“We wanted a piece of equipment that would keep our employees safe and out of harm’s way, and was easy to use, but still able to effectively achieve the goal of mitigating potential fuels for fire in our rural areas and sloped locations.” Robert Ljuba, Facilities Maintenance Supervisor for the City of Vallejo Water Department in California, sums up their motivation for investing in RC Mowers’ robotic technology.
While safety (keeping folks off slopes and away from ticks and rattlesnakes) drove the decision to add the R-60 to their fleet, getting the work done efficiently and effectively was very much on Robert’s agenda. With responsibility for over 8,000 acres of land, and locations like water tanks, reservoirs, dams, pump stations, treatment plants and more (with most terrain being hilly and rural) they needed specialized equipment (aka, badass gear).
Robert tells us, “A large majority of our hand-crew work revolves around land management and fire fuel reduction, and with most sites being located on slopes…this is a grueling task for anyone. When RC Mowers was brought to my attention, I was all ears as it seemed like the solution to keeping staff off dangerous slopes, while getting the necessary work completed to mitigate fire hazards.”
The City of Vallejo has just initiated the purchase of three more Remote-Operated Robotic Mowers. Mr. Ljuba explains, “We chose the R-60 first as we wanted the largest deck width because this unit would be designated to our Lake Madigan and Lake Frey locations where there is more coyote brush and poison oak to cut than other sites.”
“Our Lake Chabot dam would typically take 2 workers around 3 hours to cut with line-trimmers, but with the R-60 we were able to cut that production time down to 20 MINUTES!”
Robert also appreciates the great improvement in productivity—case in point: “Our Lake Chabot dam would typically take 2 workers around 3 hours to cut with line-trimmers, but with the R-60 we were able to cut that production time down to 20 MINUTES!”
And in terms of where we began, Robert reports zero injuries since sending the R-60 into the field. Staff is able to work difficult and dangerous terrain safely from the flats, off the slopes and out of the creature-filled environments. “These machines have been life-changing for our people,” says Mr. Ljuba.
The R Series Remote-Operated Robotic Mower is a unique and robust tool for maintaining all manner of terrain and working a wide range of applications, serving the citizens of Vallejo, Fairfield, and Travis Air Force Base. Thanks Robert, and City of Vallejo, for your trust and support.
