MARCH 2021
Late News Alsco pays employees to get COVID-19 vaccine SALT LAKE CITY — Alsco Uniforms reports that it is giving its hourly employees paid time off to receive the COVID-19 vaccine. The company is not requiring employees to be vaccinated, but says it is strongly encouraging every employee to receive the vaccine. “In addition to our belief that the vaccine is an important tool in slowing the spread of COVID19, we remain committed to other prudent measures that limit the spread of COVID-19, including daily disinfecting of delivery trucks, wearing face coverings, practicing social distancing and encouraging good hygiene practices,” says John Jaggi, Alsco’s director of HR & Administration. “We are also proud to be considered an essential service and appreciate the key role we play in providing PPE and hospital-grade clean uniforms to healthcare workers, first responders and other essential service workers.” Alsco says that promoting the vaccine with compensation will not only keep its employees healthy but also keep customers and their guests healthy ALN
Bumpy ride ahead for hospitality laundry But author hopeful, says, ‘There will always be laundry to be cleaned’ BY SEBASTIAN MITCHELL LAS VEGAS — The devastating effects of COVID-19 on the airline, hotel and restaurant industries have been all over the media, but the virus has also wreaked havoc on the businesses that service and support these industries. PureStar, a provider of outsourced laundry and linen services to the hospitality industry with over 1,000 hospitality partners across 31 facilities in North America, is one of these businesses. The business was processing volume for more than 200,000 rooms a day before COVID-19 hit, and in the few weeks after many states shut down non-essential business, hotels, casinos, and restaurants, our monthly volume plummeted to just over 7,000 rooms. Like many businesses, though, our priority was and still is the safety of our employees and customers. Our vice president of Environmental, Health and Safety, Mike Altendorf, was very busy during March and April securing masks, gloves and protective
While the hospitality industry is still suffering because of COVID-19, affecting laundries, there is light at the end of the tunnel, according to the author. (Image licensed by Ingram Publishing)
eyewear, increasing our cleaning and sanitizing efforts in our facilities and delivery trucks, and working with our engineers to create plastic barriers between employees on productions lines and in employee breakrooms. Work Area Tracking Reports were created to track employee proximity to understand
and notify any employee that worked in close proximity with someone infected with COVID-19. We also educated our hotel partners on our laundry cleaning processes, explaining how See BUMPY on Page 6
Future vision: Increasing production with predictive technology How software tools, models will monitor, analyze patterns to forecast likely future behaviors, outcomes in laundry BY MATT POE, EDITOR
Did your laundry make changes to its cleaning protocols because of COVID-19?
Yes
78.0%
No
21.2%
CHICAGO — Most laundry and linen services are constantly searching for ways to increase production, to get more pounds per operator hour, while maintaining quality, and ensuring goods that are needed are done on time. Jon Witschy, sales manager for Spindle, a technology company that builds infrastructure for industrial operations to measure and improve productivity, talked about increasing laundry production with predictive technology at the Association for Linen Management’s (ALM) IMPACT conference in November during the session, “Alexa: How Can I Increase Production?” Predictive technology is the use of tools, such as software tools
Jon Witschy, sales manager for Spindle, talks predictive technology and increasing production during ALM’s IMPACT Conference. (Photo: Matt Poe) Volume 47, Number 3
INSIDE Your Views Survey shows many laundries expect COVID-19 cleaning changes to stay.
I don’t know
0.0%
www.americanlaundrynews.com
If your laundry made cleaning changes, do you think they will become permanent?
[2]
Yes
71.9%
No
15.6%
I don’t know
12.5%
Columnist at Large In this issue, Eric Frederick writes about the importance of being aware of lost items.
See VISION on Page 17 The Newspaper of Record for Laundry & Linen Management
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2021 Buyer’s Guide Your annual guide to find the products/services you need.
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