How a Traffic Safety Evaluation Can Help Improve Your City’s Roads

Does your city have streets or intersections that you consider problematic areas—streets where drivers are frequently caught speeding or intersections where accidents frequently occur? You may even have an area where traffic tends to build up, and no matter what you do, you can’t seem to get traffic to flow properly. These are common problems for cities and counties, but they aren’t problems that you have to live with forever. If you’re having trouble coming up with a solution, you should consider having a traffic safety evaluation completed.

Who Conducts Traffic Safety Evaluations?

Typically, traffic safety evaluations aren’t conducted by random city employees. In order to get a new perspective, you need the help of safety experts. In most cases, a traffic engineer and a traffic enforcement expert should work together to analyze the situation and come up with a good solution to the problem.

What Happens During a Traffic Safety Evaluation?

Your safety experts visit your city for a couple of days to observe traffic patterns in your problematic areas. Once the evaluation is complete, the experts will present you with their findings, along with on-site engineering and enforcement recommendations that you can use to help create a plan of action.

What Happens After the Evaluation?

Once you have the recommendations from the safety experts, you need to create a plan of action. If there are engineering suggestions that your city wants to make, you’ll need to review your city’s budget to determine when the work can be completed. Keep in mind, that while the safety experts recommend specific solutions, it may not be feasible to complete engineering work on your roads right away.

In order to create a plan of action to help enforce speed limits, etc. You need to consult your city’s police department. Work with the department to create an enforcement schedule. The more police patrol the area, the less likely drivers are to speed—eventually drivers will come to recognize the street and/or streets as areas police cars frequently sit and the amount of drivers caught speeding should decrease.

Traffic safety evaluations aren’t concrete solutions to your problems, but they are valuable. By bringing experts in to evaluate problematic areas and provide you with recommendations, it’s easier to create a plan of action that will work for your city. As long as you take the necessary steps to put your plan in place, it shouldn’t take long to see results. 

Control Street Flooding with Sewer, Drywell, and Manhole Maintenance

As the winter months approach, it’s important to think about how your city’s streets will be affected. Snow and ice on its own can cause an extensive amount of damage to asphalt, but that shouldn’t be your only concern. As the weather begins to get warmer next spring, the snow and ice will thaw, and if it the water doesn’t have anywhere to go, it could potentially flood the street. Your city probably has a sewer system or runoffs to keep water off of residential streets, and the time to make repairs is now—before the weather turns cold.

Create a Plan

Before you send out street crews to excess the sewer system and manholes throughout the city, you need to create a plan of attack. Not all manholes need to be replaced, and most of your city’s sewer systems probably work fine. So, spend some time reviewing information that you have on the streets themselves.

• Have residents reported consistent street flooding throughout the spring and summer?
• Are there streets in your city that gather large pools of water each time it rains?
• Are there streets that don’t have access to your city’s sewer system? And, if so, do those streets have proper run-offs?

By reviewing the information that you have on hand, it’s easy to determine where your problem areas are—these are the areas where you should start your street inspections.

Inspection and Maintenance

Once you’ve determined which streets need immediate attention, schedule rounds of inspections and maintenance. It’s important to schedule the work during early fall—if you put it off and winter starts early, you might not be able to get the job done.

Have your street crews inspect manhole covers to ensure that they fit properly—and replace them if needed. They should also inspect the sewer system to make sure there isn’t anything blocking water from entering the grates.

If your city uses drywells to control storm water, your street crews need to inspect the grates frequently throughout the fall season. Typically, the land around the drywell grate is slightly sloped so that the storm water flows into the grate, preventing the street from flooding. However, leaves, twigs, and pine needles can get stuck in the grates and the water can’t enter the drywell. While cleaning the grates is important throughout the year, it’s especially important during the fall season when the leaves fall off the trees.

Ultimately, clearing grates and performing routine maintenance on sewer systems and manholes isn’t a task that you want your road crews to perform in the winter. By scheduling inspections, maintenance, and routine grate cleanings now, you’ll save yourself—and your residents—a lot of hassle next spring.

