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PETROLEUM DIRECTORY: Vital support services Doyon Universal Services’ human support and security services underpin business operations Alan Bailey Petroleum News Contributing Writer
Top among the keys to success for any business are the comfort, safety and well being of its personnel. Without good food and accommodations, for example, morale drops and productivity suffers.
Doyon Universal Services LLC has established a long history of providing meals, housekeeping services and light maintenance at remote work sites. The company has also become a top-tier provider of professional security services. Started in 1946 “The company started in Alaska in 1946 ... under the name of Universal Services,” Mark Huber, vice president of Doyon Universal Services, told Petroleum News.
Originally founded to support the burgeoning military presence in Alaska after World War II, the company grew to become an international provider of human support services for a variety of industries. With its international expansion and following the sale of the company to a new owner, the company headquarters moved to Seattle in the late 1980s.
In 1992 Universal Services formed a joint venture with Doyon Ltd., one of the 13 Alaska regional Native corporations, to provide services in Alaska. On Sept. 1 of this year, the joint venture company became Doyon Universal Services LLC.
“Previously we’ve been limited geographically to the state of Alaska by our joint venture agreement,” Huber said. “Under our new LLC agreement that geographic restriction has been removed.”
The company employs some 700 people, providing catering, security and maintenance support services to industries that include oil and gas, construction and mining. Many of the company’s employees are Alaska Natives. Food for remote sites Supporting work sites that lie off the road system and perhaps hundreds of miles from the nearest store, has remained a core business for the company over the years.
And food is probably the most obvious morale booster in these remote places — Doyon Universal Service serves about 6,000 meals each day in Alaska. The company takes pride in the variety of meals that it prepares and its ability to serve almost any dish at any location.
“Our chefs and our culinary staff are very creative and do a wonderful job of both preparing and presenting food that is exciting, has variety and meets the needs of the people ... and I think that’s what sets us apart and keeps us successful,” Huber said.
And with people becoming increasingly health conscious, menus accommodate a variety of dietary needs and requests. The company employs a full-time nutritionist who works with the chefs to develop menus and deal with dietary issues.
Menus now include entrees that support the Atkins and South Beach diets and the company promotes a healthy heart program.
“Of the three entrees we’ll serve over the course of a meal one of those entrees will be low fat and low sodium,” Huber said. Logistics The executive chef at each site establishes a five-week menu cycle and prepares a weekly grocery order. Doyon Universal Services’ logistics team picks up these orders and arranges to have all the food delivered on time and in top-notch condition.
“In the almost 60 years that we’ve been operating here in Alaska we have become experts in how to bring sensitive product ... to remote environments,” Huber said.
Huber sees this logistical operation as a huge benefit to customers — companies who specialize in engineering, for example, don’t have to deal with buying supplies or worry about how to move fresh meat to a site.
“Our clients who show up for a meal in a food line never have to worry about how those nice bright red fresh tomatoes on their salad got to that location in the condition that they did,” Huber said.
In fact the company’s food and logistics operations have become so successful that the company now provides retail catering services in Anchorage and Fairbanks.
The company also provides general logistics services for customers. As well as transporting people, the logistics operation can ship perishable products and virtually any kind of human support supplies. The company also freights items such as paperwork, mail and laundry back from remote sites into town. Maintenance and housekeeping Light maintenance, janitorial and housekeeping services also underpin life in both remote sites and city offices. Doyon Universal Services carries out a wide range of maintenance and upkeep duties ranging from maintaining HVAC systems to keeping the plumbing working and making beds.
“People take these things for granted ... until they turn the hot water faucet and there isn’t any hot water,” Huber said.
The company places strong emphasis on sanitation and trains staff appropriately. Simple actions like cleaning door handles when maintaining shared living areas help ensure a hygienic living environment. Recent problems with virus outbreaks on cruise ships have highlighted this problem.
In recognition of its safety and sanitation programs and results, Doyon Universal Services has received the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation’s Gold Star certificate for all of the company’s work sites The Gold Star certification recognizes the achievement of the highest standard of sanitation and food safety. Security services Security has become a major service line for Doyon Universal Services.
“It’s physical security — providing the manning, the security presence on the ground, as well as security assessments, security systems design,” Huber said.
Doyon Universal Services specializes in the high-caliber security required for critical infrastructure, including oil and gas facilities, power plants, water supplies and transportation infrastructure. For example, the company provides protection for the trans-Alaska pipeline, the Valdez Marine Terminal and the Port of Anchorage.
..New Coast Guard and homeland security regulations for all forms of transportation have placed a plethora of new security requirements on port operators. Doyon Universal Services maintains a high level of expertise in the regulations and can help operators perform security assessments and formulate security plans.
“We’re the ideal company to come to and we’ve done a lot of that work for ports around the state for the past two years,” Huber said.
The company can also provide professional fire fighting services and operates the fire brigade at the Valdez Marine Terminal. Depth of expertise Doyon Universal Service’s expertise in protecting critical infrastructure depends on a cadre of highly experienced and well-trained security experts. The company’s security director, for example, has 25 years of experience that includes service in law enforcement, the FBI and the military.
“I think our security management team is certainly foremost in the security industry in the state of Alaska,” Huber said.
Each of the company’s security officers comes with some level of medical qualification, ranging from emergency trauma technician to full qualifications as a paramedic. These qualifications enable the officers to provide first response in a medical emergency.
“So there’s additional value added for the security professionals that we send to a job site — it’s not just that they’re solely focused on security,” Huber said. Safety In whatever services it provides, Doyon Universal Services makes safety a top priority. The company instills safety awareness in all of its employees through safety programs, safety meetings, safety audits and safety analysis.
“From a company standpoint, there’s no responsibility that’s larger,” Huber said. “There’s nothing more important to us than providing a safe work environment for our employees.”
And safety is like most aspects of human services and security: you don’t notice it until something goes wrong. Huber recalls one customer commenting on the importance of the cook at a remote camp. If someone in a work crew sleeps in there’s some impact on the work, the customer said. But if the cook sleeps in the whole operation is in trouble.
“Our work is on display 24 hours a day, seven days a week,” Huber said.
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