Robots for Cleaning Contractors

Pick the client sites that suit a robot

Start with a list of your contracts and score each one for robot fit. Strong candidates have big areas of open hard floor, cleaning done when the building is quiet, a layout that rarely changes, somewhere secure to charge the machine and a place to fill and drain tanks. Weak candidates have many small rooms, frequent furniture moves or carpet throughout. Check whether the client's Wi-Fi reaches the cleaning areas, since fleet software and alerts usually depend on it, and whether the robot can call lifts or needs staff to ride with it. Begin on one or two high-scoring sites and learn there, then move the robot or add units only once the routine has settled.

Share the safety picture with each client

A robot working in a client's building puts two employers in one workplace. Regulation 11 of the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 says that where employers share a workplace, each must co-operate with the others, co-ordinate the measures they take and inform them of risks to their employees arising from their work. In practice, tell the client's facilities team when and where the robot runs, what it does if the fire alarm sounds, which of their staff may pause it and how it behaves in a lift. Ask the client in turn about other contractors, events or deliveries that will share the floor at night. Review these arrangements whenever either side changes its hours.

Building the robot into your price

There are several ways to charge for a robot, and three are worth comparing against your contract length. You can absorb it into your normal rate, spreading the robot's lifetime cost over the hours it saves on that contract. You can show it as a separate monthly line, which makes the value visible but invites the client to question it at renewal. Or the client can buy the robot while you operate it, which shifts the capital risk but ties the machine to one site. Whichever you choose, match the cost recovery period to the contract term, add a clause on what happens to the robot if the contract ends early, and price in your own supervision time.

Report results the client can check

Robot run logs show where a machine went, but clients pay for clean floors, so tie the logs to an inspection system both sides trust. BS EN 13549:2001 sets basic requirements and recommendations for quality measuring systems in cleaning services, covering what to measure, how to inspect and which criteria to apply, and it gives a shared basis to write into the contract. Watch how building users react as well. In a 2022 video-based survey reported in Frontiers in Electronics, 117 participants felt more comfortable being passed by a cleaning robot than by a person, and seeing sanitisation information raised their comfort further. Set passing distances and speeds for occupied areas, and show a clear notice that cleaning is under way.

Sources and further reading

• The Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999, regulation 11: co-operation and co-ordination — legislation.gov.uk (The National Archives).
  Duties on employers who share a workplace to co-operate, co-ordinate safety measures and share information on risks.
• BS EN 13549:2001 Cleaning services: basic requirements and recommendations for quality measuring systems — BSI.
  European standard for measuring cleaning quality: what to inspect, how to inspect it and which criteria to use.
• Towards next generation cleaning tools: factors affecting cleaning robot usage and proxemic behaviors design — Frontiers in Electronics.
  Survey of 117 people on how close a cleaning robot may pass and how hygiene signals change their comfort.

Common questions

Should a cleaning company buy or rent its robots?

Renting or leasing suits short contracts and first trials, because the robot can go back if a site does not work out. Buying makes sense once you know a machine will stay busy, ideally across several contracts, so check that the maker lets you move licences and maps between client sites.

Will robots let a contractor cut staff on a contract?

Sometimes hours fall, but someone still has to set the robot up, refill it, clear stoppages and handle the edges, washrooms and spills it cannot reach. Plan the change with the cleaning team, measure it during a trial, and avoid promising clients savings you have not yet seen.