Waste services companies form new partnership

A new partnership has emerged from the growth and success of two waste water service providers. Instead of continuing to compete in the same space, they will work together to achieve further growth and greater efficiencies.

North Yorkshire-based Waters Waste and Universal Tankers in St. Helen’s, Merseyside have joined forces, creating a national operation, the Universal Tanker Group.

Working together for the common good

Amongst other services, the two family-owned businesses provide waste water removal and welfare services. Their continued growth found them increasingly expanding into each other’s areas and this led to a discussion about how they could work together for the common good of each company and their customers.

Mandata TMS helps to simplify operations

They found there was a lot of common ground between the two firms. As well as sharing a customer-centric approach to work, they also used the same Mandata transport management system, which would simplify a partnership approach for both companies, Tom Waters, Transport and Business Manager explains:

“It was a natural progression for both companies. Now, we’ll be able to share work, avoid cross-overs and benefit from economies of scale as a result.”

Both firms have been using the Mandata TMS for some time, and will receive automatic updates between the systems, making it easy for all depots to share information, access the same job pool and receive real-time updates. “It’s important as we’ll all be able to see jobs and plan those local to us, whilst users at other depots can do the same, giving us complete visibility,” Tom added.

The group will operate across a network of eight depots, and a new depot in Swindon, which will come on stream in February 2018. It will be business as usual in many ways, for the family-owned businesses as they transition to the Universal Tanker Group, Tom explains: “We may have doubled our fleet overnight, but services won’t be affected, in fact we’ll be more efficient, as tankers will be doing far less mileage. “

In preparation for further growth, Waters Waste has made a move to new premises at Stokesley Business Park in North Yorkshire and the new group will continue its investment in transport management technology, MD Simon Gunn explains.

“Although we are at slightly different stages with the system, it’s not an unsurmountable problem. We’re looking to put waste transfer notes on-line and we’ll have the ability to track vehicles using PDA’s for greater visibility across both fleets.”

“We’re also looking to roll out a fleet-wide Mandata smartphone vehicle defects solution which will simplify vehicle maintenance for us too.”

It is early days, but the firms are very optimistic about the future, with customer needs firmly at the heart of the group’s strategy going forward.

“We will replicate the good standard of customer service we offer now, across the country. With everyone using the same systems, communications and processes between all of the depots will be simplified and customers will benefit from greater transparency wherever they are; from the Scottish borders down to the South Coast.”