October 4, 2023 • 20 mins
Hugo Garcia
Growing up in the family business, Hugo realized that trash service was more than a family business and set out to learn all aspects of the business. He first started working with his father at the age of 15 learning waste management from the inside out. Hugo took a break to pursue his Bachelor’s Degree in Exercise Science and Physiology while obtaining a minor in Business Administration from George Mason University. While following his aspiration to be an NFL Coach, he was hired to be an Assistant Strength Coach for the Washington Redskins for eight years.
His heart remained with the family business, and he knew he would return to the waste management industry and did so when he founded kmG in 2001. While having two children at the time, the company name kmG was founded. The lower case “k” is in honor of his son Kyle, the lower case “m” is in honor of his daughter Miranda, and of course the capital “G” for the family last name Garcia. The boxes you see on the company logo were colored for each of the children’s favorite color Teal and Pink.
Knowing that image was everything in the trash industry, the concept of kmG was to develop a more strategic and environmentally effective method when dealing with all refuse matters. Hugo’s primary focus has been to ensure kmG remains innovative and seen as an industry leader that places emphasis on customer service and the idea to bring a whole new concept and ideology to the trash industry. This commitment to being innovative was prominent as Hugo secured our partnership as an exclusive supplier for PIIAN Odor Neutralizing system.
The only way to do this was to experience each and every facet of the business from the ground up and to take a hands-on approach with each department of the company. Hugo transitioned into learning the outside operations by becoming a skilled CDL driver. It was not long before he had his own route and provided personal service to over 100 customers. His first customers were Cactus Cantina and Lauriol Plaza, who remain customers today.
Whether providing education and awareness to schools and community outreach on the importance of recycling during Green Day or bringing awareness and support for several Cancer diseases by designing trucks that serve as billboards on the road, Hugo continues to drive creativity in the trash business. His strategic direction expands our portfolio and ensures kmG remains a nationally recognized waste management company.
Growing up in the family business, Hugo realized that trash service was more than a family business and set out to learn all aspects of the business. He first started working with his father at the age of 15 learning waste management from the inside out. Hugo took a break to pursue his Bachelor’s Degree in Exercise Science and Physiology while obtaining a minor in Business Administration from George Mason University. While following his aspiration to be an NFL Coach, he was hired to be an Assistant Strength Coach for the Washington Redskins for eight years.
His heart remained with the family business, and he knew he would return to the waste management industry and did so when he founded kmG in 2001. While having two children at the time, the company name kmG was founded. The lower case “k” is in honor of his son Kyle, the lower case “m” is in honor of his daughter Miranda, and of course the capital “G” for the family last name Garcia. The boxes you see on the company logo were colored for each of the children’s favorite color Teal and Pink.
Knowing that image was everything in the trash industry, the concept of kmG was to develop a more strategic and environmentally effective method when dealing with all refuse matters. Hugo’s primary focus has been to ensure kmG remains innovative and seen as an industry leader that places emphasis on customer service and the idea to bring a whole new concept and ideology to the trash industry. This commitment to being innovative was prominent as Hugo secured our partnership as an exclusive supplier for PIIAN Odor Neutralizing system.
The only way to do this was to experience each and every facet of the business from the ground up and to take a hands-on approach with each department of the company. Hugo transitioned into learning the outside operations by becoming a skilled CDL driver. It was not long before he had his own route and provided personal service to over 100 customers. His first customers were Cactus Cantina and Lauriol Plaza, who remain customers today.
Whether providing education and awareness to schools and community outreach on the importance of recycling during Green Day or bringing awareness and support for several Cancer diseases by designing trucks that serve as billboards on the road, Hugo continues to drive creativity in the trash business. His strategic direction expands our portfolio and ensures kmG remains a nationally recognized waste management company.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
M and T Bank presents CEOs youshould know powered by Iheartgasia in celebration of
Hispanic Heritage month, Let's mean HugoGarcia. He is the founder, president,
and owner of k MG Halling basedin the DMV. It's one of
the premier providers of reoccurring waste pickupfor small, medium and large businesses with
home recycling and trash pickup. Beforewe talk more about Hugo's company, I
(00:23):
first asked him to talk a littlebit about himself, where he's from and
his origin story. Born and raisedhere in Virginia. I went to Oakton
High School in Vienna, Oakton Cougarand right after that and graduating, I
did. I had my bachelor's degreeat George Mason University Bacheler's and Exercise Science
and Physiology, which we could touchup as to where why I chose that
(00:47):
that avenue. But I also minoredin business administration, all right, so
we also have something in common.I love talking to lifers while I'm not
a lifer, and this is myfourth time living in the DMV and hopefully
my last. I'm an old falsechurch kid and our teams played against each
other when I went to Jeb Stewartback in the late seventies early eighties when
we played against Oakton. So Iknow your school very very well. That's
(01:10):
great, that's great. Our exour coach, our head coach went to
Falls Church. Very cool. Thatwas interesting. Yep. Well, listen,
a lot to talk about when itcomes to KMG hauling that we're going
to chat about. But you havekind of an industry and resume and career
before the company got under way fortwenty three years now, which is an
extraordinary story in itself that we're goingto talk about. But you and I
(01:32):
have also similarities in our backgrounds withsports. You know, one of our
radio stations here at IHARDC, Bigone hundred is the flagship for the Washington
Commanders. And you have a historyof the football team, don't you.