Don’t Pollute! Control Pollution by Planning Ahead for Road, Highway, and Bridge Work

While pollution may not be the first thing that crosses your mind when you’re creating a plan for upcoming road work, it should definitely be one of the top concerns on your list. Roads, highways, and bridges can be a source of a significant amount of pollution to your city’s water—so if you aren’t careful, you’re planning could create future problems. By taking possible runoff points into consideration during the planning process, it’s easy to prevent and control the runoff pollution in your local area.

Planning for New Construction

When you’re developing a grid for new streets, highways, or bridges, you need to take the surrounding land into consideration. In order to prevent unwanted pollution:

• Try to incorporate your road system or bridge into the natural characteristics of the landscape.
• Avoid building new roads, highways, and bridges where they will have a direct impact on nearby bodies of water.
• As you’re planning for your city to expand, reserve specific portions of land for roads, highways, and bridges. If you don’t allocate the land ahead of time, it’s more likely that roads, highways, and bridges will be built on whatever land is available—by controlling this, you control the amount of runoff pollution in your town.

New Construction

With the amount of Earth you’re disturbing to build new highways, bridges, and roads, it’s normal to have some runoff pollution. However, just because it’s normal, doesn’t mean that you should ignore it. Instead, develop a plan that helps you control the amount of runoff pollution created during the construction phase.

• Develop a site-specific erosion and sediment control plan
• Monitor chemical usage
• Control how chemicals are handled and stored on the construction site
• Fertilize the land you disturb to promote vegetation growth so that runoff debris isn’t flowing directly into a water source 

Routine Maintenance and Operation

You also have ample opportunity to inspect the area around your roads, bridges, and highways throughout the year to make sure your runoff points aren’t causing excess pollution. Create a regular schedule that includes:

• Seeding and fertilizing areas with damaged vegetation or slopes
• Clean drainage ditches
• Keep the shoulders and slopes of your roads clear of litter and other debris
• Regulate the amount of deicing salts used on your city’s roads to prevent over deicing
• Make sure your city’s salt trucks are equipped with calibration devices so that the salt is spread evenly

Numbers Matter: Discover How CMMS Software Helps You Make Data-Driven Decisions

You’ve heard it before; good data drives good decisions. But, even this extremely relevant statement isn’t comprised of words that are easy to follow. Mostly likely you’ve had days where you feel like you’re drowning in numbers—after all, facility managers have a lot of data to analyze. From the number of hours your team of technicians worked last week to the number of work orders you have pending, everything you do revolves around numbers. Love them or hate them, it’s all of the numbers in all of the data you’ve collected that helps you make informed, data-driven decisions that keep your organization running smoothly. As soon as you realize how important those numbers are, your job becomes a lot less stressful.

Why Data-Driven Decisions Are Important

As a facility manager, you have numerous decisions to make on a daily basis. In addition, you also have meetings to attend where you’re required to explain why you felt your decision was the best option. When you use your own intuition to make an important decision you can’t guarantee you’re making the right choice. However, when you make a data-driven decision, you’re analyzing various options, costs, and outcomes to ensure you’re choice it the best option. And, your data backs up your decision.

Imagine a cable salesman came to your door and told you that he could save you money if you switched cable providers, but he didn’t give you a dollar amount. If you accepted his offer, you’re taking the risk. You might save money or you might not. But, if that salesman came to your door with a cost-comparison between companies that outlined various service packages, reviewed the information with you, and explained that you would save $50 per month by switching service, he’s backing up his claim with numbers. The fact is, you don’t want to walk into an important meeting without the data to back up your decisions.

What Kind of Data Does CMMS Software Store?

CMMS data, like BMSI’s webDPW, stores all of the important data pertaining to the day-to-day operation of your organization, as well as historic data. The software stores the details of all of your organization’s assets so that you can view things like routine maintenance schedules, past work orders, standard operating procedures, warranties, and owner’s manuals. It even figures in the depreciation of your organization’s assets. All of the data that’s input into the system is used to create a wide variety detailed reports, including:

• Risk management
• Maintenance costs for specific times of the year
• Asset value
• Maintenance history for specific assets

You can use the reports generated by your facility management software to see how well your organization is doing, what areas need improvement, and monitor your budget.

