Bill Jacob (right), President of PCI, is proud of the team he’s developed over the years, which includes his son Garrett Jacob, Estimator/Project Manager.

PCI crews restripe a City of Los Angeles street following reconstruction.

As a parking and highway striping and sealcoat contractor, Azusa, California-based PCI has built a reputation for versatility. From airfields to ADA signage, roadways to railyards, parking lots to playgrounds, the company is equipped to do it all—just as its founder envisioned.

The company is even a familiar name on high-profile sites such as Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) and many Los Angeles Unified School District campuses.

William “Bill” Jacob established the company in 1992, though his passion for striping and coating began as a teenager—and largely through happenstance.

A Chance Opportunity

While attending California State Polytechnic University, Pomona, studying architecture, Bill was talking to a friend who had started a pavement striping company. The friend asked if he wanted to partner in the business or buy him out.

Interested in making some money and taking some time to figure out his career path, Bill borrowed $10,000 from his father, quit school and got to work. He was 19 at the time.

“It was just something I fell into and had to learn quickly. I had two people to help out on projects, but I did everything else, from meeting customers and pricing jobs to picking up materials, working jobs, handwriting paychecks and then invoicing. There were some hard knocks along the way, but I learned everything,” Bill says.

After six years of striping, he left the business to explore other career options. “I looked around to see if there was anything else, but nothing stuck. Striping and coating called me back.”

By 1992, Bill was ready to build a legacy and PCI came to be. Initially, he partnered with two other colleagues, though he would buy them out shortly after founding the company.

Beyond the Parking Lot

While the initial focus of PCI was parking lot striping, Bill wanted much more.

Bill says, “Early on, I made a decision not to limit myself to parking lots. I felt as a striping contractor that we should be able to do any type of striping or marking, from parking lots and highways to airports and game courts.”

And that’s what he did. With one estimator/project manager and a few field workers, he would search out bids for striping and marking that expanded the company’s visibility. Today, PCI does it all, including ADA-regulated markings, airports, parking lots/garages, roadways, railroads and port facilities. His talented team does sealcoating and roadside signs as well as striping/marking removal.

Milestone projects across its almost 30 years of business have helped PCI build a reputation in California. One of the early signature projects was the striping of one of the terminals at the Port of Long Beach. Not long after, Bill and his crew restriped all the roads at Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton in North San Diego County, the Corps’ largest West Coast expeditionary training facility at more than 125,000 acres.

Over the years, PCI has continued to take on public and private striping, coating and signage jobs.

The company is selected to stripe many cities and municipalities for maintenance striping, and it is a frequent contractor for Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway (BNSF) railyard in Los Angeles. In fact, last year, the PCI crew striped a 1.6 million-square-foot lot on the BNSF site. The company has even barged striping trucks and equipment to Catalina Island to stripe the Island’s airport runway.

Bill and his team especially like working for the Los Angeles Unified School District of which there are over 1,300 campuses. He adds, “It’s a huge amount of work to maintain and restripe playground facilities, but it’s also very satisfying. We regularly get calls from school principals appreciating the work we do.”

Other fun community projects include local race tracks and colorful crosswalks. The company even striped an underground tunnel for The Boring Company, Elon Musk’s infrastructure and tunnel construction services company.

Timelines Matter

When asked what makes striping and signage challenging, Bill points to schedules.

One of his favorite quotes is “If you have no time to do it right, when do you have time to do it over?” [author unknown]. It’s a quote that certainly fits the striping and sealcoat business, particularly in the current environment.

“Jobs are very compressed these days,” he says. “We’re last on the site. For all intents, the customer classifies that the work is done. Preplanning is essential and experience matters.”

He points to airport work as an example. PCI has been a long-time subcontractor at LAX, striping reconstructed runways, taxiways and aprons, most recently for Delta and United Airlines.

Bill says, “Airport striping is particularly challenging because of security and tight timelines. Oftentimes, the work has to be completed within a very short runway closure schedule—and there’s no room for delays.”

Every job includes hourly timelines with contingencies, such as extra equipment or personnel. A recent LAX Runway 6R-24L Runway Safety Area improvements project was one such effort. The project included a 55-hour shutdown of two of the four runways at LAX. The Griffith/Coffman Joint Venture, a joint venture between Griffith Company and Coffman Specialties, Inc., successfully completed this fast-track project 13 days early and under Los Angeles World Airports’ budget, with some help from PCI.

Bill believes PCI’s success at meeting challenging projects is due to his company’s emphasis on planning. He says his General Superintendent John “JD” Davey is the conductor of every operation, adding, “JD plays a huge role in orchestrating the preplanning of every big job.”

JD has been with Bill for over 20 years. He started as a Journeyman Group IV from Laborers’ International Union of North America Local 1184 doing field work and running the striping truck. Within a few years, JD began taking on leadership roles and, for more than a decade now, he’s been PCI’s General Superintendent.

“This is a 24/7 operation and reliability is critical. We have to be prepared.” Bill Jacob, President, PCI

Workforce Development

JD is also representative of PCI’s culture of continuous improvement and professional growth.

Along with the union’s apprenticeship program and training/certification through the American Traffic Safety Services Association (ATSSA), PCI introduced PCI University, an in-house training program first initiated in 2019.

Bill says that the PCI University program came about because of workforce demands. “We put all of our guys through ATSSA training. PCI University builds on those lessons learned with more advanced specialty training and on-the-job skills development,” he adds.

For the curriculum, Bill categorized skills by service. For instance, there’s a curriculum for airport striping, thermoplastic installation and raised markers. Each program includes classroom work, practice field work in the PCI yard and some on-the-job training.

Bill also notes, “Every new employee is told from the start that they will be cross-trained. They could be doing roadway striping on one project and pulled to do signage work on the next. I believe that keeps my people excited about the job and provides for greater opportunities within the company. These are hourly employees, so I tell them, the more you know, the more work you’ll get.”

It’s a foundation that sets PCI up for continued expansion as well.

Prepared for Growth

What started out in 1992 as one striping machine with a handful of people has expanded to 55 work vehicles, predominantly F-550 super duty trucks, hand and mounted striping and sealcoat machines, and 50 people, mostly field workers and yard support staff, with five estimators, project managers, a superintendent, a CFO and administrative staff.

For years, Bill and his team worked out of a small yard in Long Beach, California. With a growing backlog of projects, they grew out of that space a few years ago, moving to a 63,000-square-foot facility in Azusa. That site includes a 10,000-square-foot warehouse and a 6,000-square-foot shop with a full-time fleet manager and mechanics, as well as office space.

When asked about the shop, Bill says, “This is a 24/7 operation and reliability is critical, which is why we do all of our maintenance in-house. We are often the last on a site as an owner is getting ready to occupy. We can’t afford downtime, and this is such specialized equipment, that there are few, if any, places to rent. We have to be prepared.”

He’s also focused on more environmentally friendly solutions. One hand striping truck is now electric, which Bill says, his operators love. “These machines are quiet, fume-free and powerful,” he adds.

While PCI has grown considerably, particularly in the last five years, Bill has eyes on the road ahead, expanding on existing services in Southern California.

Bill concludes, “Another famous quote that keeps me energized is ‘Failure is not an option,’ often attributed to Gene Kranz, Apollo 13 Flight Director. It’s a reminder to me to always keep looking for more and looking forward, whether that’s more people, providing professional growth opportunities, expanding our fleet or moving to new service areas. As long as we can deliver dependable, quality service, I feel like we can stripe with no limits.”