1. Doing Our
Dirty Work
How one bin-cleaning
franchise is helping
to clean-up Britain
SD Revopak Saved
INSIDE…
Something Old
Something New
Something Blue
(MVO doesn’t do
borrowed… it’s
all exclusive!)
Zero Emissions Avant
Blue Group’s Robots
Issue 34
May 2016
MunicipalVehicleOperatorandPlantReview

2. May 2016 Municipal Vehicle Operator and Plant Review
Right Up
Your Street?
Seen those little black and yellow bin washing trailers? Ever wondered who is
behind the operation? So did Malcolm Bates, and as he discovers when he gets to
Wymondham in Norfolk, it’s businessman Mark Harvey. The key to his success? In
a word, “franchising.” So, the question is, could the idea work more widely?
From meeting a local need, Mark Harvey
(right) has grown VIP into a global
franchise business. Seen with network
support manager Daniel Brown (left), is
Lee Croydon (centre), who operates the
company-owned business in Suffolk.
6
SPECIAL FEATURE

3. Municipal Vehicle Operator and Plant Review May 2016
I
n an ideal world, everyone
would get their bin emptied as
regularly as they would like by
a polite, well-paid operative,
trained to use the latest equipment,
maintained by a well-equipped
workshop, employing local people.
From a management perspective,
the most important issues should be
the efficiency of the service.
That’s not“efficiency”as in clipping
some money off the budget
each year, you understand, but in
providing the highest standards so as
to ensure the health and wellbeing of
our population and the environment.
Surely we can learn from the three
words once emblazoned on the sides
of council bin wagons:“Public Health
Department”?
But we don’t live in an ideal world.
While several purpose-built units
are manufactured – and in service
– elsewhere in Europe, the UK is
not a place where waste bins and
containers get cleaned on a regular
basis. Few local authorities – and
even fewer commercial waste
contractors – here see it as part of
their remit to instigate a bin washing
programme as part of the service.
There’s always DIY of course, but
who has the time (or inclination) for
that? But in case you hadn’t noticed,
there is another option:“VIP”.
You must have seen those black
and yellow trailers towed by light
vans or pick-up trucks? One comes
round my village on a regular basis,
just after the binwagon has called,
naturally enough. But have you ever
wondered who – or what – is behind
the operation? The answer is one
man: Mark Harvey.
No, I don’t mean Mark washes out
every dirty bin in Britain, single-
handedly. What I mean is that he had
the bright idea of turning an obvious
shortfall in the standards of“public
health”in Britain into a business. And
it’s turned out to be an amazingly
successful business, too. So successful
in fact that Mark’s company – VIP Bin
Cleaning Limited – is now expanding
into other European countries, as
well as Africa, Australia, South Africa,
Namibia, Botswana, Canada and,
would you believe it, even California!
But how come?
Expanding Branding
The answer is through franchising.
Wymondham, Norfolk-based VIP
Bin Cleaning provides the support
package, including training and an
operations manual, to enable would-
be self-employed entrepreneurs to
set-up business as a bin washing
contractor in their local areas.
The package itself plus the franchise
territory costs from around £10,000.
How well, or otherwise, such an
operation goes is, of course, then
very much down to how hard the
franchisee works. But as the VIP brand
has been in operation since 1997 and
now has 80 franchisees worldwide,
Mark is confident that he has enough
data and market intelligence to not
only fill-in the remaining territory
gaps in this country, but“export”the
idea to other countries as well.
How do you feel about
“franchising”? I’ll admit to
approaching this story from a
broadly negative stance on the
grounds that (a) franchising is
American in origin, so should be
treated with suspicion and (b)
doubly so as it’s widely reported
that in any franchising operation,
it’s the franchise owner that
usually makes all the cash without
doing the actual work, while the
franchisee works really hard, but
might still make nowt!
But even I have to admit that Mark
Harvey has not only spotted a gap
in the market, he’s put together
a package that seems to work.
And, more to the point, it has the
capability to expand. Into what?
Well, into a whole range of“trade”
bin and container cleaning services,
as well as cleaning fixed processing
machinery and equipment. So far, so
entrepreneurial, then?
But this is where the story
gets rather more interesting
from an operational equipment
viewpoint because, as Mark himself
acknowledges, VIP has recently
expanded into a whole new
area. It’s gone from providing a
quirky, self-designed trailer unit,
manufactured on its behalf, to
being a source of unique washing/
The most common VIP binwash units are built into fully-enclosed trailers
designed in-house and towed by a van or pick-up truck.
The interior is well-planned
with a rear bin-lifter and tank
for recycled water mounted
low in the chassis for stability.
7
SPECIAL FEATURE

