Each season we set out with what we hope are best laid plans for a successful season. We train our employees and make sure equipment and contracts match the demand sold from our account managers and sales team. We run long hours and jump through hoops to make things happen for our clients during the harsh winter months.
We need to take time to step back and review those behind-the-scenes costs that allow us to get to the point when the entire team is on the field and the stadium is full waiting for the first play.
Here are three main areas to review within your organization to help break down and identify these costs:
The first thing your company should determine is what the sales team and account managers promised for the coming season. What is the true demand and service level required for your company’s contracts? What training will be needed to achieve service levels that were sold?
The sales teams and account managers will need to build site/route maps and conduct property inspections prior to the first event and prepare a solid game plan to hand over to production.
On average it takes almost 5 hours per account to drive there, snap "before" photos showing any existing damage, return to the office, upload the pictures and put together clean aerial mapping that shows locations for staging and stacking snow, etc. There’s an abundance of tech solutions that can assist with this process; but for the first round out, you need to get boots on the ground to see first-hand shade patterns, property damage, etc. that aerial software can’t show.
If you have the same account year after year you can save mapping time; however, you still need to do a preseason site visit and review all curbs, posts, etc. so you don’t get blamed for damages you didn’t cause.
If the property is in a new location, you will need an additional hour or so to make sure the training and/or production questions are answered and ready with accurate job notes for the team that will be servicing this location.
The supply chain has seen some relief over the past few months, but don’t get complacent. This is always a varying issue from northern areas compared to lower areas in the United States.
Review your data. Make sure you have salt use data for each account from the past 3 years to average out and get a relatively accurate usage report to move forward with. This report will tell you how much material needs to be ordered in advance and what that will cost before any snow flies.
Identify storage costs. Some contracts are on retainers or have floors; you will eat this cost if low snowfall accumulations occur in your target market. Most contractors like to always have at least two storms’ worth of product on the ground or in stock, while SIMA’s Sustainable Salt Use Best Practices recommends five. This can be a serious cost if you have a larger operation. Factor into the overall winter budget the square footage used to house snow materials and equipment. These real costs are taken for granted since it’s just space in the back lot. That space has real value that should be realized in your cost to the client.
Not all areas allow pre-ordering and storing salt onsite before winter. Check your contracts for any storage restrictions. If storing on-site isn’t an option, you’ll need to find a location where you can store materials and account for those costs.
Depending on your demand load and what you are truly signed on the bottom line for each season influences equipment needs. Some companies have not been able to get trucks they ordered almost 15 months ago.
Maintenance. Companies will spend a good amount of time and money making sure all trucks and equipment are in safe working order for the winter. It’s hard to put a solid monetary value on this since each company is different. Smaller companies should use the 3-year rule to determine the company’s average operating costs and the 3- or 5-year mark if you run much larger pieces of equipment. This will give you a good budget dollar amount to figure in for each season. The average cost we have seen for this is about $485 per truck to get ready for the winter if the truck is not way behind on other repairs.
Parts on hand. Also keep in mind that with great data in hand you can manage the new parts increase easier since you are going into the season with better numbers.
Each season comes with its own set of problems that should be smoothed out as time goes on with your business. Accurately account for all time and money spent.
Take the time to review this at the end of each season when your team sits down for the two-day fallout meeting to review the good, the bad and the ugly. During this meeting, everyone should have a chance to speak as you go over (with a nonjudgmental approach) how things could have been handled differently.
During the season, when everyone is working at high intensity, this sometimes doesn’t pan out well. The entire team will be able to determine actual costs and labor requirements for each task that you can then track year over year to understand what things really cost before the first flake falls.
This new data and number structure will then be the benchmark for the following season. This will allow you to understand the true cost to be available for snow each season regardless of accumulations.
Mike McCarron is president and founder of Image Works Landscape Management, a commercial landscape maintenance and snow removal firm in the Northern Virginia market. He has 20+ years of industry experience. Email him at mike@imageworkslandscaping.com.