September 4, 2020 • 21 mins
Pete continues his search for the Holy Grail of portable restroom software with Vernon Hogan and Brett Roques about the PRO Solutions software application.
A deep dive into the world of portable sanitation software unfolds in this captivating podcast episode, where Pete engages with industry innovators Vernon Hogan and Brett Rock. The discussion revolves around the significant strides made in developing a comprehensive software platform tailored for the portable restroom industry. Listeners are introduced to the ten essential functions necessary for effective sanitation management, as Pete reflects on his search for the ultimate software solution and shares insights from previous episodes that laid the groundwork for this exploration.
Vernon and Brett's journey from idea to implementation illustrates the collaborative spirit driving innovation in the sanitation sector. Their software not only streamlines core business functions but also integrates specialized tools that enhance operational efficiency, such as route optimization and real-time tracking. The conversation emphasizes the importance of understanding user needs and incorporating feedback directly from operators, ensuring that the final product is both practical and effective. As they share their experiences, listeners gain valuable knowledge about the technical and logistical challenges faced during development, shedding light on the intricacies of creating a user-friendly interface that meets the demands of the industry.
Moreover, the episode addresses the financial implications of adopting new technology, with Vernon outlining their pricing model designed to cater to operators of all sizes. This consideration of diverse business needs reflects a commitment to making innovative solutions accessible, empowering small operators to compete in a rapidly evolving market. The overarching message of the episode resonates with the idea that collaboration, transparency, and a customer-centric approach are vital to elevating the sanitation industry. As the podcast concludes, it leaves listeners inspired by the potential of technology to transform operations and improve service delivery in a field often overlooked yet essential to public health.
Takeaways:
- Pete has been searching for the ideal portable sanitation software that integrates essential business functions.
- The integration of third-party applications like Google Maps and QuickBooks can greatly enhance software efficiency.
- Vernon and Brett developed a comprehensive software solution tailored specifically for portable restroom companies.
- The platform includes features for route management, truck tracking, and accounting to streamline operations.
- The software supports international use, including kilometers for routing outside North America.
- Vernon and Brett emphasize the importance of addressing health and safety compliance within their software.
Visit https://prosoftware.app/ to learn more about PRO SOLUTIONS
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:16):
Hello and welcome to GetFlushed, the Sanitation podcast.
My name's Pete. Over the pastmonth, I've been on a mission to
find the Holy Grail ofportable sanitation software, and
I define that as a one stopshop or all inclusive platform that
could perform the ten keybusiness functions I identified as
being essential in a portablerestroom operation. I won't go over
(00:39):
those now, but if you flickback to my previous episode, the
Holy Grail, I went over allten in quite some detail. Over the
past few episodes, we've heardhow Anthony and Stefan Covic at Prestige
Loos have been working withtheir developer to improve and refine
their platform. I shared myown method to record delivery services
and pickups using iAuditor,and last week, John Giddykin told
(01:01):
us all about service call.Although I began my search looking
for an all in one platform,I've realized that some existing
software performs some ofthose specialist functions really,
really well. I'm thinking inparticular about Google Maps and
Apple Maps or accountingsoftware like QuickBooks, mind your
own business, or Xero. Now, itmakes a lot of sense to find a way
(01:21):
to integrate those platformsrather than reinvent the wheel. And
I understand that thatintegration can be done relatively
easily using an API orapplication programming interface.
After I'd recorded the servicecore episode, I got a message from
Vernon Hogan at Greensboro Webservices in North Carolina and Brett
(01:44):
Rock at pit stop sanitation inGeorgia. And they told me that they'd
developed a platform from theground up that would fulfill all
ten of my essential functions.So I gave them a call.
Vernon Hogan speaking.
Hey, Vernon, how are you?
(02:04):
Good. How are you?
I'm good. Good to see you.
Nice to meet you. Thank you.
Are you outdoors or is thatjust a flashback drop?
Just a flashback drop.
I like that. What I normallydo is just get people just to say
hi and explain who they are,name and company, so the listeners
will get an idea. Soobviously, I'm Pete from Get Flushed,
and then I'll hand over to I'm.
(02:26):
Vernon with Greensboro Webservices Pro software.
Hey, Vernon.
And I am Bret Rott withGreensboro Pro software.
Have you got another role aswell, though, Brett?
Yes, I'm the owner operator ofPitstop Sanitation, Atlanta, Georgia.
Give me a feel for yourbusiness, though, Brett, how many
potties are you running?
(02:46):
It's close to 3000.
You sent me a message to say,hey, you're talking about software.
We've got a package that we'dlike to share with you. Over to you.
