Riding For Dollars: Mower Management

FROM THE FIELD. Clearly, the biggest advantage that contractors see in the riding mower option is in the labor savings. First, the productivity of the riding mower reduces the number of crew members needed to complete a job. Second, labor costs are always the highest in the long run in the landscape maintenance business.

“Labor costs are the highest costs,” agreed Dennis Dautel, chief executive officer with Clean Cut Inc., Austin, Texas. “Anytime you can afford to buy equipment, you should buy it.”

“Usually, a piece of equipment is the least expensive thing on a job,” concurred Ron Kujawa, president of Kujawa Enterprises, Cudahy, Wis. “When you amortize it over a three- or four-year period and compare the hourly cost to human labor, you’re going to be way ahead. Even if the difference between the rider and the walk-behind is $2,000, if you make it up by having an extra person at $8 an hour, that’s not a lot of hours before it equals out.”

Dautel also pointed out that riders are an employee benefit. “Any time we can get employees off their feet, we get an employee that will stay with us longer,” he said. “With a walk-behind, you could end up walking 10 miles a day, and that can be stressful.”

“Over a period of time, the fatigue factor becomes a issue,” agreed Kujawa. “You start to drain the productivity of a person. With a rider, you are able to maintain that level of productivity.”

Dautel looked at the possibility of using a walk-behind with a sulky, but he felt difficulty in maneuvering around obstacles in office parks made this option less attractive.

Clean Cut crews carry one mid-size front-mount rider with two decks, usually a 36- inch deck and a 60- or 70-inch deck for certain properties. This is teamed with a pair of 36-inch walk-behinds. Customers demand a high quality look, so each unit has the ability to bag.

Kurt Kluznik, president of Yardmaster Inc., Painesville, Ohio, is adding more riding units to his crew’s fleet, specifically the zero-turn variety. “About half of our crews have one riding machine, and we are evolving toward using more riders,” noted Kluznik. “We are finding more and more that zero-turns are versatile machines. We used them on and off for years since they were introduced, but for the last two years we’ve been looking at them again.”

“Primarily, it’s the speed and productivity issues,” he added. “The zero-turn has outperformed the walk-behinds in time studies we have done.”

Kluznik said that his analysis of equipment related structure, turf and landscape damage showed that workers were less likely to cause damage when riding on the zero-turn units. They have also proven to be more durable than earlier mid-size units, he noted.

Groundmasters Inc., Cincinnati, Ohio, maintains a wide variety of properties, although about three-fourths of the company’s business is in office parks and industrial sites. On each property, president Mike Rorie looks to use the largest possible mowing machine that makes sense. Presently, Groundmasters’ mowing mix includes 12 tractors varying from a 72-inch to a 10-foot cut, 24 trim mowers and 12 walk-behinds. Rorie now wants to convert some walk-behind units to riders to add productivity.

“One benefit is less fatigue for the worker and more enjoyment in what they are doing,” explained Rorie. “But the other benefit, especially on the bigger properties, is the reduction in labor compensation. I’d rather owe the bank for new equipment than the payroll every Friday.

“The objectives with purchasing riders,” he continued, “are operator comfort, safety and speed. When we demo equipment, we look closely at safety and comfort, then how fast the task can be completed. The operator needs to be physically comfortable and safe.”

Rorie is most strongly interested in small to mid-size units. “Unfortunately, we’re coming at this from a reactive rather than a pro-active stance. But we’ve seen the units at trade shows, and there are some slick models available. If the units do a high quality job and the operators are more productive, it’s cheap money for us to spend. We always keep our checkbooks open for these opportunities.”

Dan Standley, president of Dan’s Landscape and Lawn Care, Terrytown, La., has relied mainly on mid-mount riders because of speed and operator productivity. His crews usually carry one 50- to 60-inch rider, a 36-inch walk-behind and one or two smaller push models.

“We’ll use the walk-behinds and push mowers to get through gates and other tight areas,” Standley explained. “About 90 percent of our business is commercial shopping centers, apartment buildings and office complexes, and this is the mix of mowers that works best for us.

“If I could, I would use all zero-turn rid-ers, because they eliminate most of the trimming and do a good job in open fields as well,” he continued. “The walk-behinds get to tight areas, and they can be used in areas where the turf is very wet and a larger mower could cause damage.”

The fatigue consideration is especially important to Standley because of the structure of his work week. “Our employees work four days a week, 10 hours a day,” he explained. “Ten hours is a long time to be out, especially in the heat down here in Louisiana. Our employees can get a lot more work done with much less fatigue.”

Finally, the labor savings have been a big benefit for Standley’s company. A timing test he did eight years ago revealed that one man on a zero-turn rider could complete a test task about three times faster than two men using walk-behinds. Not only does that add to the bottom line, but it gives the company a competitive edge when bidding for work, Standley noted.