When taunton deane borough council outsourced its street cleansing contract to coventry-based maintenance and landscape contractor, idverde uk, it gave the street cleaning team the chance to pick their perfect choice of machine to tackle the job. And top of their wish list was the swingo 200+.
Thanks to a new outright purchase contract, the Swingo compact sweeper is being used seven days a week, and up to 7.5 hours a day, to keep the town of Taunton and the Somerset villages within a 20-mile radius clean and tidy. Taunton Deane Council took the decision in February this year to outsource its street cleaning contract to specialist contractors to allow it to concentrate on core activities. The contract went to idverde UK, the result of a merger between two newly acquired businesses, green service provider, the Landscape Group, and Quadron Services, both owned by parent company, idverde, number one provider of landscape construction and grounds maintenance services in France. idverde provides a wide range of green services to both private and public sectors, including grounds maintenance, landscape construction, arboriculture and professional services, and in the UK now employs over 1,600 people.
One consequence of the outsource contract with Taunton Deane was that the role of area works manager was also outsourced with the contract. This meant that the incumbent, Richard Hopkins, joined idverde as contracts manager. “Outsourcing the street cleansing contract to idverde gave the cleaning team the opportunity to draw up a wish list of the equipment that we would like to do the job. And top of our wish list was the Swingo,” explained Richard. “We believe the Swingo to be the best machine in the compact sweeper category and, having used a number of different machines over the years, it was our number one preferred choice. “It perfectly suits our needs and its high hopper capacity, its high suction performance and the service and support we receive from the manufacturer meant it is far superior to the competition.” It sees some fairly heavy-duty usage for around 37 hours from Monday to Friday and a further 13 hours over weekends, but the new sweeper hasn’t missed a beat and this reliability has proved very popular with the operator.