The Parking Lot Striping Industry Council™ (PLSIC) launched today, opening membership to a trade that has not previously had a unified professional body. The Council will develop and publish technical standards for parking lot striping, administer a professional certification program, and maintain a public directory connecting certified contractors with the property owners and facility managers who need them.
PLSIC™ is built as a member organization serving every side of the industry: striping contractors, paint and thermoplastic manufacturers, equipment makers, property managers, and municipalities. The Council operates as a standards-and-certification body, not a commercial vendor. Its positions are intended to reflect member consensus through open process, not the agenda of any single firm.
The technical standards PLSIC develops will address surface preparation, material selection, application methods, ADA compliance, and quality verification. The professional certification program, the Certified Parking Lot Striper™ (CPLS) credential, will give contractors a recognized qualification to carry. The public directory will let property owners and facility managers find certified contractors directly.
The Council will be governed by a Board of Directors, with an independent Standards Committee of nine members drawn from across the industry and from the broader business community responsible for technical standards. There will be additional committees formed to address specific issues, member events where direction gets discussed openly, and an open commenting process for every specification we develop.
“When there are no standards for the work, there is no floor for quality,” said Jonathon Thompson, PLSIC founder. “Property owners do not know what to expect. Contractors who take pride in their craft compete against operators who undercut on price and deliver work that makes the whole trade look bad. Nobody wins in that environment except the people doing the worst work, and they win only because nobody has defined what good looks like. That is what PLSIC exists to change.”
Thompson sold 1-800-Stencil in 2020. He returns to the industry now with the organization he has been thinking about for eleven years: a professional body that defines what good work looks like and gives the people who do it a credential to stand behind.
“A trade body that brings materials, equipment, and the people doing the work into the same conversation is overdue,” said Kurt Gruenberg, VP of Sales, RAE Products. “When good paint goes down badly, the cost lands on the supply side as much as on the contractor. PLSIC gives the trade a shared place to define what good work requires, and we’re glad to support it.”
The Council’s public website at parkinglotstriping.org provides resources and education for property owners and the public. The member platform behind it serves the industry. Contractors, suppliers, property managers, and municipalities interested in joining are invited to inquire through the website.