After the party comes the clean-up

With the summer season well and truly upon us, it’s festivals, weddings, parties and balls galore. As millions of people across the UK wake up with slightly sore heads during summer’s various extravaganzas, the effort to clean up is often well underway behind the scenes. But the clean-up battle needn’t dampen spirits. 

It’s a simple fact that across the board, summer signals an increased demand for both resource and equipment, impacting upon facilities managers, contract cleaners and event organisers alike. And whilst this is great news from a commercial perspective, it also poses great challenges from an operational point of view. Even the most dedicated staff who are used to rolling up their sleeves and getting stuck-in, sometimes need a helping hand. The sheer range and diversity of events held across the Great British Summer is at an all-time high, meaning the resulting clean-up efforts can often be extraordinary and widespread. 

Positive reinforcement

A key challenge for many involved in the clean-up effort after such events is how to respond effectively – and profitably. After all, this increase in demand calls for an equally extraordinary approach to managing cleaning activities. In much the same way that party planners look beyond their in-house capabilities and outsource the clearing up, so too can cleaning contractors call in additional reinforcements. By outsourcing their equipment requirements to an equipment services company like Reintec, cleaning contractors can take advantage of specialist support that offers flexible equipment availability and helps to drive operational efficiency.

Often the most effective and efficient ways to complete a clean-up job post event is to ship in a job lot of extra kit or specialist equipment, however the price tag associated with doing so could be hard to swallow - particularly if it will only be used once in a blue moon. Outsourcing allows cleaning contractors to scale up their fleet requirements or bring in specialist kit in response to demand, without having to worry about capex or what to do with that kit once demand starts to level off. And the advantages don’t just end there; outsourcing can help to ensure optimal productivity and ultimate safety - two of the things we most want when it comes to clean-up operations. 

It’s fundamentally a simple yet very effective solution. You hire whatever you want, have it delivered wherever you want it, and in the quantities that you need it, and you can rest assured that the equipment will always turn up fully compliant, well maintained and ready to use. And I have to say; the significance of these last two points shouldn’t be underestimated.

Safety & reliability

We’re all too familiar with the highly pressurised time scales that tend to accompany post event clean-ups – especially ahead of a scheduled reopening – so you want kit that you know is going to work. And deadlines aside, you also need to know that it will be safe to use. Herein lies another outsource advantage, using an outsourcing model removes the requirement of a maintenance regime to ensure compliance and availability. With outsourcing models, you get ‘shop fresh’ equipment every time, which is crucial in ensuring operational efficiency and user safety. Hire comes to the rescue providing the on-going equipment maintenance and guaranteed compliance for you, as well reducing the potential for downtime caused by equipment failure or loss, and improves turnaround times for emergency requirements or peaks in activity. 

Quite simply, outsourcing your equipment requirements means you can focus on your core activities – getting things clean – safe in the knowledge that you’ll have the kit you need to support you.