I do. Actually, I actuallyworked coming out of college. I did
my internship with the Washington Redskins againthe Redskins back in the day what they
were called. And I got hiredwhen Norm got hired as a strength and
(01:55):
conditioning as an assistant strength and conditioningcoach. All right, So I like
to tell talk to our leaders aboutwhat they did before the Great idea and
coming up with the idea. Sowhen it comes to KMG Hauling, you
obviously had the idea of that epiphany, and you obviously saw a business opportunity,
maybe a hole in the industry.So tell us about the origin story
(02:19):
of CAMG Hauling, and then we'regoing to talk about the name of the
company and of course what your mantrais and your mission statement and all the
different services you have. But tellme about the original idea and why he
came up with it. Well,you know interesting that you say that my
father came to this country an immigrantfrom Ecuador, came to this country and
wanting to start a business. Hewas always trying to be a leader in
(02:44):
the community. He started working forMiller Distributing Company as a salesperson for a
beer company. As he was doingdeliveries, he always saw in the DC
area of the trash companies that wereout there looked ratty didn't have, didn't
have really the motto of what hethought it should look in Equator and really
(03:06):
in South America, you see thesebuses that are painted, trucks that are
painted just crazy. So he wantedto bring that type of image into the
trash industry, and he started atrash business back in the nineteen seventies and
he had that business for about twentyyears. As he had as he was
(03:27):
growing that business, you know,summer jobs. What do you do as
a summer job when you're fifteen,when you're thirteen, you know. So
I was one that was very passionateas every other kid is about driving a
trash truck, seeing how it works, seeing what the mechanics do. And
I would always just be, youknow, in the summer, just be
hanging out at the trash company,riding on the truck, learning the business.
(03:51):
What could I do here? Youknow, how does this this mechanism
work? And it fascinated me theentire time to where I learned the business
and learned what my father did,and it was it was one thing we
we What I ended up learning isit wasn't just a family business. The
family business was run my father startedit, my mother. My father and
(04:15):
mother started it at the basement oftheir of their home, and it turned
into more than a family business.It learned what really the aspects took of
running a business. And when Istarted working with them in the summers,
I went to college and my father. First thing he said is listen,
we'll we'll have this company. Wewe bled, we know you ate,
(04:38):
we had tears, built this companyfrom the ground up. You can do
whatever you wanted to do, whichwas I was actually pretty thankful. It
wasn't one where it was pressured into, hey, you're going to be part
of this family business, so onand so forth. So that's why I
chose leaving George Mason working with theRedskins for about eight years, it was
a great, great run. Iwas there when Norm got hired, and
(05:00):
then when Norv actually left the Redskins, that's when I chose to go back
into the trash business. Helped myfather out. Sad but true, and
you hear about this in family businesses. It's hard. It's hard to be
a part of it. And myfather brought my uncle on board back in
the day, and he did notmy uncle did not want any part of
(05:24):
me coming on board. My fatherdidn't see what the point of that was.
So in doing that and the businesskind of shifting to more of a
battle between the two brothers, Ikind of went out and did my own
thing. And that's where KMG wasincepted and kind of wanted to run it
(05:45):
to what my father almost showed meand what really not showed what to do.
Well, it's a great story,and I appreciate you sharing such personal
things with us about the origin ofeverything. And you and I also have
another thing in common. When wewere teenagers, we were doing hard work.
While you were learning the trash businessand hauling that, which is very
hard work. I was delivering theWashington Post, especially the Sunday edition,
(06:06):
which when you're thirteen and fourteen yearsold, folks, let me tell you
back then, that was hard work. It was hard of it was hard
work. Well, I do wantto talk all about KMG Hauling and the
other thing that always interests me aname of companies and why people name the
company the way they do. AndI know there's a story behind KMG Hauling.
(06:28):
What is it? Yeah, whenI was trying to figure out logos
again, the image was to notportray it as a trash company. That's
also the reason why KMG Hauling doesn'thave the word trash or waste or anything
in there. I wanted it togive kind of the diverse effect of what
people thought of waste removal, recyclingand so on, and so forth.
