American Traffic Safety Services Association
10
From the moment you step into Spivey Rentals, Inc., in Chesapeake, Va., the greetings are warm and
welcoming. While the summer season is the busiest time of the year for the company, which provides
roadway safety products and services throughout the state of Virginia and Northeast North Carolina,
the employees share a warm camaraderie and an occasional joke. Upon walking through the door,
Spivey customers can expect that same warmth with friendly, efficient service.
It’s evident that employees are valued at Spivey. A sheet cake is decorated with birthday wishes for a
long-time employee and ready to share at an opportune time—when the phones stop ringing or there’s
a slight lull in the workday (which doesn’t seem likely on this Monday morning). From working together
for so long, employees can tell you who has a birthday and the date without checking a calendar.
Spivey began as a portable toilet rental company by Warren Spivey in 1969. The company expanded
and, in 1976, Spivey’s brother, Dan, who drove his first truck delivering Porta-Potties when he was 16,
joined the team. Joyce Stone, office manager, and Larry Brown, shop foreman, have worked for Spivey
since 1980 and 1984 respectively. They’ve been around since Warren’s son, Evan, was born and reminisce
about how he would visit the office with his father. They’ve been part of his life from the time he went to
kindergarten to college to working together.
“As far back as I can remember, I’d come to Spivey with my dad,” said Evan Spivey, who has worked for
the company since 2004, and became its president a year ago. “I remember visiting some of the employees
here when I was in kindergarten, growing up in this business and eventually working for my dad.”
Evan attended Virginia Wesleyan College and graduated with a B.S. in social sciences.
Warren Spivey eventually saw a need for more than portable toilet rentals in the industry—he realized
the company could expand and meet many other demands of the roadway safety industry. The company
morphed into construction services, traffic control, disposal/recycling, custom traffic signs, safety and
special event rentals, while specializing in portable toilets. Branching out to other areas meant that
Spivey needed growing room, leading to an additional location. Today, the company employs about
90 people (up to 130 employees in the summer season) and is based in Chesapeake and Hampton, Va.
Considered a visionary, Warren Spivey saw the need for recycling before the
“green revolution” even started. This farsightedness led to the 2007 opening
of Spivey Disposal, the first material recovery facility in Hampton, Va., which
is located next to the newer rental office. As Hampton Roads’ leading hauler and
construction and demolition recycler, Spivey specializes in 20, 30 and 40-cubic-
yard, open-top containers for residential, commercial and industrial uses.
Long-time employees Joe McGowan, vice president of Spivey who oversees the
Hampton office, and Brian Wheeler, general manager of the disposal division and
material recovery, carried out Spivey’s vision of the business by designing,
overseeing construction and working to get the recovery facility—and the
Hampton office—“off the ground.”
For the past nine years, Mark Council, safety sales and sign manufacturer, has
worked for Spivey. He said every day brings new and exciting challenges. On this
mid-August day, Council was preparing for a grueling schedule for the week
ahead, where he and his team would be installing and repairing attenuators on the
busiest highways in the region, I-495 and I-95 in Virginia. Council, who is also the
Virginia ATSSA Chapter president, pointed out a wall in the facility that consisted
of a daunting list of jobs Spivey is responsible for each day.
Spivey Rentals, Inc., Combining
Quality Products and Excellent
Customer Service Since 1969
MEMBER COMPANY
NEWS
Mark Council, safety sales and sign
manufacturer for Spivey Rentals, Inc., is at the
company’s Chesapeake, Va., location. He has
worked for Spivey for the past nine years.