What Kind of Information Can Your CMMS System Provide?

When you’re using a CMMS system, it’s important to remember that you get out of the system what you put into it. Your reports are only as good as the data you’ve input over time. By getting into the habit of entering all of the information that pertains to your job, you can analyze just about anything. In fact, even small inputs—like work orders—make a huge difference. Just by entering your work order information you can see what type of maintenance your organization spends the most money on and compare your maintenance costs from year to year. When you input asset information you can use that in conjunction with your maintenance data to determine things like whether it would cost more money in the long run to keep repairing an asset or it would be cheaper to replace it.

The fact is, your facility management system puts all of the data you need at your fingertips. It not only saves your organization time and money, but helps you make accurate decisions. When you’re ready for your quote contact BMSI.

Three Problems That Facility Management Software Can Solve for Your Organization

Let’s face it, facility managers have a never-ending list of things that need tracked, jobs that need completed, and meetings to attend. But, even though you have a heavy work load you don’t have to feel overwhelmed. Facility management software makes your jobs easier and as an added benefit, it solves some major problems that organizations face on a daily basis.

Conquer Your Mountain of Paperwork

Most organizations have massive amounts of paperwork that needs filed and multiple computer systems that store different types of information. This makes it difficult to find information you need, makes it hard for employees to collaborate on projects, and wastes a lot of time. When you use web-based facility management software, like BMSI’s webDPW, you don’t have to access multiple systems to find the information you need and compare reports. In addition, because the software is web based, you can access the information you need from any device with a web browser and Internet connection. By having all of your organization’s files stored in the same place, it’s easier to complete numerous tasks including:

• Tracking your organization’s assets
• Scheduling routine maintenance
• Assigning and tracking work orders
• Storing building documentation that’s necessary to obtaining LEED certification
• Track employees’ productivity
• Create employee schedules
• Ensures that all employees are viewing the same information  

Increase Productivity and Cut Costs

Multiple computer systems and mountains of paperwork can lead to an unorganized mess, which could result in miscommunication or lost items. Using facility management software helps you stay organized and gives everyone access to the same information. This way, everyone knows what needs done throughout the day and they can see which work orders are currently in progress.

Some other ways facility management software save you time and money include:

• Able to compile detailed risk management reports
• Schedule routine tasks—complete project plans or simple tasks like changing a light bulb—so that you can avoid costly repairs in the future
• Track your inventory so that you don’t over order and always have the needed supplies on hand
• Track the operating cost, fuel, repairs, and maintenance for every vehicle, as well as adjust for depreciation
• Create a service request to have a situation assessed before sending a complete crew or repair technician to the location

Budget Smarter

Creating quarterly or annual budgets isn’t easy when you don’t have all of the information you need readily available. Not only does facility management software give you access to building and asset information you might need to include in your report, the software keeps track of all of your costs, invoices, and receivables, making it easy to stay on top of your organization’s finances.

In addition, you can use your risk management reports to determine which issues are a high priority and which problems won’t cost your organization additional money if they are put off until the next quarter.

Ultimately, facility management software doesn’t only make your job easier, it makes the entire organization run like a well-oiled machine and it save money. When you’re ready for a quote or you’d like more information, contact BMSI.

Motivate Your Team, Increase Productivity, and Easily Track Your Progress

Do you truly believe that your team’s production is at its best? The majority of facility managers believe that their team does a good job—even if they have one or two problem employees. But, think about it. Do you really know how well your team performs out in the field? With the majority of your time tied up in meetings and office tasks, it’s nearly impossible for you to know if everyone on your team uses their time wisely. But, there are a few things that you can do ti motivate your team, track their productivity, and even free up some of your time so that you can spend some time in the field.

Adjusting Work Hours

The fact is, your team members are on the move the majority of the day; it’s easy for them to get burnt out. Because of this, it could be beneficial for your organization to have teams of technicians that work four ten-hour days. This gives your employees an extra day to relax so that they don’t feel overworked.

