As National Pavement Expo (NPE) celebrates its 25th anniversary, the NPCA celebrates its 10th at PavementPro.com. Both are milestone achievements in the pavement world. NPE has brought the industry an exhibition of the latest equipment as well as seminars on the latest topics that help your business grow, and the NPCA has established itself as the first and only organization solely for the benefit of pavement contractors and the consumers they serve.
In the last 10 years NPCA has been featured in numerous magazines such as Professional Retail Store Maintenance, Family Handyman, Readers Digest (twice) and twice we have been recommended by the nation's largest consumer magazine. Our members from every segment of the pavement industry have served customers from every segment of consumers. From projects such as the sealing and striping of professional sports arenas in Chicago and New York to border crossings from Washington state into Canada, and everything in between - our members have done it all. And whether consumers are commercial or residential they look to us for quality contractors who guarantee their work. We've grown from around 15,000 searches that first-year to over 100,000 searches per year - and we're still growing. We recently added our Customer Satisfaction Assurance Program which allows consumers to use a simple Web form to comment on work done by members (another "first") and we offer many benefits, including member discounts on various items.
But we still have a long way to go. Contractors seem slow to realize the benefits of an association and to understand the dynamics of association, and we are looking at changes to better communicate that. Ten years ago we had hoped by now to have a lobbyist in Washington to look out for the interests of pavement contractors. Think of the difference it would've made if we had achieved that! If we had 10 times the members that we have now, many large property managers have said they would turn to us exclusively for their work and we would have a staff, which would handle paperwork, facilitating getting those projects to members at a good profit. But we find that even after 10 years many contractors still look at NPCA as only a lead generator - not as an association of people who are all in the same business and who are all affected by the same things. And with unchanging vision from 10 years ago, we continue to look to becoming the major presence in the pavement industry.
Just as NPE looks forward its next 25 years, we look forward to our next decade as technology brings us quickly to the point where we will be able to offer webinars, podcasts, and improved communication. We invite you to join us as we congratulate Pavement magazine and NPE and thank them for their help and cooperation over the last 10 years, and we look forward to your joining us at the NPCA as we all move into an exciting future and work to make our industry better.
For more about NPCA and its benefits visit www.PavementPro.com
