Three Rivers Power Sweep, Inc, Pittsburgh PA

A business acquaintance of NAS recently introduced us to Leroy Stotler’s Three Rivers Power Sweep, Inc., enthusiastically saying, “It’s a great company!” He went on to add, “It’s a very respectable company, and I believe Leroy could relay information to help other Sweeping Companies.” That was both great praise and an understatement. We’ve since learned a lot about Three Rivers Power Sweep, Inc., Pittsburgh, PA and Stotler, an industry expert. 

He possesses a vast wealth of knowledge, and we’re fortunate to have him share some of it here with NAS readers through his own story of building his highly successful business. His sweeping company has grown to become a very popular service in the fiercely competitive Pittsburgh street sweeping market.

Three Rivers Power Sweep, Inc.

The business started operating in 1981, and in 1988 it was incorporated as Three Rivers Power Sweep, Inc. by Kathy Stotler, Leroy’s mother, and Linda Smith, his aunt. It has remained a family-owned B2B provider in power sweeping, property maintenance, and related services throughout Pittsburgh metro and greater central Pennsylvania for the past 45 years. Leroy reflects here on his entrepreneurial journey:

I went to Penn State for engineering. I had a fairly long career in engineering software, analysis, and computational fluids. But growing up I had always worked with my mom and aunt, doing various chores, being the second person in the truck, etc. Eventually, they were looking to retire. The opportunity came up for me to purchase the company. I knew it was a good steady business, so I decided to take it on and try something different. 

I bought them out 18 years ago. How do I like it? [Leroy amused.] It depends on what day it is. It’s a type of business with very high highs and very low lows. It’s 7 days a week, 365. Growing up learning about it in the household lessened the shell-shock of running it myself, for sure. There were no huge surprises about what it was going to take to manage it successfully.

Services Offered by Three Rivers

Three Rivers offers a full range of sweeping service types, plus a wide array of additional services for our customers, including:

*As a convenience to our customers, we accept requests for snow plowing and subcontract that service to our trusted local providers.

Three Rivers Customer Service Priorities

Leroy shared his practices and service model logic with us. We try to help our customers with whatever they need when they ask, within the boundaries of what is practical for us to do in-house. For example, it wouldn’t make sense for our guys to be up on ladders replacing ceiling tiles. Without frequent experience doing work like that, there’s the safety risk and quality concern.

We try to figure it out, if it’s a value to the customer, before we get involved. We can reasonably help with some kinds of exterior maintenance. But as a convenience for customers, we sub out the kinds of jobs we don’t do, like interior maintenance, and we may manage the project, handling contacts with owner and tenant, etc. It’s not a big money-maker for us, but it adds value for our customers, and it’s pure profit for us. 

We try to be careful about offering everything or over-promising. If it’s too far out of scope, we will just send a name referring the customer to a trusted contractor we know. 

Three Rivers Equipment

We have about 20+ trucks, including 18 to 19 sweeper trucks and 3 support trucks. Those are pickups for portering or hauling trailers. We also have 4 ride-on sweepers that are hauled on trailers to the work sites for indoor garage sweeping. 

For parking lots, we use mostly Schwarze, and we have a Tymco. For larger construction site cleanup and industrial site sweeping, we have Stewart Amos R6’s. And we have a couple of ODRA MTH4’s; those are pure broom trucks. Last year, we also acquired a Tymco 600 and have had great success with it on road construction work. 

A lot of our equipment investment over the past few years has been more into roadwork and site clearing where we have large data centers coming in, and destruction and/or construction of plants in the area to make space for those.

We don’t have to do truck repairs out on the road often, but we have onsite mechanics, and they do anything from light maintenance to full rebuilds. For example, we’ve pulled a Schwarze sweeper system off, refurbished it, and mounted it on a brand-new Isuzu chassis. We can literally build two trucks like that for the price of one new truck. 

We purchase new trucks, and slightly used ones when there is an opportunity to buy a good brand. We use this combination to mitigate our capital equipment debt while maintaining a fresh, effective fleet. We do try to stick with a brand, to make training, repairs, and switching out parts most efficient. For parking lots, it’s Schwarze for us. We’ve always used those since the early days of the business startup and still do. 

The Three Rivers Team 

We have about 16 drivers and mechanics combined, an office manager, and a part-time accounts payable person. The office staff does a wide variety of tasks. The office manager helps with route management. The accounts payable person also does all the payroll on the electronic time cards, tracking different HR items, like anniversaries, the referral program, etc. They both help track the GPS that we use to review operations information and confirm service delivery, etc. 

