# How much would you Charge?



## KTLawnCo (Dec 18, 2010)

How much would you charge for just the road no driveways about 700-800ft road

They would also like sand/salt

It is Blatzer Gleen Ct. with a 2in trigger about 30 min away from me this is VA

Would you charge by the push?

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&sou...206,-77.512439&spn=0.001987,0.004801&t=h&z=18


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## bristolturf (Dec 20, 2008)

well put it to you this way. Your travel time is going to pretty much mirror your plow time. But remember that traveling in the snow your 30 minute drive is probably going to be a 45 minute drive. Just becasue of the distance factor I wouldnt go per push I would get them to do hourly on it with travel time included.

Your looking at maybe 20 minutes of work. Three passes up the road will take you about 5 minutes and then probably another 15 to clear the cul-de-sac. 

If they insist on a per push charge id say at least a minimum of 1 hour worth of work but id shoot for 1.5 hours just becasue that travel time is going to kill you in the snow.


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## KTLawnCo (Dec 18, 2010)

How much would you charge per hour?


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## bristolturf (Dec 20, 2008)

what i charge per hour is completely different then what you need to charge per hour. Sit down, add up all your costs and break them down by appx how many hours your working per year doing snow removal. If your doing 125 hours a year of snow removal and have 6000$ of expense from November through March that means you need to charge 48$/hour to break even. Then you add on your markup ranging from 45-85% usually. 

In one of the threads theres a good hourly calculator. I forget which one its in but it works good. Just dont use your entire year of expenses just your snow season. For me its from November-March. You might be December through February. I dont know.


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## LoneCowboy (Jan 2, 2007)

If that takes you much more than 15 minutes or so, you're doing something wrong.

but it's too far away to be profitable.
It's probably a $50-75 job (or so, depends on your area) but you're going to have an hour plus into it by the time you get there and back.

sub it out to someone else that lives nearby.


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## BossPlow2010 (Sep 29, 2010)

Don't tell the city your plowing it unless they subbed it out to you. That's going to take you about 20-25 minutes depending on how efficient you are. 

As for price; are you collecting from each house? What if one house dosn't pay? 
30 minutes to get there, maybe on dry pavement. I'd factor in some snow and and people driving half of the speed they usually do.


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## KTLawnCo (Dec 18, 2010)

This is an HOA would you say $200 for 2" to 4" and this is not including driveways. I have to give a seperate estimate for those and he will give them to the home owners. He said he wants it once the snow has let up...


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## bristolturf (Dec 20, 2008)

yup i agree. Per push Id be in the range of 50-70$ on it but with travel time your talking upwards of 125-150$ for the total job which no one will want to pay. Unless you can get more accounts out that way, or find a sub to do it for you I would walk away. As far as roads go, we usually clear them around 6am, again around 10 or 11, and about 4. If the storm is going on when the busses are out dropping kids off from school we will even hit it again at like 2pm as well. but you figure with those times that the road needs to be cleared are often the most busiest times of trave, so your travel time is really going to jump up.

I plow a place thats about a 25 minute drive away from the shop on dry pavement, takes me usually 45-1 hour to get there in a storm sometimes less depending on what time im going out. But we bill hourly so we are able to be profitable on it.


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## BossPlow2010 (Sep 29, 2010)

I'd run!
What if your truck breaks down out there, unless you have other trucks you pretty much screwed. 
Plus you got your travel time which includes there and back.
So your looking at about an hour travel time just driving there and turning around. That's on dry pavement I assume. So I'd say 1.5 hours travel time in the snow. Plus time to complete job.


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## redbug2 (Dec 6, 2010)

I'm a little new to plowing. I just have one for my driveway and I may do my neighbors for small fee. But, while looking for the plow for my old truck I met up with a contractor that just did malls and commercial properties. I asked him what he would charge for a residential driveway, he said he would not do them. Said they only want you there when the last snowfall drops. I can see a problem there if you have a bunch of residential customers all over town in a big storm, you can't be everywhere at once. 

Does depth make a difference? What if you get a 20" snow storm, that's not going to be as easy to plow as 4". In that case you may want to hit it at least two times, one at 10" and then again for the last 10". Don't get sucked into that agreement, put in a provision for depth. 

The same guy answered what to charge by saying $1000 an inch (He obviously has some large customers). So he charges by the amount that drops. Seems like a good way to charge, that way you don't get into arguments as to when the last snowflake has fallen...?


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## bristolturf (Dec 20, 2008)

well residentail and commercial plowing is two different ball games. Residential yes, usually wants you to wait until the end. We get them to agree that we plow in the morning and again in the evening, and charge each time. And its based on how much is on the ground at the time of plowing $30.00 minimum up to 6" 40% on top of that up to 12" and hourly with 1 hour minimum after 12". So if we plow in the am with 3" 30$ plus 8" on the ground in the afternoon thats an additional 42$. 

That guy probably answered 1000 an inch just to mess with you. 

KTLawn i doubt you will get 200$ on a 2-4inch event on something that small. Like lonecowboy said 50-75$ job but for you probably 125$ because of travel time but I just dont think that they would want to pay that much for something that small. What happens when you get bombed with 15" of snow and your only going to plow it once. Id give him a per push price telling him that you will clear it ever 2-4" as needed. 

Each house looks like it would take about 15-20 minutes or so to plow and get the sidewalks cleared off. Probably worth 30-40$ a house somewhere in there.


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## Brant'sLawnCare (Jun 29, 2007)

I would charge $75. With that said, it's not worth it for you, trust me. I have been there before. I would drive anywhere to plow snow. Then I came to find out, it's not worth it. Work in your area to be most profitable. Pretty much all my work (except for 2 accounts) is in the city I live in and it is nice. Keeps the windshield time to a minimum, which helps the payroll.


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