78. Porta-Potties | The Economics of Everyday Things

Summary

Highlights

• Portable toilets are essential for events, construction sites, and emergency relief, despite their unglamorous reputation. 🚧
• Companies like Honey Bucket have to be nimble and proactive in building client relationships and managing logistics. 🤝
• The portable sanitation industry includes quirky elements like fragrance choices and amusing company names. 🌸
• Handling waste is a structured process with innovative solutions like direct-to-sewer systems being explored. 🚽
• Portable toilet operators face unique situations, from handling overflow to finding bizarre lost items. 🔍

Key Takeaways

• Portable toilets have a surprisingly rich history dating back to WWII and have become integral to many sectors. 🚽
• The industry is profitable, with margins often exceeding 20%, serving events, construction sites, and more. 💰
• Humor and resilience are key traits for those in the porta-potty business due to its unique challenges and public perception. 😂
• Operators often deal with unexpected challenges, from overflow management to handling strange items found in toilets. 🤔
• There's an art and science to determining the number of units needed and managing them efficiently, especially at large events like the Olympics. 🧪

Overview

Chapters

• 00:00 - 00:30: Introduction to Porta-Potties This chapter introduces the topic of porta-potties by capturing a relatable moment of urgency and the need for a bathroom during an outdoor event. It hints at the often-overlooked aspect of how porta-potties are placed and maintained, and suggests that there is a personal story or dream behind every toilet's presence. The chapter touches on the notion that few people envision themselves working in the porta-potty business from childhood.
• 00:30 - 01:00: Interview with Ron Inman Interview with Ron Inman, the Vice President of Honey Bucket, a portable toilet company operating across seven states. While not traditionally seen as a glamorous profession like firefighters or doctors, Inman emphasizes the complexity of the business when approached correctly. Honey Bucket is among thousands of US companies renting portable toilets, catering to construction sites, music festivals, marathons, and natural events.
• 01:00 - 01:30: Complexities of Portable Toilet Business The chapter dives into the logistical complexities involved in the portable toilet business. It highlights the diverse and challenging environments where portable toilets are used, such as mountain tops for Winter Olympics and gold mines thousands of feet underground. The operations require a systematic approach to ensure timely delivery and maintenance, involving various elements like trucks, personnel, supplies, parts, computer scheduling, and traffic management. Success depends on precise execution and understanding the science behind it all, including calculating the adequate number of toilets needed.
• 02:00 - 02:30: Industry Perception and History The chapter titled 'Industry Perception and History' discusses the often-overlooked aspects of the portable toilet industry. It highlights the common perceptions and realities of the business, such as its lack of glamour and the underappreciated value and service it provides. Despite these perceptions, the chapter aims to shed light on the industry's history and its essential role in various settings.
• 02:30 - 03:00: Role of Portable Sanitation Association The chapter discusses the portable sanitation industry, focusing on the role of the Portable Sanitation Association. It features insights from professionals like Veronica Kocher, highlighting the challenges and humor associated with the portapotty business, which is often unglamorous yet essential.
• 03:00 - 03:30: Significance During World War II The chapter discusses the role of the Portable Sanitation Association International (PSAI) during World War II. The PSAI, often incorrectly referred to as the 'portapotty association', was formed in the early 1970s to provide a united voice and improve the industry's public image. Director Kocher highlights the surprise many have upon learning about such an association, which emphasizes the importance of portable sanitation solutions in various contexts, including war efforts.
• 03:30 - 04:00: Personal Connection to History The narrator introduces the topic of the chapter by noting the reaction they get when telling people about their involvement with portable toilets, suggesting a lack of awareness or understanding from others. The history of portable toilets is traced back to World War II, highlighting that they were initially used at shipyards and on military airships. Early versions were made from plywood and were unpopular among soldiers due to hygiene issues.
• 04:30 - 05:00: Growth and Size of Industry The chapter discusses the development and popularization of modern plastic manufacturing techniques in the 1960s, particularly focusing on the evolution of the polyethylene portapotty. It also shares a personal story from Kroer, whose grandfather was an early pioneer in portable sanitation. He founded a small portable sanitation company in rural West Virginia in the mid-1960s. Kroer’s parents later took over the company, marking the beginning of the second generation's involvement in the business.
