It can be easy to forget about logistical details like trailer organization when focusing on big picture tasks. But one quick way to stall progress is to get to a project site and not have the equipment needed to get the job done. For many contractors, keeping a routine inventory of trailer equipment is a necessity to prevent those kinds of slip-ups.

“It’s one of those ‘inspect what you expect’ things,” says Travis Jinright, general manager for Russell Landscape in Sugar Hill, Georgia. “As a management team, if you’re not keeping your eyes on the crews on a daily and weekly basis, that’s when things start to slip.”

Keeping tabs.

E.A. Quinn Landscape in Glastonbury, Connecticut, utilizes a numbering system to keep tabs on its 12 trailers and equipment. Each truck or trailer has a unit number, and each piece of equipment has the truck or trailer number printed on it or etched into the plastic. Periodically, the management team checks in with the foreman to make sure all of the tools are in their possession, says Scott Pinney, landscape maintenance manager.

“It’s important to stay organized with even the smallest of tools,” Pinney says. “If you have a V-nose trailer, make sure there is shelving to keep the small stuff like mix oils, oils for mowers and spill kits in case of hydraulic leak on a mower.”

Similarly, Complete Landsculpture in Dallas has been tracking inventory with numbers for more than 10 years. A manager manually inputs data into Excel spreadsheets, and a fleet management software system tracks and analyzes the details, Vice President Gene Freeman says.

“The fleet management system sum totals it, so we know that we have 48 push mowers and 32 weed eaters and 70 shovels, etc. If we need to transfer a piece of equipment over, it is easy to do and still know where we’re at when we have the same quantity of equipment at all times,” Freeman says.

The fleet management system also allows Freeman to track how much the company is spending on repairs for each piece of equipment, as well as to isolate which crew members used that equipment to identify any potential equipment abuse. Later this year, the company plans to implement a digital barcode system to further expedite and simplify inventory management for its 20 trailers and the equipment inside them, Freeman says.

“Each piece of equipment would get its own barcode, and you would take your phone and scan it to know exactly where the equipment is at all times. The trailer will also have a barcode on it that you can scan, and it will give you an inventory of everything that should be in that truck. You can quickly look and see your machines and your sprayers, blowers and weed eaters,” he says.

The barcode system will cost about $10,000 for both the software and the implementation, which Freeman expects to take a few days. There is also a monthly fee that varies based on the amount of equipment and selected features, Freeman says.

Inside trailers.

Beyond equipment counts, the physical organization of that equipment on the trailers is important for contractors to manage. Having a standardized setup fleet-wide can keep crew members efficient and interchangeable, Jinright says.

“There was a time a couple of years ago when we noticed that not all of the trucks were being set up the same way, so we made it more of a focus so that if crewman A goes to work on crew B, everything should be in the same spot and he doesn’t have to ask somebody where to get the weed eater or the weed eater string,” he says.

Inside the trailers at E.A. Quinn Landscape, easy track is mounted to the wall to store blowers, string trimmers and other items so the only equipment on the floor should be the mowers, Pinney says.

“For our maintenance crews, the enclosed trailers or enclosed box trucks are self-sustaining, mini-businesses on the road. We really like utilizing 30-gallon fuel tanks inside the trailers so you aren’t carrying around a bunch of gas cans. The mowers pull right into the trailer and you can fill right off the tank,” he says.

In the past, a majority of their trailers were open trailers that had to be loaded every morning and unloaded every night, Pinney says.

“That’s a lot of wasted time. The company realized that if everything was enclosed, nothing has to be taken out of the trailer or trucks every night and everything is ready for the next day,” he says.

As a result, their open trailers are now used for hauling large construction equipment like skid-steers and excavators. For Jinright, however, open trailers are preferred because they are more versatile for maneuvering palettes of sod or rock in and out.

“If you’re not keeping your eyes on the crews on a daily and weekly basis, that’s when things start to slip.” Travis Jinright, general manager, Russell Landscape

Keep up on maintenance.

A logical way for contractors to work in an inventory check is to do so each time their vehicles need servicing. Every morning, Jinright’s foremen check a few things: if the check engine lights are on; if any lights are out; if oil or coolants are low; if there is excessive wear on the tires; and if there are any broken windshields, wiper blades or side mirrors. The managers will then check the trucks to make sure crews have all the equipment they will need, including a fire extinguisher and first-aid kit. Every evening, the equipment is checked in to make sure nothing was lost or stolen during the day, Jinright says.

