Profile: Quality Street Service: Vision Leads to Excellence

What is “vision” but the ability to see through the distractions to the treasure hidden beneath it all? To achieve success, then, is a matter of discarding the distractions and going forward with the vision and the treasure intact.  Over three years ago, newly hired Operations Manager Alicia Powell had a vision for Quality Street Service, the street sweeping company that had its beginnings in 1988. Today, she has swept away the distractions that were holding the company back and rescued the treasure. With her vision and skills, Quality Street Service’s restructuring has allowed it to quickly develop into a full-service pavement cleaning provider, with a fleet of modern, well-maintained equipment and a reputation for reliability and excellence.

“Our company prides itself on providing exceptional service at a competitive price,” says Powell. Her restructuring plan included changing everything from staff to operations. “We have better control of the work through scheduling systems, operator-specific training and specialized quality control,” she explains. “That allows us to excel. Quality is our name, and that’s what we offer our customers. We have the best equipment in the area and a full-time mechanic who works on it on an almost daily basis, so it’s reliable.”

Quality Street Service maintains a full parts inventory for its fleet of regenerative air sweepers, vacuum sweepers, and mechanical brush-type and high-dump broom sweepers, as well as vacuum sweepers equipped with specialized attachments for catch-basin cleaning. The company services equipment in the field, as necessary, for maximum up time. Every piece of equipment is AQMD certified and meets all PM10 standards for fine particulate containment.

Excellence = productivity + value
The company focuses on providing excellent service while improving productivity and value for its customers.

“Recently, a customer was looking for two specialized heavy-duty pieces of equipment, eight hours a day, for an asphalt project on a major highway that needed to be completed on a tight schedule,” Powell recalls. “We got the call on a Friday and delivered it on Monday as requested.  We provided good equipment and good drivers who knew what they were doing. We were able to complete it with no incidents and [with] compliments at the end.”

“In this type of business,” Powell readily admits, “being reliable is really huge.” On construction projects, the equipment is held on the site, so the customers can see it and know it is there. But when it’s a service contract for which the equipment and operator must arrive at the site on time and ready to work, there’s that element of doubt. Powell, however, knows that her company’s reliability is one of its top attributes and selling points.

Expanded services
Quality Street Service provides street, parking lot, and construction-site sweeping and storm drain cleaning for the Inland Empire, parts of the San Gabriel Valley, Orange County, and the Los Angeles basin. All equipment operators are highly trained and experienced in their specific applications and follow best sweeping practices to comply with all federal and state EPA mandates.

For Powell, the joy of the job is simple: “I like the challenge of keeping up with the good quality of work with my employees. I’m involved in every step, from the bid on the first call to providing the service. I enjoy the fact that I can rely on my guys to provide a great service. We’re providing customers with the excellence they’re expecting—that feels good.”

For more information on Quality Street Service, please contact Alicia Powell at 760.776.8460 or at APowell@QualityStreetService.com; website: www.QualityStreetService.com.

Story by Anne Biggs