Snow plow rates

Whats the going rate for plowing say someones driveway? Some firends/neighbors have asked if I would be interested in plowing for them this year. I let them know of course that I am not a professional plower and can't gaurantee a clear driveway 100% of the time but I'll try,lol. Anyway, is cost per driveway determined by length? Just trying to get some rough ideas together.

How mich snow? 6" deep? 2 feet deep and drifting bad as you try to plow? Is it going to take 15 minutes or 5 hours to clear? Those things are way more important than length

40-50 dollars for an average driveway. Until something breaks or gets damaged, then it costs you thousands to fix it. I'm trying to sell my truck & plow.

Not just length. Lots of different things to factor in.

Is the snow normally heavy, wet, sticky snow, or powder?

Do you normally get 1" to 4", or do you often get more?

Is there ample room to put the snow? If you're simply plowing the snow off to the side, will it melt away before next snowfall? If not, you'll likely have a hardpack ridge that you'll have to try and put additional snow over.

Is there ample room to maneuver? Are you allowed to drive onto the lawn (IF the lawn freezes solid!)? Are there trees/bushes/gardens/bird baths/other that you have to watch for?

Is there room to turn around?

Is the driveway straight or curvy? Paved? Gravel? Grass?

With what urgency will they expect you to be out? Normally, residential plowing jobs take a backseat to commercial jobs, including the main roads. Will you have to be there before sunrise? Middle of night? At your convenience?

Do you plow only when called or will you basically plow their drive if yours also needs plowing?

How far away?

Anything besides "just plowing"? Any shoveling involved? Sidewalks to clear? Any areas where snow is not allowed to be placed?

Another thing to think about is, IF you're allowed to drive over lawn, and IF the property has septic system/drain field, will your plowing needs take you anywhere NEAR that area??

I can't offer any pricing tips as I've never hired my services out. Even when I did construction, I was [u:2281bb6a54]lousy[/u:2281bb6a54] at bidding jobs!! I'd always bid too low.

I never wanted any snow removal jobs, but over the years, folks would sometimes call on me to come with my tractor/loader/snowblower. As I stated, I never went looking for these kinds of jobs. When you look for this work, people have a different expectation. Most folks that I have worked for, have typically called on me near the end of a tough winter, when either they can no longer cope, or the snow removal person they had is beat by to much snow. Long lanes to rental homes on farms, or hobby farmers that have reached their wits end. These are the kinds of messes I have been called to. I charge a dollar per minute from the time I leave home, till the job is done to their satisfaction. So for 60-80 bucks I would clean out a plugged farm lane. Usually these folks have sealed their fate by pushing up snow with a blade, or small tractor, and first good blow, they are plugged again. I cleaned one fellas lane three times a week for a month, he told me I was a crook, and I was breaking him. Next time he called, I told him that I was busy, go find someone else. The whole family walked through knee deep snow for a week, and he called me up and apologized, and asked me if I could come and clean out the driveway for them because the fuel truck couldn?t get in. Told him I could, did he have the cash ? When I was done his wife came out and paid me, then winter ended quite suddenly after that. They moved next summer. Snow removal is a thankless job

I guess it's something I have never thought about. I have some good neighbors. I have been plowing their snow for years. I get a smile and a thank you and if I'm lucky a hug. I have been offered payment but I'm retired and it is something I can do to help.
Dave

I hate to push snow thankfully we don't get so much here but all I'll ever push is mine and my neighbor's that has a farm behind me so we share a driveway for a ways.Pushing snow means burning a lot of fuel,tearing up equipment and not a thing to show for it when Spring comes.

25 years ago, I was at $100/ hour with a Dodge pickup and 8 1/2 foot Myers plow. Wasn?t enough when you got hung up in someone?s drive and had to call a wrecker