So when I developed KMG hauling,you know, in trying to figure out
(06:53):
what can we do to make thiscatchy look over. And I had two
kids at the point at that time, both young kids, a boy and
a girl, and their name wasKyle and Miranda. So what I chose
to do is is and you'll seeit in our logo. You have a
little K and a little LEM.Those aren't edited or not edited letters.
(07:16):
Those are the reason they did that. Where they were both of my kids,
Kyle and Miranda, and the bigG is for Garcia. You'll see
a t yep, you'll see ateal square in the front. My son
was the oldest, so I madehim the front color. His favorite color
was teal and my daughter's favorite colorwas pink. So that that is how
the logo incepted. Now, fourkids later, we were struggling because we
(07:41):
had to name them either a Kor an M. So we have Kaylee
and we have Connor on board.Now I love it. I think it's
wonderful. Once again, another personalstory that they connects the dots. It
makes a lot of sense. Youknow, we're going to give at the
end of our conversation the website,but before we do that. When I
got on there and I was awow moment because I saw your trucks and
(08:05):
they're gorgeous, and I want toknow the story behind. I know that
you don't have trash in the name. You've got hauling, and that makes
a lot of sense to me formarketing. I get that, But you
have wonderfully designed, beautiful trucks.Why is that. Yeah. We original
truck that we had again was ateal and pink idea, obviously because of
our logo, so we wanted tomake it a little different. We did
(08:28):
the teal truck originally with the pinkflames. Flames were a big part of
it. I wanted to, youknow, I was always again fascinated with
the way my father designed his trucksin Ecuador, but also race cars,
and race cars normally had you know, flames on the front of it,
so I wanted it. I wantedsomeone to see a trash truck go down
the road and say, okay,that is KMG, and the first thing
(08:50):
they see is flames. So wewent and we were we were painting our
trucks for the first probably five sixyears teal and Pink. We were brought
into a story, a local storyactually in the Louding County area, where
we had a person ask about thatthese colors. Would you be willing to
(09:13):
change a color, do a color? And I never really thought of that.
But the story goes on and afamily here in the Lowden County area
had a child that was going throughchildhood cancer. At that point, I
had no idea that there was evena color for childhood cancer. What is
the ribbon? I never knew.You think about these awarenesses, you think
(09:37):
about cancer, you think about illnesses, but they're all directed to some type
of color or theme. So peoplereally get brought into the story at that
point, children's cancer. I didnot know that the color was gold.
And we went ahead and painted agold truck in honor of the family,
and we call it Timatias and theywe did the color gold with flames on
(10:03):
the front of it, and evenin our logo we have children's names in
our logo. From there we wentthe thought of the awareness just blew up
in our mind. And we haven'tpainted another, Dennis, I'll tell you,
we haven't painted another true color ofa peel or pink truck in probably
about fifteen years, we've gone fromchildren's cancer to pank me out of cancer
(10:28):
to breast cancer. Every color thatyou see our different trucks is either from
a story from someone that brought usto a story a family that we were
introduced to, to just the notionof what really is out there in the
world right now, from salute tothe troops we have a flat black trash
truck that looks almost like a tank, to just recently mental health awareness,
(10:52):
which is you know, us hittingthis industry and in the world you know
hard well. It's a great storyand the trucks are frigging gorgeous, but
it also is about community too andmarketing and I love that you do that,
and that's well thought out and it'sjust something that differentiates yourself from the
competition out there and how everybody perceivesyou. So I think it's just a
wonderful idea and kudos to you andyour team. I did want to talk
(11:16):
about services and then we'll talk aboutyour footprint. But as I get on
the gorgeous website that we talked about, there are five different services that include
of course commercial, residential, butcan you go over those services and kind
of educate our listeners about what allyou do. Absolutely on the commercial side,
we deal with everything. We dealwith small restaurants, we deal with
property management sites, apartment buildings whenit's on the commercial, retail stores,
(11:41):
anything that really deals with trash wedo on the commercial side. On the
residential side, we're no different thanwhat you see when they drive down beside
your straight down on the residence area, we pick up on a rearload truck.
We pick up so our trucks canvary from wit in the trash in
the back to on the commercial sidewhere you got the big forks and they're
(12:03):
dumping the containers in the front ofthe truck. To even go into the
next scope, which is construction,we have a plentiful amount of trucks.
