This is a white paper provided by Verizon Wireless promoting the safety aspects of using GPS. If you want to know some of the ways GPS can be used to enhance safe driving as well as driver safety, this is worth the review.
• Millennium Sweeping challenged other WSA Members to match its $1000 donation to the WSA Memorial Scholarship Fund.
• Link to scholarship info to provide to your employees.
• Warning about reports Ferrandino is not paying its bills timely.
• Reminder that OSHA is cracking down on misclassification of employees as independent contractors. Link to info on OSHA website.
• Reminder to send in sizes of tires you want us to get a quote on from Costco.
• Congrats to CAM South for its recent write-up in PAVEMENT Magazine.
Joe Baumgardner grew up working in his father’s masonry supply business, which was located in Missoula, Montana. Although he was still involved in that company as an adult, Joe says he simply wanted to take on a project that would allow for more business growth. Now, 16 years later, the company is a dominant force in the Missoula, MT, marketplace with between 15 and 20 employees and providing a wide range of services.
Soundcore Capital Partners is a New York-based private equity firm that is in the business of buying and selling companies. Further, the organization and its investor group have identified the power sweeping industry as one of interest to them. Currently, Soundcore is actively pursuing the acquisition of power sweeping contractors throughout the United States. As a result, WSA asked one of the company’s principals, Erik Emmett, who is an attorney as well as Soundcore’s Head of Deal Origination, to provide World Sweeping Association Members with an overview of their process, along with any tips he has for how contractors may improve the viability of their companies prior to putting them on the market.
Topics in this Update include:
• Info from a WSA Member who said USM is now requiring background checks for their employees sweeping Home Depot.
• Request for tire sizes Members might want to purchase in 20-tire Bridgestone lots to be able to purchase from Costco for the company’s cost.
• Info about Brightview’s initiative to investigate setting up a purchasing co-op for contractors for regular use items.
• Razor Tracking GPS now offers a $50 gift certificate to any WSA Member signing up with them.
• Info about the @15% discount WSA Members now have with Aqua Patch on that company’s products.
Our Featured Contractor for March 2016 is someone that many of our readers/listeners will have had contact with over the last 3+ decades he has been involved in the power sweeping industry. Although recently he has become an owner/operator of the power sweeping company he called SweepCo, Mike Dyke’s experience far transcends that of a typical contractor.
• Mark Herbick’s NPE seminar video on buying and selling a business is now online.
• Walmarts have increased their sweeping frequency and a reminder not to contact store managers directly.
• We have added SuperiorRoads Solutions (and Sweeprite) as a WSA Member benefit for parts with a 15% price reduction.
• We added a GPS section to the website, as well as a new page that contains GPS systems current WSA Members like and use.
This page offers a list of the GPS software reported to us as being used by WSA Members. Some include special WSA Member-only discounts when you sign up with them.
World Sweeping Association’s form for calculating the cost per hour of operating a street sweeper, with an attached pdf.
This form helps you figure out your expenses so you can determine your overall cost per mile for sweeping.