Seventeen years after joining Republic Services, Ralph Sauceda now leads our company’s fleet and heavy equipment management functions as Vice President of Fleet Management. Ralph is an accomplished leader with extensive experience facilitating growth, delivering exceptional results, and leading long-term transformation strategies – all while keeping the safety of our employees and the community his top priority. Here, we find out what makes him most excited about his job, what advice he would give to someone interested in his line of work, and how his team is preparing for the upcoming ROAD-EO National Championship!
Kicking off, can you give us any interesting facts and figures about Republic’s fleet?
Republic Services has over 17,600 waste & recycle collection trucks, and over 8,500 rolling assets on the Environmental Solutions business. Our Post Collections business is supported by over 3,300 assets of yellow iron. What is even more interesting is that they are maintained by over 3,000 Republic Services maintenance technicians.
With almost two decades at Republic Services, what do you consider to be your greatest accomplishments?
With nearly 20 years at Republic Services, my greatest accomplishments have been those where I had the opportunity to lead successful sustainability initiatives that directly contributed to the company’s growth and profitability. Some of those examples include the merger migration of National Accounts from Houston, TX to headquarters, the building of six Republic Services Compacter Service Centers, and the ACV/US Ecology acquisitions and integrations. In addition, mentoring and developing teams and individuals has been the most inspiring part of my career with Republic Services.
How do you foster our value of Safe within your team?
Safety has always been our top priority, and I can remember this back to my first day with Republic Services. One thing that I learned early on from my leaders and mentors is that you must lead by example with safety. This lays the foundation to creating a culture within our own teams where safety is our top priority and always top of mind. We must create an environment of open communication and encourage feedback to ensure team members feel comfortable raising issues with safety. This leads to employees feeling empowered to create a safe environment.
We know your team is working on getting the courses ready for the ROAD-EO National Championship on February 18. Can you tell us a little about what goes into preparing for this exciting event?
The ROAD-EO is something that everyone looks forward to every year, whether it is our local championships or our National Championships. Preparation for the National Championships starts over a year in advance and most of the credit needs to go to our field teams and leaders. Local ROAD-EOs must be scheduled and executed with precision for our national event to be successful. As the time gets closer to the event it becomes an all-hands-on-deck event. From our chief judges preparing the judging and course equipment, the fleet team preparing asset and technician courses, procurement securing our vendor partners and assets, to our marketing and communications teams preparing transportation, schedules, driver jerseys, food, and so much more. We are very lucky to have such talented employees involved in this event. It is because of all of them that our ROAD-EO National Championship is the event of the year,
If someone was interested in joining your team, what are some things you’d look for in a potential hire?
What is great about our Fleet department is that we have a variety of positions. Some do require fleet experience, some yellow iron experience, others an understanding of fleet maintenance. Yet just like many other positions at Republic Services we also have roles that do not require fleet specific experience. We have data analysts, warranty analysts and with MPower rolling out, we have some positions that will be on our Enterprise Asset Management side of the business. In short, whether you have fleet, industry, or analytical skills we have a role for you.
What is the most gratifying part of your job?
The most gratifying part of my job would have to be knowing that what all of our employees are doing day in and day out makes a difference in our customers’ lives.