The amount of trucks that we havefor construction services from home remodelings to cleanouts,
and that goes for the residential side. On the commercial side where they
(12:24):
do buildouts, new buildings, newretail stores and all that, that's where
the open top the rolloff companies comein. And then we actually have a
bulk service side of the business wherebolk service is pretty much anything anything that
you want. You're cleaning a garageout, you want back counts to be
removed, you want you know,the stove, or you just want to
(12:48):
clean out your garage. We providean open body truck that we can remove
all the extra service to bulk itemsthat come into when it comes to trash.
Outstanding, Hugo. What is yourfootprint in the DMV? All right,
now, we're doing everything in theDC Virginia area. The Virginia area,
(13:09):
we're doing out to the as southas probably Woodbridge to that south to
as west as Louding County, DC. We do all facets of DC northeast,
southeast, southwest, northwest. Andthen in the Maryland we do the
inside of four ninety five inside theBellway PG County, Montgomery County, but
(13:30):
inside four ninety five and again wedo anything that deals with trash rather than
hazardous or medical waste. All right, I think you've answered part of this
question already, but I still liketo ask it because it's a real business
marketing philosophy. I know there's othercompetition out there, So when you're going
up against something and you're vying fora contract, how do you differentiate yourself
(13:52):
from all the competition? It's youknow, I could tell you that it's
the way our trucks look or themechanics that we have on our trucks are
something that we invented in this business. But I will tell you right now
it's customer service. When you whenyou call our company, when you call
anybody on the team of KMG,you will find someone live on the telephone.
(14:13):
We will be fast and we willact fast. We know that trash
is something that we all don't wanton our mind. If it's if you're
a present client, we resolve anytype of situation issue or even request an
increase of requests to where if you'vegot something that you're thinking of, or
a building that you want to thinkabout, where should you put the trash
(14:35):
room? Or what should I dowith this trash? Where where we're we're
a consultant in the trash just aswe are a partner and a friend.
Really, you go, what kindof challenges does the industry present to you
right now? Right now? It'swhat the nation's facing at this point is
a driver shortage. I will tellyou that is one thing that has been
(14:56):
has been in the transportation industry affectingprobably since you know COVID and beyond is
a drivers So we are always lookingfor commercial driver's license class feed drivers at
this point, but we even havewe've taken it even to the next level
where we have trash trucks that youonly need a driver's license to drive.
(15:18):
You don't need a commercial drivers izeas long as you've got a great record.
We have small, little thirteen yardtrash trucks that we bring on board
drivers that end up becoming commercial driver'slicense because we train within. We're one
of the few companies that do that. All Right, You've had this company
for over a couple of decades,which is extraordinary. You've been sustainable and
you've also been growing out there onehundred and five trucks, almost one hundred
(15:41):
employees over the last several years.Is there a story you can share with
us where you just made a differencethat day with your team. It's one
of those things that this is whywe get up. We did something remarkable
for either a family, a business, or something that stood out. You
said that was really that was areal special day for us. Yeah,
our awareness efforts have been the mostthe biggest difference we've made in the in
(16:03):
the community and being part of thecommunity. We from there. Now that
our trash trucks and now that morepeople see how visible and how we keep
our trash trucks in TikTok shape andto get families to ask us. We've
done birthday parties where you know,a child wants to, you know,
hire us to bring a trash truckfor a birthday party, to come show
(16:26):
their sun to a touch a truckevent, and the importance of recycling on
Green Day. You know, wedo those efforts to where we're just you
know, again, our trucks arebillboards in itself, and to know that
you don't necessarily know what these illnessesare, what these awareness really goes to
(16:47):
is what really makes the difference.Anybody can pick up trash. I'll be
honest with you. It's the waywe do it. It's a way we
take pride in it, and it'sthe way that we show our customers what
it should be. There is thereare the biggest accolade that I could see
right now in our trash structures.When someone says, you know that awareness
is what I've been struggling through,and you just brighten my day when we
(17:11):
see it driving down the road,Hugo. I have the I'm very fortuitous
when it comes to this job ininterviewing so many different, unique people,
and lucky for us, this isHispanic heritage a month that we're doing this
interview, and we're very appreciative ofyour time and all the accolades and the
incredible things you've done in the businessworld. We also have a lot of
future entrepreneurs and business people that listento this and get advice from people about
(17:36):
who made it and made it thehard way, with hard work, blood,
sweat and tears, maybe the luck, little timing, but had that
relentless effort to run and make theirown business. Can you share some words
of wisdom? I know it's onlyspecific to what you've done, but just
in general terms, any advice forpeople out there that are going to be
starting their own business someday. Yes, absolutely. Don't be afraid to fail,
don't be afraid to be different,afraid to work for what you love.
(18:02):
You know, if this was aneasy job, everyone would be doing
it, and that easy job beinga company owner. But if you're not
willing to take that next step orbe different, try for the you know,
outreach of the community and all that, I honestly think it won't work.
