Most people try to steer clear of hazardous waste and chemical spills, but Jeff Cox runs his successful business on cleaning up those types of messes.
Cox's National Gay & Lesbian Chamber of Commerce®-certified business, Rapid Response USA, dispatches response teams around the country to remove chemical and petroleum waste from areas hit by natural disasters, classroom laboratory mishaps or tanker truck spills, to name a few scenarios.
In an interview with BIZ, Cox describes how he got into such a unique line of work, what he would have done differently if he could do it all over again, and what he expects from his NGLCC certification.
BIZ: What kind of business is Rapid Response USA? What types of services does it provide and to whom?
JC: Rapid Response USA is a full-service environmental company specializing in emergency cleanup of chemical and petroleum waste, with an average response time of less than two hours. Headquartered in McLeansville, N.C., Rapid Response USA has the ability to dispatch response teams in all 50 states, as well as in the Caribbean and Canada. The emergency response coordinators at Rapid Response USA have extensive experience in the management of spill and disaster recovery.
The types of projects that Rapid Response USA manages include hydraulic fluid spills that leak into storm drains; accidents involving trucks or tankers that require emergency cleanup on highways or interstates; cleanup of unknown waste that has been abandoned; and mercury spills in classroom labs.
We also work on biohazard decontamination of trains that have struck pedestrians; containment and cleanup of oil spills into major rivers; response to natural disasters that require many different types of cleanup, including debris removal, spill cleanups and household hazardous waste removal; and management of scheduled remediation projects that do not require immediate response.
BIZ: How did you get into this type of work? Did you do this kind of work before you started your own business? If so, what led you to want to start your own company?
JC: Al Bouldin, Rapid Response USA's vice president of sales and marketing, and I have more than 35 years of combined experience in the environmental management business. We both worked for local and national environmental firms during our careers, and initially formed Rapid Response USA as a partnership in 2004. Al and I had developed relationships with environmental companies all over North America during our careers, and we saw a need for a quality emergency response company that could manage events nationwide.
In 2005, we mobilized our company to New Orleans, La. as a part of the response to Hurricane Katrina, where we worked as a part of the EPA Superfund Technical Assessment and Response Team (START) for five months. In mid-2006, a national environmental company hired us to build an emergency response department, but we were both laid off due to the bad economy. Then in July of 2009, Jeff re-started Rapid Response USA as a Limited Liability Company.
BIZ: What have you learned from running this kind of business that you did not know before? Would you have done anything differently?
JC: We have learned to focus on servicing national or regional accounts. These are the accounts where we add the most value. In order to differentiate our company from our competitors, we negotiated nationwide pricing with all of our sub-contractors. We also perform regular environmental audits of our response teams, and we developed a standardized program that all of our response teams are required to follow. This gives a national company the peace of mind in knowing that an emergency event in Florida will adhere to the same price schedule and will be managed using the same protocols as a similar event in California. We also provide a well-organized summary report that gives a detailed overview of the entire project.
If we could turn back the clock, we would not have accepted management positions with the national environmental company, and would have moved forward with the original development of Rapid Response USA.
BIZ: When did you receive your NGLCC certification for your business?
JC: Rapid Response USA became an NGLCC-certified business in November of 2009.
BIZ: Why did you decide to get an NGLCC certification for your company?
JC: We firmly believe that diversity in the American workplace is a good thing. The United States became the greatest country in large part because it is a melting pot of ideas from a broad spectrum of people, races and beliefs. At Rapid Response USA, we celebrate that diversity, and want to network with other companies that promote diversity in the workplace.
BIZ: How has having an NGLCC certification benefited you and/or your business? (e.g., increased business opportunities, more networking opportunities, etc.)
JC: Although we have not yet done any business as a direct result of our NGLCC certification, we have begun to network with other diversity companies and have signed up as a vendor for many national companies that have diversity programs. We feel confident that opportunities to bid on environmental emergency response contracts will be forthcoming.