Okay. I got started with thiscompany 2014, and originally I was
developing an e commerce storethat was going to be focused on the
portable restroom industry.Paper and chemicals and other parts
(03:08):
for trucks. And I starteddoing that and, you know, went deeper
down the rabbit hole. And in2015, I began searching for a complete
type of system to help kind ofautomate all busy work and sending
invoices, paymentconfirmations, quotes, as well as
manage the website. My actualcollege degree is in classical piano.
(03:28):
It's a big swing. Vernon.
Yeah, a little bit on the. ButI've always been heavily studying
that and working in it. So Istarted developing the system, and
developed kind of the websitemeant the CRM, the billing side first.
That was actually when Brettand I first really started talking.
(03:48):
He was a customer of mine forother products, and he was just complaining
about his website, some of theexperiences he had in the industry
with the software. And so Istarted talking to him about what
I was doing, and that's kindof how we developed our relationship.
And I built this website fromhim, and they kind of started helping
(04:10):
the CRM and some of the onlinemarketing. Brent just, he had a lot
of great suggestions forfeatures. That was kind of like a
light bulb in my brain. Right?It was like, of course, this is how
you would really develop asystem specific for an industry,
is to do it in conjunctionwith somebody who has a company.
Yeah, we started doing that,and then on 2017, I built the routing
(04:32):
and the truck tracking piece.Originally started as master route
optimization, which is like,multi route optimization. Basically
can take all your services fora whole week and your number of drivers
and their work hours, and thenit gives you back a completed schedule
for your trucks. That was thefirst piece we had tested it out
(04:54):
on pitstop. In theory, itworked great. The routes were definitely
optimized, but the problem wasgetting it back into Brett's current
software system. Right. Like,integrated in with his software system
that he had. Brett wasbasically like, you know, we've got
to develop the other pieces aswell to kind of finish it out. And
(05:14):
so that's when we developedthe route management and route scheduling
piece, as well as finished outthe accounting side of it, and also,
like, timesheet, basicpayroll, and truck tracking. Right.
So that we finished that, andthen I guess the final piece was
the QR code system. So thesystem can print out QR codes at
(05:38):
your local company, and youcan put them on your units, and then
you can use the phone to scan.
So when you sent me a list ofthe top ten things that I'd put in
my original episode that I waslooking for, these ten functions,
and you pretty much tick allof those. From what you've told me,
the only.
Thing that I wasn't sure ofwas what you meant by health and
safety.
The benefit of having healthand safety integrated is that you
(05:59):
can keep a record that ifthere is an incident, you can show
that you've actually beendiligent about doing your checks.
I mentioned in the Holy Grailepisode that I was using an app called
iAuditor, and that has a rangeof templates that allow you to carry
out inspections so you couldstop and check that all of your work
conditions are fine. Are thereany trip hazards, slip hazards? It's
a really simple sheet. It'sjust a list, really, with a configurable
(06:23):
answer. Yes, no, maybe, youknow, high, low, whatever categories
you want to use. And the boysat prestige were using something
similar to that to check offtheir trucks as they left the yard.
The health and safety managerdid a walk round on each vehicle,
and she checked that. Thelights, the tires, the signage, the
dangerous goods folder, thedriving license, everything was in
(06:44):
order. And when she pressedyes on the iPad, that recorded that
information, and she gave thedriver a green light to leave the
yard.
Oh, okay. Wonderful.
Yeah, I kind of felt like thatfell more into the vehicle. Maintenance
kind of goes two differentways, right. One is the drivers,
every day, whenever they leavethe yard and come back to the yard,
they have to fill out a pretrip, post trip, and the safety manager
(07:08):
on the team has to verify thatthat truck is safe to leave the yard.
But what the program does isit takes it a step further, is that
it makes sure that the thingsthat drivers note are taken care
of whenever they go in for service.
So you create an action or anote for somebody to actually do
something about that broken taillight.
Correct. And that's somethingthat goes straight to our mechanic.
(07:31):
We don't have an onsitemechanic, so now we're kind of closing
that when we're bringinganother vendor, a very important
vendor, to exactly what'sgoing on with the health of that
truck.
So does that vendor just haveremote access to that component of
the software?
It's a sheet that we're ableto send. It's more of a report that's
generated because things likelights and things, we take care of
(07:53):
that right away. Somebodynotices the wheel shakes a little
bit.
Right.
We want somebody else to takea look at that, too.
So, visually, is the platforman easy interface to use?
Whenever I was bringing myteam on board, it really was. It
was one of those things like,I can't believe we haven't been using
it just because the buttonssay what button does. If you're trying
(08:17):
to complete a task, it's easyon the. And one of my favorite pieces
of it is with it being in thecloud, I can do it from anywhere.
That sounds good.
Oh, thank you. Yeah, we'veworked hard on it. It's a lot of
work building something likethat. So it's many, many, many hours
in late nights.