• 05:00 - 05:30: Diverse Deployment of Portable Toilets The chapter discusses the personal experiences of someone who grew up in a family involved in the portable toilets business. This individual's father would occasionally pick them up from school in a pump truck, creating memorable and unique childhood recollections. Furthermore, the chapter touches on the responsibilities of the head of the PSAI, who oversees a fragmented industry consisting of over 3,600 businesses.
• 05:30 - 06:00: Profit and Pricing Structure This chapter discusses the competitive landscape of the portable toilet industry in the United States. It highlights the regional family-owned businesses alongside national enterprises such as United Site Services, a private equity-backed company valued at over $4 billion, illustrating the significant economic scale and presence within the American market.
• 06:00 - 06:30: Typical Porta-Potty Features Portable sanitation is prevalent in various events and sectors such as music festivals, marathons like the Boston Marathon, and construction sites. Large agriculture sectors also rely heavily on portable sanitation solutions. Additionally, they play a crucial role in natural disaster relief efforts, with operators often being the first responders called upon by FEMA to set up necessary sanitation facilities.
• 06:30 - 07:00: Color and Branding Strategies The chapter explores the investment and business opportunities found in the portable toilet industry, highlighting the significant profit margins that many operators enjoy. A single portable toilet unit, which can be purchased for between $500 and $5,000, may be rented repeatedly, creating a steady income stream. Industry survey findings reveal that nearly half of portable toilet operators achieve profit margins exceeding 20%. The chapter suggests that renting a unit for a week can generate notable revenue, making it a potentially lucrative business venture.
• 07:00 - 07:30: Marketing Strategies and Challenges The chapter titled 'Marketing Strategies and Challenges' discusses the range of rental prices for luxury portable units, highlighting factors such as transportation distance and usage frequency that influence pricing. Additionally, it touches upon the availability of high-end features like porcelain sinks, chandeliers, and sound systems in luxury models. Despite the variety, most companies offer similar products, indicating a competitive marketplace where differentiation through unique offerings may be a challenge.
• 07:30 - 08:00: Securing Contracts and Work Distribution The chapter titled 'Securing Contracts and Work Distribution' provides a description of everyday portable toilets, which are typically made of plastic with four walls and often a white roof to keep the interior cool. The interior usually features a regular toilet seat opening into the tank. Additionally, the chapter notes that many portable toilets share similar color schemes, including grays, forest greens, and tans.
• 08:00 - 08:30: Prestigious Event Contracts The chapter 'Prestigious Event Contracts' discusses the importance of color and branding in the selection of portable toilets for different events. It highlights how subdued colors are appreciated in suburban construction projects, where drawing attention is not desired. In contrast, for festivals, concerts, and races, vibrant and fun colors such as hot pink, neon, orange, and purple are preferable as they align with the festive atmosphere. An example provided is Denver-based Throne Depot, which uses bright colors to make their units stand out.
• 08:30 - 09:00: Olympics Experience The chapter "Olympics Experience" features an inside look into the quirky world of the portable sanitation industry. The narrative highlights companies with playful names like 'Royal Flush,' 'Callahead,' 'Doodie Calls,' and 'Honey Bucket,' illustrating the unique character and creativity that define this essential yet often overlooked field. The segment includes insights from Ron Inman, an executive at Honey Bucket, who underscores the idea that success in this industry requires a blend of exceptional skills and a distinct personality, emphasizing the peculiar, yet fascinating nature of those committed to enhancing sanitation services.
• 09:00 - 09:30: Importance of Maintenance Being different helps in a crowded market, but attracting construction companies and local governments requires more than just a good name. Flexibility is key. Before construction begins, developers must submit permit applications to local authorities. For companies like Honey Bucket, these filings are potential leads. The company employs a fleet of people dedicated to contacting these leads and securing business.
