Construction Equipment Owner

It’s rare that I make news at National Pavement Expo, but the recent show in Nashville was rare indeed as I was honored to join a select group when I received the Award of Excellence in Power Sweeping from WorldSweeper.com. Presented at the start of the Sweepers Roundtable by WorldSweeper’s Ranger Kidwell-Ross, the Award of Excellence has been presented annually to contract sweepers and manufacturers who WorldSweeper.com credits with having a positive impact on the sweeping industry.

I really appreciate that.

As I said when I accepted the award, it caught me completely offguard. It was suggested I attend the start of the Roundtable because there was something I needed to hear, so pen and notebook in hand I ducked into the back of the room prepared to take notes on a sweeping industry news story — only to hear Ranger start talking about a person’s background that sounded suspiciously like mine.

As I also said, I am quite flattered by the recognition. Ranger was right when he said that I knew nothing of the sweeping industry (or the pavement maintenance industry, for that matter) when I accepted the position as editor of Pavement Maintenance & Reconstruction in 1990. But I did know a couple of things: First, that I had a lot to learn about all aspects of the industries I was going to cover and, second, that there were plenty of folks out there — contractors and manufacturers alike — who would be willing to take the time to teach me if I demonstrated an interest. I must have done that because ever since 1990 manufacturers and contract sweepers from across the country have patiently answered my questions, providing insight and direction as Pavement and NPE have worked to serve the sweeping industry.

And the key, I think, is that last phrase, “serve the sweeping industry,” because that’s always been a goal of this magazine and the two trade shows — and now our websites. There’s no question that Cygnus Business Media, which employs me and owns these products, is a for-profit operation — just as contractors and manufacturers are in business to make money. But our approach has always been to be a part of the industry — in this case the sweeping industry — and to do what we can to help that industry develop and grow. That means “how to” articles, equipment articles, and profiles of contractors in the magazine. It means including seminars sweeping professionals need and want, and it means supporting the sweeping industry association through its growing pains to become the North American Power Sweeping Association (for the life of me I can’t figure out why it doesn’t have 1000 or more members). Our approach has always been the “rising tide lifts all boats” kind of approach, and we like to think that’s happened over the years and that we can play a role in it continuing to happen.

So though I was the individual accepting this award, there is no question in my mind that I was able to receive it through the support of all those in the industry who helped me learn what sweeping is all about and who continually help me whenever I need assistance. So a hearty “thanks” to WorldSweeper.com for the honor, and a heartfelt “thanks” to all those in the industry who helped me receive it. This is something that could not have taken place without your belief in your industry and your willingness to openly talk and teach others about it.

We appreciate all the effort all our speakers put in to develop presentations at National Pavement Expo but I’d like to single out Robert Liles for special kudos at this year’s NPE.

Robert has been a member of the Pavement Advisory Board since 2002 and has been presenting various sessions, including “Parking Lot Layout & Striping Basics” at NPE and NPE West since before then. In addition to running his own pavement marking business, Robert Liles Parking Lot Service in Tyler, TX, he’s also the mastermind behind Parking Lot Planet, one of the industry’s premier websites with what is undoubtedly the industry’s best and most well-run forum section. If you don’t visit regularly you need to add it to your “favorites.”

Anyway, about a month before the recent NPE Robert jumped in to develop a session when the scheduled speakers ran into a conflict. His “Indoor Striping and Outdoor Sports Court Marking” was an effort by NPE to expose contractors to a two services they could offer, either as add-ons or to help contractors shift their striping work indoors on rainy days and when winter hit. And it couldn’t have gone any better. From covering the types of customers that need indoor striping (including convention center floors, cold storage areas, hospital aisles and school hallways) to outlining special concerns unique to indoor work (such as keeping fire extinguishers accessible and identifying exit routes) to covering OSHA requirements and recommended line width (anything over 2 inches is usually acceptable with a 4-inch line most popular), Robert introduced a room full of folks to an income-generating growth area. And that was before he even got to sports court marking.

So thanks to Robert for stepping in and stepping up; we appreciate it. And to those of you who heard about the session but weren’t able to attend, don’t worry. We’ll ask Robert back to do it again.

As many of you know by now Pavement Maintenance & Reconstruction is celebrating its 25th year this year and we thought it might be fun to show everyone what the very first issue looked like. So check it out. It’s not bad for a first try, and Bob Woltering, the founder and first editor, did a nice job of developing it until it and National Pavement Expo were purchased by The Aberdeen Group (which at the time owned World of Concrete) in 1990. It retained its mostly black-and-white look until it was sold to Johnson Hill Press (now Cygnus Business Media) in 1995.

The industry has changed quite a bit, and the magazine has changed too. But as you scroll through that first issue you’ll see a lot of familiar names, including SealMaster, Crafco, Deery, Tarmax, Neyra, Billy Goat, Masco (then called Mr. Air Sweepers), USA-Tips.

Yes, it seems I do save everything.

