FAQ Plowguys

Frequently Asked Questions

General

What services do you offer?

Answer: We provide plowing, snowblowing, shoveling, de-icing, anti-icing (pretreatment) and snow relocation (onsite and hauling offsite) services for both residential and commercial customers.

What areas do you service?

Answer: Our current routes journey through most of Boston (including Charlestown, South Boston and East Boston), north of the Charles, including all of Cambridge and Somerville, parts of Medford, Malden and Chelsea, west into Brookline and Newton, and via our Plowguys franchisees, south through Quincy and Weymouth, and even into Hingham and parts of Hull. Enter your address to check availability.

What types of properties do you handle?

Answer: Our primary customers are landlords (commercial and residential), owners and managers of multi-family homes (from two-unit dwellings to residential communities and apartment buildings) and small-to-midsize businesses. We also maintain routes of single-family homes (how we got into this business). We don’t handle big box stores or municipal roads.

Can you take care of my sidewalks?

Answer: Yes, in fact clearing and de-icing public sidewalks to comply with local ordinances or bylaws, and to mitigate risk of slip-and-falls, is one of our customers’ primary requests.

Can you handle large sites?

Answer: We do have the domain expertise and equipment procurement to handle larger sites, and on those, we keep dedicated equipment (skid-steers or ag tractors) onsite. The key for both you and us is to prepare early, typically in the spring or summer. Some equipment such as our commercial snow-blowers (mounted on the back of snow tractors) or Metal Pless plows can take months to procure.

Routes

How do I hire you to take care of my property?

Answer: Start by entering your address on our onboarding page to see if we service your area. Snow is a hyperlocal business requiring high route density. Even if we service your city or town, you may still be outside our service area.

If we service your area, you’ll be taken to another page to enter your details. From there, we’ll schedule an onsite visit, followed by a contract proposal and invitation to one of our routes. You can accept (or decline) your invite from your dashboard.

How long is my invite good for?

Answer: Invites to our routes are typically valid for 30 days before the winter starts, after which they expire. This gives you time to shop around and get other decision makers involved. However, as the winter approaches, invites expire sooner, some as early as 24 hours. What we try to avoid is people “sitting” on an invite until a storm approaches—our route managers and crews need time to prepare.

How do I manage and pay for my service?

Answer: You’ll have a Plowguys account, which allows you to manage and renew your contract, pay for service, receive weather and service alerts, view accounting records, invite others to your account, and open support requests.

My property is within your service area. So why can’t you offer me service?

Answer: Usually because the available routes for your area are full or because our resources (manpower and equipment) aren’t a good fit for your property’s needs. Unfortunately, we turn away more than two-thirds of requests.

It’s just snow. Why are you so selective in offering service?

Answer: We want to deliver great service. In this domain, where time is of the essence and we’re dealing with unpredictability and hazardous conditions, we have to be prudent operationally—not biting off more than we can chew—both in terms of the scope of work your property needs and the amount of properties we can service on a given route.

Some sites require more (or less) than what our equipment and staff on a given route is capable of. Others come to us too late in the season or have time constraints we can’t meet, especially if the route is well established. Similar to other fields, we must consider whether your property is a good fit for our services, given the available resources and constraints. What’s perhaps unique in our line of work is we must also consider what effect adding your property has to an existing customer segment (a route).

My property has been waitlisted. Does this mean I’m out of luck?

Answer: It depends on multiple factors, such as your location, scope of work, time constraints and available routes, but historically, yes, most waitlists won’t open during the winter.

When would a waitlist open for my property?

Answer: Here are three circumstances where we’ve opened waitlists:
1) An existing route increases its capacity with the hiring of new staff;
2) A new route has been created in your area; or
3) your needs are such that the route manager can offer service at the tailend of the route, meaning, practically speaking, you’re in no rush to get out during a snow event and we’ll service you last on the schedule.

When is a good time of year to hire Plowguys?

Answer: As a general rule, the larger and more complex your site, the earlier you should begin shopping for winter services.

For commercial sites and condominiums, start as early as the spring and no later than the end of summer for the following winter.