• 10:00 - 10:30: Challenges in Demand Forecasting The chapter discusses the complexities of demand forecasting for portable toilet businesses like Honey Bucket. It highlights that around 60% of their business is from the construction industry, involving home builders, commercial contractors, and civil engineers whose workers require portable toilets. An additional 15% of their business comes from event coordination. Each jurisdiction presents unique challenges due to varying regulations and requirements, necessitating strong relationships with customers and authorities to secure jobs.
• 10:30 - 11:00: Crisis Management Crisis Management
• 11:30 - 12:00: Service and Cleaning Process The chapter titled 'Service and Cleaning Process' discusses the significant opportunity for portable toilet companies to gain a large payday through major events, like the Winter Olympics. The narrative centers around Honey Bucket, a company that collaborated with others in 2000 to bid for the Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City. The endeavor required managing 2600 toilets and a $3 million budget. The text highlights innovative problem-solving, such as servicing portable toilets located high on slopes, which were inaccessible by trucks, necessitating creative logistical solutions.
• 12:00 - 12:30: Dealing with Waste and Strange Findings The chapter describes the logistical and practical challenges of dealing with waste in remote and difficult environments. It highlights the innovative solution of using snow cats to service portable toilets located at high altitudes (9500 ft) where conventional vehicles couldn't reach. The team was responsible for managing waste services over a large and scattered area, covering 100 miles north to south and 50 miles east to west across 13 or 14 different venues. Despite the unprecedented nature of the situation, as nobody had encountered or dealt with such a scenario before, the team successfully accomplished their task. This showcases their adaptability and problem-solving skills in managing sanitation under unique and extreme conditions.
• 12:30 - 13:30: Changing Industry Perception The chapter titled 'Changing Industry Perception' discusses the challenges and operations involved in the portable toilet industry. The initial task of setting up portable toilets at various locations such as events or construction sites is relatively straightforward. However, the significant and ongoing challenge lies in maintaining cleanliness and hygiene standards. The chapter further explains how companies determine the number of portable toilets needed for different events, following specific formulas to ensure adequacy and convenience.
• 15:00 - 16:00: Episode Closing and Production Credits The chapter discusses the logistics of determining the necessary number of toilets for events based on crowd size and event duration. It references a trade association chart that estimates toilet needs, accounting for factors like gender split and event length. For example, a 2-hour event for 500 people requires four toilets, while a 4-hour event with 60,000 people needs about 311 toilets. The calculations become more complex as other event dynamics are considered.

78. Porta-Potties | The Economics of Everyday Things Transcription

• 00:00 - 00:30 there's a moment when you're three beers and 2 hours deep into an outdoor concert and suddenly you realize you need to find a bathroom as you're hustling toward that blue Porta poot in the distance you probably aren't thinking much about how it got there but behind every toilet there's a guy or a gal with a dream I don't know anybody that when they're kid they grow up thinking I'm going to be in the business when I grow
• 00:30 - 01:00 up that's Ron Inman he's the vice president of Honey Bucket a portable toilet company with operations in seven states it's not a fireman it's not a doctor but when you roll up your sleeves and get into the business and do it right it's complex honey bucket is one of thousands of companies in the US that rents out portable toilets operators deploy fleets of them to construction sites music festivals marathons and natural
• 01:00 - 01:30 disasters they haul them up mountain tops for the Winter Olympics and lower them into gold mines 2,000 ft below the Earth's surface it can get complicated you have to get it there and then clean it every week perfectly top to bottom there's trucks there's people there's supplies there's Parts there's computer schedules there's traffic there's just so many things every day have to be done well and done right there is a science behind everything from the number of
• 01:30 - 02:00 toilets on each work site to the scent of the blue liquid inside the tank and the job doesn't come with much [Music] Glory the folks who are using a portable toilet don't always understand the expenses that go behind it or the value of the service and the product being offered it's not the sexiest industry to think about