Attendance was up by more than a couple hundred contractors at the recent National Pavement Expo in Nashville, and that’s just one of what might be hopeful signs for the coming season. Overall attendance at seminars was up over 2009, Roundtables (the free Q&A sessions at the end of the day) were close to standing-room-only, and NPE hasn’t seen that kind of end-of-day interest in at least a couple of years.

Then there’s the exhibit floor. Typically I get an opportunity to walk the floor on the show’s first and second day, but I steer clear of booths where exhibitors are talking with prospective buyers. Still, usually I am able by the end of the second day to at least stop in most booths to say hello, welcome exhibitors to the show, and learn about what they are displaying.

Not the case this year. The first day of the show was awfully busy, and while I couldn’t spend much time on day two when I was out there in late morning it looked almost like a first day. And it there must have been a pretty good combination of contractors looking to buy and exhibitors doing a good job selling because in the last four days I’ve received numerous e-mails from exhibitors letting me know not only how happy they are with the 2010 show — but that they sold equipment (in more than one case several pieces of equipment) before the show closed.

So as I said, maybe some positive signs for the upcoming season.

The 25th National Pavement Expo is history, but that doesn’t mean its impact is over. The event was busy, with attendance up from 2009 and contractors and exhibitors pretty positive about the upcoming year. Attendance at seminars was up, interaction with speakers was strong, and many people let me know they thought NPE had an especially strong conference program. It’s always gratifying when I get stopped in the hall outside of a seminar room and a contractor tells me how effective a speaker was or how much he took away from a specific session. That happened many times last week in Nashville and we’re glad to be able to provide that help.

One of the greatest benefits of attending NPE is the opportunity to meet and talk with contractors from throughout the country. I spent much of last week doing just that and thanks to everyone I talked with I’ve got more ideas for magazine articles, new seminars, and even a couple of new speakers. I talked with contractors who return year after year, and they told me they look for those or two small things that can have an impact on their business. I talked with a contractor who attended the first NPE, and I talked with many who attend every year or two. So to all those who took a few minutes out of their day to share their business with me, thanks much. I’ll put that all to good use.

I always find NPE invigorating and energizing. It recharges my batteries and gets me ready for the year ahead, and I think many contractors feel the same way. Let me know how you liked NPE, what you learned, what you bought, and anything else about NPE you want to share. I’ll be doing the same over the next few days so keep checking back.

The news and photos following the earthquake in Haiti certainly put a lot of life’s problems in perspective, even though it’s a “far away” problem. But in this case a member of the paving and pavement maintenance community is tied closely to Haiti and an orphanage there that could use your help.

Bob Krebs, SealMaster North Carolina, has been a speaker on marketing at numerous National Pavement Expo and National Pavement Expo West shows, but he’s also on the board of the Free The Kids orphanage about 90 miles away from Port au Prince. Bob had planned on speaking in Nashville but an orphanage meeting conflicted so we was supposed to be in Haiti during NPE — though he doesn’t know when he’ll be able to fly in now. I dropped him a note the other day to see how the orphanage had come through, and here’s Bob’s reply:

“Thank you for your e-mail. The Port au Prince airport is closed at this time. Not sure when we will get out at this point. The Hotel Montana that I stayed in last March no longer exists. Neither does the Cathedral I stood next to. Neither does the Presidential Palace I took a picture of. The Free The Kids orphanage is 90 miles SW of the epicenter. Our buildings are reinforced with steel and the buildings held. None of the 650 kids got hurt. Now the problem. We have 55 gallons of diesel fuel left and about 5 days of meals. Plus, once the roads become passable, we believe that parents whose spouse was killed will be dropping off their children because they can’t take care of them. We are clearly not ready for this catastrophe but we are trying the best we can.”

As of this writing individual Americans have donated more than $6 million to the relief cause in Haiti — quite a statement considering the tough times the country is in the midst of. But if you have a few dollars you can spare make a visit to www.freethekids.org and help out where you can.

One of the great things about National Pavement Expo, which runs next week from Jan,. 20-23 in Nashville, is I get to meet and spend time with contractors (and manufacturers) who are out there in the industry’s front lines every day. This is more than an opportunity to just meet the readers of Pavement Maintenance & Reconstruction — it’s an opportunity to learn what’s going on in the field. Every year Kim Johnston, Pavement’s Associate Editor, and I return from this show with ideas for new stories, insights on current or coming trends, and great leads for profiles of contractors who are doing something special out there. Our goal is to learn from you and to help you tell your story to the rest of the industry.

So while we’re always on the lookout for any ideas, here are some suggestions:
* “How to” job stories about unusual, large, or particularly difficult jobs you tackled
* An aspect of your business that you do particularly well or differently from your competition
* A change you have made within your company or your goals that has made you more profitable

But don’t let these suggestions limit you. If you have a story to tell we want to hear about it.

