Based in College Station, Texas, Brazos WiFi is a relatively new company that supplies fiber to homes in rural areas helping facilitate internet access. James “Jim” Bouse founded the company because he noticed there weren’t many other companies in the market providing internet options to rural areas.
Filling a Need in Brazos County
Working in heavy construction the majority of his life, he had experience with many equipment vendors. However, his biggest challenge in launching this company was his level of knowledge in this specialized area of installing utility lines underground. Good thing for Bouse, Vermeer Texas-Louisiana specializes in supporting the underground utility installation industry.
So, to help Brazos WiFi overcome this challenge, Bouse met with Patrick Rothrock, Vermeer Texas-Louisiana sales representative in Cypress, for a consultation. After testing out several competitive machines, he purchased a smaller Vermeer D10x15 horizontal directional drill. As his company grew, he realized that the D10x15 was too small for some of the other larger projects he wanted to work on, so he added the bigger Vermeer D20x22 S3 horizontal directional drill. His fleet now includes a Vactron LP573XDT, a Yanmar excavator and several Vermeer HDD tools and accessories.
Bouse’s relationship with Rothrock has grown and evolved over the two short years they’ve been working together. Rothrock and Travis Rigsby, who was the HDD Tooling Specialist at Vermeer Cypress, both spent time with Bouse and his team helping them learn about soil conditions, rock types and how to use the equipment and mixing materials more effectively.
“Patrick was really great about coming out and spending a day to help educate us and overcome those challenges,” Bouse remarked.
Partnering with a sales representative who is also a product expert has proved beneficial for Bouse. He said, “I guarantee you he (Rothrock) has saved us weeks of downtime. He gets the right information to parts guys and has even delivered parts to us.” Bouse and his team have also utilized the Vermeer Cypress service department to aid in the company’s success. “They have fixed equipment overnight so we can go to work the next day. All of this has saved me thousands upon thousands of dollars,” Bouse continued.
When asked how he assigns that value, he specifically shared that his relationship with Rothrock as a conduit to getting the right parts and efficient services from the Vermeer Cypress branch helps avoid having to use contractors. “I mean, there’s nothing wrong with using contractors. It’s just that if I do, I’d be paying about $4 a foot to get product in the ground whereas when my team does it, it costs half that. When you’re installing 40,000 of more feet a month, Patrick has basically helped us saved thousands of dollars or 50%. Having the Vermeer network is invaluable,” Bouse explained.
Rothrock’s help in filling the knowledge gap for Brazos WiFi has enabled Bouse to productively assist in supplying a need for his customers in Brazos County. That’s what we a Vermeer Texas-Louisiana like to call a win-win! We really are all in this together.
Visit Brazos Wifi online at brazoswifi.com or on Facebook @BrazosWiFi.