• 02:00 - 02:30 for the fre economics radio network this is the economics of everyday things I'm Zachary crackett today porta potties people who work in the portapotty business know that their product is an unglamorous polyurethane box that its users dread you got to have a little bit of humor to be in this industry because you're going to get hit with some jokes and you got to be able to take those and hold your head high and keep doing what you're doing that's Veronica kocher she's the executive
• 02:30 - 03:00 director of the portable sanitation Association International or psai it's the industries trade group and that's portable toilet Association by the way not portapotty kocher prefers the more dignified term we were founded in the early 1970s because there needed to be a place for operators to come together to have a United voice and improve the public perception of our industry are people surprised to learn that there's an association for portable toilets I
• 03:00 - 03:30 definitely receive a pause when acquaintances ask what it is that I do maybe an eyebrow raise portable toilets first became a significant part of the American landscape during World War II when they began popping up at shipyards and on Military airships soldiers on Long flights tried to avoid them because they were often made out of plywood and difficult to clean it wasn't until after the
• 03:30 - 04:00 development of modern plastic manufacturing techniques in the 1960s that the polyethylene portapotty we know today started to come into Vogue kroer feels a personal connection to that history her grandfather was an early toilet man he started a small portable Sanitation Company in rural West Virginia in the mid 1960s he very proudly ran that company for his whole life and shortly after I was born my parents bought that company and started the second generation of
• 04:00 - 04:30 that business portable toilets were a huge part of her childhood you can imagine being a middle schooler and your kids teachers asking what does your family do what do your parents do occasionally my dad would come driving in in one of the big pump trucks right behind the school buses to pick me up after school and those will be memories that I cherish forever as the head of the psai kocher represents a fragmented industry of more than 3600
• 04:30 - 05:00 companies worldwide many of those in the US like the one started by kocher's grandfather are Regional and have been in the family for decades but there are a few National businesses too like the private equity-backed United Site Services which has 140 locations and is reportedly valued at more than $4 billion all of these companies toilets are a part of the American landscape if you start looking for it
• 05:00 - 05:30 you will see portable sanitation everywhere so your music festivals the Boston Marathon your big races construction and beyond that there's large agriculture sectors a lot of the folks working in fields and agriculture natural disaster relief is a huge part of portable sanitation we have operators that are the first ones that FEMA calls and they know exactly how to go in and be part of that first responder group to set up sanitation for those
• 05:30 - 06:00 workers filling all of this demand can be lucrative upfront a portable toilet costs between $500 and ,000 once owned it can be rented out for years and if you've got a fleet of them they can be a steady Money Maker almost half of all portable toilet operators have profit margins above 20% according to one industry survey I would say a typical single unit getting rented for a week or so might start anywhere from
• 06:00 - 06:30 $95 to 225 in that range and that depends on how far the unit has to be transported to be delivered how much use you anticipate that unit getting though there are luxury models on the market that have porcelain sinks chandeliers and even sound systems most companies are renting out a new nearly identical product so your typical
• 06:30 - 07:00 everyday porta potty is usually going to be made of plastic four walls sort of a single stall cabin they often have a white roof on top and that all goes back to you know keeping it cool in there once you get inside often times you'll see just a regular portable toilet seat that will just be open into the tank the majority of portable toilets also come in similar color schemes there's a lot of common colors Grays Forest Greens the Tans and those
• 07:00 - 07:30 are all good because they go with a lot of different branding if you have a lot of construction projects in suburbs for example they don't want a portable toilet to be the center of attention so they're going to appreciate your subdued colors but at the same time if you're doing festivals if you're doing concerts races maybe you want something fun and splashy and you want that hot pink unit some companies like denver-based Throne Depot use bright colors like neon or orange and purple that stand out others
• 07:30 - 08:00 attract attention with cute names a royal flush callahead duty calls that's d o o d i e and honey bucket the portable sanitation industry is put together by real characters to be good at what we do and want to do what we do you're just a little bit unique and different again that's Ron Inman an executive with honey bucket he says