The most common trailer maintenance issues tend to be related to tires and electrical connections or deteriorating wood flooring. While trucks and trailers will typically last contractors many years, vehicles with recurring maintenance issues may signal when it’s time to selectively retire certain vehicles.

When upgrading, contractors may want to consider the logistics when it comes to vehicle maintenance. Jinright found out the hard way that certain designs could make servicing the engine difficult.

“We had a seal around the radiator break in our parking lot and cause the radiator to puncture. With the design of the (trailer), you have to remove the entire cab to get to the radiator. We are looking for easier access, whether it’s a hydraulic lift or something like that where the cab can be tilted forward to get to the engine and all of its components,” he says.

Looking forward.

Improvements in truck and trailer features may provide an enticing reason to upgrade vehicles in your fleet. For instance, Freeman hopes to move away from wood flooring that is prone to rotting and replacing it with a synthetic material that is lightweight enough not to add anything to the gas mileage consumption.

Freeman also hopes to upgrade to vehicles with safety features like slow-release hinges so that when crews are opening the tailgates, they aren’t supporting the whole weight and risking injury.

“We are always looking for efficiencies; for a better mousetrap,” he says.

The author is a freelance writer based in Kentucky.

In the service industry, your website is your storefront these days. But more than telling your potential customers about your services and prices, your site is a way to introduce your company and what it’s all about.

“Most people, when they’re looking for a landscaper, even if it’s through a referral, are going to go to your website,” says Paul Maskill, operations manager at Just Green Lawn & Landscaping in Raleigh, North Carolina.

Just Green’s plan was to tell the company’s story, not just prices and services. “We really want to show the value of what we do and how it’s going to save customers time, why we’re different from other people and kind of tell people who we are from that standpoint,” Maskill says.

Matt Hayko, president of Complete Lawn Care & Landscaping in Dale, Indiana, launched his first website five years ago and says it’s a night-and-day difference. He puts it this way: “I wanted (my site) to tell a little bit about who we are and what we’re trying to achieve – things like that,” he says. “Why should I spend a bunch of time telling people I landscape and I mow grass when the name of the company is Complete Lawn Care and Landscaping?”

Steve Scanlon, owner of Scanlon’s Lawn & Landscape in Fair Haven, New Jersey, wanted to create a snapshot of his services as well as show that he’s been at it for more than 35 years. He also wanted to highlight the quality of his work, so he set out to get testimonials.

“I basically went through my whole database, saw who had Gmail, and so I was able to get testimonials on Google, which was cool. And then I was able to use those same ones on my website,” he says, adding that he got some through reliable clients who didn’t have Gmail as well.

He also included an elevator pitch to give first-time visitors an idea of what his company does and how long they’ve been doing it.

And it’s paying off. The site only went live over the winter but he’s already getting traffic to the site and finding customers who have told him they read the testimonials and felt more confident in hiring him because of them.

Think about your design.

Just Green wanted to give customers the impression that their services will make their homes somewhere they want to come at the end of the day. “Our goal is that we’re taking care of their lawn while they’re at work and when they come home it’s like, ‘Oh, that’s really nice and I can enjoy it on the weekends,’” Maskill says.

Scanlon’s No. 1 priority was making the website easy to navigate. When he launched his website, he originally had some more content on the homepage, but after speaking with his future brother-in-law, he decided to clean it up.

He started with a template on Wix.com and edited it to the point where he was happy with it. “If you saw what I started with and what’s live now, they look nothing alike,” he says. “That’s because the site’s so easy to use and I’ve edited it like crazy.”

Maskill also did all of the design himself after he got Just Green out of a contract with a third party. “Definitely avoid signing a contract,” he says. “I say that because even then when the contract is up, if you want to keep the website, for instance a 12-month contract is up, then they charge you like $1,000 if you want to keep the website.”

He came into the project looking at the website as an outsider, thinking about what he would want to see on a landscaper’s website. He started looking at other landscaper’s websites and thinking about the user experience.

“A lot of times, that’s going to be their first impression of your company, so we wanted to make that a good one,” he says.

