Bestway Container Services

'OUR STORY'

-As told by local author, Brett W. Gould

The year was 1949.

Frank Schuster decided it was time to start his own business.

Frank Schuster Hauling.

He purchased a dump-truck and started making rounds throughout the Village of Westfield.  This was long before actual garbage bags even existed, and tin was the only recycled product.

Frank would load the truck to the top, and head off to Mayville…to a pig farm.

Yup…you read that right. 

Why a pig farm?

Everything Frank was hauling was 100% food waste.  If people had any paper waste they simply burned it.  And as the story goes, neighborhood dogs would chase Frank’s truck on the way to the pig farm, hoping to get some of the product Frank had on board.

In the mid-1960’s Frank’s son, Ray, started helping his dad in the family business. By 1978-79 Ray took over the day to day operations after 30 years of Frank building a very successful family business.

Along with the next generation came a name change.

Westfield Disposal.

Frank’s other son, Brad, had caught the family business bug too.  
Brad had branched out and started his own company in the Fredonia area. 

Brad’s Disposal.

And in 1982-83 the two disposal services merged, creating one large family run business that serviced customers all throughout Chautauqua County.

They kept the Westfield Disposal name, and adopted the brown and orange colors you still see today. Brown had always been one of their colors, and Ray liked the “safety-orange” look.  So they kept some old, added a little new, and voila!

But that still leaves one question unanswered…

How did the company get its current name?

Equal parts necessity and nostalgia.

The necessity part came as a result of the Schusters selling their very successful business, and later missing it so much that they decided to jump back into the container service business again.

The nostalgia part came from a friendship that lasted decades. 

Brad was in need of an upgrade for his truck fleet, and he came into contact with a man from Rochester, NY named Bob Roth.  What was initially nothing more than a transaction turned out to become a life-long friendship.

Brad and Bob stayed in touch over the years…Bob serving as a mentor of sorts.

And as the years wore on, Brad would come to learn that his friend, colleague and mentor was very ill.  It had gotten so bad that when Bob came to visit, Brad initially didn’t recognize him.  Brad walked right past Bob in a crowded restaurant not knowing it was him.

And on that day as Bob continued to give Brad any last pointers he could think of, Brad made a request.  
Actually…it was more of a statement.

Near the end, the two friends sat in a car talking, knowing it may be the last time they would see one another.  They reminisced, they laughed…and when it was time to go, tears would come.

Brad simply leaned over, shook Bob’s hand, and said…

“I can think of no better way to honor our friendship, than to carry on your name”.

Bob’s business in Rochester was called…

You guessed it…

BestWay.

Brad came home to discuss the idea with his brother and business partner, Ray. They quickly agreed that would indeed become the name of their business.  And that is why you now see the orange and brown trucks all over Chautauqua County carrying the name, BestWay.

And it turns out BestWay isn’t just the name of their business.

It was and remains to this day a reminder that to honor past friendships is to serve their current and future customers the only way the Schuster family has ever known how to…

The BestWay.

Sure, as you hear the name it’s a reminder of who you should have hauling your trash…but it’s also 
the promise of how you will always be treated by the Schuster family and their employees.

The only way you ever should be…

The BestWay.