(08:37):
Yeah. So one of the thingsthat came across from a chat with
John Gadikin at service Corpswas that they've got pots and pots
of money. They managed to findsome good investors, and they've
poured a lot into thedevelopment of service core. I'm
going to be rude and askwhether or not that's the case for
pro solution.
I would say we're more selffunded between Brett and I, like
(08:58):
I said, I had a successfuldistribution business, which allowed
me to be able to maybe havesome more funds available to develop.
Also, because I do a lot ofthe development and the actual programming
myself, I can save that sixfigure salary for a professional
programmer and projectmanager. But it's always takes deep
(09:19):
pockets, regardless. Time ormoney or both.
I think the other thing aboutnot having to have huge investors,
you know, big investors in itis being very precise on exactly
what we want. You know, we'renot trying to build a program that
can be transformed into abunch of different industries. We
want this software to workspecific for portable restaurant
(09:42):
companies.
That's exactly what I washoping to find when I started this
quest. I knew there were somepackages out there, but the podcast
is actually unearthed quite alot of different products and platforms
that I didn't know about, andI'm sure a lot of the listeners won't
know about. And they're goodstories. You know, it's interesting,
and it's great that people inthe industry have put the time and
effort and the expertise intodeveloping that, because I'm sure
(10:02):
there's not many othercompanies who would be able to exert
that amount of directknowledge, tacit knowledge, understanding
and control, and you'd end upwith something that didn't really
fit, that had been adaptedfrom another industry. And that's,
I think that's the pasthistory, to be honest. The biggest
limitation that I felt withservice core was that it was only
available North America, anda, they said it was based in imperial
(10:27):
measurements, which wouldn'tbe a major issue, but b, they just
hadn't sold it outside the US.Is that the same with pro solutions?
The answer to that is that wedo support kilometers versus miles.
The tracking does work outsidethe US, right? So, you know, I have
all the maps loaded for EuropeAsia. Recently, just did a demo with
(10:49):
a big company in Mexico City.Actually was routing a couple of
his trucks around there. Wedon't have an international client
yet, but we are looking and itdoes work outside of North America.
And we support UK, Australia,Austria and Belgium accounting practices
right now. And I'm buildingmodules for more as well.
(11:10):
Well, let's see if we can findyou some international trialists,
then.
That'd be great.
We've got a wide span oflisteners. I think we're into 42,
43 countries. So maybesomebody listened, will say, hey,
I'm going to contact Vernonand Brett and give this program a
go.
We would love to give it ashot. We're very proud of it, and
I think it would work just aswell internationally as it does here
(11:31):
in the US and North America.
One of the conversations I'vehad with a lot of smaller operators
is that software is typicallyout of their price range. Can you
give us an indication of theprice bracket?
Absolutely. So one thing thatwe do different, I should say, is
we do price per user permonth, but we separate the difference
between an office user and adriver user. Our program has a lot
(11:53):
more office functionality thansome of the stuff out there. Full
accounting, payroll, humanresources, a lot of stuff there.
So actually, the office useris priced a little bit higher than
the driver, but we'regenerally in the range of 80 to about
$180 per user per month. We'reable to deploy a little bit more
(12:15):
customized solutions dependingupon what the needs of the client
are.
If you've got just a one manband who's not particularly worried
about payroll, for example,they could drop that module and just
run with a smaller package.
Correct. My smallest clientsare one route, one driver, husband
and wife combination. And wehave up to clients who do 30 routes
(12:36):
a day in the system, so it canrun the gambit. We don't have a minimum,
so if it's just one user and adriver, and they can be under dollar
200 a month, we don't requirea base cost, and then there's also
no license fee. You know,implementation is a little bit different
kind of cost structure. Ireally try to tailor that to the
(12:56):
company that we're workingwith, because the spread of experience
with software versus, youknow, what platform they're coming
from. Are they coming fromcarbons? We've had clients that are
coming from still using carboncopy routes, and it's a little bit
harder sometimes to get themusing a cloud based software system.
Is the platform available onAndroid and iOS?
(13:17):
It actually is. So basicallythe way that it's a traditional web
application, so it works onany device, Android, iOS. But we
also have finishedapplications that are available in
the Android store as well asthe iOS store. These are hybrid programs
that one track the truck, soit does the truck tracking, gives
(13:41):
you driver positioning as wellas speed of the truck, and then also
it allows for offline scanningfor remote areas. Right. So a driver
could take just our installedAndroid app with a route sheet and
go and service out of our cellphones reach. He can scan the units,
(14:02):
update whether it's beenserviced or not, make notes on it,
and then when he gets backinto data range, all that information
is then uploaded to the cloud application.
The other thing that's comeout in my conversations is that integrations
seem to be the way that a lotof companies have gone. So, for example,
the big finance packages wouldbe Quickbooks. Zero. Mind your own
(14:25):
business. Have you built yourown accounting package, or are you
integrated, and could youintegrate if you've built your own?
