Do you plow snow?

[yardguy28]

well the way I look at is, one, its a work truck and, two, its not gonna stay new looking forever.

[Darryl G]

My truck was 6 years old before I had the heart to put a plow on it and I really didn't have much choice. My old 85 K20 just needed too much work. By then it already had some bumps and bruises. Gotta watch the rocker panel and lower door areas on these never trucks. A crusty snow bank will push them right in. I'd like to replace my rear bumper with a heavy duty one anyway.

[In2une]

This is my first year snowplowing for myself running my own business. My main problem is Customers Don't Pay!!
I have plowed for over 10 years for another company and never would have thought it would have been such a hassle!
I do all residential and have contracts that say right on them please pay within 7 days and if a new customer without a contract I expect to paid the same day. 90% of customers give the run around.. Crazy!
I do a good job and I have the experience snowplowing so thats not the issue.
Please Help What do I do.

[yardguy28]

I threw a plow on my last truck 6 months after I bought it. it is after all one of the reasons I got it.

[McFarland_Lawn_Care]

@ In2une..... ONLY thing you can do is tell them to pay or find someone else and you will be "forced to take further action" to collect on their bill. You know your customers better than anyone else and a little tact goes a long ways, but you have to be firm.

Jason

[Darryl G]

Originally Posted by RSK Property Maintenance

i stopped advertising for snow in 2012, then i was given another 5 accounts, but they can all be done a day later so its fine. I'm actually calling all my customers today and tomorrow and telling them if there is 2 feet and they don't want to pay for me to show up twice it will be a 100 dollar charge, if they don't like it then they can try and find someone else. if they do end up paying for me to show up twice it will be over over 100 anyways. either way, no reason I shouldn't make 3000-4000 from a storm this size if i don't i'm cheating myself out of money. quite a few customers called already and said to come twice, once friday night then saturday morning but route takes so long not sure how well that plan will work....I am however buying another truck tonight. no rust f350 351w new manifolds, new front end parts, new steering box, new tires, newer plow no rust, clean interior and clean body no dents for 2500 so i may try and register that tomorrow and use it for this storm and sell it for double because it's worth close to 5,000 all day long.

So how did things work out for you with the blizzard? How long did it take to get to your whole list?

[jrs.landscaping]

Originally Posted by Darryl G

So how did things work out for you with the blizzard? How long did it take to get to your whole list?

I'm curious as well.

[McFarland_Lawn_Care]

All my resi contracts are on every 6-8 inches of snowfall. It takes me about 6 hrs to get through the route once, not counting the snowblowing contracts. Obviously with this last storm, it was coming down so fast and drifting that I just kept making the rounds - everyone got at least 2 charges, and many got 3. The first night of the storm I had to drive 10 mph between accounts and often had to plow my way between them. We have rural roads and at times, my plow was pushing snow on the street while in the all up position. Crazy. Mid-storm I was questioning my sanity but glad I did the work. The snowblowing really sucked the next day - 5 ft drifts to power through with a blower. lol

Jason

[Kelly's Landscaping]

The way I finally got dug out. Yes I know it no longer looks like 38 inches in some of this but it was day 5 and we had a nice 8 hour rain storm on day 3.

[Darryl G]

Nice little plow. I ended up plowing all day even though we only got a little bit over night. A lot of my accounts needed some detail work done, piles pushed back and things widened...some breathing room basically. I'm not sure how much of it I can charge for but I'm not too worried about that.