Jacob Godar, owner of Scooter’s Lawn Care, which has locations in Illinois and Florida, says that his 2017 three-quarter-ton Dodge Ram crew cab is roomy enough to pick people up when he has to, but he can still tow a trailer and job materials to a site. Trouble is, Godar says he finds that lately he’s doing a lot more zipping around than towing, and he foresees that he might be getting a sedan in the not-sodistant future. After all, Godar says he’s “all about efficiency” and looking for ways to be leaner, so getting a vehicle that isn’t so harsh on gas might be another way to do just that.
I’m always looking for ways we can operate more efficiently and it’s no different with my vehicle. The more I run around to job sites, the more I realize a car might be the answer for me. This just may be in the fleet next year and I’ll lease a car.
My vehicle is my mobile office. I used to carry around a yellow notepad and take endless notes. I had an iPad for customer presentations but I just couldn’t type fast enough on it. Now I’ve gotten an iPad with a keyboard and it’s one of the best things I’ve bought. I can stand on my tailgate and knock out my notes faster than ever. And my iPhone 8 is basically my left hand. I use it all the time.
I came to this industry from the automotive industry and I brought that mechanic knowledge with me. That’s one of the reasons that I’ve always bought older trucks for my fleet and kept them running. But as the business has grown, that’s gotten tiresome. With the exception of my truck, we have an older fleet and I use a mechanic to help keep that fleet running. But I plan to start buying newer trucks and filtering them into the mix. We run new equipment so there’s no downtime and it’s time we start looking to do that with our fleet.
I came to this industry because I got tired of working on cars all day. I always knew I wanted to own a business and when I was younger I had been a foreman on a landscape crew and enjoyed it. When I switched into this field, I immediately became obsessed with the business, and I still love it. I like getting up early every morning and I don’t mind working late at night. I’m really passionate about it.
Our trucks have the Scooter’s logo on them, but that’s it. I like to keep it simple. There is no website address listed on the trucks, but we’re easy to find. We are heavy on digital marketing with the idea that all our customers need to do is type in our name on the internet and they can find us.
The Essentials
My binder of plants — I have a binder of plants that we like to use for landscape projects that I’m always growing.
Marking paint — A lot of times, if the customer says “yes” during the estimate, we can start marking stuff right then and there.
First aid kit — We had a lot of bee stings last year and now we always keep Benadryl in there. We had to use quite a bit of it last year.
Gloves and hand wipes — To keep clean.
The post What’s In My Truck: Jacob Godar appeared first on Turf.
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