Dee Warren, Director, Marketing and Sales Operations for Land Pride and Great Plains

Make the most of your fleet dollars

Managing tighter budgets when everything is going up requires smart choices and sound fiscal management of taxpayer dollars. Purchasing managers for cities, counties, municipalities and state agencies have a big task to make the most of their grounds maintenance or snow management budgets. Shopping for snow removal equipment in October doesn’t leave time for time-consuming requests for proposals (RFP), evaluations and awards. It also cuts into the budget you have allocated for the purchase of the equipment. And we all know that simply negotiating your best deal is not how government works.

Manufacturers with a cooperative contract that speed the buying process are the way to go when a purchase needs to be made in-season when the equipment will be used. In this scenario, utilizing the cooperative buying process can help agencies save money or at least stretch the dollars a little farther, and won’t allow a big-ticket item to be a budget buster.

For a public works superintendent or director looking for equipment to aid in snow management, cooperative buying can mean less time soliciting bids and more time actually moving snow. In 2025, cities, counties and municipalities see real value in utilizing a cooperative purchasing agency to maximize their purchasing power while protecting tax dollars.

How can cooperative buying help?

The cooperative buying model is really quite simple. This type of purchasing model allows manufacturers like Land Pride or Kubota to respond to an RFP that covers a need, such as snow management. The proposal is reviewed, vetted for accuracy and ability, including competitive pricing. Once the contract is awarded to manufacturers that meet the bid criteria, it allows a large group (cooperative) of buyers with similar interests to leverage their buying power to get contract discounts on products or services, stretching their budgets. By using a cooperative model, government agencies also save time and effort because the process is simplified for them as the buyer.

Let’s look at a small municipality that worked with Land Pride and one of our dealers last fall on a recent purchase. The street maintenance superintendent called Land Pride in need of a tool to clear snow from their city-managed parking areas. He was looking for a solution that saved him time and money while still getting the brand and model that he and his crew wanted. Land Pride suggested using one of our cooperative-buying contracts because the Land Pride products the customer wanted could be purchased easily and at a competitively-bid price. The dealer’s role in the sale was to help with set-up, delivery and after-the-sale service.

In fairly short order, Land Pride recommended and quoted an 8-foot snow pusher that fit the needs of the city while providing substantial discounts as outlined in the cooperative contract. The superintendent reviewed the quotes and issued a purchase order, and the dealer and Land Pride handled the rest. Within a few weeks, the process was complete.

What can be bought on a cooperative contract?

The simple answer to this question is “almost anything.” Land Pride and other implement manufacturers go to great lengths to ensure that customers can buy the products they need on a cooperative contract. When you encounter companies like Land Pride and Kubota that both hold the same cooperative contract, entire equipment packages can be purchased, making it a one-stop shop for fleet and public works superintendents.

For winter use, Land Pride offers a host of snow management tools that can be purchased at great discounts, maintaining your budget while getting the quality and brand you want to buy. Blades, snow pushers and snow blowers — both front and rear mount — can simplify snow removal from common areas like parks and lots that are often overlooked during the critical road-clearing tasks that must occur after a snow event. Blades and pushers as small as 4 feet wide make quick work of sidewalks, while snow blowers can move snow from one spot to another quickly.

After the snow is gone, Land Pride can be relied upon for planting implements like an overseeder for refreshing the lawns on fields or in parks. Drills or all-purpose seeders can help in spring roadside reclamation projects. During the growing months, there are flex-wing cutters and flail mowers for roadside maintenance. Wide areas like parks and sports fields require an all-flex mower that will leave a great cut in turf grasses and lawn alternatives, like clover.

Non-seasonal tools, like tillers for landscaping and planting projects, are high on the cooperative buying list. Tools like a grading scraper or an arena grader can be put to work maintaining gravel drives, small dirt and gravel lots, or horse and rodeo arenas. For storm cleanup, grounds maintenance teams can look for grapples, chippers and pallet forks. All of these and more can be purchased on one of Land Pride’s cooperative contracts.

Cooperative buying has options

There are many cooperative buying groups that states, cities, counties and municipalities can be a part of. Land Pride offers contracts with several; Sourcewell and BuyBoard are just two. Universities and schools have options for cooperative buying, too. With so many cooperative contracts available, buyers need to choose the one that best meets their buying needs.

Organizations like Sourcewell and the BuyBoard make sure everything is transparent. As the contract issuers, they maintain all the paperwork, and the contracts are competitively solicited, evaluated and awarded by a public agency that is bound by laws regulating the process. Everything is available for public review.

Understanding the process can help purchasing professionals make the most of their dollars. By sourcing needed equipment through a cooperative contract, maintenance superintendents or grounds maintenance managers can benefit from the time- and money-saving process that cooperative contracts provide. Buyers have to do their homework, like with anything, but by seeking reputable manufacturers like Land Pride, they can be confident that they are managing their resources appropriately and maximizing the dollar allotted to their departments.

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