So we've done both. We have afull feature accounting package that,
like I said, it has supportsthe chart of accounts for United
States, Mexico, all theterritories down there, Canada, UK,
(14:45):
Australia, and the differentcurrencies. But we also. I have a
complete integration withQuickBooks online, so it seamlessly
works back and forth withQuickbooks online. So that's really
the only accounting, majoraccounting integration API that I've
built for it so far.
And, Brett, what do driversthink when you load them up to use
(15:05):
the app?
It stopped a lot of the phoneconversations that were going on.
I can't find this or where'sthat? But it also gives them a place
that they can put any kind ofnote that they want immediately while
they're on site, my dispatchercomes in, checks everything that
happened, you know, maybe thelast 3 hours of the day, and that's
(15:29):
because he's already looked atthe stuff that the drivers had done
that morning. So that way, mydispatcher knows exactly what's going
on, and the drivers aregetting to the right spot.
So your dispatcher can followthat in real time then?
As long as you have a serviceplan. Yes. And I think Vernon mentioned
that app can't work withoutcell signal. Also, it stops the phone
(15:53):
calls route. Drivers like theroutine of it. They don't really
like to call in and try andyou know, necessarily figure out
problems.
Right.
They can log it. We're seeingthem in real time, you know, and
that makes the customerhappier, makes the whole business
flow a lot smoother.
(16:14):
So, looking ahead, what's theplan for the company and the package?
Vernon, where. Where do we go next?
We're just trying to growsteadily and taking on new clients
and getting the word out therethat this software is available.
I mean, it's been a kind of alimited selection for a really long
time in this industry, andjust letting everybody know that
(16:35):
we're here and we have asolution that was designed on a portable
toilet company itself. I'mthankful that Brett was there to
allow me to test a lot offeatures and things like that that
would normally be able to getdone in a traditional development
process. And that was a hugepiece of it. We're going to continue
to improve it, especially theaccounting side of it, to offer more
countries.
(16:55):
And then if we've got a prowho's listening in and they're thinking,
you know, I'm not using anysoftware that's meeting all my needs
at the minute, how do they getin touch and get on board?
Well, we call it the Prosoftware system, and it's Prosoftware
app that'll take you to ourwebsite. I have a ton of YouTube
videos out that are linked onthe website, kind of going through
the program, talking about theadvantages of just using a big ERP,
(17:19):
or enterprise resourceplanning, as we call it, in the business,
and bring all the differentfunctions of your company together
in one place. Affordabletoilet companies have so many different
little parts. It's soimportant to have that organization.
I heard the podcast for thefirst time. I was, wow, this is great.
Somebody who's reallyinterested in trying to get the perfect
(17:39):
software for a portable toilet company.
Yeah.
Well, it sounds like you're onthe journey. You're making great
progress.
Yeah. Thank you. Like I said,every day we're improving, and we
have a lot of very happyclients, and we continue to move
forward and, like I said,offer something a little bit different.
I always use the analogy thatit's kind of like cars. There's a
(17:59):
lot of really nice carcompanies out there, Tesla and Toyota's
and all that. And some peoplejust don't like to use a certain
brand. They like differentoptions. Right. I. I think that we
are coming forth with a newbrand and a new option out there
that can give people somethingmaybe a little different to try.
And it's a great backstory.Classically trained concert pianist
(18:20):
turns into pro softwaremagnum. That's up there with the
Get Flush podcast. Hey.
I love the portable restroomindustry and like I said, I started
in 2005 and as putting awholesale business with it, I really
just kind of fell in love withit. My first show in Nashville, Tennessee,
(18:41):
and then ended up going everyyear and going to the PSAI shows.
And, you know, I'm a countryboy. I was born and raised in the
country of North Carolina herein the USA, and just really love
the industry and the. There'sa lot of family owned businesses
and, you know, it was a lotbetter than in the corporate rat
race, a lot of family ownedcompanies, and I really enjoy it.
(19:04):
So that's why I stayed.
And that passion has been acommon theme throughout the podcast
so far. You know, this isepisode 18 and everyone I've spoken
to so far has got that samebuzz. They just absolutely love it.
Nobody's moaned or criticizedor complained about the industry.
They've all got a real passionfor it. And as previous guests have
said, the world would be lostwithout us.
(19:24):
Food, water, sanitation. Imean, it's absolutely necessary.
It really is. I really enjoytalking with Vernon and Brett, and
I like their ground upapproach to the development of their
software. Sure, they're asmall company, but they've put a
lot of time, effort andexpertise into building their platform.
