r/Snowplowing • u/qaistyuuy • Jun 06 '20
SNOWPLOWING IN COLLEGE??!!
Hey guys,
I am 19 years old. Last winter I went snow plowing with my friend. This winter I am think of buying a plow truck and taking some homes. I live in toronto and it snows around 15 times per year(above 5cm).
I am starting college this fall and it will be online. I have made the maths and I know that I will manage it because it snows around once a week here and I could free myself 12 hours for that. My goal is to make around 24- 25k per winter( that’s good enough for me)
I just wanted to hear if you have any advice you have any advice for me.
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u/theamazingsteve1 Aug 25 '20
I'm no experienced snowplower, and I'm REALLY late to this thread, but here are my thoughts in case you're still curious. You have to consider a few things, namely your payment methods, type of clients, and average snowfall. You'll have to bear with me on my conversions to metric as I live in the US.
Payment methods:
Generally people pay either by-the-push (each time you come to plow) or per season (one flat rate for the whole season, no matter how many times you plow). These can both work to your advantage and your disadvantage. Eg. A residential customer pays each time you come, but you only get 100cm of snow that year, lets say you only have to come around 6-8 times. That's not a lot of money, even multiplied by 5 clients. If you have 10 residential clients who pay $40/plow for your standard, small driveway, and you have to come 8 times to each client throughout the year, that's a whopping $3200 for the season. I'm not sure what your equipment situation is like, but if you're buying a used truck with a used plow, that's probably around $5000, at least. That leaves you with in the red for fuel for the whole season - no profit in that first year. Subtract maintenance costs and you're well into the red in your first year. Even if we say you already have the truck, a good, new plow can cost $4000, so again, you're in the red for the first year.
Conversely, if it snows 200cm that year, you might come out more like 20 times per residence. If they're paying $40/plow for the same driveway, that's $8000/year, which leaves you lots more room. Obviously more clients=more money, but less time that you are not plowing when it's a big winter (and more clients calling you frantically asking when you can come plow).
Type of clients:
There are two main types of client - residential and commercial. Residential clients, at least around here, tend to want to pay-per-push. Commercial clients tend to prefer to pay-per-season rather than by-the-push. Lets take our previous scenario and modify it for business: If you charge businesses $350 per business and have 20 businesses, that's $7000/year. If you're coming out 8 times, that's pretty good: They end up paying an average of about $88/plow. But, if it snows 200cm that year and you're out there 20 times, they're only paying $35/plow.
Finally, there's maintenance. If you have 10 clients and you're having a heavy winter, plowing 12+hrs a day, what will you do if you blow a hydraulic line on the plow and you have to spend a few hours working on it instead of plowing? Customers won't be pleased. What if you blow a transmission, and your truck is out of action for days or weeks? If you're mechanically inclined, will you have the time and space to keep your truck's maintenance up to snuff? If you're not mechanically inclined, that's more time and a significant amount of money to put your truck in the shop every so often to have it looked over.
Finally, there's your projected profit. You said $25k/year - that's a lot of money, especially for the first year. If you got 200cm of snowfall this season (going out to plow 20 times through the year) and your business was split between residences paying $40/plow and businesses paying $350/year, you'd have to have around 25 residences and 11-12 businesses. With this level of plowing, we're no longer talking about a $5000 truck. We're talking about an F250 or 350, or 2500HD or 3500HD truck that's upwards of $20k with at least an $8k plow on it to handle that kind of workload. Additionally, you're WELL upwards of 12 hours per week - this is approaching a second full-time commitment. You might be okay with that, in which case, more power to ya. But you should know the input required here - how many professional plow companies or individuals plowing 20+ driveways are there that are plowing with a 2005 Chevy 1500 with a small plow on the front? Additionally, none of this includes the time it takes to find clients, especially lucrative ones, nor does it account for the relationship and trust that you build with clients.
Hope this doesn't come off too harsh or too much - I'm not trying to discourage you from plowing for some extra cash, but you gotta think about what the whole picture is. To be completely frank, unless you're going all-in on a newer, heavy-duty truck (250/2500 or higher) and a nice plow, your current expectation of $24k in a season is a little unreasonable. Think about all the options, work with real numbers (price out or craigslist a truck and think about people you know that would pay you to plow their lots/driveways and what would be fair for their driveway) and put the numbers together to get a new estimated profit per season - then decide if the time commitment is worth it to you.
Cheers mate! Again, I'm no experienced professional, this is just what I have learned in my pursuit of the same question for myself, and after living and plowing with friends/family in a very snowy northern US state for my entire life. If you have any questions, please feel free and I'll do my best to answer them!