Mike Mnoian of Alamo Disposal

Host: When we bought our first hook trucks at Central Waste in Austin, we deployed five or six of them. The drivers had never driven one, and my veteran drivers literally looked at me and said, “You’re an idiot.” Like, “This is a terrible truck and it’s never going to work.”

Mike: There’s no cable to break—and the ultimate sin is when a cable breaks and kills somebody… or you lose control. That’s happened to me in the field where it snapped and I lost control.

Host: Yeah.

Mike: And it’s like… there’s nothing you can do.

Host: Nothing.

Mike: You can’t catch eight tons with your hands.

Host: Nope. And hopefully no one’s back there. Hopefully it doesn’t hit a car and cause property damage. When you lose control like that—does it typically land flat? Does it slide 10 feet?

Mike: If it’s on a slope downhill, who knows? Probably 10 feet, because it’ll grind into the ground. Our boxes don’t have front rollers or wheels, so they’re not going to roll much. But if you do have front wheels… it’s gone.

Host: All right—welcome to the first podcast that we have not named. Unnamed at the moment.

Mike: (laughs)

Host: We have our first guest—Michael… Mike, I’m not going to try to pronounce your last name properly, so go ahead.

Mike: Mnoian.

Host: Mnoian. There we go. I’m from Pittsburgh—I can pronounce a lot of names, but that one threw me off. How did you get to be here today at Waste Nexus?

Mike: I follow you on LinkedIn.

Host: Sorry about that.

Mike: (laughs) I thought it’d be a good opportunity. Your original post was basically like, “Waste Expo is what Waste Expo is.”

Host: Yeah—big company, heavy iron.

Mike: Exactly. Small hauler mindset—looking to connect, network, and meet you.

Host: This podcast was born out of that idea. Two years ago, we did a breakfast at the bagel shop next to the Waste Expo road. Great venue, great bagels.

Mike: In Texas, you don’t really get those.

Host: We got blocked there—and it hit me that what I really enjoyed was just talking with people. I didn’t want a booth. I just wanted to run into the people I wanted to run into. But the hardest part was curating: “Can I see you here? Can I catch you there?” You’re just running around.

Mike: Totally. And then there are private parties—like middle school—you don’t know which one to go to.

Host: Also, we’re not very popular, so we probably didn’t get invited.

Mike: Yeah, we didn’t get invited. I’m not cool.

Host: You’re one of my adherents to “big logo.”

Mike: Alamo went big logo. But we weren’t always. Our roll-off boxes used to be standard ribbed boxes—you’d slap on eight stickers, two on each side. Cheap and easy, right?

Host: But from 30 feet away…

Mike: Depending how old you are, you may or may not see it. And if you’re moving at speed, you’re definitely not seeing it. Some companies do individual letters in each rib. In California, we welded our name through metal—spelled out the name—because boxes got stolen sometimes. If someone’s stealing it, make it harder.

Host: Did you recover them?

Mike: A few. Alamo is the evolution of all of that. We went with tub-style boxes day one. Big logo. More expensive—but not insignificant. We did decals at first.

Host: Do they hold up?

Mike: They do. If you get five or six years, maybe. Depends on abuse. But decals are wildly expensive—like $80 a decal. And if you mess up one or two trying to apply them, that’s $80 out the door each time.

Host: And now you paint them?

Mike: Yep. Stencil and paint. I spent $3,000 on decals and realized I could’ve spent $150 on paint, $100 on a stencil, and a ladder. Done.

Host: You also have the logo borderline on the top.

Mike: That was a mistake—the guy doing it thought that side was “the top.” I wanted it on the top because one day if Google sees where this thing is, I’m going to give you credit.

Host: I’ve spent a lot of years looking at Google to find compactors. It makes sense.

Host: You started this about two years ago?

Mike: About two years ago, yes.

Host: I saw on LinkedIn—the first hook truck arrived a year ago. What was before the hook truck?

Mike: Nothing.

Host: Nothing?

Mike: Central Waste. I took time off after that divestiture. I started Alamo with hook trucks—no cable trucks.

Host: Why hook?

Mike: Easier. Safer. The driver can do it from the cab. It’s quick and—frankly—more idiot-proof. That’s probably the Australian in me, and what I learned from partners back then.

When we bought our first hook trucks at Central Waste in Austin, the drivers hated them. They told me, “You’re an idiot.” I said, “You’re driving it or you’ll find another job.” A week later they said, “I’d rather take the day off than drive a cable truck again.”

Host: Wow.

Mike: Public services bought our assets later. They took off all those hook bodies and replaced them with cable bodies. Those same guys told me, “This is terrible—we miss our trucks.”

