Pricing

[lawn mower fanatic]

Yeah i agree with that. Sometimes I also put down ice melt at the end of the storm on the walkway and stairs. Alot of times i Brush off their car at the end of the storm for free. It makes them happy and I can get the snow off the driveway instead of the customer just clearing off their car and leaving all the snow on the driveway.

Yeah that is a good thing to do!

 

[A&DProperty maintaince]

I uasually charge between 30-40 dollars for each storm. This includes the driveway and walkay/stairs. I plow the driveway a couple times each storm and try to keep up with the snow. A lot of times if theres a big storm people will give me more but i charge between 30 and 40 dollars. You could also set something up so they pay you depending on how many inches you get. Or by how many times you do the driveway.

So clear up what you would consider one storm is that a day of snow or is that a couple days of snow

 

[lawn mower fanatic]

So clear up what you would consider one storm is that a day of snow or is that a couple days of snow

It is A STORM. It could be either. If it snows from 8:30am to 1:00pm, that would be one storm, but it could also snow starting right now until Monday morning and that would also be one storm. But obviously he would charge a lot more for the longer snow than the 4.5 hour one.

 

[A&DProperty maintaince]

It is A STORM. It could be either. If it snows from 8:30am to 1:00pm, that would be one storm, but it could also snow starting right now until Monday morning and that would also be one storm. But obviously he would charge a lot more for the longer snow than the 4.5 hour one.

So I gotta give one if my customer a seasonal estimate should I just tell her that I'm gonna charge 30$ a storm for snow fall under six inches then for every inch over that I will charge xtra I'm thinking 2 dollars a inch is fair... The problem is I live in buffalo so either will have a easy winter or a hard one

 

[lawn mower fanatic]

So I gotta give one if my customer a seasonal estimate should I just tell her that I'm gonna charge 30$ a storm for snow fall under six inches then for every inch over that I will charge xtra I'm thinking 2 dollars a inch is fair... The problem is I live in buffalo so either will have a easy winter or a hard one

I think that would be fair.

 

[A&DProperty maintaince]

Well I made the estimate and she thinks she wants to go thru her old contract but I'm gonna be passing out flyers today to try and get new customers so thank you all for the help I know understand how to do this an will definatly keep posting on this forum!

 

[lawn mower fanatic]

Well I made the estimate and she thinks she wants to go thru her old contract but I'm gonna be passing out flyers today to try and get new customers so thank you all for the help I know understand how to do this an will definatly keep posting on this forum!

OK, I hope you have a successful season! :smile::thumbsup:

 

[D2hornets58]

Well I made the estimate and she thinks she wants to go thru her old contract but I'm gonna be passing out flyers today to try and get new customers so thank you all for the help I know understand how to do this an will definatly keep posting on this forum!

If you find that a lot of people are not wanting to pay that you may want to change it up a bit. Maybe over 8 inches or ten inches is when you start to add money. For most storms i Just charge 30 unless the storm is a very long one. Also earlier you asked what i consider a storm. Two years ago it snowed all day one day untill around 6 or 7 at night. Then the next morning it started to snow again at like 7 and it snowed all day. For that I charged for 2 storms.

 

[lawn mower fanatic]

If you find that a lot of people are not wanting to pay that you may want to change it up a bit. Maybe over 8 inches or ten inches is when you start to add money.

Since you (A&DProperty maintaince) live in New York, you can probably expect a lot of snow, so maybe doing what D2hornets58 said wouldn't be a bad idea. He knows what he is talking about when it comes to snow, since I am guessing he gets a lot of it!

 

[GentlemanFahmah]

I've been in the commercial snow management business for almost 40 years. Three snow facts that you can take to the bank: 1) It is impossible to predict the amount of snow you can expect in any given storm, let alone a full season, 2) Nothing is as easy as it looks, and, 3) Someone will always offer to do it cheaper.

I have a friend who plows driveways and during a heavy storm a couple years ago, he was plowing a driveway and each time he backed up he noticed a guy across the street shoveling, but mostly leaning on the shovel just looking at him plow. The guy started trudging through the snow towards the street and Jeff knew the inevitable "flag down" was coming.

Sure enough the guy was at his driver's window in no time inquiring "how much to plow my driveway". Jeff had already surveyed the driveway from his truck figured $40 was about right so he said "$40" and they guy laughed and held up a $20 and said "How about $20". Jeff said "Gee mister, is that a real $20 bill? ... No thanks" The guy persisted that $20 was more than fair because it was only a few minutes of work. Jeff said "Look, it's $40 if you want me to do the driveway" and the guy continued to argue. Jeff said "OK, tell you what; get in your car and you can follow me along my plowing route and write down every address I plow - most are paying $40. Then you can go and offer them all a plow from you for only $20. Once you get them all lined up, go buy a $30,000.00 truck, hang a $4k plow on it, buy the proper but necessary insurance for about $2k/year, load up all the spare parts you'll need because plowing breaks equipment constantly, and then you can take all of my customers and I'll even have you plow my driveway for $20!" The guy walked away indignant and Jeff continued to clean up the driveway he was working on. A few minutes later as he backed out to leave, he saw the guy coming back down his driveway with what were clearly two $20 bills in his hand. Jeff avoided eye contact and backed on to the street as he did the guy was waving the 2 20's and trying to get his attention and as he drove off Jeff feigned to catch him out of the corner of his eye and gave a wave back as if the guy was waving good bye. As he went up the street the last image he saw was of the guy standing in the street with his shovel, the two 20's, and a bewildered look on his face.

The moral of the story is that professional snow removal is not easy, it is frequently under-priced for the work involved, and there are plenty of hidden costs that are not appreciated by the uninitiated.

Typically, residential removal contracts are per storm per visit. So the first plow is $40 but if it keeps snowing and you have to go back, the second visit in the same storm is at a lower rate such as $20 because it's usually only a clean up. All additional things such as salting, sanding, having to push back piles in a heavy winter, doing the sidewalk, etc, are all normally priced on an "a la carte" basis.

If you are doing this with a snow-blower, that's full exposure in the weather. If the snow comes at night and you have to clear 5 driveways between 3AM and 6AM, you might not be able to do that with a snow blower due to the engine noise and potential complaints. People generally don't like to hear small engines running for hours on end in the middle of the night.

Doing commercial snow removal with only a snow blower is hard work that has the provider totally exposed to the elements for hours and that is grueling. If the snow-blower breaks down, you must have a back-up plan in place. You also must have a good inventory of consumable parts like shear pins for when you find yesterday's newspaper or the dog's toy under the snow as you are clearing. Stuff happens and you need to be prepared.

That's my two cents after making my living in snow removal for the past 38 years.