CHICAGO — In the past several months, the United States has experienced natural disasters ranging from hurricanes and floods to wildfires.
Each of these disasters has permanently affected many lives in the Western and Southeastern regions of the country.
That includes industrial and institutional laundries.
Because of this, the most recent American Laundry News Your Views survey focused on industry preparedness in the face of natural disasters.
When asked if the industrial and institutional laundry industry is prepared to face these disasters, 57.9% of respondents indicate it is “moderately prepared,” followed by “somewhat prepared” at 21.1%.
Only 10.6% of operators who took the survey say the industry is “very well prepared.” Both “well prepared” and “not prepared” garnered 5.3% of responses.
“It’s important to plan for ‘unplanned disasters,’” writes one respondent. “What will you do when it happens? How will you run your business with reduced staff? How will you run your business if your plant is destroyed? How will you communicate this?”
Operators who took the survey shared several factors they believe services overlook in disaster preparedness, including:
- Communication to customers at several levels in their organizations. Phone systems, including cell towers, may not be working. Where to go for backup linen service. Having the right kind and amount of insurance to cover not only losses but loss of income.
- Just because the operation is available to run doesn’t mean that the associates will be coming to work. There has to be detailed plans on where the labor will come from.
- Most operations overlook simple things like diesel fuel for generators. They may have generators, but diesel fuel to run these generators is significant and availability is key. Backup facilities may not have the capacity or staff to process linen; therefore, backup contingency arrangements should be carefully scrutinized from a practical perspective of capacity and manpower.
- More frequent training. The training happens so infrequently, and when an actual disaster happens, people panic and forget what they have learned and there is doubt and uncertainty.
- For a single plant, backup plans need to include a friendly competitor. Most companies have not made prior arrangements with an electrical generator rental company or made switch gear modifications for easy accommodations. Do you have large water storage tanks in case of water shortage? How about temporary roof accommodations? Tarps, etc.?
When asked how prepared their industrial or institutional laundry is for natural disasters, “moderately prepared” was again the top vote getter at 63.2%. Over 21% of respondents indicate their operation is “well prepared,” followed by “somewhat unprepared” at 10.5% and “not prepared” at 5.3%.
No respondent indicated their operation is “very well prepared.”
When asked to select all that apply from a list of disaster planning survey takers’ laundries have, appropriate insurance coverage topped the list at 94.4%. This was followed by a communication plan (88.9%), continuing service (backup) plan (77.8%) and a disaster drill schedule (55.6%).
Half of respondents indicate their operation has a full disaster plan on file while 44.4% say they have a financial backup plan. Nearly 6% indicate they have a regional capacity plan with multiple plants.
So, how many laundry operators who responded have endured a natural disaster in the past 10 years? More than 42% say their plant has, while nearly 58% haven’t.
The disasters laundries have faced include:
- Lighting strike causing a catastrophic roof insulation fire, then creating a secondary “drop-down” fire.
- We were impacted by massive floods. Our plant wasn’t directly affected, but routes to our customers were affected for many months.
- Hurricanes. We were out of operation for approximately 24 hours.
- We had a tornado and a derecho [which can also be described as an intense windstorm].
- An ice storm caused us to lose electrical for a week. We were able to find a generator to get us back up in a couple of days.
With the number of natural disasters seemingly on the rise, American Laundry News asked respondents how they gauged the level of risk from these events to the industry.
Both “increasing” and “slightly increasing” received 42.1% of votes followed by “not changing” at 15.8%.
No one thinks the industry’s risk from natural disasters is decreasing.
“You cannot prepare for every type of disaster,” writes a respondent. “However, you can prepare for the most likely event.”
While the Your Views survey presents a snapshot of readers’ viewpoints at a particular moment, it should not be considered scientific. Due to rounding, percentages may not add up to 100%.
Subscribers to American Laundry News e-mails are invited to take the industry survey anonymously online each quarter. All managers and administrators of institutional/OPL, cooperative, commercial and industrial laundries are encouraged to participate, as a greater number of responses will help to better define operator opinions and identify industry trends.
Have a question or comment? E-mail our editor Matt Poe at [email protected].