For residential sites, including smaller multifamily units, reach out in the summer or early fall. Snow contractors stop accepting new customers as the winter gets closer. We’re no different. Our routes historically fill by early- to mid-November.

Plans

What pricing plans are available?

Answer: We offer two types of plans—subscriptions and pay-per-storm plans. Both have their pros and cons, and depending on your circumstances, our territory managers may offer either or both to you.

Subscription plans are either a fixed price for the season, or more often, tiered, based on total accumulation for the season. Tiered subscriptions give you the benefit of a rebate after a light winter, but you pay extra in the event of a heavy winter. (De-icing services are usually priced outside your subscription since these are difficult to predict.)

Pay-per-storm plans are those that invoice after service has been performed and are based on accumulation for that particular winter event. Often, for smaller sites, we’ll offer these plans exclusively during your first winter with us.

What data sources do you use to report snow totals?

Answer: We rely on WeatherWorks, an industry leader in snow and ice weather reporting and climatology data.

How long is my snow contract?

Answer: Typically, October 15 through April 30.

Do my contracts renew each year?

Answer: No, though we do have a feature on your dashboard that lets you renew automatically. And some contracts have multi-year terms.

Can I pay my subscription over time?

Answer: Yes, we offer installment billing. The most popular is our 6-month installment plan, charged to your payment source every 30 days.

Can I hire you a day or two before a storm?

Answer: No, sorry. Our routes are planned months in advance. (Think in terms of a train schedule rather than an Uber model. We can’t derail the train!)

Snow time

How much snow is needed to start service?

Answer: Typically 1” of snow accumulation defines a snow event for sidewalks and commercial parking lots and surfaces, and 2” for residential driveways. These are benchmarks. In practice, your route manager, who is tasked with monitoring the ground, will learn your needs and take into consideration the temperature, forecast, type of precipitation, surface and foot-traffic, and if applicable, hours of operation.

For example, some 1” events with warming temperatures and melting may not require service, whereas freezing precipitation, such as sleet or freezing rain, will. So too do we take into consideration the property type. A residential driveway in the suburbs may require service only at 2” or more, whereas for a city sidewalk abutting your property, we’ll dispatch to apply ice-melt treatment following an ice event or overnight refreeze.

The objective is risk mitigation. Our job is to fulfill our duty of care by monitoring the conditions and using sound judgment to determine whether or not service is warranted.

Can I ask you to come out for only 3” of snow or more?

Answer: No. It’s best practice to keep snow operations uniform, that is, either your entire route gets serviced for a winter event or not at all. More importantly, ice control is of critical importance to mitigate risk of slip-and-falls. Left untreated, even a small amount of accumulation can freeze and cause hazardous conditions.

Do I need to contact you prior to an impending storm?

Answer: No, you don’t need to do anything. Your route manager is responsible for monitoring the ground and dispatching your route. Typically, a day or two prior to a winter event, you’ll receive a winter weather alert. Then we’ll send another alert if/when service is dispatched.

Do you come more than once during a snow event?

Answer: Usually yes, depending on the need. Snow management is about preventative maintenance, so even after we’ve cleared and de-iced for a snow event, your route manager is tasked with monitoring your route and the forecast, to see if more service is needed, even days later. One common case is additional ice-melt treatment the day after a snow event, to combat refreeze.

Will you come out just to salt?

Answer: Yes. In fact, you may notice just as many, if not more, de-icing events for your property rather than plowable events. We must respond to hazardous surfaces—and ice, sleet, freezing rain, hail and refreeze are all culprits.

Will you keep me up-to-date during a storm?

Answer: Customers receive updates before, during and (usually) after a winter event. Our crews try to relay information from the field, including if there are delays. These are sent to you via route announcements.

Can I offer feedback or suggestions at my property?

Answer: Yes, for sure. Especially for new customers we welcome feedback after the first storm or two to understand how we can improve your service. This helps your route manager make those changes unique to your property. We have many customers who we haven’t heard from in years because the service and crew remain consistent each winter—that’s a good thing.

Can I request pet-friendly ice-melt?

Answer: Yes, but generally, there’s no need to. For residential customers, we use calcium magnesium or calcium chloride pellets, not rock salt. That said, from time to time, we’ve been asked to swap out ice-melt.

