[MA_Plows]

I am not bidding on a hospital at the moment...But I have been curious about them.

How do guys bid these contracts? I feel it would be so difficult to do a seasonal or per inch contract. In eastern MA, Boston suburbs, the hospitals need 24/7 clearing. This would make me think you’d have to have your equipment billed hourly as they’ll always be running during the storm. As we know you can get 6” of snow in 2 hours or 12 hours. So I would assume hourly equipment and salt per application.

I am just curious to the strategy that guys use to bid hospitals.

Thanks

 

[Mark Oomkes]

They specify how we bid. It's seasonal, excluding salt and stacking\hauling.

We've been doing one for over 10 years that way.

 

[MA_Plows]

They specify how we bid. It's seasonal, excluding salt and stacking\hauling.

We've been doing one for over 10 years that way.

Understood, thank you. That must be a tough one to bid at the beginning, but I'm sure after the first year you were golden.

 

[Defcon 5]

Understood, thank you. That must be a tough one to bid at the beginning, but I'm sure after the first year you were golden.

Mark is anything but golden...Those Type of accounts me personally would only bid the salt on a per app basis

 

[Dogplow Dodge]

A minor bit of advice.

Please remember to check your insurance carrier regarding your policy. My policy, even though I'm in the dumbest state in the union regarding snow plowing, specifically forbids me to do any type of snow servicing of hospitals, gas stations, schools, public roads, health care facilities, old age homes, or other "high risk" facilities.

I can clear 8 million residential homes, and they're okay with that. I can clear a few commercial entities, based upon their configuration, whether strip mall, or independent little one vendor site. Mine have to be "listed" or "registered" with the insurance carrier, prior to the season commencing.

Check with your agent, as in some cases, such as mine, you may not be allowed (covered) in certain locations.

 

[Philbilly2]

specifically forbids me to do any type of snow servicing of hospitals, gas stations, schools, public roads, health care facilities, old age homes, or other "high risk" facilities.

What is left?

Those are the places that have the money. I would think you would be able to change your policy and pass it on to do this work?

 

[Dogplow Dodge]

Small mom and pop locations, and such.

I've done paint stores, churches, graveyard roads, taekwando gym lots, mechanics shops, banks, etc.

 

[DeVries]

The ones we do are all in, 12 months, no extras unless its something out of the ordinary. I would not bid anything that way, except these we serviced for 11 years before the current system and we keep good records.
You'll need to keep good logs and/or GPS equipped equipment. There are lots of people at these sites every day. Some healthy some not, crutches, wheelchairs, etc. 24 hour monitoring is a must.

 

[GMC Driver]

24 hour monitoring is a must.

Do you have someone on site then? Or do you have access to their cameras?

What he doesn't tell you here is that the weather between his shop location and the hospital can be entirely different, even though they are only a six to seven miles apart. 350 foot elevation change as well.

 

[DeVries]

Yes I have a staff member living close, friends with the security dept, which is great because they do hourly walk arounds.

Dave's right, usually there is more at the shop then at the sites, but with hospitals window monitoring isn't enough.

 

[Masssnowfighter]

What he doesn't tell you here is that the weather between his shop location and the hospital can be entirely different, even though they are only a six to seven miles apart. 350 foot elevation change as well.

I can relate to that. Being a snow plow contractor living at elevated elevation causes a lot of false alarms with those minor snow accumulations. I can't even count how many times I raced down to my site only to find the snow cover completely disappear by the time I get to the bottom of my hill, and I only live less then 5 miles from the site