So just be be very very innovative, I can say, he goes,
(18:26):
we wrap up our conversation. I'dlike to give the floor to you
and maybe just one or two moretakeaways that you want to make sure our
listeners have when it comes to KMGhauling. What would that be? You
know, the trash business KMG iswhat THEKMG waste and removal in recycling is
what I think is such an importantpart of the world, the nation,
(18:51):
the planet that we live in,every aspect of it is what we take
pride in doing. We do itand we take pride in it. Our
customer services always there to help out. We try to employ everyone that we
have. No matter what race,color, origin you are in you have
a job with KMG Hauling, wewill tell you that we are here for
(19:12):
the long run. We've been herefor twenty three years. We have so
much more ideas that we want togive, so much more innovative ideas in
this industry. And please don't feelfree to contact us for anything that involves
in the trash or recycling part ofthe community. And speaking of which,
(19:32):
if you're looking at that a career, or you just want to see the
cool trucks. They have it more. It really is a beautiful website.
What's that web address? You go? Web address is www dot kmghuling dot
com. You go. I can'ttell you how much I appreciate your time
because I know how busy you are, and once again it's great to talk
to you during Hispanic Heritage to continuedsuccess. Not only have you done a
sustainable business, but the growth hasbeen incredible, almost one hundred employees,
(19:56):
over one hundred and five trucks.It really is an amazing story from lifer
from the DMV, which I'm alwaysgreat to and grateful to talk about.
So thank you so much for yourtime, and we really appreciate you joining
us on CEOs. You should know, thank you very much. I appreciate
it, Dennis. Our community partner, M and T Bank supports CEOs,
you should know. Is part oftheir ongoing commitment to building strong communities,
and that starts by backing the businesseswithin them. As a bank for communities,
(20:21):
M and T believes in dedicating time, talent, and resources to help
local businesses thrive. Because when businessessucceed, our communities succeed
M and T Bank presents CEOs youshould know powered by Iheartgasia in celebration of
Hispanic Heritage month, Let's mean HugoGarcia. He is the founder, president,
and owner of k MG Halling basedin the DMV. It's one of
the premier providers of reoccurring waste pickupfor small, medium and large businesses with
home recycling and trash pickup. Beforewe talk more about Hugo's company, I
(00:23):
first asked him to talk a littlebit about himself, where he's from and
his origin story. Born and raisedhere in Virginia. I went to Oakton
High School in Vienna, Oakton Cougarand right after that and graduating, I
did. I had my bachelor's degreeat George Mason University Bacheler's and Exercise Science
and Physiology, which we could touchup as to where why I chose that
(00:47):
that avenue. But I also minoredin business administration, all right, so
we also have something in common.I love talking to lifers while I'm not
a lifer, and this is myfourth time living in the DMV and hopefully
my last. I'm an old falsechurch kid and our teams played against each
other when I went to Jeb Stewartback in the late seventies early eighties when
we played against Oakton. So Iknow your school very very well. That's
(01:10):
great, that's great. Our exour coach, our head coach went to
Falls Church. Very cool. Thatwas interesting. Yep. Well, listen,
a lot to talk about when itcomes to KMG hauling that we're going
to chat about. But you havekind of an industry and resume and career
before the company got under way fortwenty three years now, which is an
extraordinary story in itself that we're goingto talk about. But you and I
(01:32):
have also similarities in our backgrounds withsports. You know, one of our
radio stations here at IHARDC, Bigone hundred is the flagship for the Washington
Commanders. And you have a historyof the football team, don't you.
I do. Actually, I actuallyworked coming out of college. I did
my internship with the Washington Redskins againthe Redskins back in the day what they
were called. And I got hiredwhen Norm got hired as a strength and
(01:55):
conditioning as an assistant strength and conditioningcoach. All right, So I like
to tell talk to our leaders aboutwhat they did before the Great idea and
coming up with the idea. Sowhen it comes to KMG Hauling, you
obviously had the idea of that epiphany, and you obviously saw a business opportunity,
maybe a hole in the industry.So tell us about the origin story
(02:19):
of CAMG Hauling, and then we'regoing to talk about the name of the
company and of course what your mantrais and your mission statement and all the
different services you have. But tellme about the original idea and why he
came up with it. Well,you know interesting that you say that my
father came to this country an immigrantfrom Ecuador, came to this country and
wanting to start a business. Hewas always trying to be a leader in
(02:44):
the community. He started working forMiller Distributing Company as a salesperson for a
beer company. As he was doingdeliveries, he always saw in the DC
area of the trash companies that wereout there looked ratty didn't have, didn't
have really the motto of what hethought it should look in Equator and really
(03:06):
in South America, you see thesebuses that are painted, trucks that are
painted just crazy. So he wantedto bring that type of image into the
trash industry, and he started atrash business back in the nineteen seventies and
he had that business for about twentyyears. As he had as he was
(03:27):
growing that business, you know,summer jobs. What do you do as
a summer job when you're fifteen,when you're thirteen, you know. So
I was one that was very passionateas every other kid is about driving a
trash truck, seeing how it works, seeing what the mechanics do. And
I would always just be, youknow, in the summer, just be
hanging out at the trash company,riding on the truck, learning the business.
