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Snapshot
- Industry served: Gulf Coast petrochemical
- Response window: 48 hours
- Equipment staged: approximately 125 roll-off boxes
- Time on rent: 22 months
A process that upset a longtime Gulf Coast chemical partner sent product into parts of the facility it was never meant to reach. The contamination was severe enough to force a three-month shutdown, with lost production running at roughly $1 million per day. The material had to come out of the system quickly, and roll-off boxes were the only containers that could handle the volume.
The challenge
When a chemical facility calls in a containment emergency, there is no time for scoping meetings or purchase order negotiations. Every hour that contaminated product sits in the wrong part of the system compounds the shutdown, and shutdown time at a plant of this scale runs into the millions per day.
The customer’s directive was one sentence: start bringing boxes and do not stop until we tell you to. No box count was specified, no end date was given, and no cap was placed on scope. That kind of open-ended instruction only gets issued to a partner the customer already trusts to execute at speed and settle the details later.
For IRONCLAD Powered by Mersino, the clock started with that call. The staging plan came together in real time, on the road, and on the phone.
The response
Ironclad staged roughly 125 roll-off boxes at the site within 48 hours. Equipment came in from branches across the country, not just the Gulf Coast, and we activated our third-party hauler network to move that volume at speed. The responding branch went all hands on deck for the first four to five days. A standing weekly meeting with the customer ran for the next 18 months to track cost, active rentals, and disposal progress.
Why Ironclad could deliver
Three factors made the response possible.
An 18-plus year customer relationship meant trust was already in place when the call came in. There was no ramp-up period, no vendor evaluation, and no debate over urgency. The customer knew who to call, and Ironclad knew how to move.
The largest rental fleet on the Gulf Coast made the volume physically possible. Staging 125 boxes at a single site in 48 hours requires inventory depth that most rental providers cannot match.
A national hauler network meant equipment could move in from multiple states rather than being capped by regional inventory. When one branch ran dry, another branch became the source.
The outcome
Boxes stayed on rent for 22 months while the customer worked through disposal options. The customer’s posture after the response shifted from scrutiny to closer collaboration. The partnership has since expanded to additional sites, and Ironclad remains the customer’s first call for emergency response.
“It’s the middle of the night calls. It’s the emergency calls that we have enough fleet and people to handle. When you get somebody out of a bind and you can ease their mind during an emergency…” – Dustin Lacaze, Outside Sales Representative
Ready when you are
Emergency response is not a service you shop for after the alarm goes off. It is a partnership you build before you need it. To learn how Ironclad can support your facility when the unexpected happens, contact our emergency response team.
