Snow Plowing Business

The snow plowing business really depends on the weather and how much snow falls. Some years it feels like you are busy every day pushing snow around, clearing snow from parking lots and driveways. Other years, it seems that there is not much snow. There is a lot of down time for your equipment and your drivers. In these years, you may still have to pay employees. However operating expenses for fuel and maintenance of equipment is much lower.

When it does snow, operators are working around the clock for hours. Sometimes days just to keep up with the snow clearing. The snow storms that come through their area. Managing your cash flow is extremely important with such changes in the weather.

Snow plowing business operators get around the cash flow issue that weather creates for them by charging customers a fixed amount that covers a fixed number of months.  This way they share the risk with the customer in terms of managing cash flow and the number of times that a driveway or parking lot will need to be cleared. In light snow years, customers may feel that they paid too much for snow plowing, while in heave snow years they may feel like the really got a deal. This is the risk that operators take and that clients also take. It all depends on the weather and how it turns out. All you can do is plan for those variations  in the weather and make sure that your cash flow is in order.

Snow Plowing Business – Planning

Operators have the advantage in knowing how busy they will be, how many people to hire and how many pieces of equipment they should have ready to go when the snow comes. When it does now most of these operators will be going 24 hours a day for several days if the snow keeps coming. They may also go for a week at a time with nothing to do. You have to keep good employees around because otherwise they will go somewhere else to find work. This means you must pay them even if they are just sitting around waiting for the snow to come.

There are jobs that operators can take on to keep their employees busy during slow periods when it is not snowing. First of all maintenance and upkeep of all of the equipment is the top priority. You do not want anything to break down while clearing snow. If the operator also does work in the summer time, whether it is landscaping or construction, this down time can be used to complete repairs and clean up of all of this equipment as well. Some operators will have parking lot snow clearing operations that require the snow to be trucked away.

Clearing Stored Snow

While it is not snowing and the parking lot may be clear, there is still that large snow pile sitting there taking up space. Most contracts will call for this pile of snow to be cleared away as soon as possible. Front end loaders and trucks are required to move this snow. They will take it to a snow dump where it can melt later in the spring. There are also usually haulage fees to account for as well as dumping fees to account for. This is in addition to paying your operators to scrape the parking lot. When bidding on these kind of contracts, operators must account for all of this time and equipment.