Landscape Management, May 2014
IRRIGATION Keeping it fair A look at how companies approach irrigation service pricing with a flat rate or charging on time and materials and why they favor their method By SARAH PFLEDDERER I f only irrigation professionals had X ray vision It would eliminate that part of the service call that takes an inestimable amount of time The part when they must dig up the yard to locate the underground glitch they were called to repair That might hearten more of them to charge on a flat rate for irrigation services like Colleen MacKinnon does While the co owner of Able Irrigation in Vancouver Canada lost hope for X ray vision a time ago she has a hard stance on employees getting paid for every bit of time it takes to complete a job and giving customers no leeway to dispute it Flat rate pricing accomplishes just that MacKinnon says Clients have a stopwatch mentality but they like flat rates knowing what the cost is per repair she says Billable hours never amount to eight in a day she adds with mention that the average is five and a half billable hours per day but you must account for windshield time or travel to the job site and allow employees some flexibility to locate buried problems such as for pipe and wire repairs Ill never go back to time and materials FAIRNESS TO THE COMPANY A 40 year old company Able Irrigation converted to flat rate pricing five years ago and spent four years prior preparing for the switch Its not easy MacKinnon says Ill tell you that from the start MARKETWATCH LANDSCAPEMANAGEMENT NET MAY 2014 34 PHOTO ABLE IRRIGATION The Ticker IRRIGATION John Deere Landscapes JDL acquired Eljay Irrigation located in Calgary Alberta While JDL didnt disclose terms of the deal President Dave Werning said the company expects to make more acquisitions in 2014 Netafim debuted its line of Netafim Landscape Controllers Developed by Tucor the web based smart controllers incorporate weather and soil moisture data to determine watering needs With the U S General Services Administration approving the U S Green Building Councils Leadership Energy Environmental Design v4 LEED and the Green Building Initiatives Green Globes rating programs as standards for green buildings the Irrigation Association IA outlined the differences and overlaps of the programs primarily regarding point allocations Visit buff ly 1jepvrH for specifics continued on page 36 Some companies like Able Irrigation opt for flat rate service pricing to get paid for 8 billable hours per day
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