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Robots invade Australian Lawns.

By Todd Layt

The robot invasion has started. Across Europe and the USA hundreds of thousands of robot lawn mowers have been sold. Many are mowing lawns that in the past were mown by lawn mowing contractors. Is this a threat to the lawn mowing contractor's Business? Probably! But there are also opportunities where contractors can make money using these devices.

In Europe and the USA, where cool season grasses such as Fescue and Rye grass dominate, these Robot lawn mowers do 99% of the lawn trimming maintenance. There, little opportunity exists for lawn mowing contractors to compete with lawn mower shops that offer installation and maintenance of these tireless devices. Little garden edging is required. Here in Australia, with fast growing Couches and Kikuyu, and even Buffalo turf, regular edging is a necessity, so human intervention is still needed.

Sure it will be 5 years before robot lawn mowers become a real threat to the lawn mowing contractor, and 10 years before  they have a real negative impact on the mowing run. But for smart contractors there maybe great opportunities to build a really good business using these sci-fi machines from the future. In fact, the opportunity is here now. I am going to throw a few scenarios out there. This is cutting edge stuff, pardon the pun. Some of my ideas maybe wild and not work, but one or two scenarios may make some landscape managers a lot of money. Also, some of these machines which I will talk about later may save councils, golf courses, schools, and sporting fields a lot of money.

Idea 1. Mower shops in Europe selling machines for cool season turf trimming are selling, installing, and maintaining the robots. Here we need lawns edged, which can take up to a third or to a half of the contractors time, so it will not be as simple for the mower shops in Australia. Contractors have many loyal customers, which the mowing shops do not have. If you offer to install these, maintain them, and do the edging, you could make money out them. If you switch most of your current customers to the robot machines, it will allow you plenty of time to start chasing new ones. After a few mows you can talk the new customers into the robots as well, and get even more customers. Basically these robots may save  clients money even in the first year, but definitely in 2 years. You could get them to buy the machines, and charge them for your time installing them, and the time edging, doing weed control, fertilising etc. If you had the funds you could charge on a weekly rate for all services and not have to mow which may allow for higher profits. I am not sure this would be feasible, but as the price of the robots drop with mass production in 5 or 10 years time, it maybe possible.

Idea 2. For larger acreage lawns on private residence, or larger commercial sites. These sites are large, and mowing can take a considerable time. Edging, weed control, aerating, fertilising and problem solving can also take a long time. Buying a robotic lawn mower yourself and putting it on this site, and charging 10% less for the job, may actually make you more money, and allow you to service more clients. Sure it maybe cheaper for your client to go to the local mower shop, buy the robotic mower, have them install it, and pay you to do the rest of the maintenance, but it is far less convenient. Remember convenience is why they have you mow the lawn in the first place. You are the one regularly in contact with your clients, so most will not think of robotic lawn mowing unless you offer it. For now anyway. In a few years marketing by robotic lawn mower companies may change this. Even though the robot lawn mowers have alarms they will only be good where they can not be stolen, which still allows for lots of large lawn areas. 

Idea 3. For true Landscape management companies or garden maintenance contractors that do far more then just lawn mowing this should be seen as a great opportunity, particularly for those that look after large commercial sites. If you buy and install some of the larger robot types, it could save you many thousands of dollars on labour per year. Your staff could be doing all the jobs other than mowing, and still maintain the robot. This will allow you to charge your clients the same, and put more profit in your pocket. With sites that are open, and where the machine would be of risk, then as long as your staff are around the area gardening etc, then robot mowers could be working. This would only be good where your staff are working each day, as the robots need to mow almost everyday, as they can only take a little off each time. They will not mow long grass.

Idea 4. Councils, golf courses, schools, sporting fields etc. These new robot mowers could save huge labour costs. There are some robots that can do 5 Acres per day, and as they mow every day, imagine how great the surface will look. Manicured!

