# New to plowing, want to make sure I'm pricing correctly



## Aqnhfd (Sep 22, 2017)

Hey guys I am new to pricing driveways on my own. I have been landscaping and doing snow removal for years, but this is the first season I will be doing it on my own. I want to be sure I am going to be quoting people correctly, to not be told to scram but also not to be ripping myself off. I will be plowing with my 1999 F-350 with the 7.3 Powerstroke and 8' 6" Fisher EZ-V. I will only be doing residential driveways, and not even that many, I would imagine at the most 10 (this is NOT my fulltime job). By running through some numbers and including fuel costs and now and again having to pay my landscaping buddy to help me shovel walkways while I plow on big storms I have come up with these numbers. These numbers are for no less than 6" and no more than a foot, everything 6" after a foot I will charge an additional $30 if the driveway is 50' or more. I figure for small driveways (1-2 cars) I will charge $30. For driveways around 50' i will charge $55, for driveways up to 100' long I will charge around $75. 300' plus will be $100 or more depending on the obstacles I face as well. Not many people want salt-sand mixture spread but for those who do $1 a foot, and I figure the same price for walkway shoveling is fair at $1 a foot. These are my rough numbers I came up with quickly, and are only for estimation right to get myself an idea of what's going on. How am I doing? Ridiculous prices or am I ripping myself off? Also I will add, where I live in New England it's quite a hit or miss on the snow for winter time.


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## BossPlow2010 (Sep 29, 2010)

wow you’re going to need to carry a slide rule and pencil to figure each drive.

Set a minimum rate: if it’s 30, so be it
Don’t set a cap, you’ll always have one person that’ll want you to shovel their lawn for Fido or so they can feed Tweeter.

$1.00 per linear foot to salt is a lot.


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## JustJeff (Sep 9, 2009)

BossPlow2010 said:


> $1.00 per linear foot to salt is a lot.


No kidding. I've got a 250' driveway. If I wasn't in the industry, and somebody quoted me 250.00 to salt my drive I'd tell them to go pound sand.


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## Aqnhfd (Sep 22, 2017)

JustJeff said:


> No kidding. I've got a 250' driveway. If I wasn't in the industry, and somebody quoted me 250.00 to salt my drive I'd tell them to go pound sand.


Ok you guys are right I am wrong about that. I came up with these numbers at 2:30am this morning.


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## jonniesmooth (Dec 5, 2008)

so if there's less then 6" you're not getting out of bed? And you plan to wait till it quits snowing before you go out?
I set a minimum price/service, service starts at 2", continues until the snow stops. If it's really bad we don't get everybody continually at 2". There are little old ladies who don't need to get out, and young families with 4 wheel drive that can bust through 6"+.
Where you are determines what you can charge largely.
Here's an example ( there's a bizillion variables, so bear with that) 
It starts snowing at 3 am, we go out at 5 am, there's 4-5" of snow, we service everybody by 9 am, in theory everybody was serviced before they went to work. It's still snowing, we go do our businesses again , then our apt parking lots, as most of the parking spots are now empty when people went to work. then we do the resi's again, as now the city plows have gone by so we can clean that up too.
In a perfect world.


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## plow4beer (Nov 16, 2016)

How many “years” have you been doing landscaping and snow removal? What’s your “full time” job? Are you doing other snow work other than the 10 or less driveways you plan to try and get?


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## BossPlow2010 (Sep 29, 2010)

plow4beer said:


> How many "years" have you been doing landscaping and snow removal? What's your "full time" job? Are you doing other snow work other than the 10 or less driveways you plan to try and get?


I bet he's a firefighter :waving:


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## plow4beer (Nov 16, 2016)

BossPlow2010 said:


> I bet he's a firefighter :waving:


Your probably correct, but Leave my bobber alone


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## Aqnhfd (Sep 22, 2017)

plow4beer said:


> How many "years" have you been doing landscaping and snow removal? What's your "full time" job? Are you doing other snow work other than the 10 or less driveways you plan to try and get?


I have been working landscaping for about 6 or 7 years. I grew up with my father landscaping as well. I know that many years isnt a lot but I'm only in my 20s. I work full time in a plant as a machine mechanic. I work part time (every weekend and some week days) landscaping for one of my friends i graduated high school with company. This winter he said he will get me driveways and he will work with me as I have been doing for him as a returned favor. And yes, I am a fireman as well.


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## JustJeff (Sep 9, 2009)

You sound like a subcontractor to me. If he's the one "getting the driveways", and you're the one performing the work. If that's the case, why are you asking about pricing, just to make sure he's not screwing you? Why is he "getting them for you"? I'm guessing the driveways that he's going to get you are his current landscaping customers? Is he taking a cut off the top, and you're the one doing the work?

And this is an old question, but a very valid one. What happens if you're working at the fire department during a storm, or your truck breaks down? Are your customers just "on their own"?

Do you have commercial auto insurance as well as General Liability for snow plowing? You'll need both if you're going to be legitimate, and not some fly by night guy.


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