• 08:00 - 08:30 being different is a good way to stand out in a crowded Market but to persuade construction companies and local governments to give you their business you need more than a clever name you have to be nimble before a new construction project can get underway developers have to submit a permit application to the local government for Honey Bucket those filings are leads we have a whole Fleet of people that their job is to go out and make contact and
• 08:30 - 09:00 build relationships with the customers they're chasing building permits to try to make sure that they get the business every County every state every jurisdiction has some twist around 60% of Honey bucket's business comes from the construction industry home builders commercial contractors and civil engineers whose building Crews need portable toilets another 15% of their work comes from events in the portable toilet World there are a few highly
• 09:00 - 09:30 coveted events contracts The industry's Heavy Hitters provide toilets for major races like the New York City marathon a company called a royal flush has been their portapotty vendor for years or there's the contract for a major multi-day Festival like burning man in Nevada that's a United sight Services client and then there's the Holy Grail the Olympics a US Olympic Games might be the
• 09:30 - 10:00 single largest payday a portable toilet company can get they're also a great way to attract publicity in 2000 a couple years before Salt Lake city hosted the Winter Olympics honey bucket banded together with a few other companies to put in a bid for the job it involved 2600 toilets a $3 million budget and a lot of problem solving we had portable toilets several hundred feet up a slope that you couldn't get a truck to we had to figure out how to basically build
• 10:00 - 10:30 Plumbing up to there to run the trucks from down below to make it work we had portable toilets at 9500 ft where only a snow cat could go and we figured out how to service them off of a snow cat we were spread out all over 100 miles north and south and 50 Mi east and west and 13 or 14 different venues nobody ever seen it or heard of it before but we got it done whether a portable toilet is located on an urban construction site or
• 10:30 - 11:00 at the top of a mountain getting it there is only a small part of the job the real work is in keeping it clean that's coming up once the portable toilet company lands a contract the real work begins first they have to decide how many toilets to send to an event or construction site for events there's a formul a typical portable toilet can
• 11:00 - 11:30 accommodate about 50 people every hour the trade Association puts out a chart that estimates the number of toilets needed based on the crowd size and the length of the event if you assume an even gender split a 2hour event with a crowd of 500 people only needs four toilets on site a 4-Hour event with 60,000 attendees needs about 311 toilets the calculations get a little more complic ated when an event involves
• 11:30 - 12:00 copious amounts of alcohol in that case an operator like Ron Inman has to call in the reserves if you have a 3-day Festival that's built around micro breweries and there's nothing but beer beer beer beer everywhere you're going to need a lot more portable sanitation none of this is perfect math and the reality is sometimes Port-A-Potty businesses get it wrong picture a portable toilet between those four plastic walls is a
• 12:00 - 12:30 tank that stores all of your waste there's only so much space in there so if a portable toilet company miscalculates there's too much strain on too few [Music] toilets at some point they won't hold another drop and you never want them to get anywhere near that there was a music concert in a open field area in Oregon and a lot more people decided to go to
• 12:30 - 13:00 this thing than they planned and let's just say everything was at the top almost running over before we could get there and help them with the situation just not pretty this is the kind of Crisis that Inman sees more often than he would like demand outstrips Supply and toilets overflow when this happens it's all hands on deck back at the office he Fields frantic calls from the event organizers or from
• 13:00 - 13:30 team members on site then Inman dispatches a truck to load up extra portable toilets and rush them over before true catastrophe strikes it wouldn't be a stretch to say we loaded up and showed up with 60 more portable toilets in a 2-hour window that definitely could have and did happen at least once or twice the most critical part of the portable toilet business is the service side most big companies like
• 13:30 - 14:00 honey bucket offer cleaning and waste collection as a part of their rental service and they employ full-time cleaning crews called service technicians to handle the job so the truck driver pulls up he's got his vacuum pump turned on it's a flexible hose and 2 in around hook to the truck with Valves and then on the end of it it's got a we call it a wand so you open the valve and it's kind of a cool powerful feeling that all of a sudden
