I recently received this email from one of the set crew companies that serve the modular housing industry. There are quite a few set crews out there but what this person shared with me is happening to every one of them.
Pissing Off Your Set Crew
Being in the Modular set up business for many years, I find
it frustrating that we continue to suffer from the same issues year after year
and no matter how hard we work with Manufactures, Developers and Modular
builders to be recognized and gain respect for what we do we continue to get
pounded in 3 areas.
Premium Service
In order to give a premium service and remain a Professional
company with high quality experienced employees and follow the OSHA safety
mandates we need to charge accordingly and yet we are always pounded to give
the cheapest price for the set when we are going up against a pickup truck
carpenter who does not give a damn about his employees because of illegal cheap
labor, safety details or undercutting the quality set company just so they can
stay in business and in the end the only parties effected is the set
company for loss of work and the end consumer because they get stuck with a
house that is set subpar, there needs to be an industry wide revamp of this
attitude so the Great companies can continue to do great and the other pest
companies can get lost already, I think we need a MSA (Modular set association).
This could be under the MHBA umbrella.
No Warning
Without explanation, Builders will call and cancel set the
last minute or they just simply forget to call and when I call them to confirm
they are like “OH I’M SORRY, I FORGOT TO INFORM YOU”. If we ran our schedule the way they do and
cancel on our builders like that, they would jump ship quickly and move on to
another set company, and when they want to reschedule a date they always insist
that we accommodate them even if we are booked and then we end up losing not
only the days they canceled but the set entirely which is so frustrating, I
don’t know about other set companies but I know how hard we work on a daily
bases to keep our schedule on track and to be there on the scheduled set date
without ever having to cancel, I believe these behaviors are driven by
lack of caring for their sub set crew or they blame the manufacture or
transportation, Bank, REM program grant moneys, etc. I do understand
that sometimes these issue are true but that give ZERO excuse to canceling last
minute without take responsibility and continued working together so the we can
re-schedule the set back on our schedule (RESPECT FOR EACH OTHER GOES A
LONG WAY)
GREED
Let’s see how much we can get out of a set crew and
not have to pay, for example, when we arrive on site and the sill plate is
not installed, site is a mess and we need to prep it in order to do our job
because the crane is on the way and we drove 3 hours and stayed in a motel just
to be able to do the set and if we choose to walk away without covering the un
finished work we get nailed with no compensation for our losses just
because of Builder neglect. Also manufacturers sometimes screw up big time and
we need to do whatever it takes on site to get the house dried in ASAP. Then
when we try and get the manufactures service department to compensate us for
the work they drag their feet and stall around as if we are guilty of trying to
rip them off (should never have to do that to legitimate set company) and when
the do finally agree it can take months of barking at them to get paid, the
biggest frustration we have is “manufactures that collect set up fee on their
invoices”. So why is it that when we get the sign off paperwork from the
builder and send to the manufacturer that they cannot release the money within
7 days, after all that is not their money it’s the end consumers money to be
used to pay for our work. More than a few manufacturers do this. They should
hold those funds in escrow and when they receive our paper work, process it immediately.
We have manufacturers that take as much as a month or more to release those
funds , I suggest that they use other folks money as free bank money as part of
their operating expenses and this crap needs to stop.
NOTE: Recently I had several house sets cancel by builders and
after researching it I discovered that they could have left me know a long time
ago and did not, now I am the one trying to dig up work next week for a crew of
professional, very experienced guys. As a company we do not deserve this nor do
my men who sacrifice a lot to be on the road working hard for our clients
Also, I know what I wrote seems like I am painting with an
extremely wide brush and I don’t want to make it seem as if all Builders and
Manufactures are this way because that is just not the case, we do however need
consolidation in our industry for the Good Builders and Manufactures to swallow
up all the subpar entities so the Modular Industry can provide the market with
quality product and service, not just for the end consumers but also for
the transport agencies, crane companies and of course to all the Premium set
companies as well.
It’s time we start working together to root out theses
problem once and for all for the betterment of our industry and I believe that
this would have a direct effect on increasing our market share of the
residential and commercial Modular industries across the Northeast and the
Greater USA
