The 4.2-mile long strip is home to more than 62,000 rooms. It hosts 22,000 conventions a year. Fifteen of the world’s 25 largest hotels reside here and 40 million visitors make an annual pilgrimage.
Welcome to Las Vegas.
For Joe Dramise, president of Apex Linen Service (apexlinen.com), that means a lot of washables – from sheets, towels and terry cloth bathrobes, to service uniforms. Each day, the three-year-old firm – a full-service solution provider for high-volume laundry, linen rental and commercial dry cleaning – processes more than 100,000 lbs of laundry. Every year that number increases.
To handle the movement of laundry, the company operates four Peterbilt Model 337 medium duty tractors – hauling 38‘ and 53’ trailers – and two 337 straight trucks with 28’ box vans deliver. It is a 24/7 operation delivering and picking up at the hotels and casinos.
The vehicles and trailers are on a full-service lease from Peterbilt of Las Vegas (www.peterbiltlasvegas.com), the local PacLease franchise (www.paclease.com). PacLease provides customized full-service truck lease, rental and contract maintenance programs designed to meet the specific needs of customers.
BUILT A REPUTATION
Dramise has been in the laundry business for more than 30 years. Twenty years ago, he launched AJ Industries, which designs and builds high-capacity commercial laundry facilities with sales worldwide.
“It’s where we made a name for ourselves,” says Dramise.
“But a lot of the hotels and casinos like to outsource all of their laundry needs,” he adds. “Four years ago, several hotel owners came to me asking if we would open a full-service laundry operation and service their businesses. We made that leap in 2011 and built a 90,000 square-foot laundry facility off the Las Vegas Strip.”
TRANSPORTATION
While Dramise has his laundry business down to a science, the opening of Apex Linen left him with one variable where he had little experience: transportation.
“I needed someone to work with who could handle our transportation needs to ensure timely delivery while letting Apex concentrate on its laundry business,” Dramise recalls. “We didn’t want to own our fleet, worry about paperwork or maintenance or have to find replacement vehicles when necessary. Nor did we want to be selling trucks later.
“We wanted our own private fleet, but we just didn’t want the headaches associated with ownership, especially with maintenance and repair.”
Dramise found Roger Arriola, general manager at PacLease at Peterbilt of Las Vegas.
“Roger and PacLease have always taken care of us,” Dramise says. “The Peterbilt equipment is excellent and so is the service we receive. We make one monthly payment and they handle everything.”
MOBILE MAINTENANCE
That includes mobile maintenance. While the PacLease location and Apex Linen are only 14 miles apart, with traffic, the distance can often take an hour or more to travel.
“We asked and they offered,” says Dramise, regarding having PacLease handle routine maintenance at the Apex facility. “This saves us a lot of time in shuttling vehicles around, and we know we’re always running properly maintained trucks.
“The last thing we would want is to have one of our trucks break down on the streets of Las Vegas,” he continues. “Image is everything in this town. Not only do we ensure we provide the area’s best service, but we also mirror that reputation with the trucks we operate.
“Our trucks are rolling billboards for us. We get comments all the time on how sharp our vehicles look.”
A BIG PART
The Peterbilt 337 tractors have PACCAR PX-9 diesel engines rated at 350hp. The box trucks are equipped with 260hp with the PACCAR PX-7 diesel. Allison automatic transmissions were spec’d for the constant stop-and-go traffic.
The Peterbilts are economical to run, Dramise says, and average more than 8 miles per gallon.
With 24-hour turnaround for linens and towels, and same-day return delivery for uniforms – they are picked up at 10 AM and delivered back at 5 PM, Apex Linen has made a name for itself in service.
“The trucks obviously play a part in that,” says Dramise. “We can’t miss pick-ups or deliveries, and PacLease helps assure that we’ll always be on schedule. They even have their service manager on call 24 hours a day, should we need help.
“If we were ever to need a replacement vehicle on the spot, we know PacLease is there for us. This gives us great peace of mind.”