(19:45):
And, you know, I get thefeeling it works. As I've developed
the podcast and spoken withmore and more people, I've been really
impressed by the generalwillingness to collaborate and share
information and ideas. Yes, ofcourse, this is a competitive industry,
but that doesn't meanproviders have to go to war with
each other. It's a big marketand there's plenty of demand. Especially
(20:07):
now with COVID It doesn't makesense for providers to cut each other's
throats by offering stupidlylow prices or being secretive about
good practice. Poorlymaintained toilets and inadequate
cleaning will have adetrimental impact on the reputation
of the industry as a whole.And a good news story about another
portable sanitation providerdoing great things is only a threat
(20:28):
if you know you're lettingyour customers down. As providers,
we should be above that, andas customers, we shouldn't tolerate
poor service. That's all I'vegot time for this week. I'll end
by saying that listeners canhelp the show by telling their family,
friends, colleagues andcustomers to listen in, or by leaving
a five star review on any ofthe podcast apps.
(20:50):
Why not? Visit our Patreon page?
Patreon.com getflushed wherefor a small monthly donation, you
can get early access to everyepisode and unlock bonus features
not available elsewhere. Onceagain, thank you to Vernon and Brett
for taking part, and thank youfor listening. I've been Pete and
(21:11):
this has been Get Flushed.
Hello and welcome to GetFlushed, the Sanitation podcast.
My name's Pete. Over the pastmonth, I've been on a mission to
find the Holy Grail ofportable sanitation software, and
I define that as a one stopshop or all inclusive platform that
could perform the ten keybusiness functions I identified as
being essential in a portablerestroom operation. I won't go over
(00:39):
those now, but if you flickback to my previous episode, the
Holy Grail, I went over allten in quite some detail. Over the
past few episodes, we've heardhow Anthony and Stefan Covic at Prestige
Loos have been working withtheir developer to improve and refine
their platform. I shared myown method to record delivery services
and pickups using iAuditor,and last week, John Giddykin told
(01:01):
us all about service call.Although I began my search looking
for an all in one platform,I've realized that some existing
software performs some ofthose specialist functions really,
really well. I'm thinking inparticular about Google Maps and
Apple Maps or accountingsoftware like QuickBooks, mind your
own business, or Xero. Now, itmakes a lot of sense to find a way
(01:21):
to integrate those platformsrather than reinvent the wheel. And
I understand that thatintegration can be done relatively
easily using an API orapplication programming interface.
After I'd recorded the servicecore episode, I got a message from
Vernon Hogan at Greensboro Webservices in North Carolina and Brett
(01:44):
Rock at pit stop sanitation inGeorgia. And they told me that they'd
developed a platform from theground up that would fulfill all
ten of my essential functions.So I gave them a call.
Vernon Hogan speaking.
Hey, Vernon, how are you?
(02:04):
Good. How are you?
I'm good. Good to see you.
Nice to meet you. Thank you.
Are you outdoors or is thatjust a flashback drop?
Just a flashback drop.
I like that. What I normallydo is just get people just to say
hi and explain who they are,name and company, so the listeners
will get an idea. Soobviously, I'm Pete from Get Flushed,
and then I'll hand over to I'm.
(02:26):
Vernon with Greensboro Webservices Pro software.
Hey, Vernon.
And I am Bret Rott withGreensboro Pro software.
Have you got another role aswell, though, Brett?
Yes, I'm the owner operator ofPitstop Sanitation, Atlanta, Georgia.
Give me a feel for yourbusiness, though, Brett, how many
potties are you running?
(02:46):
It's close to 3000.
You sent me a message to say,hey, you're talking about software.
We've got a package that we'dlike to share with you. Over to you.
Okay. I got started with thiscompany 2014, and originally I was
developing an e commerce storethat was going to be focused on the
portable restroom industry.Paper and chemicals and other parts
(03:08):
for trucks. And I starteddoing that and, you know, went deeper
down the rabbit hole. And in2015, I began searching for a complete
type of system to help kind ofautomate all busy work and sending
invoices, paymentconfirmations, quotes, as well as
manage the website. My actualcollege degree is in classical piano.
(03:28):
It's a big swing. Vernon.
Yeah, a little bit on the. ButI've always been heavily studying
that and working in it. So Istarted developing the system, and
developed kind of the websitemeant the CRM, the billing side first.
That was actually when Brettand I first really started talking.
(03:48):
He was a customer of mine forother products, and he was just complaining
about his website, some of theexperiences he had in the industry
with the software. And so Istarted talking to him about what
I was doing, and that's kindof how we developed our relationship.
And I built this website fromhim, and they kind of started helping
(04:10):
the CRM and some of the onlinemarketing. Brent just, he had a lot
of great suggestions forfeatures. That was kind of like a
light bulb in my brain. Right?It was like, of course, this is how
you would really develop asystem specific for an industry,
is to do it in conjunctionwith somebody who has a company.
