Residential snow questions

[suzuki4life]

I run a small reidential snow removal business mostly for the elderly with small driveways, i have a few blowers none of them are commerical but i dont forsee the need for one. I just wanted to know how your billing system works for this kind of stuff? Do you trigger at 2" and then just send them a bill at the end of the month with all of the services on it? Or do you do it differently somehow. Also what do you do for different depths of snow? Are 3" and 12" charged the same?


-zach

[Scaper-S2k]

When done on a per job basis, you might want to break it down into accumulation increments....


Like 2"-4" is $35, 4"-6" is $45.

Just examples of course.


We bill monthly for residential and commercial. Sometimes a commercial account is billed once for the entire season though.

[Getter Done Lawn]

Break it down..

My normal prices for residential driveways are as follows...

$25 .5" - 3"
$30 3" - 6"
$35 6" - 9"
$40 9" - 12"
$50 12" +

$10 Salt application w/ snow removal
$15 Salt application w/o snow removal

Bill once a month.. I have an excell program that works great.. if you're interested, PM me

[stcolympia]

With regards to residential snow removal, how do you all determine where and when you will hit your customers? Let's say you have 20 customers and you spend 30mins at each location. You start your day @ 6am and you get done at 2pm, setting aside time for commuting. From my perspective, one may get some grumpy customers when there is a fresh snow from the previous night and it isn't removed until the afternoon of the following day. I'm also of the opinion you can't really fire up a blower at 2 or 3 in the morning right after the snow has ended so you would have to wait until a reasonable time such as 6-7am resulting in your hands being tied. I'm brand new to all of this and I'm just asking out of curiosity as it is something I would like to get in to. I just keep thinking that people like to have their snow removed as soon as possible after a fresh snow, especialy if they're paying for it, and it would be impossible to do this having multiple customers. Maybe I'm way off and people don't really care as long as you get it done within a resonable aount of time? I look forward to hearing your thoughts. Thank you.

[btammo]

I can only speak for snow plowing since I dont snow blow driveways...and i start before 6:00AM. I usually get up around 4:30 and plowing by 5:00 at the latest. I have an understanding with all of my customers. There are some people that want it done before they go to work. Then there are some that are retired and dont care if it is first thing. There are also teachers/professors who most likely wont be going to school if it is snowing anyway, then there are just the people who really dont care what time it gets cleaned...just as long as it does. I try to schedule around this. They all realize that it takes time to get to them, no matter how many trucks I have and what time we start. Everyone cant get done at the same time, its just impossible.

[vaughnslawns]

I use a shovel on my early ones... there small maybe take 10.min

[clclawn]

on driveways we charge min of $30 up to 5 inches then $5 per inch after that.

As far as start time, We blow about 40 drives, 2 villas with an additional 80 drives and about 35 lots. We start as soon as its done snowing or on big storms after a couple inches have fallen. I have been blowing drives for 6 years now in the middle of the night and never goten a complaint. Even though our city code says no earlier the 8am never had a problem. It is the only way to get it done.

[MB3]

We have been blowing about 40 driveways for 5 years now, and we start just as soon as it stops snowing. I have never hear a complaint, actually, the residents were happy that they were able to leave when they got up, and did not have to wait. I believe it is beeter to get them done quick, and they will be happy that you are there, rather to wait until 7am.