“True service is most complete when it is not so convenient, not so easy, not so expected.”  

This month we reflect on the anniversary of two catastrophic events that impacted our nation – Hurricane Harvey and Hurricane Irma. Natural disasters of any description seem to ignite a paradox; out of the infliction of much damage and destruction, there rises the invincible capacity of humanity to give beyond themselves.

In the aftermath, many stories came to light where our team had gone above and beyond to support an industry that could not afford to stop. We were encouraged by our operation managers who set a contingency plan for each customer to ensure that there was no short supply of containers; by our customer service team who personally reached out to each customer affected by the storms to see if we could offer any assistance; and by our drivers and field staff who didn’t let flooding and damage within their own homes deter them from turning up to work and supporting Florida and Texas based hospitals through days of floods and power outages.   

One Story that really stood out 

One response from Daniels that came to light many months after the event, was the initiative taken by our Houston team to reach out to affected hospitals who were not able to be serviced by their own waste provider. In the days and weeks following Hurricane Harvey, Daniels Health was able to service multiple healthcare facilities that were not even our customers. Our team worked many hours overtime and engineered creative solutions to enlarge our capacity, reach unserviceable routes, and ensure that no hospitals were left without support.

Louis V. Gerstner Jr, the former CEO of IBM once said “An organization is nothing more than the collective capacity of its people to create value”. A founder can create a vision, a leadership team can instill it, but it takes a collective of individuals to truly live it and demonstrate the heartbeat of an organization’s values.

A year later, we are exceptionally proud of our Florida and Texas teams who put their own personal losses aside to focus on supporting our customers through a circumstance that was not convenient, not easy and not expected.