Today we’d like to introduce you to Juan Herrera.
Juan, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
My name is Juan Herrera I was born in Los Angeles California.
My mom is from El Salvador & my father is from Jalisco, Mexico.
In 2006 I moved to Salt Lake City from California while working for a large transportation carrier. After our son was born in 2007, we wanted to supplement our income by providing moving services in the valley. Also in early 2007-2008 we began shuttling tourists from the SLC airport to Sundance before Uber even existed.
In 2008 while helping a co-worker move in town, a nearby neighbor came out and asked us if we were able to haul a bunch of empty cartons and items that she had accumulated in her garage since she seen my trailer on the street with debris & full of empty boxes and she said that she would pay us a small fee. So we loaded her junk on our trailer and the rest is history.
After unloading the trailer, I noticed how easy it was and I started advertising on Craigslist daily and before you know it, I was getting 3 calls a day average for dirt yard waste removal, broken or unwanted furniture, couches, mattresses whatever it was we took it and disposed of it properly.
In a short period, I started to save the money and bought a few dump trailers. Made unloading items easier and efficiently.
We were caught off guard when we were getting more calls that we could handle.
Me and my wife Maria would work late evenings, Saturday and Sunday all day accommodating whatever jobs we had lined up it was non-stop but we enjoyed it.
In early 2009 the recession had started and fearing for my full time employment, I started to advertise more in order to sustain my family and I was afraid that we may lose our home.
I was shortly contacted by a contractor that worked with Penske Rental. Penske Rental rents numerous size moving trucks throughout the United States. The moving company was based out of Texas but needed someone in Salt Lake City that could help its customer when a truck would break down. Penske would swiftly arrange a new moving truck delivered but needed manpower to transfer the items from the broken-down truck to the new truck within a 300 miles radius 24/7. We averaged 2 trucks a week and worked on every type of holiday including Christmas. I was never necessarily at each job but my wife Maria would spearhead with an assigned leadman to transport the workforce to help transfer the broke down truck load. Physically it was very stressful on me moving heavy furniture between trucks I did not continue with Penske after 2012 due to back pain.
Doing the recession of 2008, we had many Mortgage companies and Banks that would contact us due to abandoned properties throughout the valley including foreclosures unfortunately. We immediately started subcontracting some of the work because it was so abundant to have so many properties that needed clutter & debris cleaning or bulk items to be removed in order to resell or rent a property as soon as possible. I met many real estate agents that I am friends to this day with and they have been very loyal to the work and understand the quality of service that we provide.
When the pandemic hit in March of 2020, my entire dept was furloughed and unfortunately put me in a position of uncertainty with the pandemic still in its infancy. Over the years with all the money that I have saved doing junk removal , I decided to start a dumpster rental service and went ahead and bought a new 2020 Ford F550 hook lift Truck . We hired a local welder to custom build our mini dumpsters to fit our hooklift truck upfit. To be honest , I did not exactly know what I was doing jumping into the dumpster rental arena , but I knew it was the right thing.
24 hours after our first dumpster was just painted , I had 2 customers already scheduled for delivery.
We now have 20 containers in two sizes
15 Cubic Yard and 5 Cubic Yard.
We don’t plan to expand or to grow into a huge company since we both still have full time jobs that we love.
We love what we do, we like staying as a small operation and giving every customer the quality and service they deserve. I feel that if you grow too fast the quality starts to fade ….yes it gives you more but at the same time it’s not what we envision and it’s not part of our brand.
Sometimes when a customer asks if they can keep it an extra day or if it could be delivered on a Sunday we typically say yes at no extra charge. Most of our customers are repeat customers or referrals. We are currently working on acquiring a second HD truck and more dumpsters up to 20 Cubic Yards . I also built our website to give a customers flexibility to order online 24 hours 7 days a week. We now service from Layton, Pleasant Grove, Eagle Mountain and Grantsville. My older sons do help picking up and delivering containers when I am not available or when I’m traveling for business ..
Juanito’s Haul’n Bins has been a passion from the beginning and we have learned so much while providing a needed service in our communities we live in.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Most challenging thing that I can recall has been acquiring help or assistance with some of the larger jobs. Would ask colleagues at work if they were willing to make extra cash to help out on the weekends or to travel hundreds of miles to help offload a truck and transfer the contents on to another truck the pay was moderate at the time but it was reliable & consistent. Also, the other thing that was very challenging was while working nights for the large transportation carrier I did not get much sleep I was getting sick multiple times and I was very sleep-deprived and made a lot of mistakes and errors.
Great, so let’s talk business. Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
We are a local family-owned business that specialize with many dumpster bins for junk removal decluttering and cleaning we have smaller dumpster containers that are residential friendly and HOA compliant. Juanitos Haul’n Bins prides itself in giving the best service possible to every customer.
What would you say have been one of the most important lessons you’ve learned?
Most important lesson that I’ve learned is to be honest and loyal to what you’re doing and what you say you’re going to do. Never do more than you can handle because eventually you will not be able to handle it and you will become unreliable. I have also learned that when you play the game there’s two types of ending when you play to win it’s over and you want to find a new game to play but when you play just to keep playing to me that’s what matters the most and that is the most important lesson, I would rather handle three customers a day versus 30 and give those three the best service they ever had.
Pricing:
- $149
- $219
- $249
- $299
- $499
Contact Info:
- Website: haulnbins.com
- Instagram: https://instagram.com/haul_n_bins?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=