Idea 5. Now this one is really out there, but what if someone tries it and it works. I am not even sure this is feasible, but imagine the profits if it is. You have 30 Clients. You buy 10 machines, and enough border wire. You use each machine to do three houses. You rotate the machine each day to a different house. So each machine does three houses, meaning it it does 2 and 1/3 houses per week. Who knows, in warmer regions, you may need 1 robot between 2 houses. I spoke to one supplier, and he seemed to think this could work if you went for the larger machines, rather then the smaller ones. For example: a smaller machine might cost $3800, and the large one $4500. The larger one spread over 2 or 3 houses makes it cheaper. It may mean a lot of running around for the contractor, but if you have lots of houses in a local area, then it may work. Under this scenario, the mower would then cost $4500 for 3 houses, making it only $1500 per house. Would this work? If someone tries it let me know.

Robot Lawn mowers are here, and Europe and the USA would say they are here to stay. Over the next few years, they will become more available. So think how they could benefit you rather then hurt your business, and at the same time provide your clients with a much better quality lawn. Even if they do become popular with home-owners, there are still lots of clients that like the convenience of a contractor, so there will always be room for the mowing contractor. The full service landscape manager will find robots have little effect on their business, and will probably find them a wonderful tool.

Robots available now.

Provided the lawn is short, and mown constantly with the robot, most can even mow Buffalo turf.

Husqvarna

The best 2 models suited for contracting are the 220AC and the 203ACX. The 220AC sells for $3999, and mows about 1800 square metres per day. The 230ACX sells for $4499 and mows up to 3000 square metres per day. Each machine will return to the charger when its power runs low, charge and then will get back to work. They have alarms for anti-theft, and come with a considerable amount of wire. The wire is run around the perimeter and connected to an electrical source. It is secured by special pegs. Once you have installed one of these, the next one will be easy. The robot knows not to cross this wire, and mows in patterns to mow all the lawn on a very regular basis. The mowers take about 4 or 5 mm off each time, so the lawn needs to be mown regularly by the robot. The lawn will need to be mown well prior to first use. The Robot can cross over gravel and paths, provided the wire shows the way. Extra wire costs $180 for 250 metres. I am hoping to get my hands on the 230ACX to review it.

Contact  Husqvarna on 02 43721500 to find your nearest dealer for these robots. These will be widely available very soon, and are available now from certain dealers.

Autoearth

This company will sell 2 brands form April this year. Phone:  0448 266 737 www.autoearth.com.au

Belrobotis has the Parkmow ($22500) suitable for 8000 square metres and the Bigmow

$29500 for areas up to 20000 square metres. They even have one that picks up golf balls. These are the commercial Robot mowers designed for sporting fields, large factory sites, and acreage.

Ambrogio has the L50 model that does not even need wire to be installed. It picks up the garden edges. The battery lasts 3 hours, and can mow up to 400 square metres. If you had a lot of clients with small lawns, at $2499 it could be an option. Remember it needs to mow regularly, so it can only take a small amount off the top, but imagine in the slightly cooler months, you could have a couple of these, put them on the lawn while you Edge, and the mowing is done for you. In Summer the lawn may have grown to much to do that. They also have the L200 ($4100) for 1500 square metres and the L300 ($5900) for 5000 square metres.

The Spider lawn mower.

This is not really a robot mower, but it is a remote control mower. It is designed for steep slopes, where ride on lawn mowers would be dangerous. It also works well in wet areas, where other mowers would get bogged down. It mows 1.23 metres wide, and can be controlled from 50 to 100 meters away. It mows at a fast 8km per hour, mowing about as fast as a standard ride on mower. It costs $55000, and weighs 325kg. A Company called Serco-Sodexho bought 2 for mowing batters and slopes for the Australian Department of Defence. One day these may be controlled by GPS, which would then make this powerful machine a true robot.  Contact Bill Mckie on 0425 255571 for more information.