INSIDE

Stumpos’ companies selling world-wide from Point Roberts

by Meg Olson

The Stumpo’s Point Roberts home appears to be no more than that - a nice house. But in one room of that house the couple run a pair of companies, each with a handful of subsidiaries, serving clients across the country and around the world.

In 1993, David Stumpo looked back on 20 years in the public transit sector and looked for ways to use his experience and industry contacts to earn a living in his slippers. After having worked on transit systems in Dallas, San Francisco and Philadelphia, he was hired as the chief executive officer (CEO) for Coast Mountain Bus company in Vancouver B.C., better known as B.C. Transit. Several years earlier he had founded American Development and Consultants (ADAC) and started developing programs to help transit companies and their employees. “It was eight years of research and development before American Public Transit Exams Institute (APTREX) went live,” Stumpo said, and in 2002 he was out on his own.

APTREX, the first of the ADAC subsidiaries, is an accredited professional certification program for managers in the transit field, “from front-line foremen all the way to CEO,” Stumpo said. The company now has satellite offices in Maryland and Singapore, which process applications and distribute training material, serving bus systems in several major U.S. metropolitan areas and branching out into southeast Asia. Stumpo said the growing need for security in transit systems has increased demand for the program. “You can’t even take the test without going through a multi-part application process,” he said.

Stumpo said his primary role today is legislative, lobbying to make certification mandatory for transit managers. “Operators can’t work unless they’re certified, mechanics can’t work unless they’re certified, but managers don’t need anything.”

While Stumpo was developing transit programs through ADAC, he kept running into products that solved a problem for transit companies, but didn’t seem to be reaching that market. In 2002, he and his wife Jenny Fang-Stumpo founded a new company, Tran Cert Marketing, to help market the first of those - Enviro-Save Metal Treatment Products.

“This is not an oil treatment or gold pixie dust that you spread over things every once in a while,” Stumpo said. “This is a true one-time metal treatment.” The treatment is a friction-reducing resin poured into an engine’s fluid systems and allowed to penetrate components. “It’s in the Guiness Book of World Records as the most friction-reducing thing on the planet and that’s the secret ingredient,” Stumpo said. “It absolutely doubles the life of the equipment.” The product is used in everything from Stumpo’s Cadillac to the buses in Vancouver and Canadian Coast Guard boats, Stumpo said. “We do a lot of fleets,” he said. The product is also for sale to private car owners through retailers and Stumpo said he uses it in his own vehicles. “A product that we sell we truly believe in,” he said. “If you can’t believe in it, you can’t sell it. Our guarantee is if you don’t see results you don’t pay and we don’t have any claims.” The resin used in Enviro-Save products to treat engines has also been adapted to fix scratches in compact discs and keep dental equipment running smoothly. “There are 450,000 applications of our product worldwide,” Stumpo said. Enviro-Save is available through the company’s website at www.envirosave.us or by calling 866/945-3800.

The next product to join Tran-Cert’s line also has a background in transit systems - Col-Met metal landscape edging. “Transit is more than buses. It’s bus stops and transit centers - lots of landscaping,” Stumpo said. “I know this product from use. You can basically drive your car over it.” Like Enviro-Save in his cars, Stumpo uses the edging in his Point Roberts yard.

Stumpo said they will continue to add products to the Tran-Cert line. “We get companies calling us all the time,” he said. As their businesses grow, the Stumpos don’t think they will need anything more than their home office on the Point to keep them running smoothly, relying on partnerships, satellite offices and modern technology.

“All I need is a good airport at my back door,” Stumpo said.

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