(03:51):
What could I do here? Youknow, how does this this mechanism
work? And it fascinated me theentire time to where I learned the business
and learned what my father did,and it was it was one thing we
we What I ended up learning isit wasn't just a family business. The
family business was run my father startedit, my mother. My father and
(04:15):
mother started it at the basement oftheir of their home, and it turned
into more than a family business.It learned what really the aspects took of
running a business. And when Istarted working with them in the summers,
I went to college and my father. First thing he said is listen,
we'll we'll have this company. Wewe bled, we know you ate,
(04:38):
we had tears, built this companyfrom the ground up. You can do
whatever you wanted to do, whichwas I was actually pretty thankful. It
wasn't one where it was pressured into, hey, you're going to be part
of this family business, so onand so forth. So that's why I
chose leaving George Mason working with theRedskins for about eight years, it was
a great, great run. Iwas there when Norm got hired, and
(05:00):
then when Norv actually left the Redskins, that's when I chose to go back
into the trash business. Helped myfather out. Sad but true, and
you hear about this in family businesses. It's hard. It's hard to be
a part of it. And myfather brought my uncle on board back in
the day, and he did notmy uncle did not want any part of
(05:24):
me coming on board. My fatherdidn't see what the point of that was.
So in doing that and the businesskind of shifting to more of a
battle between the two brothers, Ikind of went out and did my own
thing. And that's where KMG wasincepted and kind of wanted to run it
(05:45):
to what my father almost showed meand what really not showed what to do.
Well, it's a great story,and I appreciate you sharing such personal
things with us about the origin ofeverything. And you and I also have
another thing in common. When wewere teenagers, we were doing hard work.
While you were learning the trash businessand hauling that, which is very
hard work. I was delivering theWashington Post, especially the Sunday edition,
(06:06):
which when you're thirteen and fourteen yearsold, folks, let me tell you
back then, that was hard work. It was hard of it was hard
work. Well, I do wantto talk all about KMG Hauling and the
other thing that always interests me aname of companies and why people name the
company the way they do. AndI know there's a story behind KMG Hauling.
(06:28):
What is it? Yeah, whenI was trying to figure out logos
again, the image was to notportray it as a trash company. That's
also the reason why KMG Hauling doesn'thave the word trash or waste or anything
in there. I wanted it togive kind of the diverse effect of what
people thought of waste removal, recyclingand so on, and so forth.
So when I developed KMG hauling,you know, in trying to figure out
(06:53):
what can we do to make thiscatchy look over. And I had two
kids at the point at that time, both young kids, a boy and
a girl, and their name wasKyle and Miranda. So what I chose
to do is is and you'll seeit in our logo. You have a
little K and a little LEM.Those aren't edited or not edited letters.
(07:16):
Those are the reason they did that. Where they were both of my kids,
Kyle and Miranda, and the bigG is for Garcia. You'll see
a t yep, you'll see ateal square in the front. My son
was the oldest, so I madehim the front color. His favorite color
was teal and my daughter's favorite colorwas pink. So that that is how
the logo incepted. Now, fourkids later, we were struggling because we
(07:41):
had to name them either a Kor an M. So we have Kaylee
and we have Connor on board.Now I love it. I think it's
wonderful. Once again, another personalstory that they connects the dots. It
makes a lot of sense. Youknow, we're going to give at the
end of our conversation the website,but before we do that. When I
got on there and I was awow moment because I saw your trucks and
(08:05):
they're gorgeous, and I want toknow the story behind. I know that
you don't have trash in the name. You've got hauling, and that makes
a lot of sense to me formarketing. I get that, But you
have wonderfully designed, beautiful trucks.Why is that. Yeah. We original
truck that we had again was ateal and pink idea, obviously because of
our logo, so we wanted tomake it a little different. We did
(08:28):
the teal truck originally with the pinkflames. Flames were a big part of
it. I wanted to, youknow, I was always again fascinated with
the way my father designed his trucksin Ecuador, but also race cars,
and race cars normally had you know, flames on the front of it,
so I wanted it. I wantedsomeone to see a trash truck go down
the road and say, okay,that is KMG, and the first thing
(08:50):
they see is flames. So wewent and we were we were painting our
trucks for the first probably five sixyears teal and Pink. We were brought
into a story, a local storyactually in the Louding County area, where
we had a person ask about thatthese colors. Would you be willing to
(09:13):
change a color, do a color? And I never really thought of that.
