Portable Sanitation Association International

ASSOCIATIONINSIGHT Portable Sanitation Association International News BIWEEKLY EDITION MARCH 17, 2021 Page 2 Evolving Expectations on Worksites, Part 1…continued from page 1 Continued on page 14 On March 4 the PSAI's bi-weekly virtual roundtable discussion focused on these changes. In this article, and in a follow up article on March 31, we will cover some highlights from that conversation. What Has Been Evolving at Your Worksites in the Past Year? Ross Ambrose, AAA Porta Serve, High Springs, Florida: What I am noticing is sites that have more corporate oversight, and on larger projects where safety officers are involved, it's a whole new world in terms of expectations. They are following guidelines for sinks. They are increasing the frequency that toilets are being serviced. And we're not expecting to see that kind of thing drop even after COVID because they've suddenly discovered that they like the improved conditions. A few sites are still looking to have a sign in and out temperature check, but expectations seem to be decreasing for that. Traditionally I haven't had sinks in my restrooms, but I've noticed a real demand for individual sinks with individual toilets on single family home builds. They haven't wanted to increase service, but they've wanted to add hand washing; they really like having that and they're willing to pay a premium for it. We also looked at our rates and did some adjustments last fall. We have been really surprised. Nobody even batted an eye at any rate changes we made. They realized that we had some increased costs because of the extra time we were spending on sites and the extra work we were doing. We looked at adding a specific COVID fee, but we really didn't want to do that. So internally, we looked at how to handle our increased costs, and making the rate adjustments has worked out really well. Stefania Demczak, Approved Toilet Rentals, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. I wanted to kind of touch on oil and gas sites specifically. One of the things that is happening relates to temperature checks. We're noticing that to get on well pads, having the temp checks for employees is a requirement. And so that's definitely dragging on labor costs. It wasn't really until I was preparing for this roundtable that I actually slowed down and thought, "How much time is this taking? When we think about a whole route, a whole day, how many driver hours is this adding up to while drivers are waiting for these checks?" A temperature check isn't something that you think is going to cost money. And I don't think it's going away just yet for oil and gas, because of the stringency of those sites. The PPE requirements are also strict, and I don't think that that's going to be changing any time soon. I think it may be a year before it starts relaxing. I would also say that the increased service requirements and the need for hand washing, which we're all aware of, have been big changes. But I think we have been happy and surprised by our ability to meet customer needs by adapting and listening. Joe Payne, Terry's Pumpin and Potties, Elko, Nevada. We deal a lot with gold mines, and we haven't seen a lot of changes initially. When we go for the temperature checks we find the requirements for those has dropped off over the past three to four months. Now, instead of having a temperature check station at the gates to the mines, they have us fill out a piece of paper at the beginning of the week that says we're not sick and we haven't been in contact with anybody who is sick. Ross Ambrose Stefania Demczak

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