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"In the beginning it was just striping," says Tim Cushionberry, owner of Zebra Parking Lot Maintenance Company, Inc. "We had just one truck, and we wore referee shirts and black pants. That's where the name 'Zebra' came from."

Eleven years later the referee shirts have long been replaced by safety orange, and 'Zebra' has grown into one of the premiere parking lot maintenance companies in the nation, currently servicing, or having serviced, 175 Wal-Mart and Sam's Club stores in the South. The two corporate giants are Tim's most visible clients, but he has worked for many others throughout Baton Rouge, New Orleans and the North Shore. His customer list includes general contractors, banks, architects, commercial properties, fast food restaurants such as Taco Bell and Kentucky Fried Chicken, newspapers and car dealers, to name a few.

Tim was even approached during the filming of Dukes of Hazzard for a striping estimate on a particularly lonely stretch of road, but in the end the moviemakers decided not to stripe. "They thought it would be cheap, but they were looking at a $12,000 job," says Tim, laughing.

Headquartered on several acres in Hammond, the company is still called Zebra Striping by those who've known Tim from his first days in the business. But paving quickly followed striping, and the jobs grew in size and complexity. "We began to evolve into more intense, involved paving maintenance and repair," says Tim, "including asphalt overlay, concrete repairs for truck areas, and additions to parking lots."

Zebra was still a one-truck company when the company's work ethic and attention to detail attracted a prized client. Tim agreed to fix a pothole at a Wal-Mart in Covington—a minor job several paving companies didn't seem to have time for. A contract with the industry mammoth soon followed. "Wal-Mart appreciated that we gave the same attention to a $500 repair as a $250,000 overlay. We were as eager to work on a small problem as much as a big problem." Investing early in the young, talented company and providing it with consistent work has proved a boon for both partners.

Tim perfected his trade by asking questions and studying. "I went to other people in the industry, attended training seminars, read books—anything to bring me up to date on that area of repair or maintenance, the newest processes and materials. I've never stopped learning."

Throughout his career, Tim has refused shortcuts to success.

"The longer you watch," he says, "the more you understand how far you can step away from the basic principles of what makes the job work or not. We've seen processes that came along and people told us, 'It's the greatest thing,' and we could tell it was pushing the limits of what made sense, and sure enough, in a year or two no one was doing it anymore. We've seen three major processes come and go like that. Paving has some basic properties that are fixed: how it responds to heat, and cold, and traffic, and water. You can only push pavement to perform to a certain point. I'm all for innovation, but some of these new processes were trying to shortcut established methods."

JUST ONE CALL: Total Parking Lot Maintenance
Now Tim is starting a new division called Zebra Facility Maintenance Management. "This is total parking lot maintenance, so that anything that goes wrong with a customer's property we'll be able to fix, or contract out to have someone trustworthy make the repair."

Utilizing a new crew with a bucket truck, the company can fix lights, transformers, sign damage, neon transformers, re-paint rusted signs, fix potholes, seal cracks, and completely overhaul or rip out bad areas in pavement. "In the future I plan on having in-house crews that can take of landscaping issues also," Tim says.

A telephone hotline will provide a fast, easy way to address any plumbing, electrical, roofing, structural problem, indoors or out. "We'll always know when to draw the line and bring in a specialist."

ZFMM effectively will provide the customer with one company to deal with. "The bill comes here," says Tim. "Sure we get a fee, but our prices will remain competitive because we're giving our contractors a lot of work and in return they give us a good price. A lot of people don't have the time to track a relationship of trust with a multitude of contractors. We've done the legwork of establishing a network of reliable, trustworthy contractors who will do a good job at a fair price."

At the top of Tim's list of principles for running a company is reputation. "You build that every time you go out of that driveway and talk to a customer. It's fluid; it changes day to day; what you job to job, year after year determines what kind of reputation you have."

Tim says money should not be the most important factor for business owners when considering a pavement company.

"I can't tell you how many properties I've been called to because the lowest bidder was chosen." He smiles. "I've made millions of dollars in my business over the years because the lowest bidder was blindly chosen."

Zebra Parking Lot Maintenance and Repair, Inc. can be reached at (225) 294-0077.

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