Midland Walkie Talkies Improve Efficiency at Salvage Yard

Many businesses use walkie talkies for efficient communication between staff members, saving precious time and resources every day. We talked to Logan Smith of Midway Auto in Kansas City about how he and his team use Midland radios to improve their workplace communication.

Can you describe your operation?

We are a 10-acre self-service/full-service salvage yard. We recycle and sell auto parts to the public. We buy cars on a daily basis. The process starts with the buying department, they purchase the vehicles and set up logistics to have them towed to our various properties. Vehicles are then checked in, which means they are photographed, inventoried, and moved to a location with heavy machinery awaiting to be processed. Processing means we drain vehicles of all fluids and move to the self-service yard, where customers can pull parts.

Each vehicle has a specific location, and has to be coordinated with the office, salesman, and the machine operators. The full service yard is where we fulfill orders for insurance, mechanical shops, and public. We have a crew of employees that locate, pull parts, ship parts, and crush vehicles.

Once these vehicles are in the yard for 60 to 90 days, we move the vehicles to the crusher. The crushed vehicles are then loaded into a semi and taken to a metal recycling center.

Which Midland walkie talkies do you use at Midway Auto?

We have several sets of the Midland LXT630. I purchased these because they were highly rated and because of their bright yellow color. Things tend to get easily lost in salvage yards. I also like the fact the batteries last throughout the entire work day. At the end of the day we simply put them on the charger and the next day they are ready to go again.

How do you use the walkie talkies?

Employees can communicate questions, locations, or problems without leaving the work area or machinery which saves time. When our machine operators/parts-pullers are locating cars or need a part deleted off the vehicle they are working on, they can call into the office to let the office staff know, instead of getting out of the machinery and coming into the office. The office can also let the machine operators know if parts have been cancelled, or have been added which also saves time.

When we close in the evening, we have to run the yard to make sure all customers are out. We use the walkie talkies to communicate with the office until everyone is out. The machine operators are not allowed to use their cell phones in the equipment, so the radios work great with communication. The radios provide us with enough range within all 10 acres of our facility.

Have the walkie talkies helped with overall efficiency?

Yes, employees no longer need to get out of machinery to communicate with the office or coordinate with other employees in the yard. There were some times where when we were in the office we would have to get in a vehicle just to track down the employee using the machinery. With the walkie talkies we can communicate with them with the push of a button.

Do you plan to continue using Midland walkie talkies?

Absolutely. The walkie talkies have made us a more professional company. We are now much quicker at providing excellent customer service.

You can find out more about Midway Auto's many services on their website.