A Fly In The Ointment?

Rob Lederer, executive vice president of the National Pest Control Association (NPCA), should be commended for making a comprehensive industry awareness campaign one of the organization’s top priorities, but no one said funding such an ambitious effort was going to be easy. Take, for instance, the current impasse between the NPCA’s Industry Awareness Council (IAC) and UPF&DA, a trade group representing nearly 100 industry product suppliers.

Earlier this year, when IAC representatives presented a controversial distributor collection formula to UPF&DA members at the NPCA Convention, several key representatives of the small, but powerful trade group hit the roof. “The major concern is the administrative costs that will be incurred by distributors under the proposed system,” says Tommy Reeves, president of UPF&DA. “The workload that will result in accumulating, crediting, adjusting and reporting PCO contributions to the program would be massive. It would be an administrative nightmare.”

In its proposed form, the distributor community would serve as the collection point for all donations, creating a line item on every invoice that would add a 2.5% voluntary contribution to the total amount of the bill. The revenue generated by the contributions would be used to fund various IAC initiatives, including a national ad campaign designed to grow the market for professional pest control services. Distributors would be required to forward these donations to the IAC on a quarterly basis and the IAC would reserve the right to audit the collection of funds at least once each year.

In recognition of the administrative costs associated with managing the program, the NPCA has offered to reimburse distributors 10% of all funds collected up to a maximum of $20,000 per year, but that’s not the issue, according to some UPF&DA members. “Distributors really don’t want to touch that money,” said one UPF&DA representative contacted by PCT magazine. “We’ll deliver the bill, but we don’t want to be responsible for collections.” As a result, UPF&DA is calling for several changes to the collection process, most notably that all payments go directly to the Industry Awareness Council. In addition, PCOs would be required to sign-off on their support of the program before receiving an invoice. “I don’t feel comfortable putting a 2.5% surcharge on my customers’ bills without first receiving permission from them,” Reeves said. “I don’t think it’s the proper way to do business.”

Other distributors disagree. John Bolanos, general manager of Van Waters & Rogers, the largest distributor serving the industry, said, “We feel adding an individual line item to every invoice offers the greatest chance to raise the most money in the most expedient fashion. While we recognize there’s more to be done (before launching the program), Van Waters & Rogers is strongly behind the IAC recommendation.

“We feel everyone should fully embrace the program because it’s a great opportunity for the distributor community to help the industry grow and enhance its image,” Bolanos adds. “It’s a tremendous opportunity we can’t let go by.”

Reeves doesn’t disagree, but he’s not comfortable with the proposed structure of the program. “I don’t think there’s widespread discontent with the program among UPF&DA members,” he observes. “It’s a matter of putting the mechanics of the program in place so it’s not overly burdensome to distributors. That’s our primary concern. We all realize it’s to our advantage to grow the industry,” Reeves says, “so distributors aren’t opposed to the program. We just think the timetable for launching the program should be pushed back until these issues are resolved.”

As it currently stands, the launch date for the IAC campaign is April 1st, but these and other issues will have to be resolved long before then if the program has any chance of success. Bolanos, for one, is confident they will be addressed. “The IAC has been very responsive to any concerns that have been expressed in the past, so I’m confident these concerns will be addressed as well.”