MONEY FROM THE SKY
Private plow drivers can clean up during heavy snow, but it’s a pile of work
Kenny Ahrens had already been at work for five hours by mid-morning Thursday as he plowed snow from a Burger King parking lot in Wilson, and his day was only starting.
For Ahrens and dozens of other private snow removal contractors in the Lehigh Valley, the concept of a workday goes out the window when the snow starts to fall and one day blends into the next. Plow drivers bid farewell to spouses and children to wage nonstop battles to keep shopping centers and warehouses open, parking lots and sidewalks free of ice, and snow piles tidy.
At the start of a winter storm that was forecast to drop another half-foot of snow in a region clobbered by nearly 50 inches so far this winter, Ahrens said he was prepared to work into the wee hours of Friday morning, putting down salt and clearing the berms that highway plows leave across driveways. Despite the long shift ahead, Ahrens was in good spirits.
“For me, the winter’s going great,” said Ahrens, who operates KA Group in Bath. “We live in the Northeast, we’re supposed to get snow.”
The white stuff is money falling from the sky, and a modest snow removal business can clear a half-million dollars in a snowy year, said Bill Nemeth, whose company Snow Solutions has five trucks plowing hotel parking lots and warehouse ramps in the Easton area.
“It’s great for us because the money is insane,” he said.
But Mother Nature is fickle, and a winter where there’s little snow can spell financial doom for contractors who make the wrong bets on buying equipment, Nemeth said. In 2020, a record low 5.3 inches fell at Lehigh Valley International Airport.
“That’s where you separate
the men from the boys,” he said, noting that a lean year usually leads to a number of companies leaving the business.
Private snow and ice management is an $18 billion industry, with another $3 billion to $15 billion generated by landscaping businesses that also provide snow removal services. Pennsylvania is the fifth-largest market for private snow removal services, with $1.33 billion in sales, according to the Snow & Ice Management Association, which advocates for the snow removal industry on regulatory and legal issues.
The association estimates there are more than 110,000 snowplow service operators in the United States, with 80% of them sole proprietors. A typical snowplowing service operator earns about $152,000 a year.
Martin Tirado, the group’s CEO, said the snow removal business involves a degree of risk, because costly equipment, workers and materials need to be ready when the first winter storm looms.
“There’s a massive investment to be ready and prepared for a first snowfall,” he said.
Tirado said the association recommends that businesses hedge against seasons when wintry weather is a no-show by having a mix of seasonal and per-event contracts. Seasonal contracts, Tirado said, are like snow insurance where a customer pays about the same regardless of how much snow falls.
In years with big snowfalls, plow operators can lose money on flat-rate seasonal contracts.
Also having a number of customers who pay a fee every time it snows can mitigate the loss.
Workforce development is another common challenge for snow removal businesses, Tirado said. The work can be sporadic with weeks between snowstorms, but when winter weather comes, snow and ice have to be tackled all hours of the day and night, on weekends and holidays.
“It can lead to high turnover. It’s not easy to get people to commit to an entire winter season,” he said.
Patrick Brosious of Always Greener Landscaping in Weisenberg Township said his crew of six was out clearing parking lots at 5 a.m. Thursday. Not knowing how Thursday’s storm would play out, he estimated his trucks could be on the road until midnight or later salting parking lots after clearing residential driveways in the afternoon.
“It’s tough, you don’t get home very often,” he said.
After the storm that dumped just shy of 27 inches of snow at Lehigh Valley International Airport between Jan. 31 and Feb. 2, and even more in some parts of the Lehigh Valley, Brosious worked for 40 hours straight and another 60 over the course of the following week.
“I make sure my employees are constantly taking rest. We rent hotel rooms to make sure we stay on top of that,” he said. “Me being the business owner, I don’t really have that luxury.”
Before the ice storm that fizzled earlier this week, Nemeth said he slept in his truck to be prepared. With lucrative contracts to clear snow for distribution warehouses comes a lot of responsibility. During the nor’easter at the start of the month, Nemeth and his employees worked until it stopped snowing.
“You’re tired but if you sleep, you lose control of the lot,” he said, adding that a pause in plowing could allow more snow to accumulate than even a heavy-duty diesel truck can move.
While Nemeth, who is also a real estate agent, said he can make a living off the part-time job plowing snow, a forecast for a big storm brings big headaches.
“When I see the forecast calling for snow, it’s not like, ‘Here we go, it’s money.’ I get a massive amount of stress and anxiety,” he said.
Heavy snow and cold are hard on equipment, Nemeth said, noting that two of his trucks have had broken driveshafts this winter. Ahrens said plowing snow is hard on trucks’ steering gear, tires and brakes.
“They’re capable, but I don’t know if they’re designed to constantly take that beating,” he said, noting that a plow is 900 pounds hanging on the truck’s front end.
There’s also a chaos factor, where things go wrong that he would never expect.
Earlier this winter, one of Nemeth’s trucks drove into a manhole where the cover had been knocked loose by a city snowplow, and it needed to be towed out, he said.
“There’s stupid stuff that happens like that constantly,” Nemeth said.