# Adding truck and employee to business



## Coffee777 (Dec 19, 2013)

Hello everyone.
Looking for advice on adding a truck and employee for just snow removal. I'm in nys and looking for the right way of going about this. What did you have to do insurance wise to add the employee and truck? What kinda of costs did you have? Also this will be a seasonal position for the employee so what else would I need to supply...workers comp etc?


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## Chineau (Aug 24, 2010)

You say you want to add a truck does this mean you have one now or you are adding to a snow blower operation.
I don't know your laws but here you must have workers comp if you have an employee ( i think as soon as you register you business they send you this threatening letter) i would not run with out it. What kind of general liability do you have 1,2 or 5 million? How big of an operation do you want to grow, do you have a business plan?
How will you keep this person busy when there is no snow, or will they be casual? Question i know not answers, you have the answers we can just help you figure them out for yourself.


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## Coffee777 (Dec 19, 2013)

Have one truck now. One man operation. I am at my limit at what my one truck can handle route wise. I am debating on growing more to add one more truck with a employee. I have a full time landscape company which is focused on hardscapes the rest of year. Fully insured legit business. I turned down a lot of snow work this year because of being limited to one truck. I think it's time to grow.


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## Chineau (Aug 24, 2010)

Adding the second truck do you have a use for it in the summer or will it be an expense sitting there? So do you have someone regular you can put on the truck, for me that is an issue to resolve B.I.S (bum in seat) while it is great to have the equipment unless it is rolling it is costing you.


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## YardMedic (Nov 29, 2006)

My situation may be similar to yours, except that my personal vehicle is a backup plow truck just in case something goes to crap in short order. I'm in need of getting someone to drive a second truck to service customers a little quicker, but to me it's hard finding the right fit with someone.


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## SnowGuy73 (Apr 7, 2003)

YardMedic;1693310 said:


> My situation may be similar to yours, except that my personal vehicle is a backup plow truck just in case something goes to crap in short order. I'm in need of getting someone to drive a second truck to service customers a little quicker, but to me it's hard finding the right fit with someone.


Same here.


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## Seabee15 (Aug 22, 2007)

This seems like a common occurrence with people. When the opportunity to grow presents itself, a lot of people are unsure of the correct route to take. I am a very VERY small business servicing about only 30 residential accounts and I also plow with my personal truck (currently looking for an additional backup, or make the personal truck the back up and plow with the designated plow truck). But my plan is to grow the business to about 100+ residentials which will require and an additional truck and driver. Some of the questions that come to mind are:

1) how to pay additional driver. You want to pay a competive wage to attract good drivers, but you dont want to go broke paying them. 
2) 2 trucks w/100 driveways. Would that be sufficent?
3) How to make sure your driver will be available when the snow falls...


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## FF/P215 (Dec 5, 2012)

Same here. I have 2 trucks but I'm working on getting the older 1 on the same page as the Duramax with running Boss's for compatibility. And hoping of heading towards the small commercial route while retaining some resi's next year. I have some reliable people that have asked me about running the other truck, but they would again be seasonal. And I don't want to just have a buddy fill in like they want to, I'd obviously do it the proper I was thinking about a couple, my schedule is hard enough with both snow events this year landing on my fire days, I'm sure you, YardMedic have that issue as well.


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## AaronJL (Sep 28, 2012)

Yeah, those are great questions. I am curious to hear what some our experts on here suggest. Especially how to pay an employee.. Are they paid hourly or on a salary? Do we send them out in the middle of the night? It seems like a job no one would want for an hourly wage. However there wouldn't be much of a profit margin on a salary..??


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## BDEMOTT (Oct 10, 2005)

Ive been dealing with the same problem going on three years now. I am a snow only company, I do work for a landscape company in the summer months doing hardscapes. So given that everything I buy has to be paid for by snow services. Three years ago I was all ready to buy a truck and get an employee, after countless hours of math it just wasn't worth it. So i decided to sub contract it out to people that I knew that where reputable and it worked out great. fast forward to this year and i now have enough for 3 trucks/3 people. I still have the Sub doing work for me and I also hired on an employee. The employee I have I found through a landscape company in the area that had no work for him. I actually "rent" that employee from them at a rate everyone agreed on. Now for equipment I have three trucks going, I own one, the sub owns one, and I rent one from a used car lot that came with a plow for the season. 

I guess what im saying is that there are ways to get creative to lower costs and also not carry them through the off season. I would personally Sub things out until you have enough work for 3 or 4 people/trucks before diving into employees and additional equipment. 

I know that I could make more money doing it other ways like buying equipment instead of renting but I also run a much lower risk. 

Hope this helps.


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