Speed, Agility Of Stand-on Vacs Makes For Efficient Cleaning

Only 16 days into servicing MCO, Barton could already see evidence of the stand-on equipment’s efficiency.

“All my assumptions about using this equipment have proven true,” he says. “Modeling my staffing plan on other airport projects, I was able to drop full-time employee counts based on my increased production using this stand-on equipment.”

One stand-on vacuum, for example, can displace five full-time janitors using upright or backpack vacuums due to the speed at which the stand-on unit covers an area.

“The stand-on vacuum is much more nimble,” says Barton. “It can fit into tighter, smaller spaces more easily than a traditional seated vacuum machine. That’s very important to me, because an airport has everything from lounge chairs to tables to roped-off areas or passenger-guided roped areas, and these machines are nimble enough to navigate these obstacles.”

Even though Flagship uses stand-on equipment primarily for cleaning airports, the building service contractor relies on stand-on machines to meet floor-cleaning challenges in other markets as well.

“In office buildings, where you have a lot of cubicles and long hallways, stand-up equipment allows you to maneuver easily and service carpeted areas effectively without banging into walls and cubicles,” says Barton.

And he estimates that the use of a stand-on burnisher reduces the number of employees needed by two or three.

Flagship’s maintenance costs have also dropped with increased use of stand-on machines, says Barton. For example, since a stand-on vacuum’s agility allows it to replace 10 or 15 smaller vacuums, he only has to maintain one larger machine, which is generally more cost effective.