• 14:00 - 14:30 everything that's in the tank starts sucking up the hose and going away there's a technique you got to stir and vacuum and stir and vacuum all at the same time next in goes that blue liquid that you often see in a freshly clean toilet it's a special chemical formulation of detergents fragrances and dye people in the industry just call it blue the blue additive has fragrance in it and we use something
• 14:30 - 15:00 called sit fresh or cinnamon or a lemon we rotate it every several months on purpose because there's something in the industry called fragrance fatigue so you change it up for him once in a while Veronica cocher of the portable sanitation Association International says there's no shortage of exciting fragrances for operators to choose from there's all kinds from P colada to Fresh
• 15:00 - 15:30 Air Pine cinnamon is a popular one bubblegum if you could imagine it as a car air freshener there's a decent chance it exists as a fragrance for a portable toilet as well P colada I don't think I've had the pleasure of experiencing that one yet oh I hope you do it's delightful regardless of the chosen scent once the blue is in the tank water is dumped in everything's wiped down supplies are restocked and the technician drives off into the
• 15:30 - 16:00 sunset that would be done within 6 minutes he moves on to the next portable toilet how often a porta potty gets cleaned can vary there's no federal standard PSI recommends that toilets be cleaned once a week and most operators follow that guidance but more expedient cleanings are required when unplanned events happen like when a toilet gets tipped over either by accident or purposefully sometimes it's wind
• 16:00 - 16:30 sometimes a piece of equipment backs into it sometimes it's vandalism probably more often than anything it's kids having fun but it happens more than you want so where exactly does all this waste end up those trucks usually take it to a local sewer system or wastewater treatment plant in recent years though portable toilet companies have been experimenting with a new cleaning method that skips the trucks altogether the new toilets pump waste directly into holding
• 16:30 - 17:00 tanks up to 200 M away some companies like the manufacturer Satellite Industries sell Banks of portable toilets these can process the waste as it comes in to limit the risk of a single toilet overflowing a vacuum pump system lets users flush the toilets as if they were using a more permanent bathroom these systems are especially popular at major events like Live Nation concerts for bigger events waste from portable
• 17:00 - 17:30 toilets can be considerable the Winter Olympics which honey bucket worked on generated 1.7 million gallons of portable toilet waste and inm says it was a battle to get Salt Lake City sewer authorities to accept all of that discharge and so it became a kind of a state driven political thing to encourage them to figure out how to work with us that's just the process for handling human waste but much stranger
• 17:30 - 18:00 things than poop ends up at the bottom of portable toilets cocher says there's an annual contest in the industry for the weirdest objects found at the bottom of a portable toilet and the results usually cause a splash I think the most recent year's winner was a collection of sex toys and I will leave it at that let your imagination do the rest like a whole collection those was more than one there was more than
• 18:00 - 18:30 one so you know who knows how they get there do you get a lot of cell phones it does happen I actually heard anecdotally from a friend who works in her own portal Sanitation Company she was at an event with her sister and you know I'm sure a lot of us have been there you go to pull down the jeans and you know you feel that phone slip and well she didn't quite grab it in time but she was not about to sacrifice her new iPhone and
• 18:30 - 19:00 she rolled up her sleeve and went in for the most part portable toilets are sort of like Las Vegas the stuff that happens in there stays there and when you consider our Collective secrecy around bodily functions it's not surprising that portable toilet operators struggle to talk about their jobs in polite company when Ron Inman first started in the portable toilet business he kept quiet about it we go to a bar we don't talk about work we talk
• 19:00 - 19:30 about something else cuz you don't lead with that but after four decades in the industry Inman has stopped feeling self-conscious these days when he's out at the bar on a Friday night I lead with it I'm out loud and [Music] proud for the economics of everyday things I'm Zachary crackett this episode was produced by Michael
• 19:30 - 20:00 Waters and Sarah liby and mixed by Jeremy Johnston we had help from Daniel morit rapson and thanks to listeners Patrick Fiorini Evan Wilson sha o Farrell Ian Ingram and Tanner licky all of whom suggested this topic lot of toilet fans out there I guess if you have an idea for an episode feel free to email us at everyday things atre economics.com our inbox is always open all right until next [Music]
• 20:00 - 20:30 week have you gotten used to the smell of portable toilets I have you know it's not what I want my home to be smelling like but hopefully folks say oh smells like P colada in here the Freakonomics radio network the Hidden Side of Everything Stitcher