Don’t wait to get started.

All three landscapers we spoke with said their websites were up and running in about six weeks, but they’re still a work in progress. Hayko and Scanlon both redid their websites over the winter, and so they’re planning to take more photos over the summer to add to the sites.

“We did this in the winter when the grass was dormant and everything like that, so I didn’t want to go out taking pictures then of the projects that we’d done when it wasn’t the quality that I want,” Hayko says. “So, we’re going to be updating it and it’s really under construction still. I just wanted it launched.”

Scanlon also plans to add a video introduction to his company to keep visitors on his page longer, and to add a personal touch. “Google knows when visitors are on there for a split second and bail out, or if the visitor is there for minutes on end and really staying on the page,” he says. “If you do a video, there’s a good chance people will click on it, they’ll start watching it, they’ll stay on the page a little bit long so that’s a good approach for SEO.”

Maskill says websites are never truly done since you should always be updating them.

“Where business owners get stuck is it’s a very big mountain to climb so they never start, whereas we wanted to get started,” Maskill says. “We wanted to get it out there and now that everything is in place, we can improve it.”

“A lot of times, (a website’s) going to be their first impression of your company, so we wanted to make that a good one.” Paul Maskill, operations manager, Just Green Lawn & Landscaping

Help customers find you.

For any of this work to be worthwhile, you have to make sure your customers can find you, and that means SEO. That’s what made Maskill get started on a redesign in the first place.

“Basically, we weren’t even on the first 10 pages of Google when looking for a lawn care/landscaping company in Raleigh,” he says. “So that was one of the first reasons, and then making it more mobile-friendly since most people are coming through mobile now.”

Before he launched scanlawn.com, Scanlon’s only online presence was his Facebook page.

“I wanted to rebrand myself and I knew that it was time for a website,” he says. “In this day and age, everyone’s finding a vendor with a Google search.”

Through Wix.com, he was able to put keywords on his pages and tag his photos with both the name of the town and the work he did on a project to help him rank higher.

Now, when potential customers search for a particular service like mowing in their town, they’re more likely to come across Scanlon’s website.

As he makes edits, he says he can see changes in his search rankings as early as 10 days after.

“I have a couple of competitors and I was like, ‘I want to get higher than those guys on the search results,” he says.

When he was first starting out, Chase Prewitt imagined having a fleet with all of the newest equipment on the market. With just two mowers and a walk-behind spreader, Prewitt thought that he would know he “made it” when he had all of the latest technology.

Now, after 17 years in business at Prewitt’s Lawn Care in Athens, Ohio, he says he’s knows he’s made it and doesn’t need a bunch of different vehicles to get the job done.

“At first, when I was younger, I wanted to build a big business, but we’re making a comfortable living and I can treat my guys well. And I’ve learned that less is more when it comes to equipment,” he says.

Prewitt has a couple of walk-behind mowers and the standard handheld equipment like blowers, trimmers and edgers, but he says his stand-on mowers are the real workhorses of his fleet.

“If I can reduce the amount of equipment my guys are using, going back and switching out and walking the property again, it’s really a time-saver,” he says.

The $550,000 business offers lawn maintenance, spring and fall cleanup and some basic landscape services like pruning and planting. The mostly residential company employs 10 people during the busy season.

Tom Hertz, owner of Innovative Landscaping in Artesia, New Mexico, first got interested in mower attachments when he was shopping for canopies for his ride-on mowers.

“There’s no way you can send a crew out without them in the heat,” he says. “I was looking at my options and realized there’s another whole world of stuff to play with.”

The right tools for the season.

During the height of the mowing season, Prewitt’s mulching attachment helps support the company’s eco-friendly image. The company uses battery-powered handheld equipment and low-input fertilizers. To help keep grass healthy, the mowers at Prewitt’s Lawn Care are all outfitted with a mulching kit that returns clippings back to the soil.

The company used to use backpack blowers, which required crews to mow, and then follow up by walking the property with blowers. Prewitt says the mulching attachments have eliminated the blowers and cut down on service time.

For Hertz, power rakes and aerators are key in late spring and early summer. His crews use a power rake when the weather forecast looks like it will be favorable to reduce the amount of stress they put on the turf.

