Besides lack of enough snow, contractors say high cost of insurance hurts their businesses; some are exiting the business
By Deborah Jeanne Sergeant
Many landscaping and construction firms plow snow as their winter business. Mike Schrader, owner of Schrader Construction in Syracuse, is one example. As busy as the construction business has been in recent years, his wintertime business has been slower.
“Every winter has been less and less for snow,” he said. “I think this year will be a little bit heavier.”
That kind of optimism helps keep him going. He gauges his rates on performing 20 to 25 plows per season. Last year was 21. The year before was only 13.
In addition to less snow, Schrader has also seen the cost of inputs increase. Salt, for example, has nearly doubled in cost in the past three years.
Marco Cecero, owner of Cecero Property Services, LLC in Central Square, has plowed snow in previous years, but decided to park his plows this year. He has heard about a lot of companies raising their prices and of their customers deciding not to contract for plowing services because they don’t believe the snowfall this year will be as heavy.
It’s tough to decide whether to charge by the plow or by the season. A heavy snowfall season makes the former pricing method more profitable. But with scanty snow, plowers don’t make much money. Cecero allowed customers to pick which way they wanted to pay for their service.
He thinks that some customers don’t realize the amount of work that goes into plowing services and therefore may not value the services as they should.
“People think you just go jump in a truck, but you’re plowing 12 hours at a time,” he said. “Suddenly it’s not worth it. As time goes on, it’s how I’m responsible for it all winter for this price. In the long run, you’re spending all this money to risk it every time. You can screw up one thing and it can cost you your whole business. Say you hire a couple of people and they pass their drug screening, alcohol and DWI checks. You happen to catch them on a year their life is going downhill and they crash their truck. I’ve heard of this happening.”
Insurance is Cecero’s highest cost, even more than fuel for the trucks. Despite never filing an insurance claim, the premiums are still expensive.
Truck maintenance also takes a bite out of his profits.
“You have to make sure the jobs you have lined up make up for the amount of the repairs,” Cecero said. “You have to have a maintenance day at least one time a month for oil changes, greasing everything and washing the trucks.”
He wishes customers better understood both the time it takes to plow and to maintain trucks. Cecero is considering returning to plowing for the 2026-2027 season, but he will first see how this season goes for those who are still offering plowing services.
