My name is Bert Hillyard from Topaz Property Services LTD. in Ontario.
We have about 5,200 driveways that we took care of this winter.
We have about 115 lawns per week that we take care of.
We've been doing this for 12 years and plan to do it many more years.
We were looking to upgrade our equipment, and the end result was we bought a used unit
to try out.
We used it all summer, and when we started using it with the leaf blowing unit, the deck,
and broom, it was like wow for us.
It was like why did we suffer for the first six years with these other pieces of equipment
when we could have had this?
As used as the equipment was, everything worked, we could get parts for it, and that gives
you more confidence in Ventrac as a corporation and in the equipment itself.
Then we said ok, now we're going to go get a new one, then we bought two more since then.
We're looking at our fifth one this fall.
Noone else is running any kind of equipment in the residential market like we have.
A lot of them have walk behind snow blowers, so they're out and exposed to 37 below, and
that's what we were working with this winter.
You have the safety factor there where the skin can freeze in 10 minutes.
Our fellows are in a heated cab and they've got their coffee holder, they don't have the
Hawaiian shirts on yet, but they've threatened to do that.
Just to make the other fellows feel that much worse!
We have it where we're doing 11 or 12 driveways each hour with the machines.
That's including the travel time and getting the driveways done.
The driveways are getting done in between 50 seconds and 2 minutes depending on the
size of the driveway.
People are happy.
A lot of times they'll stand in their window with a cup of coffee and peek out the window
and they're happy.
The clients are happy, we're happy, equipment's running well and it's great.
We start with one service and they say hey will you come blow my snow?
We start out with blowing their snow, and we come back to do aerate, mulch, cut grass,
and leaf blow.
So often times we start out with one service and see what other attachments we can put
on to do more jobs for them.
Other companies call us for help because they've got problems with their machines or they're
down and they're trying to keep their clients and keep going.
We help a competitor to keep going and it's making sure those people get out.
Sometime down the road if he ever decides to give up, he'll give the clients to us.
The versatility of having those attachments being able to change so fast and meet the
needs of your clients is something that's
very unique to Ventrac.