Snow Removal
Building Your Snow Removal Program
Did You Know there is a 4 minute educational video on Snow RFP Best Practices? Did You Know there is a 4 minute educational video on developing Sustainable Best Practices for Snow Removal?
Click below and explore our entire Did You Know series on snow removal services where we explore topics including but not limited to Defining Your Service Trigger, Building a Scope of Work and How to Select a Pricing Model.
Playlist
Request a copy of our Sustainability Fact Sheet for Snow Removal and explore some of the most innovative sustainability solutions for Snow Removal today.
Our Approach
We start by treating snow removal as Disaster Recovery. That means investing 4 times the resources on planning for failed services, broken down equipment, epic snowstorms, and unimaginable temperatures. All scenarios that will occur and may occur in scale.
The Ferrandino & Son difference means turning a purely reactive program like snow removal into planned maintenance through 20 plus years of continued improvements. Elite Strategy converts to Elite Performance.
Pre-Season Planning
- Review Scope of Work with Providers
- Define Internal Processes & Conduct Training
- Create & Distribute Communication Protocols
- Perform Pre-Season Inspections
Pre-Storm Planning
- Weather Tracking
- Provider Pre-Storm Communication
- Proactive Weather Communication
- Territory Manager Routing
In-Storm Operations
- Reviewing and Tracking Storm
- Confirming & Validating Services
- Rerouting Service Providers
- Reviewing & Updating WO’s in 3rd Party System
- Continuous Communication (Updating Impacted Clients)
Want to read more about our Snow Removal process? Click the button to see our Snow Removal overview. View our key team members, our workflow process, and our portfolio of completed projects.
Our Technology Integrations
Pricing Models
The original pricing model for snow removal, it is a trigger-based model where the customer is charged for every visit to perform work.
Geography: This model has no geographical limits and can be used anywhere across the country.
Property Size: This pricing model is best used on smaller footprints where service occurs from crews via a route-based schedule. As parking lots grow closer to 60,000 square feet and more, this model becomes less effective.
Benefits: Easy to follow. Every service creates a billable event and the client can clearly understand what they are paying for.
Challenges: It can be administratively burdensome due to the amount of individual billing items and it promotes local stakeholders from rejecting individual services due to cost, putting the client at greater risk for slip and fall claims.
A popular pricing model as an alternative to per-push which can be administratively burdensome, pricing is based on the total accumulation during individual snow events.
Geography: This model has no geographical limits and can be used anywhere across the country.
Property Size: This pricing model is best used on medium to large properties, especially in instances where crews or equipment might be dedicated and not route-based.
Benefits: Less administrative than per-push and easy to validate snowfall totals through a certified agency
Challenges: Format becomes a challenge only if deicing is included in the event ranges as the correlation between deicing services and snow totals aren’t necessarily linear.
An all-inclusive format that includes all plowing, shoveling, and deicing.
Geography: This format is popular in heavier snow markets but can be used in lower snowfall markets down to approximately 15-20 inches.
Property Size: This model isn’t limited to small or big-box properties. However, it can be operationally challenging at times for route based portfolios.
Benefits: Provides budget certainty and avoids the year to year fluctuation that comes with the other pricing models.
Challenges: If you are not used to this format, it can be a difficult pill to swallow when snowfall totals are significantly less than normal.
As the name applies, you pay per hour for equipment and labor and pay for deicing materials as a cost per bag or per ton.
Geography: This model has no geographical limits
Property Size: This model can be applied to any sized property but is very rare on smaller footprints.
Benefits: This Is a great fit for significantly larger properties and those that have unusual operational challenges that prevent crews from working in a traditional manner.
Challenges: Presents significant challenges to implementing cost controls and is generally not regarded as a common pricing model in most industries.
Enter a zip code to reveal average annual snow fall based on 30-year historical snowfall data. (provided by 3rd party weather companies)
Click the button below to get estimates for your entire portfolio.
Key Steps to a Snow Removal RFP
Confirm the sites you are responsible for and identify where you may have CAM responsibility. Knowing which sites you are responsible for and the property boundaries for service are critical to measuring the overall cost of the program.
Develop your scope of work, defining things like the service trigger, SLA’s, validation and your preferred pricing model.
A service trigger should clearly define the amount of snow and ice accumulation that will prompt your service partners to automatically dispatch local plowing and salting services during a winter weather event.
When choosing a pricing model for a multi-site portfolio, there are numerous factors to consider, including geography, property size and even your own internal resources who will have to process, validate and approve all of the associated billings.
Clearly defining expectations for validation for your providers is essential. Tools that provide weather totals or use geofenced technology are the most popular and most accurate
Understanding your providers capabilities with a local presence in your markets. Ask questions regarding how they address in storm issues or major snow events with boots on the ground.
Ask questions regarding rollout timelines, processes and reporting. Understanding how potential partners will implement and potential awards sets both parties up for success moving forward.
Planning a snow RFP? Click the “Request Bid Template” below to receive a sample of what our snow bid sheet looks like. Ensure you come to your next RFP prepared with all your properties information to get the most accurate RFP with no pricing surprises!
Live Weather Tracking
Click the “Request Bid Template” below to receive a sample of what our snow bid sheet looks like. Ensure you come to your next RFP prepared with all your properties information to get the most accurate RFP with no pricing surprises!
Looking for Personalized Answers for your Portfolio? Talk to our Subject Matter Experts on a wide range of Snow Removal topics!