messy trucks

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mdshunk said:
Some of those 'pack rat' basements can be handy. You don't need a ladder. I've already body surfed on top of the junk to drill my holes and run my cables. You hear stuff beneath you creaking and cracking, but dollars to donuts, they won't get into any of that stuff in their lifetime.
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A neat freak can have just as many boxes of junk in your way as a pack rat but the boxes will all be organized and labeled. The good thing about a pack rat is that you don't have to worry about disturbing the order ( there isn't any).
 
mdshunk said:
Anybody watch those two British ladies on the BBC show, "How Clean Is Your House"? They need a version of that on a tradesman's channel where they go through a guy's truck and organize it.
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The one good thing about having slobs working for you is you can usually track their movements by all the recipts they inevitably leave on the floor. Hmm a recipt from 7/11 at 7:15 then one on the same date at 845 and another at 11:25 same date hhhmmmmmm
 
you know the old saying"one mans junk is another mans treasure.'i keep a lot of old electrical stuff and have made money off it later.of all the things i started to throw away was some old fpe breakers and a old 200amp fpe panel.
had a remodel come up a old office being converted into a coffee shop.it had a 400amp fpe panel.tried to talk them into a new panel but no dice.needed a few breakers and had them.
the panel i thought what the heck and put it up on ebay.some guy from cal.paid me $200 plus shipping.
 
220/221 said:
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That really is a nice looking setup, I am definitely jealous. I work out of a standard wheelbase GMC van, it's a nice truck but not nearly enough room.
 
mdshunk said:
Some of those 'pack rat' basements can be handy. You don't need a ladder. I've already body surfed on top of the junk to drill my holes and run my cables. You hear stuff beneath you creaking and cracking, but dollars to donuts, they won't get into any of that stuff in their lifetime.
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I had to do some work in one of those basements a while back, and it was nice because I didn't have to do any cleanup. ;)
 
bradleyelectric said:
what do you use cable cleaner for? Do you do high volt splicing?
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No, he uses it to destroy the insulation on the cables he cleans after they've sprayed with a fire extinguisher. ;) :D :D :D
 
I need to have my truck clean and organized. It is probably a disorder but if it is not clean I start to get irritable. It makes me more efficient. When I have a helper with me I can tell him where to look for a part in the van. With out some sort of organizational system I would be wasting time searching for parts that I am not sure I have.

I used to work with a guy who could care less about having things organized and he was a good worker. This guy's truck was always a question mark. You never knew if the truck was stocked with everything you needed.

In the end, for my situation it is a mental health thing. If it's a mess, I am a mess. If it's clean, well I am probably still a mess but I'm happy.:D
 
zdog said:
you know the old saying"one mans junk is another mans treasure.'i keep a lot of old electrical stuff and have made money off it later.of all the things i started to throw away was some old fpe breakers and a old 200amp fpe panel.
had a remodel come up a old office being converted into a coffee shop.it had a 400amp fpe panel.tried to talk them into a new panel but no dice.needed a few breakers and had them.
the panel i thought what the heck and put it up on ebay.some guy from cal.paid me $200 plus shipping.
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I worked for a guy once that kept everything. Nothing went into the bin. So when he would give me my job tickets for the day and I needed a "special" item he would tell me go into the shop and find that "thing a ma gig" so off i went and went on my quest to find "waldo" and sometimes i found something close to it or very similar to it and very rarely I would find Waldo. Im sure that if someone did a cost analasis on all the times i went on that quest to find the right part and in some cases i had to disassemble something to get to it it would have been more cost affective to just order the damn part from the get go. and on the rare occassion after all the work involved in extracting the part in the end it didnt work right. And on the other side of things if I was the customer I dont know that I really would want an old piece of crap installed just cause the EC had it in his "junkyard"
 
mdshunk said:
Hire professionals. They don't work like that.
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Sorry, I have to call a BS on that one.

My experience has been about 1 out of 10 (professional or not) guys given a company truck will trash it out. People tend to take better care of their own trucks while thinking nothing of abusing somebody else's truck. The best solution I have come up with is to have the trucks cleaned for them when they bring they bring them in for service.

I used to let them take the trucks for service but that did not work out so well for me so there is a schedule now and ever truck in the fleet comes back to the shop at least every three months for service and cleaning.
 
mdshunk said:
Then you simply havn't tracked it.

I was looking at a truck "system" once upon a time in which the whole rear interior of the truck came out on a pallet and a new, restocked rear interior was replaced at the end of each day. This was a simple, 5 minute operation to refresh the whole truck, all except for any trash in the cab. I still think that was a slick system, and I'm sorry I lost track of it. Mario Maio, maybe?
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You are right. I don't track stuff like that. I stand back and take a wide angle view of my operation without getting into alot of the details. I waste alot of money for the privilage of not keeping my nose to every grain in the grindstone. My observations come from a few decades of watching people of all stripes working for me. My electricians are a very diverse bunch. Some are very tidy and others are slobs but I make sure that the work they do meets my expectations.

Bottom line is that I'm making plenty of money and my customers keep coming back for more. As I've said before, there are plenty of ways to run a successful EC business. I ain't attacking anyone else's. Mine is just different, not necessarily better or worse.
 
ITO said:
Sorry, I have to call a BS on that one.

My experience has been about 1 out of 10 (professional or not) guys given a company truck will trash it out. People tend to take better care of their own trucks while thinking nothing of abusing somebody else's truck. The best solution I have come up with is to have the trucks cleaned for them when they bring they bring them in for service.

I used to let them take the trucks for service but that did not work out so well for me so there is a schedule now and ever truck in the fleet comes back to the shop at least every three months for service and cleaning.
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I have a simple policy,you keep your truck clean and stocked or I will hire someone that will.I don't hire children I hire adults if you choose to act like a child I encourage you to work for the compitition.
 
Rewire said:
I have a simple policy,you keep your truck clean and stocked or I will hire someone that will..
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This sounds like a perfectly reasonable policy. Everyone knows the deal up front. Your house, your rules. I think neatness is an admirable goal. More power to you!

Rewire said:
I don't hire children I hire adults if you choose to act like a child I encourage you to work for the compitition.
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This sounds like you have other issues.
 
MAK said:
I need to have my truck clean and organized. It is probably a disorder but if it is not clean I start to get irritable. It makes me more efficient.
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When I mentioned disorder yesterday it was not because tony wanted to clean and organize his own truck/van. When you start getting all emotional about it and start saying that you are not someone's B-Word. ( Bitch ), things are a little different. ( bitch was edited to say maid ).

Example of disorder: If you straighten and level the pictures in your own house, you are neat and tidy. When you think it's your function in life to straighten all pictures , even those in your neighbor's house then you have a problem. When even seeing a picture hanging crooked starts to make you uncomfortable you have a real problem.

If you are an empolyee then you need to keep the vehicle as neat and clean as demanded by your employer. He's paying for your time. If you are self employed you need to keep vehicles as neat and clean as desired ( you write your own check).
 
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That sounds good for service techs, but how do you tell a first class foreman to wash his truck?

Seriously, anyone of my foremen can quit me today and be working for one of my competitors the same day, with a new truck.

I don't hire mature adults, I hire electricians. Which reminds me of a joke:

Q-What is the difference between an electrician and a puppy?
A- One day the puppy will grow up and stop whinning.
 
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