The sales and HR are pretty much on me, including hiring and firing. And I handle any customer issues, etc. We’re running Quickbooks, and I do some of that and other work on the computer.  

Unique Employee Development System

Our training is mostly done by our 2 lead operators, and for our quality control, we do a little of all the standard methods, including quality spot checking, customer outreach, and an advanced performance rating program:

GPS Tracking

We use GPS tracking, photo documentation, video cameras, etc. If someone calls with an issue, we’re super responsive. We call back quickly, and we use our GPS data and camera system to provide meaningful information and resolve problems. 

Performance Quality Ratings

We have a system of sending someone out on a quality route. He will go to a cross section of work, and he uses a rating system to evaluate conditions after service. For example, the parking lot cleaning quality, the corners, curbs, etc. The quality checker puts the ratings into a spreadsheet, which is set up to calculate a “Quality Number.” 

At times when you’re low on people, there are not enough cycles to send a person out doing only that. It’s been very challenging to do that, but very worthwhile. Each individual gets a number, and the company as a whole gets a number. The company’s number is an average of all the ratings of individuals. 

People do crave the feedback. We’re trying to get better at that; I’m trying to get better at it. We don’t post the individual quality results publicly. We’re not looking to shame somebody, but we want to make sure they are understanding the expectation and where they can improve their performance.

Safety Ratings

Safety practices are also evaluated. The three drivers with the top overall performance get gift cards. The evaluation data comes from our Samsara GPS. I was shocked at how many people came up and looked at their own scores. 

The system has helped reduce distracted driving, which is usually to do with phone use. That’s gone down quite a bit. Drivers have been developing good habits, like putting the phone on audio. We enhanced our safety monitoring system on our trucks used on construction sites with cameras inside, outside, and on the back. It has an AI system. If someone walks behind the truck, it will beep and notify the driver of a possible safety issue.

NAPSA Certification

We support sweeper driver certification through NAPSA. If they then train other employees, they get bonus hourly differentials. A couple of the lead operators and I have also gone through the organization’s sweeper management training program. We invest in that training and have made it a requisite for advancement. We pay for the training and the employees get a bonus when they complete it. 

Employee Benefits

For us, it’s been a process. From the time I bought the company until now, we have worked to maintain a great team of people who want to work and grow, or at least to have a good job with competitive pay and good benefits. We have had a competitive health care program paid 100% by the company, and we recently added a 401K with employer match. And we provide holiday double pay, etc.

Three Rivers Marketing & Branding

Recently, we did some rebranding with our logo and website. The logo is a new sleek graphic design that symbolizes the meeting of the three rivers in downtown Pittsburgh. [For anyone unfamiliar with that beautiful view of the city at the three intersecting waterways, it’s a truly inspiring sight to see.]

We belong to 1-800-SWEEPER. We have been in that affiliation for quite a few years and we get leads from that. A lot of the marketing we do is what they do. People also find us on the web. Google search is where we get the largest percent of leads. About 60% of our total leads come from that, about 30% come through 1-800-SWEEPER, and the other 10% or so are from word of mouth. Our trucks have logos all over them. People see the phone number on them and call. I think we’re drawing from all the pertinent resources we need for leads.

We don’t want to grow just to grow. I think we’ve always tried to grow profitably and tried to take on work that makes sense — work that takes us where we want to go. We have diversified our services in the most practical way we can to serve customers’ needs and profit by trying to grow each one of those business lines individually. 

Industry Future Perspective – Leroy Statler

Year over year, the company has grown, continued to produce a healthy profit, and has become a well-trusted part of the local business community. Do I feel optimistic about the future? Well, prices are currently through the roof for equipment, brooms, and labor. We’ve had to do a lot of adapting to be competitive. 

The pressures put on us by the external economic conditions are not something I can necessarily alter. For example, we have some of the highest fuel prices in the northeast, much higher than the national average. We can only keep adjusting as necessary to stay profitable and offer employees a good place to work. We have to deal with it; we can’t change it. 

Advice for New Entrepreneurs Entering the Industry from Leroy Statler, Three Rivers Power Sweep, Inc, Pittsburgh PA 

It’s more about the people and not as much about the equipment. What sweeper you’re going to buy, what brand will look bigger and better, etc., is not as important as the workers. We keep older sweepers when it makes more sense sometimes to not have to buy new. Focus on the people. If you’re getting a partner, get yourself a good partner so you can grow the business.

 

For information about Three Rivers Power Sweep, Inc. in Pittsburgh, PA, you can call (412) 889-0021 or visit 3rpsinc.com.