[plop90]

I have just got back from America where I have just completed a Crime & Trauma cleaning course ,as I will be starting up a business here in the South of England in April.

What I really need is some contacts to get me going as advertising in the yellow pages is not going to get me much trade.

Even if I could get pointed in the right direction of who to call that would help.

Thanks

[maggie67]

Hi

Could you eleaborate on exactly what is entailed ona crime & trauma cleaning course please?

Maggie

[wreelyclean_servic]

Police forces, Insurance companies, Loss adjusters.  That should start you off.

Strange that you have done the course prior to researching the market though. :

Just a thought.

[plop90]

Hi Maggie

Its a week long course, with about 20 hours hands on training with mock up trauma scenes using real blood & tissue (animal not human). The smells are realistic too.

You learn all about bloodbourne/airborne pathogens as well as all the other health & safety issues which result from heavy bloodloss or decomposition.

You need to be licensed to carry out this type of work in most states in America which is why it is such an indepth course.


The other 20hrs are spent in the classroom some of which is business studies as well as having to do an exam at the end.

The cost was about a £1,200 including flights & hotel, I am sure I will have made a wise investment, time will tell.

What I do need is contacts, I will be specializing in this field so I do not expect to be rushed off my feet.
One of the guys who does this for a living in the states said when he started up several years ago it took him 4 months to get his first job.

I have contacted Police,Local Council,Loss adusters etc but I guess until they need me they won't reply. A bit of free advice from experianced cleaners would be helpful.

On the topic of doing the course before researching the market, it is a bit like the chicken & the egg scenario. Do you start contacting people before you have qualified or after, I mean how could I convice people/local authorities that I would be able to deal with the situation if I didn't know myself.

Many thanks
Phil

[Len Gribble]

Phil

You got a barging at £1200 inclusive where was it held and by whom? Thinking of going on the next one detail would be appreciated!

Len

[lee_gundry]

dave 555 from adl leyland covers this type of work so he should be able to point you in the right direction.

[DP]

I did this work for years mainly for police forces " Met - Essex - TVP" plus local councils and a couple of government departments.

I’ve always cautioned people about throwing money at this type of work as the market place is difficult to say the least. There is no harm in adding it to your portfolio but definitely don’t start depending on it solely for a living, unfortunately the American culture like many trades simply doesn’t work here for one reason or another.

The police contracts do pop up from time to time however the money is rubbish and they hate paying.

It also depends on areas believe it or not. Example; Guns are still a serious contributor of suicides. So areas like Thames Valley where shotguns reside in just about every second home are good areas for this kind of business.

Another is diseases like Aids - Hepatitis and discovered bodies (mainly the elderly) or contaminated voids. Body fluids in vehicles is another such as police cars/vans or recovered stolen cars (I did hundreds for Essex Police) These are the more every day stuff.

I would suggest that if you intend to make a full time business out of this, then broaden your portfolio as far as possible and be prepared to spend at lot of time knocking on doors.

Best of luck
DP 

[plop90]

Hi DP
Thats exactly the reply to my post I was looking for, from someone who has experianced 1st hand what I intend to do.

 The reasons behind me wanting to concentrate on trauma only cleanups are the following (at least you can see my logic)

1. We are at least 5 years behind the USA (my opinion only) on this subject & like most things whether we like it or not we tend to follow them not the other way round.

2. In the US only qualified cleaners can satisfy the insurance companies procedures, example if a local authority has called in a regular cleaner & somehow a person catches 'Hepatitis'(or similar) the local authority which authorised the cleanup will be sued period.

3.Until recently the 'HIV' virus was thought to die within seconds of leaving the human body, in some recent research they belive in certain conditions it may be a lot longer.These sort of statements worry insurance companies.

I know to specialize in this area will not give me a lot of work  but as I work full time as a sales rep I can adjust my hours to suit. If it takes five years to get to where the USA is today then I will have 5 years real life experiance behind me.

Any other opinions would be appreciated.

Many thanks

Phil

PS I was contacted by the Fire Sevice today who are interested so at least thats a start.

[Len Gribble]

Phil

Though I don’t do this type of work nor would I unless trained and had all the relevant jabs, that’s why I asked for details yes the states are a head of us, the powers that be, including the insurance industry need to take note, one only has to look at the TV programs for example (life of grime) very professional in there methods 5lts concentrate splashed about, bet the TV crew had all the ppe, and jabs!

Read an interesting article today, which more or less encapsulates the cleaning industry in all forms.



I wish you all the success but don’t think powers that be; attitudes will change in the near future.

Could be wrong didn’t a bomb go of in London a few years ago and the local council cleaning staffs get sack/suspended due to the blood & guts.

Len

[DP]

Good for you.
The fire service often require telephone numbers to hand out when they come across certain situations. We never got very much work this way, however who knows. Its unlikely that they will offer anything other than this, but like you say its a good start. You’ll be on their charity list now you know, wait for the calls 

Just a point here, we never sold ourselves as a cleaning company (irrespective of what we were doing) always as a Decontamination Company. The cleaning part was just academic, our real value (worth) was the hazard, that’s what we were after and that’s what they were paying for which also justified our rates.

I agree with the HIV statement, we were taught based on medical reports at that time, that HIV dies within seconds although hepatitis (particularly "B") could live for up to 7 days.

One of our prime works was decontaminating police/ prison cells and entire police stations following incidents (which usually meant that a prisoner had found something to cut himself with and proceeded to flick blood over the officer/guards to try and infect them) sometimes of course they would really go for it and other times just they would just use anything else that came to hand.

I always found this part the lighter side. 

Not sure how much of this would still go out to contract, but my guess is quite a bit considering the increase in legislation.