Central States Distribution runs a 350,000 square foot warehouse in Ohio, processing thousands of packages daily. After years of relying on a mop-and-bucket approach supplemented by an aging walk-behind scrubber, they made the switch to TTF-Clean ride-on equipment. The impact was felt within the first week.
Warehouse manager Rosa Mendez has been with Central States for eleven years. She remembers when cleaning the facility meant closing down aisles, moving pallets, and spending entire nights with a mop. "We'd have to schedule cleaning around shifts, which meant it only happened properly maybe twice a week. The rest of the time, we just lived with it."
Dust accumulation from constant forklift traffic was the biggest complaint. Forklifts tracking in dirt from the loading dock created a film that made floors slippery and appearance dull. Employee health concerns started creeping in too—warehouse workers reported more allergies and respiratory issues during certain seasons.
"We had one of those old walk-behind scrubbers that was basically a rolling tank with a problem," Mendez recalls. "It broke down constantly, left streaks everywhere, and the battery would die after 45 minutes of use."
When the company decided to upgrade their cleaning equipment, Mendez jumped at the chance to make the case for better equipment. She tracked cleaning costs meticulously for three months: labor hours, chemical purchases, equipment repairs, and—most critically—the cost of decreased productivity from closing aisles for cleaning.
The numbers were sobering. Cleaning the facility properly cost 65 labor hours per week at an annual cost exceeding $180,000 when accounting for benefits and overhead. "That's when we realized this wasn't just an equipment problem—it was a business problem," Mendez says.
After evaluating options, Central States invested in two TTF-Clean T-2000 ride-on scrubbers with lithium-ion battery systems. The purchase came with a full training program and service package.
The new scrubbers arrived on a Monday. By Friday, the operations director had walked the floor three times, remarking on how the facility looked. "He said it looked like a completely different building," Mendez recalls. "The gloss on the concrete, the way the safety lines popped—I'd never seen the floor look like that."
Within 30 days, the data confirmed what people were seeing. Weekly cleaning labor dropped from 65 hours to 25 hours—a 60% reduction. Chemical usage fell 35% due to the scrubbers' precise dispensing systems. And perhaps most importantly, the facility could be fully cleaned during off-peak hours without disrupting operations at all.
Forklift operators noticed immediately. "They said the dust was gone, and the floor felt different under
The annual cost savings came to approximately $85,000—enough to pay back the equipment investment in just under two years.
The intangibles mattered too. Morale improved when cleaning staff weren't exhausted from mopping for hours. The facility started passing safety audits with flying colors. Even employee recruitment got easier—when prospective hires toured the building, they saw a professional operation, not a dusty warehouse.
"We've been through two peak seasons now with the new equipment, and it's handled everything we throw at it," says Mendez. "No regrets."
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