What do you think is the ideal size for residential mowing crews?
RESPONSE/ PERCENT OF CONTRACTORS
One-man crews/ 5 percent
Two-man crews/ 55 percent
Three-man crews/ 28 percent
Four-man crews or larger/ 12 percent
* Source: www.lawnandlandscape.com
Ever wonder what the most popular residential maintenance crew size is?
So did we, so we asked Lawn & Landscape Online users what they thought A resounding 55 percent of respondents said they believe that a two-man crew was best.
“The smaller the crew, the more efficient,” agreed Mike Lueders, owner, Lueders Cos., Needham, Mass., pointing out that two-man crews are efficient because of the decreased overlap in job responsibilities.
Three-man crews were the second most popular size with 28 percent of respondents checking this answer, but not all contractors agree with this theory. “We’ve noticed through time studies that a three-man crew really isn’t any more productive than a two-man crew,” explained Mike Mitchell, vice president of operations, Signature Landscape, Olathe, Kansas. “A well organized two-person crew doing the different tasks in a specific order lets you divide the work easier.”
Jobs, like homeowner associations call for more manpower, and 12 percent of respondents agreed, employing four-man crews or larger. Although, “the challenge with a big crew is finding a crew leader who can keep people focused and efficient and then get work done himself,” Mitchell stated.
And the least number of contractors – 5 percent – believe that there’s nothing more productive than a one-man crew. “Even having two people on a job can create downtime,” Leuders asserted. “By the time two men show up, chat about the workload and get ready to go, they’ve burned some serious time.”
Whatever crew size a contractor embraces, Leuders suggested they use labor hours and job size to help determine their ideal size and get the best results. “For instance,” he noted, “one worker could be trusted to do a job requiring only six to eight hours of labor, but for jobs requiring 70 to 80 hours of labor, a two-man crew is the best fit.”
The author is Managing Editor of Lawn & Landscape magazine and can be reached at nwisniewski@lawnandlandscape.com.