Snow & Ice Removal 2023

(continued from page 15) by themself. And have all the standard essentials—extra gloves, hats, boots, in case you get wet. People forget to bring food and water. When you’re doing snow, it’s usually night time, when stores are closed — remember to pack food! Even gas stations in 2011 were closed. When there’s snow in the forecast make sure the trucks are fueled and ready to go.

Q: How can small firms get to the next level?

Look at the type of software you’re using. We just switched over to Aspire. It does go into the geogrid field. We just started using it this summer and it sure looks like it’s going to make our snow program more efficient. Asset (our old software) also has a GPS system and I am sure there are other software providers with similar programs. I’d start by looking into your software, which will help with your efficiencies.

Q: What’s been a big challenge?

The last few seasons it has been labor. I will say toward the end of the last season, the laborers were hungry—they were broke because of the lack of events. We didn’t have much of a problem getting laborers when there was snow in the forecast. For the first time in several years, we had to turn people away when an event was predicted. The last two winter storms we had to turn at least 10 people away—it goes back to knowing your costs. They don’t want to come in for four hours and go home. Our regular labor force appreciated the extra hours by us not using the additional labor that showed up.

Q: What’s with those meteorologists and their scare tactics?

We use those weather reports to our advantage. They sometimes give too much info like when they predicted 16 to 18 inches of snow and we only had two inches. The storms get a lot of hype and all our clients hear that. We use two different private services and we compare their forecasts to the local meteorologists and it is amazing sometimes how far apart the forecasts are.

You can read more about Bob Bertog’s snow operations and contracts in this back issue of The Landscape Contractor magazine: https://issuu.com/ rick_r/docs/oct.20_tlc_digital_edition