But the story goes on and afamily here in the Lowden County area
had a child that was going throughchildhood cancer. At that point, I
had no idea that there was evena color for childhood cancer. What is
the ribbon? I never knew.You think about these awarenesses, you think
(09:37):
about cancer, you think about illnesses, but they're all directed to some type
of color or theme. So peoplereally get brought into the story at that
point, children's cancer. I didnot know that the color was gold.
And we went ahead and painted agold truck in honor of the family,
and we call it Timatias and theywe did the color gold with flames on
(10:03):
the front of it, and evenin our logo we have children's names in
our logo. From there we wentthe thought of the awareness just blew up
in our mind. And we haven'tpainted another, Dennis, I'll tell you,
we haven't painted another true color ofa peel or pink truck in probably
about fifteen years, we've gone fromchildren's cancer to pank me out of cancer
(10:28):
to breast cancer. Every color thatyou see our different trucks is either from
a story from someone that brought usto a story a family that we were
introduced to, to just the notionof what really is out there in the
world right now, from salute tothe troops we have a flat black trash
truck that looks almost like a tank, to just recently mental health awareness,
(10:52):
which is you know, us hittingthis industry and in the world you know
hard well. It's a great storyand the trucks are frigging gorgeous, but
it also is about community too andmarketing and I love that you do that,
and that's well thought out and it'sjust something that differentiates yourself from the
competition out there and how everybody perceivesyou. So I think it's just a
wonderful idea and kudos to you andyour team. I did want to talk
(11:16):
about services and then we'll talk aboutyour footprint. But as I get on
the gorgeous website that we talked about, there are five different services that include
of course commercial, residential, butcan you go over those services and kind
of educate our listeners about what allyou do. Absolutely on the commercial side,
we deal with everything. We dealwith small restaurants, we deal with
property management sites, apartment buildings whenit's on the commercial, retail stores,
(11:41):
anything that really deals with trash wedo on the commercial side. On the
residential side, we're no different thanwhat you see when they drive down beside
your straight down on the residence area, we pick up on a rearload truck.
We pick up so our trucks canvary from wit in the trash in
the back to on the commercial sidewhere you got the big forks and they're
(12:03):
dumping the containers in the front ofthe truck. To even go into the
next scope, which is construction,we have a plentiful amount of trucks.
The amount of trucks that we havefor construction services from home remodelings to cleanouts,
and that goes for the residential side. On the commercial side where they
(12:24):
do buildouts, new buildings, newretail stores and all that, that's where
the open top the rolloff companies comein. And then we actually have a
bulk service side of the business wherebolk service is pretty much anything anything that
you want. You're cleaning a garageout, you want back counts to be
removed, you want you know,the stove, or you just want to
(12:48):
clean out your garage. We providean open body truck that we can remove
all the extra service to bulk itemsthat come into when it comes to trash.
Outstanding, Hugo. What is yourfootprint in the DMV? All right,
now, we're doing everything in theDC Virginia area. The Virginia area,
(13:09):
we're doing out to the as southas probably Woodbridge to that south to
as west as Louding County, DC. We do all facets of DC northeast,
southeast, southwest, northwest. Andthen in the Maryland we do the
inside of four ninety five inside theBellway PG County, Montgomery County, but
(13:30):
inside four ninety five and again wedo anything that deals with trash rather than
hazardous or medical waste. All right, I think you've answered part of this
question already, but I still liketo ask it because it's a real business
marketing philosophy. I know there's othercompetition out there, So when you're going
up against something and you're vying fora contract, how do you differentiate yourself
(13:52):
from all the competition? It's youknow, I could tell you that it's
the way our trucks look or themechanics that we have on our trucks are
something that we invented in this business. But I will tell you right now
it's customer service. When you whenyou call our company, when you call
anybody on the team of KMG,you will find someone live on the telephone.
(14:13):
We will be fast and we willact fast. We know that trash
is something that we all don't wanton our mind. If it's if you're
a present client, we resolve anytype of situation issue or even request an
increase of requests to where if you'vegot something that you're thinking of, or
a building that you want to thinkabout, where should you put the trash
(14:35):
room? Or what should I dowith this trash? Where where we're we're
a consultant in the trash just aswe are a partner and a friend.
