Experience makes the difference at Birmingham Tank Wash

DON PUCKETT says an experienced team is what makes Birmingham Tank Wash stand out from the competition. Specifically, he points to the more than 100 years of combined tank cleaning experience that he and his team bring to the operation.

That depth of experience gives the Bessemer, Alabama-based wash rack the ability to clean a wide range of chemical products. Perhaps most importantly, the team has the experience and skills needed to develop customized approaches to specific customer needs.

“We have excellent people at this company who care about our customers and their businesses, and we do everything we can to help our customers with their tank cleaning needs,” Puckett says. “We have been blending our own cleaning solutions since the 1990s, and we built our own wash system to meet the specific needs of customers in our area. For instance, we built a de-ionized rinse system for some of our customers.”

Puckett was hired to manage the wash rack when it was built in 1990, and he bought it in 1996. By 2000, the company had expanded from a two-acre tank cleaning location to a nine-acre facility with a 9,000-sq-ft vehicle maintenance and repair shop.

In 2005, Birmingham Tank Wash began an expansion that would take the existing three-bay wash rack to four full-service bays and a wastewater treatment system. The expansion included a large driver’s lounge, men’s and women’s showers, and office space to accommodate carriers needing a location in the central Alabama region.

Going forward, Puckett and his team have begun planning a liquid and dry bulk transload location at the nine-acre site. “It’s part of our long-range plan to offer a full range of services to the tank truck carriers and shippers,” he says. “We have an ideal location with access to three railroads—Norfolk Southern, CSX, and Birmingham. We’ll begin working on the transloading project as the economy improves.”