# first commercial lot!



## Xxwhiteneonxx (Oct 12, 2016)

So when I was getting commercial insurance on my new truck, I was told I could plow their lot if I wanted it. Well of course I want it!

So onto bidding. .. I'm using bagged rock salt (5.24 a bag is what I'm paying at our local salt company )

I'll toss up some pictures of the lot.. I'm not sure if they want a per push price or a contract, so help me with both scenarios.

I'm curious as to what you guys quote both ways and see how far off my pricing I was thinking of.

-Cody


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## ktfbgb (Jan 31, 2016)

Gotta have a lot more info bud. What's the trigger? I'm assuming they are only on banking hours? Or is there someone in that building that has different hours? How much snow do you get again? Are you salting the lot or just the walk and stairs? Can't tell if there is even a walk or just those stairs. What material are the stairs? They look like wood? What were you thinking of charging?


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## Xxwhiteneonxx (Oct 12, 2016)

ktfbgb said:


> Gotta have a lot more info bud. What's the trigger? I'm assuming they are only on banking hours? Or is there someone in that building that has different hours? How much snow do you get again? Are you salting the lot or just the walk and stairs? Can't tell if there is even a walk or just those stairs. What material are the stairs? They look like wood? What were you thinking of charging?


you seem to be the one as of latley thats answered all of my dumb questions, and i thank you for that sir.

Okay, So the screen shot you see with the stairs im unsure if they will have me do the lot down there yet or not, but the upper one i know ill be doing ( the one without the steps). The lower lot is a chiropractor and the upper lot is a state farm facility.

I have to ask him if he wants the lower lot done as well. I will not be touching the steps that will be their sole responsibility.

i will shovel the walkway by the front door, salt that small area ( probably can hit it with spreader without having to get out and do it by hand.) and plow and salt the lot as needed.

I know trigger depth is a touchy subject on here and everybody has their own opinion, but i set my trigger to 2" for residential and i was thinking 1" for commercial. The place i plowed for before didnt have anything like that and basically if there was anything more than a dusting they would send us out.

their hours are 8 to 430. I cant tell you exact numbers off the top of my head, but if we get a storm they range from 2" to 6". We usually dont get anything crazy except for 09? i think when we got over 3ft of snow.

-Cody


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## Xxwhiteneonxx (Oct 12, 2016)

Oh and i was thinking atleast 75$. Im assuming thats really cheap though. Correct me if im wrong.


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## Xxwhiteneonxx (Oct 12, 2016)

I dont want to scare them away as they are interested in other services im offering such as leaf removal and grass cutting. They are pretty cool people at my insurance agency, and they actually took a bunch of my business cards and said anybody that mentions any of the services, they will reccomend me. Cant complain at all about that..


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## ktfbgb (Jan 31, 2016)

Even for both lots it would be a minimum charge for me. Unless I'm seeing things wrong and they are bigger than they look on the picks. They look like doing both would take 15-20 min or so. If you are only shoveling an area in front of the door then I might not even charge for that since it's gonna be such a fast lot. My minimums look like this.

$85 to drop a blade on a commercial
$40 to pull out a shovel
$10 for up to 1/3 bag of ice melt. I charge $30 a bag 1/3 min even if it's just one hand full.

So like I said if it really is just shoveling the doorway and that's it I would probably charge $95 per push. Since the other lot is another business they would be a minimum charge same as the other one. If it's the same owner paying for both lots then I would treat it as one job and just charge the $95 for both as you will be able to easily do both in under an hour.

As for the trigger the contractor usually doesn't have a say. You find out what they want and then try to educate them if it's something crazy and if they stay with a higher trigger then add cost to the lot accordingly. We get 100 plus inches a year here so our triggers are higher. 2-3 inches is common with the exception for 24 hour places like Walmart. They have a low tolerance as the lots get bad with all the traffic on them.


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## Xxwhiteneonxx (Oct 12, 2016)

ktfbgb said:


> Even for both lots it would be a minimum charge for me. Unless I'm seeing things wrong and they are bigger than they look on the picks. They look like doing both would take 15-20 min or so. If you are only shoveling an area in front of the door then I might not even charge for that since it's gonna be such a fast lot. My minimums look like this.
> 
> $85 to drop a blade on a commercial
> $40 to pull out a shovel
> ...


thanks for the fast response! Again, thank you for all the help!

Ill keep this thread updated when i go down and talk to the owner some more.

-Cody


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## ktfbgb (Jan 31, 2016)

No problem.


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## MSsnowplowing (Nov 1, 2012)

In my area I would be charging:
Plowing, sanding and shoveling based on what you said.
2-3 $200
4-6 $275
6-8 $350
9-10 $450
11-12 $550
and every 1-3 inches over 12 $150
Just sanding $125 includes lot and front walkway.


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