Really, you go, what kindof challenges does the industry present to you
right now? Right now? It'swhat the nation's facing at this point is
a driver shortage. I will tellyou that is one thing that has been
(14:56):
has been in the transportation industry affectingprobably since you know COVID and beyond is
a drivers So we are always lookingfor commercial driver's license class feed drivers at
this point, but we even havewe've taken it even to the next level
where we have trash trucks that youonly need a driver's license to drive.
(15:18):
You don't need a commercial drivers izeas long as you've got a great record.
We have small, little thirteen yardtrash trucks that we bring on board
drivers that end up becoming commercial driver'slicense because we train within. We're one
of the few companies that do that. All Right, You've had this company
for over a couple of decades,which is extraordinary. You've been sustainable and
you've also been growing out there onehundred and five trucks, almost one hundred
(15:41):
employees over the last several years.Is there a story you can share with
us where you just made a differencethat day with your team. It's one
of those things that this is whywe get up. We did something remarkable
for either a family, a business, or something that stood out. You
said that was really that was areal special day for us. Yeah,
our awareness efforts have been the mostthe biggest difference we've made in the in
(16:03):
the community and being part of thecommunity. We from there. Now that
our trash trucks and now that morepeople see how visible and how we keep
our trash trucks in TikTok shape andto get families to ask us. We've
done birthday parties where you know,a child wants to, you know,
hire us to bring a trash truckfor a birthday party, to come show
(16:26):
their sun to a touch a truckevent, and the importance of recycling on
Green Day. You know, wedo those efforts to where we're just you
know, again, our trucks arebillboards in itself, and to know that
you don't necessarily know what these illnessesare, what these awareness really goes to
(16:47):
is what really makes the difference.Anybody can pick up trash. I'll be
honest with you. It's the waywe do it. It's a way we
take pride in it, and it'sthe way that we show our customers what
it should be. There is thereare the biggest accolade that I could see
right now in our trash structures.When someone says, you know that awareness
is what I've been struggling through,and you just brighten my day when we
(17:11):
see it driving down the road,Hugo. I have the I'm very fortuitous
when it comes to this job ininterviewing so many different, unique people,
and lucky for us, this isHispanic heritage a month that we're doing this
interview, and we're very appreciative ofyour time and all the accolades and the
incredible things you've done in the businessworld. We also have a lot of
future entrepreneurs and business people that listento this and get advice from people about
(17:36):
who made it and made it thehard way, with hard work, blood,
sweat and tears, maybe the luck, little timing, but had that
relentless effort to run and make theirown business. Can you share some words
of wisdom? I know it's onlyspecific to what you've done, but just
in general terms, any advice forpeople out there that are going to be
starting their own business someday. Yes, absolutely. Don't be afraid to fail,
don't be afraid to be different,afraid to work for what you love.
(18:02):
You know, if this was aneasy job, everyone would be doing
it, and that easy job beinga company owner. But if you're not
willing to take that next step orbe different, try for the you know,
outreach of the community and all that, I honestly think it won't work.
So just be be very very innovative, I can say, he goes,
(18:26):
we wrap up our conversation. I'dlike to give the floor to you
and maybe just one or two moretakeaways that you want to make sure our
listeners have when it comes to KMGhauling. What would that be? You
know, the trash business KMG iswhat THEKMG waste and removal in recycling is
what I think is such an importantpart of the world, the nation,
(18:51):
the planet that we live in,every aspect of it is what we take
pride in doing. We do itand we take pride in it. Our
customer services always there to help out. We try to employ everyone that we
have. No matter what race,color, origin you are in you have
a job with KMG Hauling, wewill tell you that we are here for
(19:12):
the long run. We've been herefor twenty three years. We have so
much more ideas that we want togive, so much more innovative ideas in
this industry. And please don't feelfree to contact us for anything that involves
in the trash or recycling part ofthe community. And speaking of which,
(19:32):
if you're looking at that a career, or you just want to see the
cool trucks. They have it more. It really is a beautiful website.
What's that web address? You go? Web address is www dot kmghuling dot
com. You go. I can'ttell you how much I appreciate your time
because I know how busy you are, and once again it's great to talk
to you during Hispanic Heritage to continuedsuccess. Not only have you done a
sustainable business, but the growth hasbeen incredible, almost one hundred employees,
(19:56):
over one hundred and five trucks.It really is an amazing story from lifer
from the DMV, which I'm alwaysgreat to and grateful to talk about.
So thank you so much for yourtime, and we really appreciate you joining
us on CEOs. You should know, thank you very much. I appreciate
it, Dennis. Our community partner, M and T Bank supports CEOs,
you should know. Is part oftheir ongoing commitment to building strong communities,
and that starts by backing the businesseswithin them. As a bank for communities,
(20:21):
M and T believes in dedicating time, talent, and resources to help
local businesses thrive. Because when businessessucceed, our communities succeed
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