A white Weidemann for the housing company Vonovia

In Dresden, a 1380 from Weidemann has recently become part of the largest housing association in Germany: Vonovia SE.

As a lessor of housing, Vonovia is responsible for hundreds of apartments in Dresden. These not only include interiors, but also the living environment. Vonovia has been maintaining its own landscape maintenance department under the direction of Jürgen Gottschald for some time in order to maintain these areas. The employees are responsible for maintaining the green areas around the properties. This includes mowing the lawn and trimming the hedges in the summer. In the winter, the lawn mowers are equipped with snow blades and clear sidewalks and driveways in the early morning hours between 4:00 am and 7:00 am. Support was needed here.

“To have to handle less work through subcontractors and be able to do more work ourselves, we decided to expand the landscape maintenance department and also set up our own building services section”, explains Jürgen Gottschald, technical manager of Vonovia in Dresden. This new team is responsible for repairing and renovating sidewalks or playgrounds for example. "During the regular safety inspections of all living environments, a catalogue of measures is created that the team then has to implement”. The Weidemann 1380, procured in early 2017, supports the building services group with the work they have to do. It mostly has to load bulk materials such as gravel, grit and sand, which the employees need on the different construction sites.

In the winter, the 1380 supports the landscape maintenance team with winter service. In the winter of 2016/2017 along, 250 tons of grit were used. However, this had to still be loaded by hand, because the Weidemann first arrived in the spring. “Our guys are tough” says Jürgen Gottschald with a smile. This impression is also confirmed when you take a look at the vehicle fleet: All of the ride-on mowers, which also run in winter service, do not have a cabin. "A thick scarf and a winter cap and they’re off”, says the technical manager. The reason for these open work machines is not to harden the employees, but rather because there are often low clearances in green spaces. This way the drivers do not have to remove the renters’ clotheslines every time they mow a lawn.

The 1380 from Weidemann also only has an overhead guard, but with a protective window in the front and rear. However, the paint job in the company colours is much more important. Because the entire fleet is kept white if possible. This is for the orientation of the residents and the recognition value of the large housing company.