Apex Linen Keeps Las Vegas in Fresh Sheets and Towels
July 3, 2014
LAS VEGAS, Nev., July 3, 2014 – 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, that means a lot of washables – from sheets and towels and terry cloth bathrobes, to service uniforms. Each day, the three-year old firm processes more than 100,000 pounds of laundry. And, every year, that number increases.
To handle the movement of laundry, four Peterbilt Model 337 medium duty tractors (hauling 38-and 53-foot trailers), and two 337 straight trucks with 28-foot box vans, deliver to the hotels and casinos in a 24/7 operation. The vehicles are on a full-service lease from Peterbilt Las Vegas, the local PacLease franchise. They join one other existing fleet truck.
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,” said Dramise. “But a lot of the hotels and casinos like to outsource all of their laundry needs. 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 new 90,000 square-foot laundry facility on the outskirts of Las Vegas.”
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 me concentrate on our laundry business,” Dramise said. “We didn’t want to own trucks, worry about paperwork or maintenance, or find replacement vehicles. And we didn’t want to be selling trucks later. We wanted our own private fleet, but we just didn’t want the headaches associated with ownership.”
Dramise found Roger Arriola and he found PacLease. “Roger and PacLease have always taken care of us,” Dramise said. “The Peterbilt equipment is just excellent and so is the service we receive from PacLease. We write one check a month and they handle everything.”
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,” said Dramise regarding having PacLease handle routine maintenance at the Apex facility. “This saves us a lot of time in shuttling vehicles and we know we’re always running properly maintained trucks,” Dramise said. “The last thing we would want is to have one of our trucks with a breakdown on the streets of Las Vegas. Image is everything in that town, so not only do we ensure we provide the area’s best service, but also we mirror that reputation with the trucks we operate. The Peterbilts are rolling billboards for us. We get comments all the time on how sharp our trucks are.”
In the city that never sleeps, the Peterbilt Model 337s deftly maneuver the streets of Las Vegas during all hours, and often pull into tight loading docks. “The maneuverability of the Peterbilts are just great,” said Dramise. “And the drivers really like the trucks. They’re very comfortable.”
The Peterbilt 337 tractors feature PACCAR PX-9 engines rated at 350-hp, while the box trucks run with the PACCAR PX-7 rated at 260 horses. Allison automatic transmissions were spec’d for the constant stop-and-go traffic. The Peterbilts are economical to run, getting more than 8 miles-per-gallon.
With 24-hour turnaround for linens and towels, and same-day return delivery for uniforms (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,” said Dramise. “We can’t miss pick-ups or deliveries and PacLease assures us that we’ll always be on schedule. They even have their service manager on call 24 hours a day should we need help. And if we were ever to need a replacement vehicle that’s built into our contract. PacLease comes through for us, which gives us great peace of mind.”