4. May 2016 Municipal Vehicle Operator and Plant Review
cleaning equipment that could,
quite possibly, be made available on
a wider contract hire/rental, or even
an outright sale basis.
Emphasis On Manufacturing
In other words, what started out
as a business that arranged for
a self-contained trailer to suit
the needs of a single operative
because, as Mark tells it,“There was
nothing else on the market that
was suitable,”VIP has progressed
into designing a range of products
that rival anything available from
more established equipment
manufacturers.
These include both van and
high-capacity truck-mounted bin
cleaning systems. Over the years,
the original basic design has been
developed to include a hydraulic
lifter for the bins (the originals
were hand-operated) and a water
circulation and filter system to
ensure that a large volume of water
doesn’t need to be carried for a
day’s bin cleaning operations.
And while Mark’s view that a
trailer-mounted unit was both the
cheapest and most versatile way for
a franchisee to start-out in business,
many have since turned to van-
mounted units that are both faster
and more secure… as well as looking
a bit more professional, perhaps?
Which is where Poland comes
into the picture. Quite why the
Poles couldn’t have put together
a system to wash-out waste bins
themselves is not really the issue
here. Clearly, as even Faun has a
manufacturing facility in Poland,
they could have. But VIP has just
set-up a new franchise operation
there using British-built kit, which
at the time of writing seems to be
doing amazingly well.
And what about the VIP franchise
package which has received
government backing in Namibia?
The answer is, it helps create new
employment opportunities where
there were once few.
Back in the UK, things have
progressed to the next level where
more successful“one man band”
franchisees are now looking to
employ operatives to provide
a wider service. The key to this
expansion? The equipment Mark
and his team have developed in
conjunction with specialist cleaning
equipment manufacturer, Hugh
Crane, of Acle near Norwich. We’ll
come to the hardware in a bit, but
first, let’s look at what it has to do…
Out On The Front Line
In an effort to see what was involved
in providing an efficient bin washing
and cleaning service, I met-up
The donkey engine – in this case a 13hp Honda – pump and all
auxiliaries are mounted in a lockable front compartment.
After a good washout,
Lee vacuums up any
remaining water with his
trusty wet/dry“Henry.”
Attention to detail is the key
element of the service, including
a wipe-over and deodorising.
Finally, a sticker on bin
says“Job Done.”
8
SPECIAL FEATURE

5. Municipal Vehicle Operator and Plant Review May 2016
with Lee Croydon, who runs the
company-owend operation, in Bury
St. Edmunds.
Having passed several RCVs on
a sprawling 1960s housing estate,
I soon spotted Lee’s bright yellow
VW van and trailer by the kerb in
Oliver Road. Having already had
an introduction to a VIP trailer
from Mark Harvey, I was keen to
see how the modest-sized unit
worked out in the real world. There
are several factors to consider:
speed of operation, noise levels,
convenience to the operator and,
above all, I wanted to make sure
the bin cleaning operation didn’t
end-up cleaning the bin while
simultaneously leaving a mess all
over the road, or footpath. It didn’t.
Mark says, on average, a franchisee
can do a minimum of 75 to 100
“first clean”domestic bins per
shift, with each customer paying
around £4 per bin – mostly in
advance by card transaction. But
with the latest automated units, a
target of up to 500 bins per shift
is possible. Typically, a franchise
“license”costs from £9,995 to set
up and has a“support package”
costing £95 a week. On top of that,
the one-off cost of the equipment
required starts from around £13,000,
although more sophisticated units
are more than £20,000. Plus the cost
of the actual base vehicle, of course.
The design of a VIP trailer enables
the bins to be lifted into the cleaning
chamber from the rear, while the
operative flushes out the debris
onto a filter table with the donkey
engine pump-driven lance. The
used water passes through three
filters during the recycling process,
but any larger items of material are
normally scooped into a plastic sack
and dropped-off for the RCV crew
to collect during the round. Larger
units feature a powered conveyor to
clear the debris.
Amazingly, the VIP service includes
not only a wash, vac and dry (using
a hard-worked“Henry”), but the
application of a disinfectant/
deodoriser as well. Compared to
using fully automatic truck-based
units like those manufactured by
Faun, Farid and several others, the
whole process does involve more
physical effort and time. But the up-
side for a“cost-conscious”economy
like we have in the UK, is that it
doesn’t involve high initial cost.
Had Mark Harvey suggested his
fledgling franchisees had to spend
over £120,000 on new kit to get
started, I suspect VIP wouldn’t be as
successful as it is today!
Bins are raised into position for cleaning by a manual lifter on trailers, but on van and truck-mounted
units, a hydraulic lifter and power conveyor (not shown) to take debris from wash-down hopper can
be specified… and here’s why that can be useful: a lot of debris remains after bin has been washed.
The actual cleaning operation is undercover, but
operatives work from the kerbside.
9
SPECIAL FEATURE