“We used to dethatch and aerate in the fall before overseeding, but we found out that we were doing it too late,” Hertz says. “You want to break out the power rakes or dethatchers when the grass still has time to recover and come back strong before going dormant.”

When properties need aeration, they offer the service at the same time. The company then follows up with pre-emergent herbicide and fertilizer application to encourage healthy growth throughout the season.

In the fall, both companies use baggers to handle leaf cleanup. Hertz sells the service as an add-on, offering several packages, depending on the property owner’s preference. Prewitt includes the service in his maintenance packages, but also offers a premium package for residents who want more frequent visits.

“I was looking at my options and realized there’s another whole world of stuff to play with.” Tom Hertz, owner, Innovative Landscaping

“Some people only need a few visits, while others with bigger properties or tons of trees might need us to stop by and make a pass more often,” he says.

Prewitt will allow customers to pay per visit, or set up a contract for the whole season. He says he prefers the contracts since the income is more predictable, but the pay-per-visit program is so popular that he can’t get rid of it.

Get the right fit.

Service, size and quality are all considerations when thinking about adding attachments to a fleet. Also consider what equipment you already have, Hertz says.

“If you have a bunch of backpack blowers, you could consider getting rid of those and using the blower attachment instead,” he says. “Obviously that’s something to think about. Don’t assume that just because you have all of these blowers in your shop that you have to keep them. Eventually, if you phase them out, you’ll recoup the cost.”

Attachments may increase the size of your mowers, Prewitt says. With some attachments, mowers don’t have the same clearance. To avoid accidents, he reminds his crews that they have to be conscious of the change. Prewitt is also careful with inspections and maintenance when he’s using attachments since his crews only have one of each attachment for each mower. If an attachment goes down, there’s no easy swap, and when the mowers are down, he’s losing money.

Hertz keeps several spare attachments at his headquarters but tries to avoid breakdowns since his customers’ properties are up to 45 minutes away. “That drive time would kill productivity for the day,” he says.

If a breakdown occurs, he’ll have the crew move onto the next stop and get to work. When the replacement attachment shows up, the crew will return to finish up work they were unable to do. “It’s not ideal, but it keeps the guys moving,” Hertz says.

Lawn & Landscape: Explain why it was time to follow up the 2009 slip-and-fall research and its impact on the snow and ice management industry. What were you hoping to achieve?

Kevin Gilbride: Well, to best explain this let me take you back a bit. Bogus slip-and-fall claims had been a cancer on this industry for a long time prior to 2009. And the ramifications of these claims were far reaching, from liability insurance coverage – or lack thereof – to time-consuming and costly legal procedures to how the industry approached the business of snow and ice management. Frankly, the industry was in jeopardy of imploding because insurance providers were leaving at an alarming rate and the cost to do business was very unattractive.

So back in 2009 – even before the creation of the Accredited Snow Contractors Association in 2012 – your sister publication, Snow Magazine, conducted the first research project we know of in the industry that looked at slip-and-fall. Luckily, this study produced a baseline of sorts for the impact, attitudes and trends of slip-and-fall claims on snow and ice management.

The ASCA was created in 2012 due to an industry outcry for someone to address the trend of skyrocketing insurance costs. As part of the ASCA’s due diligence, another slip-and-fall survey was conducted that year, but in a more limited capacity. It essentially assisted us in filling some gaps from the 2009 study and allowed the association to more clearly define the issues’ impact on the industry.

Since 2012, the ASCA has achieved a number of important accomplishments that addressed our original mandate, the insurance question, which also includes slip-and-fall. We established the first official Industry Standards and the certification (ASCA-C) ensuring industry members understood those standards. We established ISO9001/SN9001 certification that validated whether a company had correctly adopted and practiced Industry Standards in its operations. As a result, the insurance companies began to take notice that practices and procedures were being followed and allowed them to better combat bogus slip-and-fall claims.

In addition, the ASCA was beginning to have success on the state and federal levels lobbying for issues such as tort reform and laws that addressed business needs in the snow and ice management community. For example, the ASCA’s model legislation – which seeks to prohibit unfair hold-harmless language in service contracts – is under consideration in a number of snow states and has been adopted into law in Illinois.