Same thing happened at Alamo. I hired a 25-year veteran out of Waste Management—Carson City, Nevada. He’d never driven hook. Within a week: “That’s my truck.” Because they don’t want to get out and fight the cable. It’s easier to line up. The box doesn’t flip off. No cable to break.

Host: That cable snap story is terrifying.

Mike: It is. When it snaps, you lose control—there’s nothing you can do.

Host: I looked at a design years ago for a compactor on four-wheel casters so you could move it sideways.

Mike: Yeah, but then you definitely don’t want it rolling away.

Host: Pittsburgh has enough hills—no thanks. We had an apartment community where a two-yard rear-load bin somehow got loose. We got a call: the bin was found 10–15 houses down the street… in a guy’s porch. Nobody got hit, thankfully.

Mike: Years ago, when Austin flooded, we had a box end up in Lake Travis.

Host: You got it back?

Mike: Yeah—but we had to wait until the lake came down. It was stuck in the mud. A month later, the ground was solid enough, and we went out and grabbed it.

Host: Switching gears—every day is an adventure. Your kids play travel baseball, right?

Mike: Yes.

Host: What’s it like managing dispatch, customers, and a company while you’re traveling for that?

Mike: They mostly do it on weekends, but I’m basically 24/7 some days. We implemented software day one at Alamo. Night and day from 20 years ago, when I used Post-its and a corkboard. No GPS back then—we used Thomas Guides. Dispatch was on radio.

Host: My dad bought a brand-new roll-off truck in 1986. By ’88 or ’89 he put in one of those old school Motorola phones.

Mike: Yep.

Host: He’d run to pay phones, check his pager—he didn’t even have someone answering the phones.

Host: That feels like a huge advantage back then—getting in front of the customer faster than everyone else.

Mike: 100%. Could he have hired someone? Maybe. But the office was out of the house. The phone would ring at 5:00 a.m. and everyone’s up—trash is going.

Host: Which town was that in?

Mike: Southern California.

Host: What got you to Texas?

Mike: Sold that part of the business. California is a tough place to do business. Packed up—my oldest was 18 months—and we landed in Austin.

Host: What year was that?

Mike: 2012.

Host: Austin had blown up a bit, but not like now.

Mike: I was smart enough to use the internet back then. I looked at the franchise hauler list for Austin and thought, “There are 10 people here—and 300 in Los Angeles.” My dad started the business in ’84, a spin-off from what my grandfather started in the ’40s or ’50s. I figured: if I can compete with 300 guys, I can compete with 15. Easy.

Answer the phone. Provide customer service. Do the right things. In theory, they should come. And they did.

Host: So you started your own in Texas—that was all you?

Mike: All me, yes. CWR became my holding company when we did the merger with JJ’s. We had to change the name from Central Waste to CWR because we gave the name to the new entity. CWR still exists and does its own thing.

Host: People ask us where “DSQ” came from. Charlie says he had paperwork due by 5:00 and the lawyer told him, “Pick a name.” So: D for Discovery and SQ for Sequoia—because at the time we had both.

Mike: That’s about as logical as CWR: Central Waste and Recycling.

Host: Alamo is clear and great for SEO.

Mike: When I got it, people asked, “How was that name not taken?” It’s just alamodisposal.com. Pure luck.

Host: Two last topics. First—anything you’re looking for out of this event?

Mike: Meet some new friends. I like talking trash. I talk to owners all over the place—we bounce ideas. If they’re not competing in the same market, you can be open about numbers, pricing, strategy. You can ask: “Is this broker good? Do you know this person? Where do I buy this?”

Host: And with equipment price increases, you can sanity-check: “Are you seeing the same numbers?”

Mike: Exactly. The trucks are the trucks. Waste Management doesn’t buy them for half off. Maybe there’s a discount, but they’re not getting a $300,000 truck for 50% off. Same with tires—they’re not paying $150 for $800 tires. There isn’t that kind of margin. You have to charge for your service and what your service is.

Host: I stole this from another podcast—lightning round. One-word answers if possible. Ready?

Mike: I’ll do my best.

Host: Is the Pope Catholic?

Mike: Yes.

Host: Do you know where he went to college?

Mike: No.

Host: Public company you’d want to run as CEO?

Mike: None.

Host: If you could build your field of dreams, which sport?

Mike: Baseball—for my boys.

Host: What was your sport?

Mike: Basketball. I’m short and I picked the wrong sport. I should’ve played football, but I didn’t.

Host: What time do you wake up?

Mike: Between 3:30 and 5:30 every day—even weekends. I don’t need an alarm clock. I set an alarm for 4:15 today and I was up at 3:30.

Host: David Robinson, Tim Duncan, or Victor Wembanyama?

Mike: Tim Duncan.

Host: Ice cream or cake?

Mike: Ice cream.

Host: That’s it—thanks for coming on.

Mike: Thank you guys. Pleasure.

Host: Pleasure.