6. May 2016 Municipal Vehicle Operator and Plant Review
The Hardware
While the design of the VIP trailer
unit is hardly rocket science, issues
such as weight distribution and
sound deadening (the Honda
donkey engine is one of the quieter
units on the market already),have
received attention and no, dirty
water isn’t“dumped”on the highway
when nobody is looking, either.
The move to demountable pick-up
truck“skid”units and those that can
be mounted inside a panel van have
increased versatility, but the need
for larger capacity units suitable for
trucks of up to 7.5 tonnes gross from
Poland, has taken“manufacturing”to
a new level.
As things currently stand, all the
units are manufactured by Hugh
Crane, but are“exclusive”to VIP.
But at the same time, Hugh Crane
also produces an impressive range
of other pumps, jetters and more
highly specialised units to steam
clean chewing gum deposits as well.
VIP’s Mark Harvey and Philip Crane,
managing director of Hugh Crane,
clearly have an excellent working
relationship and although there is no
corporate tie-up, the two companies
co-operate on a number of levels.
As a result, it’s possible Mark could
be persuaded to set-up a franchised
chewing gum removal business using
Hugh Crane designed units, which
have been available for a couple of
years but oddly, have gone unnoticed
by our current UK highway contractor
“service providers”.
But here’s another possibility: with
a wide range of kit now available
and a comprehensive support
package in place, what’s to stop
in-house council departments,
or existing waste and recycling
contractors, adding a VIP franchise
to their portfolios?
“As far as I’m concerned,
there’s no reason why not,”Mark
suggests.“In fact, VIP franchisees
are already working directly on
contract with some councils
cleaning food waste containers.”
So if the whole“franchise model”
works on something as simple
as bin washing, why not extend
the idea to chewing gum deposit
removal? Or street furniture and
bus shelter cleaning? Or even
providing owner-driver franchised
collection vehicles for a nationwide
food waste operation?
True, there is no reason why we
need to sub-contract anything in
this country. It’s entirely“political”.
But as“sub-contracting”or
“outsourcing”now seems to be
widely accepted, including the
widespread creation of government
“agencies”, why not franchising?
Maybe Mark Harvey has been
ahead of the curve all along? Either
way – and however you view
franchising – surely it’s about time
we looked at both domestic and
trade waste bin cleaning more
closely? For public health’s sake. <
www.vipbincleaning.com
Who Is Hugh Crane?
In addition to supplying a
full cross-section of cleaning
tools, materials, supplies and
equipment for manual cleaning
operations, Hugh Crane also
manufacturers a range of
“own brand”high pressure
cleaning equipment including
“Commando”trailer, van and
skid-mounted units. These can
be powered either by electricity,
diesel donkey engine, PTO, or
hydraulic drive with pressures up
to 15,000psi and a flow of up to
fifty gallons a minute.
The Commando range is made
up of six different product lines:
1000, 2000, 3000, 4000, 5000 and
6000 Series.The larger models
feature sound-proof cladding and the
additional“Powerpack”range features
high pressure hot/cold facility for
heavily soiled areas.Vehicle wash
gantries are also manufactured.
The company is also a trade
distributor of washroom and janitorial cleaning products and supplies.
Truvox powered rotary mops and brushes, Kranzle and Mac pressure
washers and Nilfisk, Sebo and Numatic (the manufacturers of“George”
and“Henry”brands) indoor/wet/dry vacuum units and Billy Goat
outdoor vacuum units are also supplied nationally.
Forthelatest188-page(yesreally!)productcatalogue,visit
www.hughcrane.co.ukorcallPhillipCraneon01493750072.
An example of the other
heavy duty cleaning systems
designed and built by Hugh
Crane. This high pressure
hot water unit is built inside
a Mercedes Sprinter van on
forklift-removeable subframe.
Anown-brandHughCraneproduct-atrailer-mountedCommando3000.
ThisarticlehasbeenusedandreproducedwithkindpermissionofCIWMandICIWMEnterprisesLtd.Visitwww.ciwm-journal.co.uk
10
SPECIAL FEATURE