Before there was Republic Services there was BFI

Discussion in 'Waste Removal and Garbage Truck Driver Forum' started by Mike2633, Feb 2, 2020.

  1. HoneyBadger67

    HoneyBadger67 Road Train Member

    2,056
    4,507
    Dec 15, 2018
    Savannah, TN
    0
    LoL
    Yeah... I traveled with carnivals off and on for about 10yrs in my younger life.
     
  2. Truckers Report Jobs

    Trucking Jobs in 30 seconds

    Every month 400 people find a job with the help of TruckersReport.

  3. homeskillet

    homeskillet Road Train Member

    5,024
    33,771
    Jun 1, 2013
    Dayton, OH
    0
    Growing up around metro Boston, BFI were the only trucks and dumpsters I ever saw, besides the cities that had their own Sanitation Dept.

    We used to say BFI stood for "Big F-----g Industry"......
     
    Mike2633 and G13Tomcat Thank this.
  4. bryan21384

    bryan21384 Road Train Member

    12,524
    25,688
    Sep 18, 2009
    Memphis, TN
    0
    Oh yes. I was a child when BFI was the main waste company. I remember seeing BFI first, then Waste Management with the brown trucks came along. We had a recycling spot where I grew up that was owned by BFI initially. They had the waste business on lock down. I am only 35, I'm too young to say that's a throwback hahaha
     
    Mike2633 and G13Tomcat Thank this.
  5. Mike2633

    Mike2633 Road Train Member

    6,461
    25,877
    Jun 14, 2013
    At Home on The West Side
    0
  6. Mike2633

    Mike2633 Road Train Member

    6,461
    25,877
    Jun 14, 2013
    At Home on The West Side
    0
  7. Mike2633

    Mike2633 Road Train Member

    6,461
    25,877
    Jun 14, 2013
    At Home on The West Side
    0
    When I was a kid, anyone who was anyone used BFI.
    If you didn't use BFI you weren't using a real trash company. The Brown Waste Management was around, but they were second fiddle. BFI dumpsters were everywhere.

    BFI also had the recycle program and had two big hauling contracts Parma, Ohio and North Olmstead, Ohio which Parma is the biggest suburb of Cleveland, Ohio. BFI in 1998 had 7 million residential customers, I don't know the brown waste managements numbers, but it couldn't have been much more then that.

    I know on I-480 near the City of North Olmstead, BFI's Lorain County terminal was down the highway to the west in Elyria. If you watched I-480 in the 1990s it was a non-stop parade of BFI rear and front loaders and the occasional roll off truck you could count them and it was crazy just one right after the other. They were certainly more well know back in their hey day.
     
    Last edited: Feb 3, 2020
  8. Mike2633

    Mike2633 Road Train Member

    6,461
    25,877
    Jun 14, 2013
    At Home on The West Side
    0
  9. Mike2633

    Mike2633 Road Train Member

    6,461
    25,877
    Jun 14, 2013
    At Home on The West Side
    0
  10. Mike2633

    Mike2633 Road Train Member

    6,461
    25,877
    Jun 14, 2013
    At Home on The West Side
    0
    [​IMG]
    So anyhow BFI grew throughout the 1970s and 1980s and reached the companies peak in the 1990s.
    [​IMG]
    [​IMG]

    This is a classic video in my area not so much, but during BFI's hay day most of my area besides a handful of towns, most of the cities in my area were still city run refuse departments, today it's about 50/50 in Cuyahoga County half the cities do it them selves and half of them don't. We have Republic now where I live, truth be told I don't think they do a very good job, but it's bigger then me and I live in a town where out of 16,000 person population only 1700 people show up to vote for Mayor and City Council so we get what we get the government and utilities we deserve I guess. From what I'm told though the city department when it did exist was actually a lot more careful and did a better job, but that's all water over the bridge now, although automated collection has some weak points to it. The city did all the routes manually and Republic does them all with an automated truck, which a couple months ago Republic dropped my trash can and cracked the lid on it, but whatever it's not worth me calling over they Republic are not going to do anything, but be rude to me on the phone anyhow.

    Anyhow here is a video of some vintage BFI action little Dempster Route Chief out in California in 1992! My how vintage! This video could be at an antique shop lol!



    BFI had a lot of equipment and stuff in my area the BFI terminal on Jones Road in Cleveland ran a bunch of shot Ford L8000 and around the middle 1990s BFI was buying out a lot of companies they bought out Karas which was a big time family owned hauler there building is a bus company now, right on Brookpark Road in Cleveland near the Ford Plant I'm sure some of you have been to the Ford Plant in Brookpark, Ohio. Anyhow circa 2003 you could tell BFI's balance sheet was getting bad, because you would see a bunch of 1990s era Ford L8000 rear loaders that were just shot looking rusty falling apart they weren't pretty shot.

    In 1999 Allied Waste from Arizona which was 1/3rd the size of BFI bought out BFI it was a tale wagging the dog situation.

    In the 1970s and 1980s BFI grew and grew and grew they were the first company to really really start buying up other companies. Waste Management the Brown Waste Management also started buying up companies.

    Republic Services who we have now, they were around but they were always 3rd fiddle to BFI and Waste Management and were more commercial and roll off dumpster stuff especially in my area.

    Anyhow, the green waste management that we have today:
    [​IMG]
    This Waste Management didn't exist until 1998 when the company merged with another fairly large waste company called USA Waste who's colors were green and yellow and that's where the green and yellow Waste Management comes to prior to 1998 was the brown Waste Management trucks.

    Anyhow, BFI in the 1990s when they were really big around here became to big and bloated. Management wanted to run every thing from a big heavy one size fits all top down heavy handed management style and instead of picking up the garbage, they focused on "internal growth" which is fancy talk for all the non-core business related stuff, they got into medical waste, landfills, recycling which has become a huge loss for everyone right now. Heavy management and basically there heavy management and all there pet projects had a negative effect on the company and in 1999 small time Allied Waste was able to secure the funds and bought out a lot of BFI's stock and closed up the shop in Houston, Texas.

    Allied still operated under the BFI name until about 2007. Then in 2008 Allied was goobled up by Republic Services which was smaller then Allied, but the whole thing is really a series of smaller companies buying out bigger companies.
    [​IMG]

    It's funny it's been around about way to do it, but the more things change the more they stay the same. Waste Management is still number one as they always were however I don't feel they are as well known as Republic and BFI. And BFI now Republic is still second place they just went around the mulberry bush to get there. So if any of you didn't know where they all came from now you know.
     
    bzinger Thanks this.
  11. Mike2633

    Mike2633 Road Train Member

    6,461
    25,877
    Jun 14, 2013
    At Home on The West Side
    0
    We went to Maine drove there in 1997 for vacation and all I saw were BFI dumpsters ahh maybe the occasional Brown Waste Management dumpster, but I don't recall those as much as the BFI dumpsters everywhere. The brown Waste Management was certainly not as well known. They were big, but I don't feel they were as well known as the blue and white BFI trucks.
     
    homeskillet Thanks this.
  • Truckers Report Jobs

    Trucking Jobs in 30 seconds

    Every month 400 people find a job with the help of TruckersReport.