WSA Member Update 8.15.23

August 15, 2023  Dear WSA Members, Scholarship winner We welcome new Virginia-based WSA member Rotterdam Lot Cleaners, LLC.  The ‘Case Managers’ for our WSA members who have not been paid have refused to return repeated telephone calls and emails sent to the two managers listed for the two unpaid accounts. If you are working for CASE Facilities Management I suggest not continuing to provide services if your invoices remain unpaid even slightly past your agreed-upon contract payment terms.  BTW, prior to sending this Update out to you, today I again tried calling the account managers listed for both of our WSA members who have not been paid and received voicemail in both instances. The message I left was that the above information was being included in today’s WSA Member Update and, if we hadn’t had resolution prior to the end of next week, a similar caution was likely to be made to the entire power sweeping industry in the August WorldSweeper e-newsletter.  One of our members in the NE relayed that they are increasingly encountering homeless people sleeping on their customer parking lots and wondered what, if anything, other contractors are doing in that regard. Included was their decision not to continue changing out customer garbage bags in the event homeless folks are using them as their outhouse.  They also relayed another story about a competitor they learned (from his disgruntled former partner) cut the floorboards out of one of their pickup trucks and then, after collecting debris from the customer’s dumpster after our WSA member had swept that lot, drove around and dropped the debris through the hole in the floor. The combination makes me wonder if a significant sector of the world has gone mad…  OSHA has issued a heat hazard alert to remind employers of their obligation to protect workers against heat illness or injury in outdoor and indoor workplaces. OSHA uses hazard alerts to provide specific information on safety and health hazards to employers, workers and other stakeholders.  This alert describes the hazard and offers recommendations on how hazardous exposures can be eliminated or reduced and what actions employers should take to protect employees.    I’ve decided to keep sending links to potentially interesting items from SF Tradepub since there are a number to choose from. As always, if the topic speaks to you then take a look. Otherwise, just move on! This one is to a summary of ideas from the author of “Work Smarter, Not Harder” by Timo Kiander, with the summary done by Paul Minors. Hope you find some ideas for ‘improving your game!’  Before a true safety culture can be effective, driver and fleet managers must understand the level of risk an irresponsible driver poses to their organization. Businesses have an important duty of care to ensure they put only safe drivers on the roads; failing to do so creates liability risk exposure for the organization.  In this information about spotting risky drivers you will learn how to:  Protect your fleet and close the liability risk exposure gap. Continuously monitor driver licenses, while keeping costs low. Leverage past driver behavior data to predict future behavior. Our August Safety First! post is reprised from the late John Meola’s message of August 2016. I found it interesting that he noted in August of 2016 that it was the hottest year on record; the same is being said for our 2023 summer… August’s Safety Message discusses the following:Nuclear Summer in Final Gasp – typically the heat breaks in mid-August; will it?! • Heat Stress: Day and Night • Update Safety Kits and Mark Your Vehicles • Some Keys for Defensive Driving • Keep Footwear Updated 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