Yeah, we started doing that,and then on 2017, I built the routing
(04:32):
and the truck tracking piece.Originally started as master route
optimization, which is like,multi route optimization. Basically
can take all your services fora whole week and your number of drivers
and their work hours, and thenit gives you back a completed schedule
for your trucks. That was thefirst piece we had tested it out
(04:54):
on pitstop. In theory, itworked great. The routes were definitely
optimized, but the problem wasgetting it back into Brett's current
software system. Right. Like,integrated in with his software system
that he had. Brett wasbasically like, you know, we've got
to develop the other pieces aswell to kind of finish it out. And
(05:14):
so that's when we developedthe route management and route scheduling
piece, as well as finished outthe accounting side of it, and also,
like, timesheet, basicpayroll, and truck tracking. Right.
So that we finished that, andthen I guess the final piece was
the QR code system. So thesystem can print out QR codes at
(05:38):
your local company, and youcan put them on your units, and then
you can use the phone to scan.
So when you sent me a list ofthe top ten things that I'd put in
my original episode that I waslooking for, these ten functions,
and you pretty much tick allof those. From what you've told me,
the only.
Thing that I wasn't sure ofwas what you meant by health and
safety.
The benefit of having healthand safety integrated is that you
(05:59):
can keep a record that ifthere is an incident, you can show
that you've actually beendiligent about doing your checks.
I mentioned in the Holy Grailepisode that I was using an app called
iAuditor, and that has a rangeof templates that allow you to carry
out inspections so you couldstop and check that all of your work
conditions are fine. Are thereany trip hazards, slip hazards? It's
a really simple sheet. It'sjust a list, really, with a configurable
(06:23):
answer. Yes, no, maybe, youknow, high, low, whatever categories
you want to use. And the boysat prestige were using something
similar to that to check offtheir trucks as they left the yard.
The health and safety managerdid a walk round on each vehicle,
and she checked that. Thelights, the tires, the signage, the
dangerous goods folder, thedriving license, everything was in
(06:44):
order. And when she pressedyes on the iPad, that recorded that
information, and she gave thedriver a green light to leave the
yard.
Oh, okay. Wonderful.
Yeah, I kind of felt like thatfell more into the vehicle. Maintenance
kind of goes two differentways, right. One is the drivers,
every day, whenever they leavethe yard and come back to the yard,
they have to fill out a pretrip, post trip, and the safety manager
(07:08):
on the team has to verify thatthat truck is safe to leave the yard.
But what the program does isit takes it a step further, is that
it makes sure that the thingsthat drivers note are taken care
of whenever they go in for service.
So you create an action or anote for somebody to actually do
something about that broken taillight.
Correct. And that's somethingthat goes straight to our mechanic.
(07:31):
We don't have an onsitemechanic, so now we're kind of closing
that when we're bringinganother vendor, a very important
vendor, to exactly what'sgoing on with the health of that
truck.
So does that vendor just haveremote access to that component of
the software?
It's a sheet that we're ableto send. It's more of a report that's
generated because things likelights and things, we take care of
(07:53):
that right away. Somebodynotices the wheel shakes a little
bit.
Right.
We want somebody else to takea look at that, too.
So, visually, is the platforman easy interface to use?
Whenever I was bringing myteam on board, it really was. It
was one of those things like,I can't believe we haven't been using
it just because the buttonssay what button does. If you're trying
(08:17):
to complete a task, it's easyon the. And one of my favorite pieces
of it is with it being in thecloud, I can do it from anywhere.
That sounds good.
Oh, thank you. Yeah, we'veworked hard on it. It's a lot of
work building something likethat. So it's many, many, many hours
in late nights.
(08:37):
Yeah. So one of the thingsthat came across from a chat with
John Gadikin at service Corpswas that they've got pots and pots
of money. They managed to findsome good investors, and they've
poured a lot into thedevelopment of service core. I'm
going to be rude and askwhether or not that's the case for
pro solution.
I would say we're more selffunded between Brett and I, like
(08:58):
I said, I had a successfuldistribution business, which allowed
me to be able to maybe havesome more funds available to develop.
Also, because I do a lot ofthe development and the actual programming
myself, I can save that sixfigure salary for a professional
programmer and projectmanager. But it's always takes deep
(09:19):
pockets, regardless. Time ormoney or both.
I think the other thing aboutnot having to have huge investors,
you know, big investors in itis being very precise on exactly
what we want. You know, we'renot trying to build a program that
can be transformed into abunch of different industries. We
want this software to workspecific for portable restaurant
(09:42):
companies.
