By Douglas Freer, CSP
Anyone who has lived with snow has likely shoveled their walks, and for the most part it’s not that complicated. Grab a shovel, put your back into it, and when you’re done, have a hot chocolate while the feeling comes back into your fingers and toes. But at the professional level, the perception that managing sidewalks is nothing more than just some shoveling is quite common. In many cases, clients spend more time thinking about the risks associated with their parking lots than their sidewalks.
Effective sidewalk management is critical to reducing the risk for personal injury and keeping sites open. Slip and fall accidents can easily occur on stairs, ramps, transitions between areas, and grades where snow and ice might accumulate if not properly removed. In many cases, proper sidewalk management may be more expensive than maintaining a vastly larger parking lot. Parking lots usually allow for moving large amounts of snow with equipment that has high production rates, resulting in reduced costs relative to the size of the area. The same mechanization does not readily exist for clearing sidewalks, so more hand labor and cost are associated with maintaining sidewalks.
Engineering a site for timely, effective and efficient sidewalk management requires consideration of many factors, but is critical to helping maintain public safety and facility maintenance budgets.
Production rate and cycle time
It begins with understanding the client’s expectation for clear pavement—or the tolerance for accumulated snow and ice.
Cycle time. Knowing how much snow is allowed to accumulate between clearings is the first step to determining an acceptable cycle time for the site.
On a dedicated site, cycle time is the total elapsed time required to service the entire area before being able to start again. On routed sites, the cycle time will determine how many properties can be included on a route while maintaining appropriate return intervals. To prevent too much accumulation during continuous snow events, the frequency of clearing will need to increase. This requires you to have the capacity available in man-hours and equipment to produce the work within the acceptable cycle time or clearing intervals.
Capacity. Capacity is created by determining production rate and available equipment and staff for the site. For example, a three-man crew with shovels likely has less capacity than a three-man crew with two shovels and a piece of powered equipment. Trained staff operating the right sized equipment for the job produces a higher production rate, which allows for increased capacity.
Snow response plan
A snow response plan is developed based on a customer’s expectations and defines how a property is to be serviced under varying scenarios. A daytime storm may require a different approach than overnight cleanup operations, where larger equipment may be used. The response plan defines how and where equipment will be used and what areas are of greater or less importance.
During a heavy, continuous snowfall, are there sidewalk areas that you can abandon until after the storm? Focusing available staff and energy on key building entry points may be more appropriate than maintaining less vital walking areas. If all areas must be maintained equally, you must have staff and equipment on hand even during the heaviest of storms. Does the customer want this level of service—and is he willing to pay for it? The level of service you are able to provide will depend on the storm and how your anticipated response has been scripted.
Managing mechanization
Powered equipment can increase capacity because of higher production rates. However, certain equipment may also contribute to lower efficiency in certain scenarios. There are a variety of equipment options available. Each category provides a different level of capacity to clear snow. Over sizing equipment for a site can lead to property damage or inefficient operation if the operator tries to fit into areas where smaller equipment or hand labor might be the best option. Over sizing may also reduce the mobility of the equipment from site to site.
Crews may have a tendency to wait or watch the equipment do the work if not properly instructed, trained and motivated. The efficiency gained from equipment can be quickly lost with idle hands.
Crews may also, when given the option, choose to use equipment in certain scenarios that ultimately are less efficient. The time to load, unload, start and use a 2-stage 32-in. snowblower on 100 ft. of sidewalk can likely be accomplished by a shovel in less time. Knowing when to switch to the blower in heavier or deeper snows comes from training. The crew should be trained on the parameters of the equipment and under what scenarios it is more or less efficient.
Pricing, profits and budgets
Sidewalks can consume a significant portion of a property owner’s snow budget. Making a profit on sidewalk work begins with proper pricing to recover the costs that will be incurred based on how you intend to engineer and service the site. Sizing the equipment and staff to each site requires knowledge of your numbers and budget as well as your customer’s target budget.
Applying too much equipment or labor to a site will increase the cost. This will cause you to either be uncompetitive if you knw your costs or to lose money if you don’t. Depending on the scenario, it might make sense to have a plow truck driver shovel a small walk at a remote site where routing a sidewalk crew would be inefficient. But you must realize that when you park the truck to clear the walks, you no longer should be charging hand labor rates based on overhead that assumes only a $30 shovel is being used. The potential for lost revenue from an idling truck means you may want to consider charging a rate based on the overhead of your $40,000 truck for the time it takes to clear the walks.
Consider which pieces of equipment are available and where they will be during a storm relative to the property you are engineering. You may be able to leverage a piece of equipment nearby to help clear walk areas, improving your efficiency without adding significant costs. The denser your routing, the more options become available to share equipment and realize the benefits.
Site layout
How walking areas are laid out will determine what equipment can be used. How wide are the walks? How high are the curbs? Are there stairs or ramps? Are there obstacles such as bollards, signs and landscape beds? Is there a place to pile, blow or sweep the snow? Are there overhangs, support columns or awnings? What type of pavement is being cleared and what is its condition?
Time of day
Powered equipment may be the best option given the pavement and layout, but what about traffic? During daytime hours, pedestrians and vehicles may limit the use of certain equipment. Engineer the site knowing what equipment can be used during various times without the risk of personal injury or property damage. During the night events, you may be able to use a higher production piece of equipment to move bulk, where during the day you may need to switch to smaller equipment or shovels. When using hand labor in the daytime, find areas to stage the snow until you can perform a night cleanup, when more productive equipment can be used to clear and move the piles.
Using what you own
Selling work based on the equipment you have available is a smart, reasonable approach. But consider whether there is better equipment for the situation. Should a riding mower be converted to a small sidewalk plow or would an ATV or tractor with a plow or blower be the better option? Look for ways to extend your current equipment, but don’t limit yourself. Look for the most cost-efficient option, which may mean buying or renting something better suited to the application.
Engineering your sites with the appropriate staff and equipment with the shortest cycle time within your budget parameters will lead you to think of more efficient ways to clear the site. The more efficient you become, the more capacity you have to sell—which allows you to produce more work and earn more money. You get what you settle for, so keep looking for ways to improve and tweak your work to become as efficient as possible.
View a comparison chart with pros and cons for the different types of sidewalk equipment here.
Doug Freer, CSP, owns Blue Moose Snow in Cleveland. Contact him at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .
