WSA Member Update 3.15.25

March 15, 2025 Dear WSA Members, Since our last WSA Member Update I’ve received info about payment issues with several third party vendors. Negative reports came in about Mirror Lawn, NELTS, Transblue and Ferrendino & Sons. I also received a positive report about another: Brightview. Since it would appear that getting paid in full and on time has increasingly gotten to be an issue, I set out to find a well-situated, major player, in the collections industry to interview about best practices for getting paid. The firm is called I’m very pleased with the connection as well as with the information transmitted by the associate I spoke to, Mo Saleh, a 29-year veteran of the collections field.  When you access this information you will have the choice of watching our Zoomcast, listening to an audio version of it, or reading a transcript of the info we covered. I believe you will find this information to be helpful if you’re having any trouble with collecting on any of your invoices. As you should now know, I write a WSA article for each issue of PAVEMENT Magazine. I wanted to make sure you saw the article of mine most recently posted onto ForConstructionPros.com, the magazine’s website. The article is entitled “Improving Business Management for Power Sweeping Contractors.”  Another topic I hear about a lot is the problem of employees – especially operators – not getting enough sleep. If that’s an issue you’ve faced, there are some good ideas in this article I found on March 5th published in HDT Trucking Info. Although the organization emphasizes long haul drivers, most all of the information is valid for sweeper operators. Pretty much everyone reading this owns several electronic devices. Cybersecurity for computers, smart phones, tablets, email, etc., is getting to be increasingly difficult to control. I thought it would be of value to provide for you this cybersecurity quick reference guide that discusses the topic. I think most all of you will find the information to be very informative. Further, I suggest that you print copies of the pdf and pass them around to your employees with the intent of keeping your, and their, computers safer. Also, the organization that developed the information is called CustomGuide. As you’ll see if you slide to the bottom of the web page linked for the guide, there are a number of other FREE custom guides they offer that are linked there. This month, our Safety First! post has reminders about a variety of topics. March’s Safety First! message discusses the following: • Spring Fever and March Madness – Not Just Basketball! • Ergonomics 101 • Footwear and Back-Related Items • Some Other Items to Think About 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 PS I thought you might be interested in seeing how things have changed in the last 101 years. Here is an ad on the Austin Western Company’s calendar on March 12th, 1914. According to the ad, the broom sweeper was powered by a ‘two horsepower’ engine…