That's exactly what I washoping to find when I started this
quest. I knew there were somepackages out there, but the podcast
is actually unearthed quite alot of different products and platforms
that I didn't know about, andI'm sure a lot of the listeners won't
know about. And they're goodstories. You know, it's interesting,
and it's great that people inthe industry have put the time and
effort and the expertise intodeveloping that, because I'm sure
(10:02):
there's not many othercompanies who would be able to exert
that amount of directknowledge, tacit knowledge, understanding
and control, and you'd end upwith something that didn't really
fit, that had been adaptedfrom another industry. And that's,
I think that's the pasthistory, to be honest. The biggest
limitation that I felt withservice core was that it was only
available North America, anda, they said it was based in imperial
(10:27):
measurements, which wouldn'tbe a major issue, but b, they just
hadn't sold it outside the US.Is that the same with pro solutions?
The answer to that is that wedo support kilometers versus miles.
The tracking does work outsidethe US, right? So, you know, I have
all the maps loaded for EuropeAsia. Recently, just did a demo with
(10:49):
a big company in Mexico City.Actually was routing a couple of
his trucks around there. Wedon't have an international client
yet, but we are looking and itdoes work outside of North America.
And we support UK, Australia,Austria and Belgium accounting practices
right now. And I'm buildingmodules for more as well.
(11:10):
Well, let's see if we can findyou some international trialists,
then.
That'd be great.
We've got a wide span oflisteners. I think we're into 42,
43 countries. So maybesomebody listened, will say, hey,
I'm going to contact Vernonand Brett and give this program a
go.
We would love to give it ashot. We're very proud of it, and
I think it would work just aswell internationally as it does here
(11:31):
in the US and North America.
One of the conversations I'vehad with a lot of smaller operators
is that software is typicallyout of their price range. Can you
give us an indication of theprice bracket?
Absolutely. So one thing thatwe do different, I should say, is
we do price per user permonth, but we separate the difference
between an office user and adriver user. Our program has a lot
(11:53):
more office functionality thansome of the stuff out there. Full
accounting, payroll, humanresources, a lot of stuff there.
So actually, the office useris priced a little bit higher than
the driver, but we'regenerally in the range of 80 to about
$180 per user per month. We'reable to deploy a little bit more
(12:15):
customized solutions dependingupon what the needs of the client
are.
If you've got just a one manband who's not particularly worried
about payroll, for example,they could drop that module and just
run with a smaller package.
Correct. My smallest clientsare one route, one driver, husband
and wife combination. And wehave up to clients who do 30 routes
(12:36):
a day in the system, so it canrun the gambit. We don't have a minimum,
so if it's just one user and adriver, and they can be under dollar
200 a month, we don't requirea base cost, and then there's also
no license fee. You know,implementation is a little bit different
kind of cost structure. Ireally try to tailor that to the
(12:56):
company that we're workingwith, because the spread of experience
with software versus, youknow, what platform they're coming
from. Are they coming fromcarbons? We've had clients that are
coming from still using carboncopy routes, and it's a little bit
harder sometimes to get themusing a cloud based software system.
Is the platform available onAndroid and iOS?
(13:17):
It actually is. So basicallythe way that it's a traditional web
application, so it works onany device, Android, iOS. But we
also have finishedapplications that are available in
the Android store as well asthe iOS store. These are hybrid programs
that one track the truck, soit does the truck tracking, gives
(13:41):
you driver positioning as wellas speed of the truck, and then also
it allows for offline scanningfor remote areas. Right. So a driver
could take just our installedAndroid app with a route sheet and
go and service out of our cellphones reach. He can scan the units,
(14:02):
update whether it's beenserviced or not, make notes on it,
and then when he gets backinto data range, all that information
is then uploaded to the cloud application.
The other thing that's comeout in my conversations is that integrations
seem to be the way that a lotof companies have gone. So, for example,
the big finance packages wouldbe Quickbooks. Zero. Mind your own
(14:25):
business. Have you built yourown accounting package, or are you
integrated, and could youintegrate if you've built your own?
So we've done both. We have afull feature accounting package that,
like I said, it has supportsthe chart of accounts for United
States, Mexico, all theterritories down there, Canada, UK,
(14:45):
Australia, and the differentcurrencies. But we also. I have a
complete integration withQuickBooks online, so it seamlessly
works back and forth withQuickbooks online. So that's really
the only accounting, majoraccounting integration API that I've
built for it so far.
And, Brett, what do driversthink when you load them up to use
(15:05):
the app?
It stopped a lot of the phoneconversations that were going on.
I can't find this or where'sthat? But it also gives them a place
that they can put any kind ofnote that they want immediately while
they're on site, my dispatchercomes in, checks everything that
happened, you know, maybe thelast 3 hours of the day, and that's
(15:29):
because he's already looked atthe stuff that the drivers had done
that morning. So that way, mydispatcher knows exactly what's going
on, and the drivers aregetting to the right spot.
So your dispatcher can followthat in real time then?
