Too many guys round here buy $40k+ trucks and $5k+ trucks that have full time "regular" jobs, justifying the set up that they will make a few bucks on the side. Needless to say, many get subbed by the players who own all the plowing contracts and bank on these dingdongs. What they get paid does not justify the wear and tear imo. I guess they feel good about working though. Kinda like many fire wood guys who by all the equipment, and would not make a buck for years and then they are still working for $20/hr or less. I swear they do this stuff for fun up here.
The real money in plowing is made buy the local construction companies who park their equipment for the winter at the shopping malls and plazas. One landscaper in town has the boarder crossing contracts. I've been told he crushes it so hard in the winter up there that he "play's" landscaper all in his super nice equipment all summer picking the money jobs. With out knowing that, one would think he was the king of landscaping in town.
Myself, my insurance does cover plowing at no additional cost...No thank you! I have enough properties of my own to plow out for a day. Nor, will I let any of my employees plow ever again. Let alone the lack of respect for slamming into banks and curbs, and getting stuck, one of them ran over a chunk of wood once and cost about $1,000 worth of front end damage, by the time I figured out what happened. Plowing is a great way to burn up a tranny too. The plow blocks the trans cooler, but that's not the real problem, the truck never reaches enough rpm's and speed to keep the tranny fluid cool when plowing. Make sure you plow in 4lo and get a trans temp gauge. And the final issue why I hate plowing. I work as a ski patroller, mostly only when it snows!
