One-armed bandits, part 2
1 Aug, 2008 By: Marty Whitford Landscape ManagementWhen Bob Sylvester bought four 2008 Honda Civic hybrids for Sierra Landscape Co. in May, the savings proposition was so compelling he ponied up cash for one of his own.
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"We'll save $90,000 over the next three years because these hybrids get 15 miles per gallon more than the light trucks we would have bought our sales department and safety manager, and the hybrids cost $5,000 less," says Sylvester, CFO of the Palm Desert, CA-based company.
"The fuel savings is so significant, I had to buy one myself," Sylvester adds. "I've parked my Mercedes in the garage because it gets half the miles per gallon — 21 versus 42. Even with a new $300-per-month car payment, I'm saving $100 per month with my hybrid."
Tom Fochtman, co-owner of Denver-based CoCal Landscape, concurs that alternative fuels hold promise.
 From the left are Sierra Landscape's "Four Hybrid Horsemen": Mario Garciacano, safety manager, and sales managers Michelle Trist, Will Cochran and John Gonzalez. |
"I've always been a huge horsepower guy," Fochtman says. "My last four vehicles were full-size trucks, starting at 454 horsepower. But in June, I broke with tradition and traded in my big truck for a Toyota Highlander hybrid."
Nearly three-quarters of lawn care, maintenance, irrigation and landscape design/build/installation professionals have added fuel surcharges to their bills. Another 11% have increased their overall prices to combat today's one-armed bandits: gas pumps. Yet most admit they're lucky if such protective measures offset even half of the cost increases of fueling their vehicles and equipment and paying suppliers' fuel surcharges.
To stay alive and thrive, pros are mowing down their costs and going lean. Some, like Sierra and CoCal, are outfitting sales teams and managers with hybrids, but that's just the start. Many are adopting global positioning system (GPS) technologies fleet-wide. Most are tightening their routes, and some are considering breaking up branches into satellite offices.
 Todd Williams, president, American Civil Constructors |
Other cost-saving strategies include bulk fuel purchases (5- to 60-cent-per-gallon average discounts) and tightening controls and tracking of who can buy how much gas, and when, using a company credit card. Constant training on reducing vehicle and equipment fuel consumption also has become the norm.
"Fuel prices and the overall economic landscape have shifted drastically," Fochtman says. "We have to change the way we think and act. Our industry's 'Tim the Tool Man Taylor' macho persona — that bigger is better — absolutely must give way to leaner practices."
GPS = Gas Price Survival
Over the past two years, Littleton, CO-based American Civil Constructors added GPS units to all of its vehicles.
"Adding GPS to all of our vehicles saved us significant money by improving routing and monitoring vehicle use, idling and speeding," says American Civil Constructors President Todd Williams.
Kevin Newman, fleet yard manager for the Phoenix branch of Valencia, CA-based Gothic Landscaping, says the company is testing GPS technologies at its Phoenix and Los Angeles branches — and soon will select a supplier and deploy GPS across its fleet.
 Even Co-Cal's Tom Fochtman, a self-confessed "huge horsepower guy," has traded in his big company truck for a hybrid. |
"GPS documented one of our supervisor's trucks was idling 40% of the time — and that did not include stop signs and traffic lights. Another was idling 20% of the time," Newman says. "Three gallons of gas go up in smoke per idle hour. At $4 per gallon, that's $5,000 to $10,000 we're losing per supervisor truck in unnecessary idle time alone."
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