So if you’re attending NPE next week try to leave a little time in your schedule to stop by and say hello. You can find Kim (she’s a little more difficult to track down) as she covers many of the seminars and spends a good deal of time on the exhibit floor. I can usually be found in or around Room 207 at the Nashville Convention Center, and if the timing is right I’ll even buy you a cup of coffee while we talk about your business. If for some reason the timing isn’t right and I’m a little busy (hey, it can happen) leave me a business card and I will make it a point to give you a call when the show ends. If you can’t make it to Room 207 just drop a card off at the Cygnus Business Media Booth #910.

Hope to meet you there!

Probably the most frequently asked question in seminars at National Pavement Expo is “How much should I charge for my work?”

Well, NPE, coming up next week Jan. 20-23 in Nashville, can’t tell anyone what to charge for a service — it’s illegal in the first place — but pricing is a problem for many contractors. In fact, one of contractors’ biggest complaints is about other contractors — competitors who underprice the market. They’re not complaining about contractors who bid low, they’re talking about contractors who bid too low, or lower than they can afford to bid. The problem is, many contractors don’t know what they can afford to bid. They base their price on what the market price is or on what they need to bid to get the job — often not realizing they are bidding less than the job will cost them to complete.

So for years National Pavement Expo has offered basic sessions on how to cost out a job — including what that means, what to factor in, and how that forms the basis for your pricing. This year NPE takes job costing a step further as Grow Consulting’s Guy Gruenberg will present two sessions specific to industry segments. “Price Your Paving for Profit” covers job costing for paving contractors and “Profitable Pavement Maintenance Job Costing” covers determining job costs for sealcoating, cracksealing and pavement marking work.

For the paving & pavement maintenance industry to continue its growth contractors need to make sure they are pricing their work correctly…because you won’t generate the profit you need if you don’t price properly. And if you don’t generate the profit you need you won’t be around very long. These sessions will be well worth your time.

I can’t tell you how often I talk with contractors who have never attended National Pavement Expo because, they say, “there’s nothing they can learn from it.” I have heard similar kinds of things from contractors who attended a seminar, but their comment is more like “I knew most of it but I did learn a couple of little things.”

What many people don’t realize is “a couple of little things” is enough. It’s not that I think contractors expect too much from a 90-minute seminar — on the contrary they should expect a lot. But I think that sometimes contractors don’t necessarily recognize the value of what they might have learned, “little things” or not.

For example, assume that in a productivity seminar you learned one thing that can save you 10 minutes on an average-size job. Pretty small stuff…but if your crew does three average size jobs a day (30 minutes saved), and you work six days a week (180 minutes) that $65 you spent on the class probably paid for itself the first week, if not the first day. Then apply what it costs you hourly to send your crew out of the yard, consider the additional productivity or extra job you can start or squeeze in, factor in the labor cost you might save, and you can see how even a “little thing” can help your bottom line. And what if you run multiple crews?

This year’s NPE has a number of management-related sessions that can generate just these types of savings for virtually any contractor. Giselle Chapman’s “Time-saving Solutions for Managing Your Electronic Office” will help you get more done more quickly and more efficiently, leaving time to advance other projects. Her “Taking Your Presentation Skills to the Next Level” is just the thing for those owners and sales people faced with developing presentations for customers and customer organizations. Add in Harry Ponder’s “How to Write an Employee Handbook and Set Company Policy” and any seminar by the consultants Guy Gruenberg, Brad Humphrey and Jeff Stokes and there’s an awful lot of “little things” you can learn to make a positive impact on your business.

With the holidays behind us and the 2010 season not all that far around the corner, the upcoming National Pavement Expo , Jan. 20-23 in Nashville, provides an opportunity for paving and pavement maintenance contractors to get a jump on their competition by attending NPE’s educational sessions and by visiting the exhibit floor to learn about new materials and kick the tires of equipment.

I’m not going to use this space to pitch NPE to anyone — it’s the industry trade show and if you’re involved in the industry it’s a show you need to attend — but what I will do over the next few weeks is alert Roundabout readers to some of the speakers and/or educational sessions they might otherwise overlook.

Let’s start with Tom Skinner, former dean of the renowned Road Institute at Blaw-Knox/Ingersoll-Rand before it all became Volvo. Tom now teaches independently and he’s one of those speakers NPE is fortunate to have on its agenda. Like John Ball and Jim Scherocman, Tom has been around and I just can’t emphasize enough the value he adds to both the NPE program and potentially your paving business. This year Tom kicks off NPE on Jan. 20 with “Make Big Paving Profits on Small Paving Jobs” and “Taking Full Advantage of Your Free-floating Screed.”

The “paving profits” session was created specifically for the NPE paving audience who work in small, tight spaces when paving driveways and parking lots. Tom will show you how to become more efficient, how to control your costs (specifically your labor costs), how to plan the work effectively — and all while producing quality work. Later the same day Tom will discuss how contractors can take more advantage of their “free-floating screed.” While this session is something NPE hasn’t tried before — covering a specific aspect of a specific piece of equipment — paving contractors and consultants tell us that most contractors get only a fraction of the benefit they could from their free-floating screed. Apparently having a free-floating screed on your paver is one thing; using it effectively takes some know-how — and that’s what Tom will provide. Check him out.