When you receive your van as you become a supervisor, it is important that you stay up to date with all of your vehicle’s maintenance and repairs needed. No one else will be in your van driving it and therefore, no one else will be able to tell you when your van is in need of work. If you allow your vehicle to become decommissioned and can not do your route, first off, this means the company may have to cover costly repairs and if Sootmaster is having to cover a lot of costly repairs then there is less money on the bottom line for giving raises and bettering the company; also, you make things more difficult for the entire company. Now either another tech has to pick up your slack or the office has to figure out where to reschedule these customers too, that is assuming that they are not mad at us for not showing up and are willing to give us another try.

Our work vans are a rolling billboard for the company, whether people are seeing you drive it down the road or you are pulling up to a customer’s home, that is one of the first things you will be judged on. Be sure the dash is completely empty so customers don’t think we are slobish when they see us pulling up, the inside is neat and organized so that things don’t fall out when we open our doors and this helps us keep track of and know where things are at so we can be effective and efficient. A clean van screams professionalism, it sets a high bar for our customers that are seeing it and it sets a great example for new team mates trying to learn and grow within the company. When you return to the office in the evenings, your assistant will clean out all of the trash from the van and sweep out the dirt tracked in throughout the day. It is important to allow your help to get this done so they learn exactly how it is supposed to be and it sets a great example for how they should be operating when they become a supervisor and get into their own van.

Our vans should always be properly stocked with the required chimney products, equipment and the necessary supplies to complete most of the work we complete in any given day. The company provides a list of products needed along with a required list of materials from the hardware store and a list of the tools needed to ensure that we can complete any and every job thrown our way. When our vans are properly stocked, opportunity will knock at your door; this means that when you show up to a customer’s home and you sell a chimney cap and chase cover, you can complete that job on the spot. This is huge because it keeps the schedule open for new customers and now we do not have to make an additional trip out which saves on gas and wear and tear on the vehicle which inevitably increases the bottom dollar and provides more opportunities for pay advancement and company improvements.