Extreme weather

What changes during a blizzard or large snow event?

Answer: We’ve handled multiple extreme events over the years. The biggest change is longer service times. This isn’t unique to Plowguys of course. Highways and main roads need to be cleared and salted. Smaller residential streets usually get serviced last from your town or city. Then private contractors go about their work.

Your route manager will still dispatch the route, and if applicable, call-in more laborers. It’s important to prepare for longer service times and remain patient.

Large events means “digging out,” not routine snow maintenance. This may include returning to relocate or haul-away snow, re-clearing areas from displaced snow (e.g. from cars, trees, rooftops or drift), clearing entrances blocked from municipal plows, crews changing shifts or resting, (often) equipment needing repair, and finally de-icing multiple times to prevent refreeze. These are multi-day tasks.

Can you haul snow offsite?

Answer: Yes, though you should plan on getting on our hauling schedule before the season starts as that too historically gets full.

Duty of care

What’s the law in Massachusetts regarding clearing snow and ice from my property?

Answer: Under Mass. law, property owners can be held liable for failing to clear snow and ice from their property, whether from natural snowfall or unnatural snowfall (e.g. refreeze). This means, generally, if you own a home or business you must clear snow from the property.

What about public sidewalks abutting my property?

Answer: As a property owner, generally, you must clear snow and ice from sidewalks and accessibility curbs and ramps abutting your property. Cities and towns have the right to create ordinances (or bylaws) requiring you to clear sidewalks, and most around Greater Boston have. Some cities have varying rules for businesses versus residential properties. Others may fine you for throwing snow on the road or in other public areas. It’s important to know your town’s rules and penalties, which can be found on the town’s website or by contacting town hall.

How soon must snow from sidewalks be cleared?

Answer: Here are the rules for some cities/towns we service:

TOWN

SNOW MUST BE CLEARED WITHIN…

SOURCE

Boston

3 hrs. after snowfall ends; or 3 hrs. after sunrise for overnight snow.

Boston Municipal Code 16-12.16

Brookline

3 daylight hrs. after snowfall ends forcommercial or 5+ multifamily units; otherwise within 30 hrs. after snowfall.

Brookline General By-Laws Article 7.7

Cambridge

12 hrs. after snowfall ends; by 1:00 PM next day for overnight snow

Cambridge Municipal Code Sec. 12.16.110

Chelsea

24 hrs. after snowfall ends

Chelsea Charter Sec. 24-21

Medford

8 daylight hrs. after snowfall ends

Rev. Ordinances of Medford Sec. 74-114

Newton

24 hrs. after snowfall ends

Rev. Ordinances of Newton Sec. 26-8D

Quincy

5 hrs. after snowfall ends; by 1:00 PM next day for overnight snow (commercial only)

Quincy Municipal Code Sec. 305-24

Somerville

6 daylight hrs. after snowfall ends

Somerville Code of Ordinances Sec. 12-8

As a residential landlord, what am I responsible for?

Answer: As a residential landlord, you are responsible for clearing snow and ice from your property, just if it were owner-occupied.

Can I require my tenants to clear snow?

Answer: You can have a clause in your (residential) lease requiring tenants to clear snow, but two important things should be noted: First, this exception only applies to single-unit rentals; it does not apply to properties with more than one lease. Second, you may still be liable for slip-and-falls on the property even with such a provision.

Do I need to clear snow off my car?

Answer: Yes. While Massachusetts doesn’t have a specific vehicle snow-clearing law, you can be pulled over and fined for impeded operation (e.g. obstructed windows) or driving with an unsecured load (e.g. snow on the roof of your car). In addition, if snow or ice falls and causes a crash or injures someones, civil or even criminal liability can ensue.

What are the selection criteria for receiving services From Plowguys?

In order to make our plowing routes efficient and budget sensible for out customers we have the follow criteria when we agree to service a customer:

Subscriptions only

Plowguys operate on a route model only, servicing the route or not at all. We do not do On-Demand services.

Limited Spots

Property is out of the way

Routes must be kept condensed to ensure the quality of service

Property type is not a match

Equipment varies by route. Some gravel driveways require extensive manual shoveling.