2/08/11

The Perfect Winter - Time To Prepare For The Next One!

This may be the biggest winter for widespread deep snow throughout the United States in 30 years, but next winter will be bigger! No, I’m not a meteorologist or an astrologist, but I am experienced in the snow removal industry. If you are involved in snow removal equipment manufacturing or sales, then Be Prepared because you can expect a big increase in the sales of trucks and equipment; snow plows, snow blowers, salt spreaders, etc. next winter.

History has shown this to be true: sales of snow and ice control equipment increase after the snow arrives. And in the manufacturing and distribution part of the business, snow this season means sales next season; and sales of snowplows means sales of trucks. Because it’s not the snow that sells the equipment, it’s the anticipation of snow that sells it! It’s a little like a smoke detectors, you wouldn’t buy one during a fire, it would be too late!

Human nature being what it is; people procrastinate, often they put off what they need to do until the last minute and then when the dreaded event occurs they are unprepared and it’s too late! You forgot to get someone to plow your driveway. So now it’s so late that all the snow removal contractors are busy servicing their present customers and can’t take on new ones! If you’re lucky, you find a neighbor with a truck and a plow that is laid off from work and wants to make some extra cash by plowing your yard.



The driveway gets plowed, but you’re not happy. He didn’t do a great job; you are going to have to patch all the places he dug up on your lawn with his snowplow blade. So thinking ahead to next year, you expect that the neighbor probably will have found a job and won’t be able to plow your driveway anyway, you ponder; I didn’t have this problem when I lived in the city! If my car was “snowed in” on the street, I simply walked to the corner and took the bus to work. Now my car is warm and clear of snow inside my garage, but I can’t get it out and to the street because of 50 feet of snow 2 feet deep!

How Driveway Plows Changed the Face of America:



I’m not sure what came first the chicken or the egg! Which one is the chicken and which one is the egg? The 4 wheel drive truck or the house with the garage and 50 foot driveway! Back in the ‘60’s Ford, Dodge and General Motors had the vision to power the front wheels on some of their pickup trucks. I doubt that they knew that this option would be responsible for suburban sprawl, but these new 4x4 models enabled plow manufacturers to craft snowplows to the front of these trucks; previously only available for Jeeps and some
Dodge Power Wagons.

And since the 1960’s, people have moved away from the cities with their coveted parking space on the street. When it snowed in the city, they had often shoveled themselves out of their street side parking spaces. Now in suburbia where they bought homes with 30-100 foot driveways and removed by 10 - 20 miles from their workplace. If people had been stuck in their suburban homes for days after snowstorms without the ability to get their cars to the street, people would not have made the move to suburbia in the first place or they may have moved back to the cities!

But now snowstorms held out a new process; plan how to clear the snow from the 50 foot driveway; they had three options: Suit up and shovel, buy a snow blower, suit up and clear the driveway with the snow blower; or call a snow removal contractor. Truck mounted driveway plows offered a solution to the homeowner; hiring a snow removal contractor with a truck mounted plow did not require an investment, and gave the ability to sleep later without having to get “suited up” to remove snow, exposing them to wet/cold and a heart attack! Get up in the morning and the driveway is clear of snow, easy!

So if you live in the city, get yourself a new shovel for next year. But if you have a driveway, call around and find the best snowplow contractor for next winter, do it today, tomorrow may be too late! If you are a contractor, prepare for next winter, customers will want to be plowed out earlier, they do not want to be late for work again next year. Buy more equipment, prepare to hire more workers. And if you sell plows and trucks, get that order in early, this spring, because next winter everyone will want to be prepared!


Guest post by Steve Taylor. Steve is a consultant in the Truck Equipment business with over 30 years in the snowplow and truck body manufacturing business. He specializes in the design and quality/reliability field and may be reached by email at steve@truckarchitect.com. You may visit his website at http://www.truckarchitect.com/.

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