FORT PAYNE, Ala. -- Everything slowed down Monday at Heil Environmental's production facility here that the company says is the largest facility producing garbage trucks and refuse collection vehicles.
The pause was in honor of Marv Banowetz, a 13-year company veteran who died of cancer in 2009.
To honor his mechanical genius, his service to customers and his work ethic, Heil renamed the training bay at its Fort Payne facility the Marv J. Banowetz Customer Training Bay, according to Jennifer Bonelli, corporate manager for marketing communications.
"There are stories about Marv setting up cots in the shop on cold winter nights to ensure the driver's trucks were ready to collect trash the following day," Ms. Bonelli said. "It was not unusual for Marv to receive a phone call one weekend afternoon and be on a plane to meet with a customer that same day."
Wayne Grundmeier, an accounts director, said that out of the 500 employees at the Fort Payne plant, customers asked for Mr. Banowetz by name whenever difficult questions arose.
"I equate him to the TV show 'House.' You put him on a project, and he could not let it go until he solved the problem, and he'd work over the weekend trying to isolate problems." Mr. Grundmeier said. "I've never had a customer who didn't talk about how personable or helpful he was."
Mr. Banowetz set the standard for Heil's training schedule during his career, Mr. Grundmeier added, and set an example for how to communicate with different groups of customers.
Plant supervisor Tom Bondy said that it takes 1 1/2 days to build any of the thousands of trash haulers the company produces in a year, so the machines represent a huge investment that requires a dedicated support structure.
"The work force here is one of the major pluses for Heil," Mr. Bondy said.
Heil is pursuing a number of initiatives to keep up with the changing market, Ms. Bonelli added.
At the 2010 Waste Expo in Atlanta today, the company is set to show garbage haulers running on clean natural gas, which will comply with current and future municipal regulations for more environmentally friendly trucks, she said.
The company has been exploring ways of making its vehicles lighter through new construction methods and materials.
"One of the things that's a benefit of making a lighter vehicle is not just the fuel economy, but that the vehicle can haul more, meaning that there are fewer trucks on the city roads, making routes during the day less crowded," she said.