I'll be the first one to tell you that I'm not an equipment junkie. I don't get excited about new trucks or mowers, but I do get excited about what it can do for our business when we approach our equipment as tools to improve efficiency, reduce burnout, and increase profitability. 

As soon as I could, I worked to standardize our fleet. There are a few reasons why this made sense to me:

1. Brand Identity: All of our trucks are the same color, and we stick to a few different brands for consistency and brand recognition. 

2. Maintenance: It's easier for us to repair and maintain the same trucks and equipment than it is to be working with a bunch of different brands. Everything we use can be serviced by the same mechanics who are already familiar with the pieces. 

3. Dealer Relationships: We're able to focus our attention on having great relationships with a few key dealers versus spreading ourselves thin.

4. Crew Switching. While we try to keep the same crew in the same truck and with the same equipment every day, if we need to switch things around we know the crew won't have a learning curve with new equipment. 

Standardizing the fleet is one way that we make fleet decisions with efficiency in mind, but there are others, too. We also:

• Invest in box trucks and toolboxes that can store equipment on them, so that we don't have to unload and reload our trucks every day.
• Have a side liftgate on all of our installation trucks. This makes it faster and easier to load heavy things into the truck bed and reduces back strain for our team.
• Look for opportunities to reduce the hours required for a task. Labor is our largest expense and finding experienced team members is difficult. Equipment that helps us do more in less time is often a smart investment.

Now is the time to be thinking about your equipment as you plan for next year, and as you look at your options my advice is not to be distracted by what's shiny. Instead look at how that equipment could fulfill a need the team has, make you more efficient, or allow you to generate more profits. 

If you want inspiration, come see our fleet in action at Grunder Landscaping Co. at one of our Field Trips in September, October, or December. These are filling up quickly - there are only 10 spots remaining for our September Field Trip. If you know you want to join us, register now before it sells out.

Marty Grunder
Founder & CEO
The Grow Group & Grunder Landscaping Co.