Just remember here that once you put that plow on the ft. of the truck and start doing drive ways you just be come commercial and your car pick up insurance will not cover you if something happens . Or if your out trying to get drives and lanes open during a snow emergency and the roads are closed and something happens .Then having a truck that is heavy enough . Knowing what snow plow brand to get and what will work and what will not work . Truck repairs , yes you will learn quickly all about truck repairs . Keep in mind that they have only ever built two automatic trans missions , The one thqat is going out and the one that is all ready out . I plowed commercially for 19 years , i had privet drives , gas stations, businesses , apartment complexes, and a couple farm lanes , . Then in 77 i added in two townships as back up plow and sores for heavy equipment . Then a towing company would call me at times to get to wrecks when nothing was moving and the need to go came up . When i started plowing snow here where i live there was only three of us , one guy had two two ton dumps and a old Clark wheel loader , the other guy had a 3/4 ton Cheve with a Myers plow and i had aq heavy 3/4 Ford with a Western plow . Jim M. and experienced the same problems truck wise as we ate spider gears in the ft. rear end , Jim also ate a transmission a year . The C 6 that i had stood up better buy it went out after three years . I could do all my own repairs , Jim was at the mercy or the bowtie store . Safety equipment you need Blinky lights ( this give idiots a better point of aim). Added weight ya need to add weight to the rear to off set the engine and plow on the ft as to take the strain off the ft. axle. Having a truck with a Dana 60 ft. is a must , yes i see lots and lots of half tons running around with plows on them for about a year or season . Then knowing your locations like your own drive , people want there drives clean and they want it NOW and they must be the first on the list . They may be your best friend till the day you remove a four inch wide strip of grass next to the drive the length of the drive way or you buried that Rhododendron bush and it dies under a pile of snow . And then ya have the gravel drives . The only plow that ever did a gravel drive and left the gravel was the western as i had a bunch of gravel lots and drives . And i had both a Western and a Myers , I don't care what you did with the myers our how you set the shoes she was going to plow gravel , The myers only broke down when it snowed i don't care how you maintained it , you could count on it drop kicking you during each snow fall . I had to carry a spare lift unit . Oh yea one more thing Chains as in tire chains , you say you don't need them tell me that when ya get hug and have to get pulled out , our it is bad enough you can't move the snow due to lack of traction and heavy snow . Now as to how much to charged on todays market , well with the cost of fuel, cost of equipment , added in costs of repairs insurance the cost of even a used plow and there are a ton of them on the market i would say that 40 bucks a drive would be cheap and by the hour probably 125 bucks and hour if not more . I know what i was getting on the last two car dealerships that i was doing just to get them open for the day and the going back for clean up when they moved all the cars back , oh gee's thirty years ago it was 100 buck and hour and i was the CHEAP one back then.

Learned that one straight off the first winter , Next year i was ready , gone were the 7.50x16's and 12x16.5's were installed along with Tire chains for the ft. and back plus and extra 1000lbs went in the back over the five hundred i was usen . getting STUCk was a thing of the past . And we had WINTERS back then , plus people were not Pansy's back then as all the CONTRACTS i had signed all stated no snow removal under two inches not two snow flakes . Also learned always plow the snow to the down wind side and plow back four times the distance you THINK you need for the year.Newbee's today have not learned this .

Never understood why someone would live in the snow country if they couldn?t maintain their own property? I have a snowblower, a Ranger w/plow and a J/D 5203 with front end loader. LET IT SNOW.

$1.50/minute from the time I leave home to the time I get back. Been doing the same 14 customers for 27 years now. They must be satisfied. They keep calling me back. I have the tractor and front end loader anyway so nice little bonus in the winter.

Sounds very familiar. I can't make money at 60$ an hour running the blower and people love to leave garage where they want cleaned out. Cement blocks, fire wood, car parts, hoses, extension cords etc. I had been up to 14 long country driveways taking 3-4 hours to clear each snow. Down to 5 now, mostly family.

Garbage not garage mr autocorrect.

I?ve plowed the neighbors drives around for years,never thought of charging them.Once you get paid you become a commercial operator which requires business insurance.

If you want to find out the going rate in your area, try calling some of the competition and ask for a quote.

If you want to break into the business, consider undercutting them a little until you build up a client base. Plan that most cheapskate clients will be more trouble than they are worth. If you don't need more business or don't want to work with a certain customer charge more that the going rate and refer them to someone with a lower rate to get them to move on.

Think that is called portal to portal. Trouble is if a customer sees you down the road a ways and starts to give you greif about you were just over at freds place you shouldn't charge me for any travel. Just had some crazy like that years ago working on commercial kitchen equipment. The big blowup the next monday morning and multiple phone calls......it was a truck from another company at the other restaurant. People can be stupid. Just be a little carefull.

The thing is if you have good neighbors that return the favors. Used to be called exchanging works if I am correct. When all of the neighbors would help harvest each others wheat fields and then thresh it. If they even showup a few days latter with a couple of pies or a big double batch of toll house cookies. Charity can be used and abused by people. A shame but true.

Another thing that is close, people who don't buy a generator! Neighbor down the street has lost everything in the fridge several times and still will not cough up $500.oo for a decent genset. Thing is the guy is a mechanic! !!

Im with ya on that ifs it not a big job and your helping a friend or neighbor a thank you and or a hug is good enough for me. I figure one day i might need help.

Thanks for all the advice/comments guys! I'm not trying to get into plowing big-time or the likes by any means, just have several people I do odd jobs, lawncare, etc for in the area that have expressed interest in me plowing for them. Not thinking of charging to make money necessarily, just thinking more about the cost of fixing up/maintaining a setup that could do 6-8 drives, a half mile lane, and a small lot.

I have a truck that would work for the job but after putting the time and work into it to be a "plow" truck I would probably be into it $1,000+ into plus maintenance.

If they were closer I'd gladly do it with the tractors, but 5-10 mile drives could get pretty cold,