The New York City Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) board approved a congestion-pricing plan in an 11-1 vote on March 27 that could dramatically hike the costs of commercial vehicles delivering textiles and other goods into a high-traffic area of Manhattan.
As noted in Textile Services Weekly on March 11, Shasta Linen Supply Inc., Sacramento, CA, recently acquired five electric step vans worth roughly $1 million. This change moved Shasta Linen into compliance with California’s pending commercial-vehicle regulations. It also put the company in the vanguard of independents that have embraced alt-fuel route vehicles.
After 34 years’ service in the business of supplying mats to the linen, uniform and facility services industry, David Watterson, M+A Matting’s vice president of field and international sales, recently announced his retirement from the LaGrange, GA-based company. M+A helped fuel the growth of the mat-rental market, starting with its founding in the early 1960s as Mountville Mills Inc. Because of Watterson’s pivotal role in that growth, we asked if he’d answer a few questions about where the business is headed in the 2020s and beyond. Excerpts of his responses appear below.
UniFirst Corp., Wilmington, MA, recently announced the recipients of the company’s Aldo Croatti Award for 2023.
Readers of Textile Services magazine should have received their November/December combo issue in recent days, including a cover article on opportunities for laundry operators to provide textiles to outpatient medical facilities. Excerpts from that article “Outpatient Medical – ‘We Continue to See New Opportunities,’” appear below.
Wildman Business Group (WBG), an independent industrial launderer based in Warsaw, IN, recently announced a merger with WM Uniform, Holland, MI.
Managing the fleet operations of linen, uniform and facility services companies comes with challenges that can generate stress and sleeplessness for fleet managers and other executives. Textile Services Weekly heard a lot about the difficulties confronting these managers during a panel discussion at the TRSA Fleet Summit in Baltimore.
One year ago, Gurtler Industries Inc. launched Gurtler Logistics, a fully owned and operated division of the company, dedicated to providing product-delivery services to its customers. Over the last few years, the industry has experienced increased challenges with delivery services due to the availability of appropriate trucks and drivers. To meet these challenges, Gurtler invested in its own fleet of semi-tractor/trailers and bulk tankers and hired its own staff of fully qualified drivers.
TRSA recently released the results of its Business Pulse Survey for the fourth quarter of 2022. The survey was conducted in November/December and received more than 60 responses from TRSA members. The respondents operate across a range of market sectors, including industrial/workwear, food-and-beverage, acute and nonacute healthcare, hospitality/hotels, and mixed operations.
When Hurricane Fiona struck Puerto Rico on Sept. 17, island residents, including Michael Shulevitz, president of Cadillac Services in suburban San Juan, were braced for devastation on the scale of a previous storm, Hurricane Maria, which struck in September 2017. It was bad, but not that bad, says Shulevitz, in part because company leaders have learned from past experience how to deal with severe weather events.