Employee Ownership

Rather than assigning random work orders and jobs to employee, consider dividing your team into groups and giving each group “ownership” of specific assets or areas. By putting employees in charge of specific types of work or assets within a certain area, it’s easier for them to determine what upcoming work needs completed.

Employee Appreciation

According to an article posted on RecognizeThis!, over thirty-five percent of employees consider lack of recognition the biggest hindrance to their productivity. Your organization may not have the funds to provide employees with monetary incentives or throw large gatherings to boost employee morale, but there are several ways to show your employees that you appreciate their hard work including:

• Posting daily or weekly production statistics in the employee work area
• Employee-of-the-year awards 
• Hang a photo in the work area of the employee with the highest productivity each month
• Occasional thank-you notes for a job well done 
• Recognize top performers in your staff meetings

Tracking Your Team Production

It’s time to give CMMS systems a second chance. According to Walt Petters, Director of Maintenance and Plant Operations for Brevard County Public Schools in Rockledge, Florida, CMMS software was web-based it wasn’t the best tool to track productivity. But, web-based facility management programs, like BMSI’s webDPW, gather pertinent information in one place so that everything you need is just a mouse click away. CMMS streamlines your entire day-to-day workflow, which helps you free up some of your time. You can use this extra time to give an extra boost to your team’s morale. Visiting techs in the field or going on short jobs with them shows them that you care about them and that you understand exactly what their job entails.

By implementing small changes that boost employee morale, give employees more responsibility, and give employees more flexible schedules it won’t take long for your organization’s productivity to increase. And, by using CMMS software to track your team’s progress, manage work orders, and monitor your assets, your entire department will run smoothly.

How to Avoid Three Common Financial Mistakes Using Cloud-Hosted Software

As a facility manager it's your responsibility to ensure that your organization's assets are properly maintained and that you stay within your budget. However, it isn't always an easy task to accomplish and you probably find yourself juggling numerous tasks each day. By using cloud-hosted software, like BMSI's webDPW software, you can streamline your organization's entire day-to-day operations and avoid some of the biggest financial mistakes that facility managers make.

Wasting Money on Bad Equipment

According to an article on facilitiesnet.com, sixty-three percent of the problems that technicians address are problems that were self-induced. As a facility manager, it is part of your job to make sure that your maintenance team has the tools and information needed to properly repair broken equipment and that your organization's equipment receives regular maintenance. Fortunately, cloud-hosted facility management software makes this easy for you. With the proper software you can schedule routine maintenance and inspections on your organization's assets, keep accurate records of your inventory—including tools and safety equipment—and store online versions of your equipment manuals so that your technicians can access the information they need in the field.

Keeping Equipment That Needs Replaced

Most organizations hold onto equipment too long—mostly because new equipment is not in the budget. However, if your organization is hanging onto equipment that is constantly breaking it may be costing more to repair than it would to replace. By using cloud-hosted facility management software, you can track maintenance for every piece of equipment, as well as evaluate your equipment costs and total costs of ownership. This makes it easy to determine whether an asset should be repaired or replaced—and in the long run saves you money.

Paying Employees with Poor Performance

One major part of your job includes overseeing employee performance. At times, your managerial duties probably seem easy compared to the rest of your to-do list, but do you really know how much time you're spending making sure other people do their jobs? Recent studies indicate that managers spend ninety percent of their direct supervision time with problem employees. Not only do you need to ensure that problem employees get the job done correctly, you need to make sure it's completed in a timely manner and that they stay focused and motivated throughout the day. Chances are, you're spending way too much time babysitting employees who are underperforming and employees with poor performance tend to bring down the morale of the team. When you use cloud-hosted facility management software, you can track the hours each employee works, as well as how many work orders they've completed. This gives you a good idea of who uses their time wisely so that you can see which employees need improvement and which ones you can let go.

The fact is, facility managers have a lot of responsibility. You have a lot of things that you need to track and numerous tasks that you need to complete each day. By using cloud-hosted facility management software, you have everything you need stored in the same place which makes your job a lot easier.