Scott Mallary: Man With a Maintenance Company — and a Mission

In 1986, Scott founded Mallary Maintenance in the outskirts of Annapolis, Maryland. He initially started a pressure washing company, but said that work was too seasonal to maintain year around. When his wife, Lynne, wanted to have kids it meant quitting her full-time job. Scott says he had seen sweeper trucks at work in many of the locations where he ran pressure washers and decided that was a business service he should investigate. In 1996 he bought his first Schwarze parking lot sweeper and has continued to expand that business through the intervening years. Through the subsequent years Mallary Maintenance has added a number of other business services. Although the company has not added street sweeping, they do perform indoor warehouse sweeping. “We found that a number of our current property managers were also handling industrial properties and needed indoor floor sweeping done,” said Mallary. “So, we now have a Tennant ride-on sweeper we utilize for that purpose. We mostly perform indoor sweeping for our existing customer list.” Mallary said he’s found that sweeping is a good complementary service for power washing services, as well, since they can coordinate to have the sweepers clean up the dirty water so it doesn’t create an eyesore at the curbline after the cleaning has been finished. The company today performs a wide variety of other services, as well, including most all types of pavement-related repairs, providing rolloff containers, performing tenant services, sign replacement and more. “Being diversified,” said Mallary, “is not only one-stop shopping for the property manager. By being diversified we can more easily ride out the ups and downs that are an inevitable part of any service business.” Another reason that business model has worked for him, Mallary told us, is that they have taken pains to specialize in each service. Nothing has been done in a half-way fashion. Rather, for each they have purchased the best equipment and hired personnel with the experience and commitment to perform the jobs correctly both at the start and as time has gone on. Providing that superior service level is the market niche Mallary Maintenance wants to be known for, and which is the company’s hallmark throughout its service area. “We’ve always been known in the industry as having the best of everything,” Mallary said with a laugh, “the best equipment and the best people doing it and that is reflected in our work. When it comes to sweeping, we have settled on doing all types of commercial and industrial sweeping, but have not gotten into street sweeping. “We also have found that the Schwarze 348-I sweepers with the noise reduction shrouds are, we believe, our best choice in sweepers. We think they’re the most powerful ones out there and their design is ideal for what we’re doing. The shrouds are great for keeping the noise down because they’re building these retail centers and then building housing complexes right on top of them. It’s in our best interest to keep the sweepers as quiet as we can and the noise shrouds keep the sweeper quieter and so give us more sweeping time with fewer complaints.” Several options for getting fewer noise complaints were discussed on the accompanying podcast. These include not using barlight beacons in some circumstances, especially in the spring and fall months when people tend to sleep with their windows open. Also, by having a top-end, twin-engine sweeper like the Schwarze 348s, in many instances the sweeper’s auxiliary engine can be operated at a lower rpm, which lets the machine operate at a quieter decibel level. “Noise hasn’t been a huge problem for us,” said Mallary, “but there have been some centers where housing is right on top of the commercial buildings and you’ll get one person that will complain about even the sweeper’s low noise. More often, though, any complaint centers around the up-and-down of the throttle and higher-pitched whine of the backpack blowers. The question is, what do you do? You can’t hand-pick the lots so you have to use the sweepers and the blowers. What we do is just try to run both at half-throttle, which oftentimes solves any issues. We also can alternate our nights when we do heavy blowing and cleanup. Alternatively, we also coordinate with everyone to a time when our operation won’t be a problem.” Mallary has chosen to have two personnel in all his sweepers when they run routes, one as sweeper operator and the other as a backpack blower assistant. He feels that in the urban environment in which the company operates this makes it more safe, since with two employees on the job they know that each has the other’s back. It also makes better financial sense, Mallary feels, to maximize the utilization of the pieces of equipment the way the manufacturer of each intended. “It’s never made sense to me to leave what is now an $85,000 sweeper sitting there while the operator is out of the truck doing other tasks,” Mallary said. “Having two employees on the job better maximizes the investment in all of the equipment, allows you to be more efficient and so, I feel, allows us to provide a better end result to our customer at a lower overall expense.” In the accompanying audio podcast, Mallary offers his insight into that aspect of his sweeping business, how his employees notify his customers about vandalism, maintenance and security issues, and more. Speaking of more — in this case MUCH MORE: In 2010 Mallary founded the all-volunteer nonprofit organization, Truckin4Troops.org. He was inspired by a friend to go to nearby Walter Reed General Hospital and visit some of the veterans recuperating there. Although not a veteran himself, Scott’s father was in the military and was at one point in Walter Reed Hospital. “As part of that experience,” said Mallary, “I woke up one day with the idea of putting patriotic songs onto iPods and giving them to wounded veterans as a morale booster. My son came up with 35 patriotic songs and we had some iPods engraved and started giving them out to soldiers at some of the different hospitals across the nation. “At one point I got an email from a veteran who sent me information about what the U.S. was doing for illegal immigrants, in contrast to what was being done for wounded veterans. It really upset me, to the point where I went out and bought an F-650 pickup truck with the idea of putting advertising on it to promote doing more for the returning troops. Then someone suggested using the truck to pick up wounded vets when they came back from Afghanistan, and I started doing that.” Mallary soon started using the ‘big truck’ to pick up soldiers at Walter Reed to take them to destinations where they needed to go. This was seen as especially beneficial during the holidays when everyone is so busy with family and the wounded soldiers recuperating get all but forgotten. “I soon learned that, although I can’t put wounded veterans’ arms and legs back on, I’ve found there are ways we can put a smile on their faces,” said Mallary. Then, after having close contact with a number of wounded soldiers, Mallary learned that many were trying to buy trucks of their own. Most of these had to be specially outfitted in order for the disabled vets to be able to operate them. Although oftentimes low cost VA grants, loans and other money was available for the purchase, the veterans had difficulty dealing with getting the details ironed out. And, tragically, Mallary said they learned that many were being taken advantage of by unscrupulous car dealers who saw a way to make exorbitant profits. Now, the expanding Truckin4Troops organization has developed relationships with area car dealers where the goal is to get the wounded veterans the same deal as are provided to the dealerships own employees. “It’s amazing what getting a truck can do to a wounded soldier’s life,” said Mallary. “It gives them mobility again, which helps them to develop a new sense of purpose. This goes to the extent that I’ve been told by a soldier that we saved his marriage and his life. And this is from someone who came extremely close to giving his own life so our country can be free. “I encourage everyone reading this to get involved with helping these returning heroes. One way is to donate to our all-volunteer organization via the donation link at www.Truckin4Troops.org. (W have reproduced the link below). With us, you know that all of your donation goes to actually doing something, not into overhead or salaries. We are truly making an impact on people’s lives. Step up to the plate when you find a need for it. From my experience over the last few years, I know you will receive much more than what you give. “Truckin4Troops.org recently organized a country music tour to raise money for a wounded vet who had had over 150 surgeries done and did not have the resources to get a truck. It was called the ‘Ford for a Hero Tour.’ Before we’d even left for the tour we’d raised the money for this particular individual’s truck. We also have started partnering with a number of other organizations to be their ‘boots on the ground’ when it comes to veterans. Whatever we can do to help take care of our veterans, that’s what we do.”

To make a one-time donation to Truckin4Troops.org, use the link shown to the right.

  For more information about both Mallary Maintenance and Truckin4Troops, we invite you to listen to the approximately 30-minute audio podcast. To reach Scott Mallary, you can send him an email or call him at 410.977.8471.