Graders
The eighteen checks, every container, under good light. A grader's call sets the price, the path and the paperwork — and they are the person who meets the load when it arrives.
Our story / the crew
Nine people, no sales department
The person who answers your email is the person who will grade, wash, rebuild or haul your containers. That is deliberate.
- Sheet
- 20
- Revision
- 2026-10
- Scale
- 1:1
- Drawn at
- Peoria IL
Nine people, six jobs, one yard
We are not going to put stock photography on this page. Here is what the people who touch your containers actually do all day.
Wash bay operators
Cycle selection, caustic handling, pH verification and the recovery loop. They are also the ones who refuse a tote that should not be washed.
Rebottling techs
Teardown, cage jig work, gasket and valve fitting, leak testing. The highest-skill job in the yard and the one that saves the most containers.
Fabricator
Cutting, bulkheads, manifolds, insulation, branding. Reads napkin sketches for a living and has never once complained about it.
Drivers
The standing lanes. They strap loads like the containers are their own, because the damage rate comes out of the yard's numbers.
Answering email
There is no sales department. The person who answers your question is the person who will handle your containers.
What we look for, in order
- Willingness to say 'I don't know, let me look' instead of guessing at a grade.
- Physical care with other people's property — a scratched cage is somebody's money.
- Writing clearly enough that a customer email does not need a follow-up.
- Curiosity about where the material goes. The crew knows which moulder buys our regrind.
- Forklift certification, or the willingness to earn it in the first month.
Hiring now?
We post openings on the Peoria job boards and hire locally, year round, for wash bay and yard roles. Send a note through the form with 'crew' in the message field.
What nine people actually do between 7am and 5pm
| Time | Intake & grading | Wash bay | Rebottling | Fab bay | Drivers |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 06:40 | Pad swept, lights on | Sump levels checked | — | — | Pre-trip inspection |
| 07:00 | First truck unloaded | First cycle loaded | Teardown starts | Cut list for the day | On the road |
| 09:00 | Grading line running | Cycle 2 recirculating | Cage jig work | Bulkheads and ports | First stop |
| 11:00 | Photo review, disputes | pH verification | Leak testing | Welding and polishing | Second stop |
| 13:00 | Afternoon intake | Cycle 3 food releases | Rebuild and re-mark | Assembly | Return leg loading |
| 15:00 | Outbound count sheets | Bay washdown | Rack and release | Photos to customers | Back at the gate |
| 16:30 | Records closed out | Filters checked | Bench cleaned | Tomorrow's cut list | Post-trip, fuel |
- Containers graded per hour
- 15–25 per grader, 2–4 minutes each
- Wash cycles per bay per day
- 8–11 depending on cycle type
- Rebottles per day
- About 35 across two techs
- Fab bay output
- 8–12 builds a day in season
- Forklift travel
- Roughly 11 miles a day across the yard
- Emails answered
- 40–90 a day, by the people doing the work
What everybody here is trained on
- Forklift certification within the first month, refreshed every three years. Non-negotiable, including for office staff who move a pallet twice a year.
- Chemical handling and SDS reading for anybody who opens a container — which is everybody on the pad.
- Caustic handling, neutralisation and pH verification for the wash bay, with annual refresher.
- Spill response: every truck carries a kit, every bay has one, and we run the drill twice a year.
- The refusal list. Every member of staff can stop a load, and nobody has ever been questioned for doing it.
- Lifting and handling. A 275 is 126 lb empty and 2,420 lb full, and the yard is laid out so nobody needs to lift either.
Anybody can stop a load
A driver, a grader or a wash bay operator can refuse an inbound load on their own judgement. It costs us revenue a few times a year and it is the single most important rule in the building.
Nobody opens an undeclared container
If the paperwork does not name what is inside, the container goes to quarantine, not to a bay. The person next to it is the one taking the risk, so they are the one who decides.
Two graders when it is close
Any container where odour or staining decides the outcome gets a second opinion. Ninety seconds, and it removed our most-disputed check.
Do you hire without experience?
Yes, for yard and wash bay roles, and we hire locally. Grading and rebottling are promoted from inside, because both depend on having handled a few thousand containers.
Who will I actually be emailing?
A grader, usually the one who will meet your load. For fabrication enquiries it is the fabricator; for compliance questions it is the yard manager.
Is the yard unionised?
No. Pay is posted, overtime is paid at time and a half, and nobody is paid on volume or commission — which matters because it is why the refusal list works.