What’s In My Truck: Pinnacle Irrigation and Night Lighting

Source: www.TurfMagazine.com

Probably most striking about the Tesla Model X is its Falcon Wing doors. But don’t let that distract you from its real superpower: it’s lean and green. That’s what attracted Marty DeNinno, owner of Pinnacle Irrigation & Night Lighting to the vehicle. The Haddonfield, New Jersey-based business owner says he ordered the new model more than two years ago and just received it this past September. It replaced his GMC Yukon Denali.

As someone who is constantly on the road, DeNinno says the car “has worked out great;” it has more than 230 miles of range every day. Having logged about 4,000 miles so far as of press time, DeNinno says he hasn’t been to the gas station once. Not having to plan those fuel runs into his day has helped him to be more efficient and keep up his momentum of visiting with potential clients or stopping by job sites. Turf recently caught up with DeNinno to find out a bit more about how this unique vehicle works for his business.

The one item I use the most on the go is my iPad. It’s the best sales tool in our arsenal. I can show our work without asking the customer to drive around and look at it during the day — or night if it’s our night lighting. It’s not as intimidating as a laptop and much easier to see than a smartphone. It’s just a great way for me to showcase what we do. We have been having professional photos done of our night lighting. With the swipe of a finger, it’s a real wow factor looking at the before and the after shots.

As for space, I gave up a little. But having the entire fronk (front trunk), I can hide my tool boxes and repair parts out of view. That means the interior always looks presentable and things don’t go flying around.

The new Tesla works extremely well as a mobile office. It has a huge touch screen that is always connected to the internet. I can see where my guys are and how their day is going simply by logging on to our routing/scheduling program. I can also do research from the web browser.

I haven’t looked back since getting this car. The all-wheel drive is great for bad weather and without an engine I don’t have to worry about check engine lights or the regular maintenance that used to come with my Yukon. So far, it’s a great fit.

All of our trucks are branded with the company logo as well as the telephone number and website address. But so far for this car, I have only purchased vanity plates with the company name on it. My old car had magnet signs, but because this car is aluminum I’ll need a different solution. I’m currently designing something with my graphics team.

The Essentials

My iPad — We use this to show off our night lighting and irrigation work, which is hard to visualize without pictures.

An array of tools — For quick repairs and onthe- go troubleshooting.

Tons of water — My family teases me that my car is a “Doomsday Prepper Mobile” as I tend to have a lot of snacks and water bottles on hand.

Big Sour Patch — This is the bigger version of Sour Patch Kids.

My estimating book.

Pressure gauge.

Extra business cards and product literature.