WSA Member Update 3.1.23

March 1, 2023  Dear WSA Members,  We welcome new WSA member Guardian Western, a full service property maintenance company that has been operating in Southern California since 1968.  At the end of December last year you should have received a WSA renewal invoice for the 2023 calendar year. If you didn’t – or can’t locate the one that was sent – please let me know. Otherwise, we’d appreciate getting everyone’s payment in so we can get all the WSA Membership Renewal Packets sent out. Thank you!  Two of our WSA members sent us the current contract that Shields Facilities Maintenance (Shields FM) is using for its third party Lowe’s account. Going through the contract, there were a number of questionable clauses I felt should be highlighted for our members. An article with a link to the entire contract, along with a detailed analysis of some of those contract provisions, is now on the WSA website at this link. Even if you don’t use Shields, I suggest you take a look at the contract clauses we analyzed to compare them with other of your vendors. Remember, you don’t have to accept all the clauses or sweep at the ‘suggested’ price per sweep to be a winning bidder.  BTW, I thought Shields’ contract clause requiring that all who sweep Lowe’s must have gutter brooms installed on both sides of their sweepers was so out of line that I called Shields FM to talk to the person in charge of the Lowe’s account. I was told, astonishingly, the company didn’t currently have an account executive for the Lowe’s account. I left a message on another Shields FM manager’s voicemail and after a week have received no return call.  The WSA website already has a number of previous articles about the many pitfalls that can (and often do!) occur with third party vendor organizations. To see these, choose the Third Party Vendors link. The top link is a list of all the ones we are aware of; click on any of the companies logos to see whatever other info we have about that firm. You’ll also find the many other articles we’ve done on this topic when you move backward through previous posts. For example, an article that explains the extreme liability you can face with some third party contract clauses is found in the article entitled “Third Party Liability Contract Clauses of Concern.”  We have received several reports regarding the theft of catalytic converters from Isuzu sweeper chassis. Reportedly, using a saws-all the converters can be removed in less than five minutes each. One of our WSA members had over a dozen stolen from his company’s sweepers on the same night – and it happened again after he’d replaced those! Although the thieves were caught on the company’s perimeter cameras, that information was not helpful. Mitigation they’ve taken include parking the most accessible models, the Isuzu NPRs, inside when the company is closed, space available, and having operators drive sweepers to their homes.  This story about the catalytic converter theft issue will be in the March issue of the WorldSweeper.com e-newsletter, which is a publication you should all be receiving already. If not, this is the signup link.  John Meola recently reported to us about an incident where a worker on his cell phone was killed by a dump truck that was backing up. He included the following with this link to the story: “I’d be telling your WSA members to make it an iron law Company Policy allowing NO TEXTING or cell phone yakking while driving. We tell our guys if there’s a wreck, we’ll be checking company phone records and GPS coordinates. The insurance geeks will also question a claim where the vehicle operator was on the phone. The sweeper company could be shut out of its claim for this kind of safety rule violation.”  As previously promised, the first of our 1.5 hour professional improvement seminars from this year’s NPE, “The Basics of Running a Small Business: Day-to-Day Operations,” is now available. Click on this link to view it on YouTube. Note: This seminar’s link is unlisted and is being made available only to WSA members.  As always, if you have questions or comments about this WSA Member Update, or anything else to do with the World Sweeping Association or power sweeping in general, please let me know.  Good Sweeping,  Ranger Kidwell-Ross, Executive Director World Sweeping Association