Does any one have a place they do snow plowing where they have ten people that own condos that think they know how to do it beter and cheaper than you?
Yep. Had ONE last year and bagged it. Too many good paying clients out there to deal w/ stuff like that.
We had a group of laywers that use to come out and want us to push the snow past the lawn and down an embankment to free up all the parking spaces.When we told them that are trucks were not dozers and that we could come back later with a loader for an extra cost they couldn't understand why the truck could not do it.We did this lot for one contract and that was it.
Don't get me going on Condo's. Condo associations are the worst thing ever created. Will never do a condo again. Not for any price.
I don't do any condos myself. I can imagine how bad they are though, considering I live in one. The "association" here made a rule that kids can't play outside here. Nice huh? They even planted trees to fill in the open areas. After I moved in, they made a rule stating no commercial vehicles can be parked overnight. They gave me a hard time, but another person here has a Coca-Cola van, and they leave him alone. Go figure, he must be on the "association" board or something. Funny, the guy that plows this co,plex does a pretty poor job. In fact, I plow out our parking spots myself. He only does the lots, the super here does all the walks. The guy plows here after it stops snowing. He also plows in all the parked cars. Doesn't even try to keep the snow away from them. From what I've hear, the 2 things you don't want to plow are condos, and new car dealerships. ~Chuck
I plow 2 condo associations, and have never had an issue with them. I have 1 person who contacts me, not every individual. They pay on time, and respect good quality work. They also have never tried to pull any tricks with me. I dont do property managers, they are the devil incarnate. Dino
I'll let you know later this winter. We've got the annual contract for my building. I grew tired of looking out my window at crappy workmanship (lawn and snow). The old board was canned, and the new prez hired us directly without any input from the new property manager. For now I'm the toast of the building since the lawn never looked better and we've done some landscaping to beautify the place. Judging by the job the subs last year did on the snow I don't forsee any problem...we'll see.
Chuck; your comments about the association and their rules sounds like deja vu. Glad I'm not the only one to have experienced it.
Ihave come to relize that it's not how good you are but how you know.All i know is that they don't understand what we have to do> I just found out that the place i plow wants another bid.I gave them round the clock service and was done before any one came to work in the lot besides having an inclined lot that needs more attaintion and a restaraunt that closes late and always having a full lot it really is pushing me on how long i will do this lot.
I think gas stations are the worst. Like Dino I have never had a problem with condos, some property managers are better than others, but its all part of the biz. Thats one thing i have never heard of plowing a new car dealership. All the dealers in maine, plow their own lots, and sell the truck at the end of the winter. Geoff
Well 2 things to comment on here 1st dino i congratulate u as I HATE CONDOS FOR PLOWING and yes that is yelling they are cheap,useless,ignorant,slugs,who know all and can plow better than all of as according to them.OK i calmed down now.2nd car dealers atleast in this area are very profitable as we do them by the hour and is the only accoun t we will do by the hour and heres why.They open late 9am around here and i tell them we would be happy to work with there lot boy and do a section of there lot at a time while he or sales people move the cars,but do to the volume of cars and the extensive waiting time(as u gotta wait for them to move all the cars)ill stay all day but its 90.00 an hour.They go for it and if all your other plowing is done its an easy plow job with alot of brakes and a little extra money for work done hours after the snow has stopped.
I do a couple sets of condos,the set I have had the longest got upset because we missed a couple of sidwalks that were hidden off in lala land,and loaded out some landscape rocks that were right in the middle of uncurbed islands,both items were fixed promptly and at no charge but they still decided to find someone else who was "more reasonable".Well that lasted about three snows the next season and we were back.They have been real nice and have not threatened to leave me in 6yrs,and we still occationally miss those unused side walks way off in lala land.
John, You're lucky. Here they expect you to plow around all the cars, and do all the empty spaces. Then come back later and plow more after they move cars around. The main problem is they need all the space they can get, and there is not enough areas to put all the snow. Hourly, and with the lot boys moving all the cars, it sounds like a great deal. Just waiting for them to warm up and clean off all those cars must take forever. Do you have problems finding places to put all the snow? Places that they don't "argue" with you about? Heaven forbid you block the view of the new cars from the highway. ~Chuck
Well interesting that you bring that point up about where to place the snow.We find a place that isnt to obvios or in the way but somewhere that is not to far away.We then load it up with snow stacking it as high as possible with a plow but careful not to condense it therefore after 2 or 3 storms we offer to bring in a loader and since you have already conditioned them to 90.00 an hr for a pickup they tend to swallow 175.00 for a loader an hour
I know how car lots are i did one many years ago just doing the snow removal with my backhoe stupid me didn't charge enough at the time.Now I know better but i was there for three days just moving snow and waiting for them to move truck where they wanted me to put the snow.well i made it up in time but i still lost out.The only good thing is i had them transport it to ther site and i parked the backhoe inside a nice warm garage every night and i used there diesel fuel.
Most car lots here have their own trucks, funny thing I saw last year. it was the only larger storm we had, about 8-10", and they spent all day on the lot, well they were clearing the last area, and were pushing the piles way back, over a bank. Well the driver went to far and over the bank he went with the truck. The only thing that stopped were the 6 tons of snow he had already pushed over. I have a picture of it somewhere, I will have to find it. It was so funny, all you could see of the truck was from the wheelwells upward. the rest was buried in the snow, on a 70% downgrade. The used a C-6500 to pull him out. I watched the whole thing, and had tears the whole time. Dino
