Plowing next year

[dobberjeff]

I have been thinking about expanding into plowing for the winter. Just curious how long did it take those of you who do plow to go from no accounts to a days work? :usflag:

[Dave_005]

I have been thinking about expanding into plowing for the winter. Just curious how long did it take those of you who do plow to go from no accounts to a days work? :usflag:

start by signing your mowing customers !

[MileHigh]

Don't think about plowing driveways...way to much of a pain...and don't think about plowing snow when you want to...you plow when it's time..no matter what time.

First of all..most residential customers don't want to pay out for plowing anything under like 3 or 4 inches most usually...and I really don't believe there is any money in plowing drives.

In a lot of commercial there are triggers as low as half an inch...most are never over 2 inches...There worried about people slipping and falling and making lawsuites...so they want that crap clean.

So basically a 2 inch storm comes through town...ALL the commercial boys are plowing snow making bread....while resi guys sit and pray for more snow.

You need to slap a 8 1/2 foot blade on a 3/4 ton truck get plowing insurance and become a sub-contractor for plowing....You will learn the whole game, plowing on someone else's property, getting paid most likely real good money....I make bank when I plow.

Thing about plowing is that you can bill out for so many different things at once it's crazy...just with one truck and plow with 3 shovelers with me I bill out $150.00 per hour...Thing is, I have two trucks..and also spread Ice melt.
75 per truck and 25 per shoveler. And this is all as being a sub contractor...the contractors bill out around 95-125 a truck and 20-35 a shoveler.

I don't offer any plowing to my residential mowing customers...I will help them out if needed(Like them calling me) after all my commercial's are clean.

My plowing shifts have ranged anywhere from 6 hours to 28 hours straight. Average is 14 - 18 hours a shift for my route.

Hope this helps...

[MileHigh]

Oh yea. If you want to plow snow. Make sure your ready by mid October.

[openbook]

Bladescape I too would like to get into plowing but it seems like a substancial investment to get the 3/4 ton truck and 8 1/2 foot plow plus maintenance on the truck, at least 10k for used. How much do you need to plow before that stuff is paid for?

The past few years I have done residential snow clean up. I work if we get an inch of snow and every inch I add 5 dollars to the cost. I don't start working until 8:00 am since the noise might be an issue. I average around 75 dollars an hour with a 700 dollar snowthrower. These things last for years with hardly any maintenance. I use a 24" residential ariens snowthrower, it's very light and easy to maneuver, it's not as fast as I'd like it to be but in 1-2 inches of snow I can push it as fast as I can walk.

The problem is after about 7-8 hours I am spent, but luckily I finish my work in that amount of time. I'd like to add more work but I need a plow. I could try and find a helper but some years it goes a month without snowing. Who's to say they wont find another job in that amount of time, and I'll spend all my time shopping for helpers.

I see ads on cl every day it's supposed to snow "need snow shovelers pay is 9.00 per hour" Give me a break. Then I questioned one of the advertisers on why it's so low. He got all mad saying he was sick of people telling him he doesn't pay enough and said most of those people are lazy and don't do hardly any work, he will pay them more once they have proven themselves.

[SangerLawn]

Focus on your lawn care. If you have a plow just drive around when it snows. The customers come to you. You will leave your house to do 1 account but you will plow for hours because people will keep coming up to you. I have been waved over while driving down the road, had people come into mcdonalds and shout “who is the driver of that snow plow truck”, and I have had people come up to me while I was in a parking lot cleaning up……

[MileHigh]

Focus on your lawn care. If you have a plow just drive around when it snows. The customers come to you. You will leave your house to do 1 account but you will plow for hours because people will keep coming up to you. I have been waved over while driving down the road, had people come into mcdonalds and shout “who is the driver of that snow plow truck”, and I have had people come up to me while I was in a parking lot cleaning up……

Doesn't happen often when plowing commercial.

Go to plowsite.com

Butt loads of info.