Growth in the Industry

From the desk of Charles:

Having been in the snow industry for almost 50 years, we have gone from using sand, and hand shoveling out of the back of a truck to Vbox spreaders, pre-wet systems, GPS, and calibrated applicators, to digital routing and tracking; amazing progress.

Trucks have gone from straight blades where you got out of the truck, pulled a pin, and manually angled the blade, to v plows, wide outs, pull plows, etc. Again, great progress; we have gone from skid loaders, with manual foot controls, no enclosure, and no heat, to hand controls, heat, multiple attachments, and again GPS tracking systems. We have gone from pagers and having quarters for pay phones, to the internet, e-mail, apps of all kinds, cell phones, and two-way radios. At one time Nextel was the best phone! We now have digital mapping, routing, and weather reporting systems to record more real-time information, again great progress!

With large equipment we have gone from pay loaders 3-4 c.y. to wheel loaders, to intermediate loaders ¾-1/2 c.y. These loaders have attachments from live edges to multiple width attachments. All these improvements and advancements over the years have allowed us to become more efficient in providing amazing services to all our clients. Having in house mechanics is nothing but a bonus to providing these services, however; with all the progress our industry has made, including great relationships with vendors, suppliers, and manufacturers. The EPA has been detrimental to the snow industry, and construction industry.

I would say 80% of all our equipment issues in the winter boil down to the negative environmental impact of DEF fluids and how our equipment must go into regen mode to operate properly. This is and has been our single most frustrating management issue. Many of these problems are unsolvable by our in-house mechanics and technicians, it requires factory trained mechanic with computers, and in many cases, they also become confused with what is really going wrong.

We don’t need this environmental mechanic, we operated far better without it! I say remove it! This is a problem because it voids all factory warranties, and the equipment companies are not allowed to work on equipment, that has been deregulated. Soon, it is likely that a private sale of “deleted” equipment and vehicles will be prohibited.

Somehow as an industry we must stand together, discuss, and inform our Senator and Congressman, the cost and damage being done to our industry. So, with all the progress being made, government is the stumbling part that restricts our industry in providing on time delivery of amazing services.

-Charles

Call us today to learn more about the solutions we provide: (763) 477-5011 or sales@hanthofarms.com

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