All of that being said, we knew, and ASCA members knew, we were having a positive impact on the industry. Conducting a follow-up survey now allows us to not only attach some data that supports these notions, but also allows us to more clearly define where we need to allot our focus and resources in the months ahead.

L&L: So, what are the numbers telling you?

KG: Frankly, many of the results are in line with where I anticipated they would be. I think it’s important to mention up front that 40 percent of survey participants had earned ASCA-C certification, which I see reflects the inroads the association has made with the snow contractor community.

We’re certainly excited to see that survey respondents reported nearly half (49 percent) of slip-and-fall claims made against them were dismissed, compared to around 40 percent in 2009 and 2012. Likewise, contractors say 46 percent of these claims are settled out of court, compared to 42 percent in 2009. This is also encouraging data when you consider respondents indicate instances of slip-and-fall claims per winter are up. More than half (58 percent) of respondents experience a slip-and-fall claim during an average winter, a 10 percent increase from 2009.

While we’ve experienced success and have been able to chalk up some significant wins for the industry, we’d be kidding ourselves if we expected to see huge double-digit swings from over the last five to 10 years. We know, and what we’ve communicated to members and the industry since day one, is that this is a marathon and not a sprint, where we mark our progress in inches and feet and not miles.

L&L: What are the numbers not telling you?

KG: That’s a great question, because anytime you conduct this type of research there are any number of extenuating circumstances that also must be taken into account.

For example, what type of winter were we either engaged in or had just emerged from when the survey was completed? That’s going to have an impact because there’s less opportunity for a slip-and-fall claim during a warm, low-snow winter as in a heavy winter, or even one marked with more instances of ice than snow.

Another detail the data doesn’t tell the complete story on is the impact of the involvement in the snow and ice management community on these issues. Outside of pursuing education and earning certification, it is difficult to quantify the impact contractor involvement – especially on the legislative side – has had on slip-and-fall.

L&L: The topic of “hold-harmless” was an important part of this research. Why, and what does the data indicate?

KG: The ASCA has always advocated to let the professional snow and ice contractor make the decisions on when to plow and deice a property. However, a trend among managers and property owners was that many of them believe they know best on when to pull the trigger for winter services. Now, I can only guess as to whether this is a financial decision on their part, but the fact of the matter is the contract language often leaves the burden of liability on the snow contractor. And many property owners employed a take-it-or-leave-it policy when including this “hold-harmless” language in their winter service contracts. So, the snow contractor is on the hook if there is a slip-and-fall claim.

The ASCA has been very active in trying to correct this by lobbying at the state level for the adoption of its model legislation, The Snow Removal Service Liability Limitation Act. This legislation would make indemnification agreements and hold-harmless language passing liability from the property owner or property managers to the contractor, null and void. The legislation is under consideration in state legislatures around the snowbelt, and it became law in Illinois in August 2016.

Now, the survey data would indicate that hold-harmless and indemnification agreements are still a real problem in the snow industry, and that the needle has moved very little in favor of the contractor. However, while this may seem disappointing, it is also proof that this issue is still real, and that action is still required at the state level to correct it.

L&L: What do you anticipate the numbers will say in the next five to 10 years about slip-and-fall and the snow and ice management industry? Will it still be a major issue, or a thing of the past?

KG: I have a two-fold response to this question. First, I believe we’re going to see some degree of progress being made every year. And at times, that progress is going to feel glacial in pace as often as that momentum feels rapidly lurching forward. But we are making progress for the betterment of the snow and ice community, as these numbers reflect.

Second, the pace of change is entirely dependent on community involvement. I’ve seen this firsthand through our state legislative day events. Every time a sizeable contingent of snow contractors join together to meet with their elected officials to talk and educate them on the issues important to this industry, we make progress. Just like we made progress in Illinois, and like we’re about to in Colorado and a number of other states.

The key here, though, is size. To make significant strides against slip-and-fall or to right unfair business conditions, we need more contractor involvement. Now, this involvement can come in the form of adopting Industry Standards and gaining certifications, or it can be through reaching out to your elected officials to remind them that they were voted into office to represent your best interests. You just need to get involved to influence change. Remember, a few isolated shouts can be easily dismissed, but the collective voices of a community can’t be ignored.

So, if we’re able to do these things consistently, then I don’t doubt we’ll see that progression reflected in the numbers.