not transfer to the new one. The entire process had to be started from scratch to provide enough time for each state on the route to approve the new permits.

Every day of delay was costing Waste Management money, and every day that the new equipment was not operational in Pennsylvania resulted in significant lost revenue. The interruption threw off the entire schedule by three days which proved to be a logistical challenge to our team, given other commitments we had.

But we made it happen. Communicating with everyone involved at Waste Management, our other customers, and our team leaders, we were able to amend all the schedules to make ourselves available to Waste Management when they needed us. Our flexibility minimized the financial impact of the delays.

The weather was less cooperative however, as a record breaking deep freeze brought single-digit temperatures with wind chills approaching 20-below. Temperatures that low can greatly impact the functionality of machinery, not to mention the crew. But with our commitment to regular maintenance and job specific planning, all of our equipment performed without any problems and the crew was dressed appropriately to safely work in the bitterly cold conditions.