Equipment matters

Many snow contractors will balk at spending $30 on one shovel, says Kent Peddie, president of Precision Snow Removal, based in Ottawa, Ontario. 

“That doesn’t make a lot of sense in my mind,” he says. “You want to give your staff the best tools you can for the job at hand.”

This includes looking for shovels that have shock absorbing properties for repetitive hand and arm movements. Peddie says they use a lot of shovels with a D-shaped handle.

“That really lessens fatigue over the course of a shift, because as you’re shoveling as the shovel hits small imperfections in the pavement, that sort of ripples up the tool and it actually hits and absorbs into our team members’ wrists and arms,” he says. “Imagine doing that for eight hours in a row or 12 hours in a row.”

Weight of the shovel is also important, he adds.

“A larger shovel would just start exhausting one’s muscles over the course of a long shift, so if it’s a heavier snowfall, we encourage them to use shovels that are smaller and if it’s light or fluffy show, then we encourage them to use larger shovels,” Peddie says.