Snow Info from Landscaping Concepts

In 1991, Bob Langille, president, Landscaping Concepts, Seekonk, Mass., added snow plowing to his commercial maintenance service mix because clients requested it.

The company’s commercial jobs average between 2 to 5 acres, and they include many parking lot areas and sidewalks that need cleared in the winter months. “Each of our commercial customers spends an average of $15,000 with us in snow services each year,” Langille says, explaining why this service makes up 38 percent of his revenue and, as a result, deserves a great deal of planning and focus each year.

Instead of treating snow and ice removal as one revenue source or giving clients one price that includes everything, Langille breaks it out into a la carte specifics, including sanding, salting, shoveling and plowing. “Snow shoveling is more labor intensive than snow plowing so this needs to be priced differently to account for the added labor expense,” he explains.

Langille prices snow services in two ways as a means of checking that he’s pricing jobs correctly. He looks at it per push and separates pricing based on 1- to 3-inch snowfalls, 3- to 6-inch snowfalls and 6- to 9-inch snowfalls. Then he will base it on the square feet of the parking lot and compare that to ones he’s done in the past that are similar in square feet to ensure he’s in the right price range.

Invoices are sent after snow events, but for the 2006-2007 snow season Langille is switching to a faxed invoice so clients receive invoices immediately after each snowfall. Langille pushes his team to fill out time sheets and then he keeps these records so when clients phone he can tell them when a crew was there, how long they were there and what was done on their property. This alleviates any concerns for commercial clients who don’t always notice when Landscaping Concepts was there or are questioning invoices. This also acts as a means for paying employees and subcontractors for hours worked.
Langille prepares a snow removal management plan each year. To get employees geared up for the season a couple of weeks before it begins, which is usually in November, he holds an educational meeting where he gathers all of his employees together during a Saturday morning for coffee and donuts and a outline of the plan.

To kick off the meeting, Langille presents any new members to the snow team and they introduce themselves and exchange important personal information that could be useful to the team later in the season, such as contact information, emergency phone numbers, etc. This takes between five and 10 minutes.

Then Langille communicates his objectives for the coming season, what he expects from employees – their functions and duties – and other miscellaneous issues. For this season, Langille added a video presentation to show all of the proper procedures and activities that employees should remember in order to have a safe snow removal season. This section of the meeting takes between 35 and 45 minutes.

The next 10 to 15 minutes, Langille asks employees to share feedback, new ideas, innovative ways to improve processes or any concerns.

At the end of the meeting, Langille tells employees how teams will be formed, the different lots they will have to take care of and the different jobs they have to be done on each lot. Then he gives each foreman a packet, outlining their team’s information, including special forms that need to be used.

In addition to his existing employees, Langille uses subcontractors who have their own trucks and plows to get the work done. They fill out the same time sheets as Landscaping Concepts employees and have regular routes. He pays subcontractors $50 to $55 per hour – he had to increase it by a few dollars this season because some of his subcontractors were complaining about the rising fuel prices.

This was also the first season that Langille offered clients an incentive to sign two-year vs. one-year contracts, and to sign them early. “If they signed up before the last Friday in October, they got $100 off of their first snow bill,” he says. “We were very excited – half of our customers took advantage of this.”