As long as you have a serviceplan. Yes. And I think Vernon mentioned
that app can't work withoutcell signal. Also, it stops the phone
(15:53):
calls route. Drivers like theroutine of it. They don't really
like to call in and try andyou know, necessarily figure out
problems.
Right.
They can log it. We're seeingthem in real time, you know, and
that makes the customerhappier, makes the whole business
flow a lot smoother.
(16:14):
So, looking ahead, what's theplan for the company and the package?
Vernon, where. Where do we go next?
We're just trying to growsteadily and taking on new clients
and getting the word out therethat this software is available.
I mean, it's been a kind of alimited selection for a really long
time in this industry, andjust letting everybody know that
(16:35):
we're here and we have asolution that was designed on a portable
toilet company itself. I'mthankful that Brett was there to
allow me to test a lot offeatures and things like that that
would normally be able to getdone in a traditional development
process. And that was a hugepiece of it. We're going to continue
to improve it, especially theaccounting side of it, to offer more
countries.
(16:55):
And then if we've got a prowho's listening in and they're thinking,
you know, I'm not using anysoftware that's meeting all my needs
at the minute, how do they getin touch and get on board?
Well, we call it the Prosoftware system, and it's Prosoftware
app that'll take you to ourwebsite. I have a ton of YouTube
videos out that are linked onthe website, kind of going through
the program, talking about theadvantages of just using a big ERP,
(17:19):
or enterprise resourceplanning, as we call it, in the business,
and bring all the differentfunctions of your company together
in one place. Affordabletoilet companies have so many different
little parts. It's soimportant to have that organization.
I heard the podcast for thefirst time. I was, wow, this is great.
Somebody who's reallyinterested in trying to get the perfect
(17:39):
software for a portable toilet company.
Yeah.
Well, it sounds like you're onthe journey. You're making great
progress.
Yeah. Thank you. Like I said,every day we're improving, and we
have a lot of very happyclients, and we continue to move
forward and, like I said,offer something a little bit different.
I always use the analogy thatit's kind of like cars. There's a
(17:59):
lot of really nice carcompanies out there, Tesla and Toyota's
and all that. And some peoplejust don't like to use a certain
brand. They like differentoptions. Right. I. I think that we
are coming forth with a newbrand and a new option out there
that can give people somethingmaybe a little different to try.
And it's a great backstory.Classically trained concert pianist
(18:20):
turns into pro softwaremagnum. That's up there with the
Get Flush podcast. Hey.
I love the portable restroomindustry and like I said, I started
in 2005 and as putting awholesale business with it, I really
just kind of fell in love withit. My first show in Nashville, Tennessee,
(18:41):
and then ended up going everyyear and going to the PSAI shows.
And, you know, I'm a countryboy. I was born and raised in the
country of North Carolina herein the USA, and just really love
the industry and the. There'sa lot of family owned businesses
and, you know, it was a lotbetter than in the corporate rat
race, a lot of family ownedcompanies, and I really enjoy it.
(19:04):
So that's why I stayed.
And that passion has been acommon theme throughout the podcast
so far. You know, this isepisode 18 and everyone I've spoken
to so far has got that samebuzz. They just absolutely love it.
Nobody's moaned or criticizedor complained about the industry.
They've all got a real passionfor it. And as previous guests have
said, the world would be lostwithout us.
(19:24):
Food, water, sanitation. Imean, it's absolutely necessary.
It really is. I really enjoytalking with Vernon and Brett, and
I like their ground upapproach to the development of their
software. Sure, they're asmall company, but they've put a
lot of time, effort andexpertise into building their platform.
(19:45):
And, you know, I get thefeeling it works. As I've developed
the podcast and spoken withmore and more people, I've been really
impressed by the generalwillingness to collaborate and share
information and ideas. Yes, ofcourse, this is a competitive industry,
but that doesn't meanproviders have to go to war with
each other. It's a big marketand there's plenty of demand. Especially
(20:07):
now with COVID It doesn't makesense for providers to cut each other's
throats by offering stupidlylow prices or being secretive about
good practice. Poorlymaintained toilets and inadequate
cleaning will have adetrimental impact on the reputation
of the industry as a whole.And a good news story about another
portable sanitation providerdoing great things is only a threat
(20:28):
if you know you're lettingyour customers down. As providers,
we should be above that, andas customers, we shouldn't tolerate
poor service. That's all I'vegot time for this week. I'll end
by saying that listeners canhelp the show by telling their family,
friends, colleagues andcustomers to listen in, or by leaving
a five star review on any ofthe podcast apps.
(20:50):
Why not? Visit our Patreon page?
Patreon.com getflushed wherefor a small monthly donation, you
can get early access to everyepisode and unlock bonus features
not available elsewhere. Onceagain, thank you to Vernon and Brett
for taking part, and thank youfor listening. I've been Pete and
(21:11):
this has been Get Flushed.
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