Truck of the Month: GreenTeam Plumbing, Fort Lauderdale, Fla.

Maximizing productivity at GreenTeam Plumbing.

Photo credit: GreenTeam Plumbing

Of the seven trucks Fort Lauderdale, Fla.-based GreenTeam Plumbing founder and President James Terry has on the road, his Ford LCF Diesel service truck stands out from the crowd.

“I would like to have 10 more like it,” he says. “They are hard to find. I like the truck because the wheelbase is short. It’s not a box truck, but it’s a big truck that turns on a dime.”

Outside panel access and ample storage space are two key features that come in handy for Terry’s techs.

“The way they make the body is really convenient,” he says. “If you are on a commercial job or at a water main break you can access materials from the outside so you don’t have to go inside every time to get something. It’s also high enough and wide enough to fit pallets inside. We just used the truck on a 200-toilet project in a housing community. I can stack four pallets inside and still have room for tools.”

While maximizing effectiveness inside his trucks is important, Terry also has set out to make sure the proper message is being delivered on the outside of his vehicles. Fort Lauderdale-based Sign Studio applied the company’s green-focused logo to the fleet.

“I like to keep it simple and clean,” the 28-year-old says. “A lot of companies put the services they provide on their trucks. We’d have to put a book on the outside with all the services we perform. We do everything. The logo is clean looking and isn’t crazy. I have a vision of growing into a big company. You look at companies such as AT&T and Comcast and they all have simple logos.”

The GreenTeam name serves two purposes for Terry. “I didn’t want to make it James Terry Plumbing,” he says. “I wanted a catchy name that deals with green, which, in my opinion, is going to be the future of plumbing.”

Click to enlarge

Photo credit: GreenTeam Plumbing

Terry’s company mainly focuses on plumbing work in hospitals, schools, large condo associations and commercial office buildings. In addition to doing work on the new Florida Marlins baseball stadium, it recently was awarded a plumbing contract for Miami-Dade County Public Schools and worked with the city of Tamarac, Fla., on a green toilet initiative.

“We’ve installed almost 500 high-efficiency toilets in Tamarac,” says Terry, who thanked Dania Beach, Fla.-based mechanical contractor Kerney and Associates President Patrick Kerney for helping him start his business. “The city is offering $100 rebates for installing the toilets. We’ve done eight or nine buildings in the last two months.”

Terry’s strong belief in sustainability stretches into the company’s internal operations. All service techs have iPhones to access electronic files, thus little to no physical paperwork is generated in the field.

“A tech can open up his phone and see where he has to go and then pull up all the information on that project,” he says. “We wanted to go green all the way.”

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Mike Miazga (former group editorial director for BNP Media’s Plumbing Group) is now the vice president of sales/membership at the American Supply Association (ASA). Supply House Times is proud to be the official publication and brand of the ASA — a relationship that spans more than a decade.

Mike’s relationship with BNP Media and the Plumbing Group continues today. He now writes a monthly ASA-focused column for Supply House Times and acts as an editorial consultant to BNP Media’s Plumbing Group.

In his 10-plus years at BNP Media, Miazga was senior editor of Plumbing & Mechanical and PM Engineer before taking over chief editor duties at Supply House Times in 2011. In addition to his role as editorial director, Miazga continued as Supply House Times chief editor and the editor of the American Supply Association’s PVF Outlook eNewsletter. He also enjoyed three stints as PM Engineer’s chief editor, holding dual roles as Supply House Times and PM Engineer chief editor on two occasions.

Miazga started his career in newspapers at the age of 19 and has more than 25 years of newsroom, management, editorial and public/media relations experience, and is a former high-school baseball and golf head varsity coach. Mike and his family are still based out of the Chicago area (with ASA Headquarters in Itasca, Illinois). You can reach Mike at PlumbingGroup89@gmail.com.