As the Spring season quickly approaches, we wanted to take the time to share with our customers the importance of maintenance and the quality of all of our trucks and equipment.
For us, being prepared for anything as it relates to our equipment is one of our top priorities and allows us to continue servicing our clients with minimal disruption. When you sign a contract with us, we commit to servicing you on the same day and around the same time on a weekly basis, and the performance of our fleet has a lot to do with that!
Down time and damaged equipment is one of the biggest disrupters in our industry. It Is very challenging to make repairs in the field without the proper tools or knowledge.
One of the best decisions we’ve made as a business is bringing on a part-time, night mechanic. That’s right, he works at night. Three days a week for about 4-6 hours, our mechanic comes in to work on and repair anything that comes in broken, damaged, or requires service and makes sure it is back on the crews trailer for the next day.
We have cabinets full of spare parts, all itemized, organized, and ready to go, to eliminate our crews being down something. This makes our team members happy that they do not have to repair, it is being handled off hours, and avoids the excuse of us not coming to your property because something is broken!
His biggest task, and probably the most important, is the maintenance and servicing of our fleet of lawn mowers. We want to make sure we are mowing everyone’s property to the best of our ability. This includes eliminating hydraulic and oil leaks so we do not kill the grass, making sure tires are properly inflated, making sure our mower decks are cutting evenly, and making sure they are clean! The blades on our mowers are maintained weekly to ensure the proper cut. We pull all the blades on every machine on a weekly basis to inspect for damages, sharpen, and sometimes even replace if problems are too big. We have multiple sets of each type of blade as spares so we do not have a down machine. Having spare mowers on the sidelines also allows us to always continue to mow. Our mechanic even fuels up all the trucks and small engine cans, so our field guys don’t have to!
Speaking of trucks, our fleet is also serviced regularly so they stay on the road and plays an extremely important factor in the success of our maintenance program. Our fleet administration program not only tracks all the vehicles so we can notify you of any scheduling changes, as well as notifies us at specific service intervals for oil changes, etc. All of our trucks are newer than 2016 with minimal mileage so they continue to go out every day without hesitation. Newer trucks means fewer repairs, which equals less down time! The cleanliness of our trucks is very important as well. We have a detail person that shows up two times per month to wash all the trucks and trailers, inside and out. We want to make sure that our fleet is clean and uniformed showing up to properties around Richmond!
As you can see, we have put a lot of emphasis on our fleet of trucks, trailers, and equipment. Obviously, these come with costs that our competitors may not incur. We do everything we can to eliminate the scheduling excuses, and these costs severely help with that. You have put your trust in us to maintain your property on a consistent basis to a higher standard than others, and this is one of the main ways we do that!
As always, if you have any questions or concerns regarding your service, please contact our office and we will be more than happy to assist! We hope you have a great month and appreciate your business!
-The Glen Allen Grounds Team