PITTSBURG PEOPLE: ALLSTATE INSPECTION DEPARTMENT

Allstate Director of Inspections Von Hannah has worked for the Johnston family in some capacity since 1995 – excluding a roughly two-year period. He first worked at Nationwide Tower, which was owned by the late Don Johnston. He’s been with Allstate since 2007 when it bought out his previous company.

As director of inspections, Von does a little bit of everything. Von’s responsible for making sure his crews are well-trained and that they are conducting their inspections thoroughly. He also makes sure the inspections reports are written in compliance.

Keith Fischer has worked for Allstate for six years as the field supervisor. As far as he’s concerned, the inspections department is the best in the company.

Keith has a wide variety of job duties ranging from training and supervising inspection crews, troubleshooting and fixing tower lighting systems. He also works in the office, assisting both the inspection and maintenance departments.

“Working for Allstate has shown me that there are company’s out there that don’t just consider their employees a number, and I personally feel valued,” Keith said. “If you do a good job, work hard, and take pride in your work, anyone can move up and progress in the company.”

While he sacrifices time away from home, he said he has pretty cool management. One of his jobs needed work that he’d never done before. Luckily, he said, Von’s door is always open.

“I talked to Von about it, and he was ready to pack up and make a six-hour drive to help out,” Keith said. “Not all management is like that, and that dedicated to their employees.”

The project manager for Allstate Tower’s inspections department, Brittany Miller, has been with the company for six years. She started as an inspection writer proofing reports. With hard work and dedication, she moved up to become the project manager.

“In my six years working hear AST has become more than a job, it’s become an extension of my family,” said Brittany. “Working here I don’t dread coming into work like I did at other jobs in the past.”

In the past several years, Von has learned how to operate a drone. Von, along with Keith and Orlando are FAA certified drone operators.

Drones are especially handy for inspecting self-supporting towers with no grips or footholds and those damaged for weather-related or environmental reasons. Allstate does a lot of drone inspections along the Gulf of Mexico, which is frequently battered by storms.

Tornados, hurricanes, earthquakes, ice storms, and other such events spur a need for inspections since towers are potentially compromised. After an ice storm, for instance, if the ice stays on the guy-wire too long, it will start to sag and stretch.

Allstate typically sends a link in Dropbox that the customer can download straight to their computers once an inspection is complete. They can also burn a copy of the inspection report on a thumb drive if the customer doesn’t have access to Dropbox.

The inspections department stays busy.

“The people who work for me work very hard and are very good people,” said Von. “We do everything we possibly can do to keep our customers happy. Brittany and the guys do a good job at it. We definitely take pride in our work.”

“We’re small but mighty!” said Brittany. “We might have only have a few people in our department, but we do our best at every inspection report we send out.”