# Surviving continuous snowfall



## Rook (Nov 29, 2019)

So Vancouver just got dumped for the past 4 days...

How do you guys deal with working days in a row to pace yourself?


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## dieselss (Jan 3, 2008)

16 to 20 on.....4-6 off


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## Mr.Markus (Jan 7, 2010)

How many cm did you guys get...?


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## Rook (Nov 29, 2019)

Like 70cm


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## MIDTOWNPC (Feb 17, 2007)

I always find the best time to get a little sleep is 7pm to midnight. Most places are closing up soon. Places that have a night shift usually you can scrape and get them in. 
I find 3-4am is when the snow always comes hard.


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## Mark Oomkes (Dec 10, 2000)

That's a decent amount for most of us in that short a time period. 

We don't work more than 18 hours. Try to get through everything at least twice in that time frame then get some rest and start over.


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## Philbilly2 (Aug 25, 2007)

On storms like that, we always plowed in teams.

Have a couple trucks in a lot, keep some idle banter talk on the radios to keep you from going into a trance.

As long as you were working in teams, you could have a truck pull off in a corner and grab a quick nap every now and then.

When doing rally routes for the city’s... there was no time to nap. They call you in, you plow till your route was done or someone else was getting your hours.

I was always a firm believer in a quick nap rather than a multiple hour break... snow comes and goes. You can sleep next week. Got to get it while it is here.


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## sota (Jan 31, 2011)

It's part of the reason I would resist strongly if the guy I work for wanted to tack on many more locations, especially if they're outside the current loop radius. I don't want to be out for any longer than 8 hours in a shot; it's not good for me and it's not good for the shovel guy I have.
Thankfully we don't live in an area where we historically get dumped on continuously for days.
If we did for some bizarre reason wind up with a projected storm with an exceedingly long duration, I'd probably go to a modified plowing/shoveling setup; basically 1 or 2 quick passes to just to keep things open and move on, then worry about doing a full cleanup later.


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## jonniesmooth (Dec 5, 2008)

sota said:


> It's part of the reason I would resist strongly if the guy I work for wanted to tack on many more locations, especially if they're outside the current loop radius. I don't want to be out for any longer than 8 hours in a shot; it's not good for me and it's not good for the shovel guy I have.
> Thankfully we don't live in an area where we historically get dumped on continuously for days.
> If we did for some bizarre reason wind up with a projected storm with an exceedingly long duration, I'd probably go to a modified plowing/shoveling setup; basically 1 or 2 quick passes to just to keep things open and move on, then worry about doing a full cleanup later.


We call that " cheap and dirty". Just shoot the driving lanes in the lots and a quick pass on the walks while businesses are open. Try to keep up with the accumulation.

I like to overlap our shifts, one guy starts at noon ( let's say there is 3" on the ground) , next guy starts at 4 ( there's another 3" on the ground) , next guy starts at 10 ( there's +/- 2" of new snow, but it quit snowing at 9). First guy gets a 4 hour nap. Then he is the clean up.
Or something like that.
We had 2-3" on Monday night, 4-6" on Wednesday and are looking at 8-12" for Friday into Saturday. It's going to be a long week.


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## BossPlow2010 (Sep 29, 2010)

We do 18 hours as well, you get past that and guys start making poor decisions, things break, risk of getting injured or injuring someone else goes up.


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## m_ice (Aug 12, 2012)

We like to do no more than 12-16 hours depending on the employee and their route.


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## sota (Jan 31, 2011)

jonniesmooth said:


> We call that " cheap and dirty". Just shoot the driving lanes in the lots and a quick pass on the walks while businesses are open. Try to keep up with the accumulation.
> 
> I like to overlap our shifts, one guy starts at noon ( let's say there is 3" on the ground) , next guy starts at 4 ( there's another 3" on the ground) , next guy starts at 10 ( there's +/- 2" of new snow, but it quit snowing at 9). First guy gets a 4 hour nap. Then he is the clean up.
> Or something like that.
> We had 2-3" on Monday night, 4-6" on Wednesday and are looking at 8-12" for Friday into Saturday. It's going to be a long week.


... I hate you.  Send me your snow.


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## prezek (Dec 16, 2010)

I would just work 9-5. Customers don’t wanna hear those noisy plows early morning or late at night.


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## Mr.Markus (Jan 7, 2010)

prezek said:


> I would just work 9-5. Customers don't wanna hear those noisy plows early morning or late at night.


9am to noon would suit me fine...


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## prezek (Dec 16, 2010)

Mark Oomkes said:


> And wash your truck twice?
> 
> Are you working on a law degree also?


Yes...and hope no ex employees steal my customers.


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## MIDTOWNPC (Feb 17, 2007)

not much beats a heated seat truck nap though with the window slightly cracked.


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## JoshA (Dec 12, 2008)

I have one customer who calls the scheduling shots, and they usually have around a 1am-9am timeslot. I work on my other customers around this one, coming in both before and after in an effort to keep them open. As mentioned earlier "cheap and dirty," probably too often I have to tell my customers that "we're not going to get fancy this time, I'm just here to open you up, then I'll be back tonight to make it look like summer again." Which means I'm either headed to another customer, to feed cows, or to take a nap before I hit something expensive. 

I'd rather lose a customer because I didn't show up in a timely fashion then because we had an incident on their property. Haven't lost anyone yet. Which reminds me, off for a nap before I deliver summer to my people. 

-Josh


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