Anyone else plow snow for money?

I've been plowing snow for quite a few years. I got into it as a teacher. I figured why stay home on a snow day when I can make money instead. (plus, I just love being out in the snow) At first I went in 50/50 with my brother. We put the plow on his f250 (I only had an f150 at the time) I would put flyers on mailboxes and get business that way and through word of mouth. Things started out slow and living in south Jersey, we have winters where there's no plowable snow. After about 7-8 years my brother bought a place in Killington Vermont so he got out of plowing. He sold his truck and the plow (giving me half for the plow.) I needed to replace my truck (single cab and couldn't fit the family) so I bought a new f250 and a put a new plow on it. As facebook started to grow it became easier (and free) to advertise. My name has become very popular on the local town pages and I get a lot of references from customers. This past weekend they forecasted a major winter storm with blizzard warnings for part of our area. We ended up getting 8"-12" and I couldn't even begin to keep up with all the calls, texts, and facebook messages. Between Saturday and Sunday I spent just about 32 hours in my truck but I still struggle with charging the appropriate amount as every driveway is different. Some people think I charge too much and some always pay more so I guess I'm usually around where I should be? So who else out here plows for money? What is your story? Have you found any methods for charging that you feel are successful? I know this will all vary on location due to how often it snows and how strong your local economy is but figured I would start a thread on it and see where it goes.

 

Since I’m the maint guy at work I do the snow removal there. Otherwise, I’ve thought several times about buying a plow for my pickup as there’s a need and mo way to be made. Mostly I feel bad NOT being able to help folks that need help when I’m driving by in the schools truck with plow on it. I may have, on occasion, helped a widow or two out here or there when I see them trying to scoop their driveway by hand. Usually wait till after dark so no-one complains and haven’t had anyone ever say anything.
I’m interested in others thoughts also as I see figuring what to charge to be rather difficult. My local guy that used to plow charged by the hour for larger properties but $20 for most driveways and $50 if they’re extra large, but that all depends on how much snow and how heavy also

 

I help the elderly, widowed, sick, and women who's husbands are deployed AFTER I make whatever money I can make from the storm. If you can't wait, you pay my full asking price. There are exceptions like chemo appointments, etc. but I feel it is fair to make what I can and then help those who are less fortunate.

 

I plow snow, but not for money. We rarely get enough to worry about, but when we do I put the blade on the quad and plow out the neighbors. We live in a quiet little neighborhood with a bunch of old people who have no business shoveling snow. I try to keep the road plowed (dead-end so low priority for county to plow) but if we get very much I don't have a big enough machine to move it.

Looks like I will be plowing on Thursday if the forecast holds up.

 

I don’t, yet, but have been researching the tractor based method with inverted blower. See YT vids by Paul Vanderzon, for example.

 

I've done a lot of commercial plowing. We plowed state interstates and off ramps with everything from 3/4 ton single wheel pickups to 1 ton dually dumps, to 10 wheel dumps, to tri-axles dumps. Did that for the better part of 15 years. Had storms that lasted well over 40 hours with no sleep. Hard to find guys who want to take your place at 2am with 30mph winds and 3" per hour coming down.

We also did snow hauling for large plaza lots and clearing of those lots with a full size loader and pusher box.

Now I just do my own 1000 foot driveway and that's plenty for me. I don't miss the rat race at all. I do have some memorable stories that I still laugh about though.

 

I plowed commercially for apx 20 years. Made some money at it. As fuel , equipment , repairs, & INSURANCE prices kept jumping up. I quit the racket about 4 years ago. Plows themselves last pretty well, but the front ends on the trucks you are rebuilding every summer, figure a set of bearings/ belts/ motor for the salter as well. Somehow, no matter how well you prepare, Murphy always sticks his nose in the works. Towards the end I was spending more time repairing other peoples equipment than plowing, which wasn't a particularly bad thing in itself. The death blow was when the various equipment mfg. would not sell parts except to a reg. dealer and then the " only get parts from the dealer in your zip code" ( Boss) hogwash. ( MFG were trying to cut out the internet suppliers to drive more repair work and parts orders to dealers) My shop is about 1/2 mile down the road from Western MFG plant- can't buy parts there though. Boss dealer almost nothing in stock part wise ( i don't know how they stay in Biz)- always have to order ( ya like that's going work out real well). 1/2-1hr drive to western dealer. Then the dealers are stuck with a minimum order $ wise so they sit on it until they have enough to fit the bill Course none of these shops are open at zero dark 30 when your equipment goes south due to some unique part than can't be jury rigged.
Meanwhile you have customers calling as to when you are going get to them plowing or repair wise. which is why I had 3 trucks ,salters and 1/2 dozen small snowblowers so when something went down I could keep going.

 

I plow out the neighborhood because several of the neighbors can't. My brother has several customers he plows for. He tries to make $2.00 a minute, with (I think) a $25.00 minimum. That's with Chevy 3/4 ton truck with an adjustable V-plow.
He did a bunch last year when we had a 40" storm. Most of that was with his backhoe. I think he was at $100 minimum. He had to drive the hoe several miles to some of the spots.

 

I was talking to a friend who only does commercial plowing now. Said he got $9800 just for the Lowe's lot this last storm. (it's based off inches and includes salting and shoveling walkways)

 

$2 a minute sounds cheap honestly.

 

I don't plow commercially however I will be looking into it this year as the individual who has the contract for our road is more than likely going to stop doing it by next winter (he just bought out his boss's repair shop/new baby/now lives an hour away). We have six houses on our private dirt road, and he charges $12 per house each time he plows the road and $10 for each sanding. Not sure what he charges for driveways as I do my own. The last couple years I handled pushing the banks back with the tractor (if needed) at the rate of $13 per house per storm. His costs are relatively low for the area however he used to live next door to me and was looking out for our neighborhood (used to be mostly older retired folks). He plows a few additional driveways in the area of people we know, however I do not know what he charges them. The previous contractor charged them by the season, regardless of snowfall.

I have reservations about getting into it as I don't want the drama of dealing with people not paying their bills (we just had a couple wealthy city-slickers purchase two of the homes on the road...there goes the neighborhood). And with the cost of vehicles nowadays, it's a lot of $$ to fork over up front. Still, part of me would rather do it than pay someone else (the previous contractor was a greedy SOB who did a lousy job and charged ridiculous prices in order to pay off his new equipment).

 

Anyone plow around the Owosso/Corunna area?I don't know anyone around here, and will most likely need a plow Thursday morning.

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I know it snows a lot more up your way but, those prices seem so cheap. Don't know how you would make much money doing it at those rates.

 

The shop i work at pays $80/hour to a guy for snow clearing, usually takes about an hour
I thought it was reasonable

 

That's cheap for around here

 

That's a steal...considering his equipment costs, fuel, taxes, etc...

 

jrider, what do you do besides make money?

 

I live at the end of a private road/common driveway. Its about 1,000 feet long. I plow from my house to the street, but I don't charge the neighbors. I'd have to do it anyways to get out or pay someone.

 

What do you think that would cost in your area of MA?