It has been an usually warm winter, so far, in most of the US, but the snow removal process is still a critical function where snowfall occurs. Last year, one of our clients asked that we benchmark the process to be sure they were following “Best Practices. We ran the following “Spot” survey to determine what others were doing
Step 1—Ask the appropriate questions but keep it as simple as possible
Since we were not sure what others were doing we thought it would be best to allow for a wide variety of survey responses. The survey presented to our benchmarking participants included just two questions
- Please describe your snow removal process, what works well, and doesn’t work well.
- Please describe your experiences with any ice melting products.
Step 2—Analyze the responses
As you might expect, with a freeform survey the responses varied widely, still there were many responses that echoed a common theme
What Works:
- Communication and identifying the high priority areas seems to be key
- We have contractual agreements with two snow removal companies, one with heavy equipment for the roads and parking lots, the other for the side walks, etc. The contracts are for fixed $$ amounts per year and include snow push and removal from our properties for 10 occurrences and starting from 2″ and up.
- Some different ideas we have used here in Colorado: Placing brightly marked 55 gal. drums of sand with scoops in the parking lots and walkways to allow employees to contribute to their own safety by scattering sand where they see icy spots. Also put 1 gallon shakers of ice melt at each entrance. This has reduced slips and falls in a climate where there is chronic thawing and refreezing, especially in shady areas. When there is a threat of a major snowstorm that could close roads and prevent heavy snow removal equipment from reaching our site, we pay the contractor to pre deploy some equipment before the storm.
- We have two processes for snow removal.
- If the snow depth is under 5″, our contracted landscaping company handles the snow removal. They plow the parking lot drive lanes and the roadways around the site along with clearing all sidewalks. They apply Tetra 94 (calcium chloride pellets) to the roadways/drive lanes and Ice Slicer RS (combination of sodium chloride, potassium chloride, and magnesium chloride) to the sidewalks.
- If the snow depth is 5″ or greater, we have contracted with a heavy equipment snow removal contractor to plow the parking lots and roadways.
- These two processes have worked well for the client’s employees for many years.
- When there is more than an inch of snow, security calls the leader of our snow removal team at 3:30AM. He, in turn, calls the the other members of the snow removal team. They arrive around 4:00 – 4:15 AM to start plowing the 9 acres of parking lots we have, as well as getting all the sidewalks cleaned off. We use 4 pickup trucks with plows and two of the truck are equipped with salt spreaders. All plowing is completed before 7:00 AM when employees start arriving to work. If snow persists throughout the day, we will go out before lunch and before quitting time to clean the sidewalks. We have two motorized mini-tractors with rotary brooms for clearing the sidewalks, in addition to snow blowers. We do not plow the parking lots during the day.
- We use in-house staff to plow 55 miles of roadways and dozens of parking lots that can hold a total of more than 2000 cars. In the fall we meet with Building Managers to determine priorities, and that information is conveyed to our staff. This prioritization has helped us become more efficient at putting our forces where they are really needed during a storm. Another key change that has made us more effective is the addition of several “snow pushers”. These attachments connect to a rubber tired loader and allow the machine to capture four times as much snow on each pass in a parking lot. They are very effective in larger lots and have reduced parking lot plowing time significantly. With more than 200 buildings on site, is is impossible for our limited staff to clear and de-ice all of the walks and entrances. Except for several “main ” buildings, the responsibility for this activity during a storm has been turned over to the individual Building Managers. This approach, although not popular at first, has resulted in better walkway conditions in most cases.
- We have a contract with a property management firm who subcontracts with a snow removal company. The management firm has clients around the St. Paul, MN area, in addition to our contract, and are able to negotiate favorable terms. We have a 1-inch trigger depth for plowing of the lots. If it is snowing through the day, we plow the drive lanes and shovel sidewalks as needed, and return in the evening for the balance. We also have workmen on staff at the building to handle on-call snow shoveling if the contract crews are not available.
- We have a snow removal contract that is a tiered per time snow clearing charge. Our contractor uses a combination of sweepers and blowers on our sidewalks. Blowers are used when the snow is deep and dense. Sweepers are used on the dryer snow up to 6″ depth. Our in-house staff acts as a back-up for touch ups, or an all day snow fall that needs attention several times a day.
- We attempt to be safe by being timely and have given the authority to call in the sand trucks to the 24×7 Security team and this has eliminated many of our issues with employees arriving to find an unsafe parking lot or sidewalks. Ice is our biggest issue.
- Our process begins by our Security dep. calling the Site Maintenance manager (myself) at 2:45 in the morning or I wake up several times in the night and monitor the conditions. Most of the time I am on site by 2:30 am.. I evaluate the conditions (depth of snow, wind speed, wet or dry snow, how much are they predicting)and decide on how many staff to bring in. Normally I run with 12-13 pickup trucks; 5 with Boss V blades and the rest with 8′ adjustable angle blades. These trucks cover the approximately 30 acres of parking lots and streets. Generally we start pushing around 4:00 am and are done by 7:00 am (1″-5″). For sidewalks we use a Sweepster broom attached to a Toro 352 Groundsmaster outfront mower. If the snow is too deep(over 4″) or too wet we have a 5′ blade on a Bobcat skidsteer. The broom will removes the snow right down to the pavement, eliminating a lot of ice melt. If we have had a blowing/drifting snow, I will call in two extra staff to operate 3 pt. hitch snow blowers in the parking lots.
- We have an outside contractor that plows our lots. The sidewalks, entrances, and fire exits are done by a yardman. Any snowfall over 2″ the contractor will automatically come in. They usually come during the off shifts because then there are fewer cars in the lots. After plowing, if needed they apply a salt/sand mixture. We also call them in if there is any safety concern with melting and re-freezing creating icy areas to sand/salt. Our security guards will notify Supervision if they feel the need to call
- We have six separate sites that have snow removal done by in-house people and contractors. We clear approx. 150 acres of parking lots, 30 miles of roadways, 20 miles of sidewalks and 1200 walkways/doorways. We also have a Railroad system consisting of 98 switches and 18 miles of tracks that we maintain on-site
Our in-house people maintain the sites on a three-shift operation with contract labor support, this includes salting. When we have an accumulation of 3 inches or more we call in our contractors to clear the parking lots around the perimeters of our sites and additional in-house personnel to clear the interior roadways at our main site. We have approx. 70 people in-house when we have to perform a full plow and approx. 40 contractors doing our lots. Full plows start at midnight and are completed by 6:00 AM, on light snow nights additional people are called in to shovel and salt at 2:00AM.
We utilize a combination of wheel loaders with 10-20 ft pusher blades, 6 & 10 wheel dump trucks with plows or salters, 1 ton dump trucks, 4 wheel drive pick-ups, farm tractors, bobcats and backhoes to do roadways/sidewalks. This consists of approximately 40-50 pieces of equipment.
Ice Melting
- Nearly all sites reported using a version of commercial de-icing salt.
Step 3—Using This Information
You should review the various identified best practices to if one of the participants has a process or procedure that would help you improve your service or reduce your costs. This is an essential service that needs to be done in a timely and efficient manner or it will reflect poorly on the entire facilities organization.
Metrics from the Facility Managers Round Table (FMRT)
In 2005 there were 92 unique sites in the FMRT with a median size of about 1,400,000 million square feet. See the chart below to see how the group looked by industry type.
Space Metrics
- Space Utilization 430 Gross Square Feet per Occupant
- Cost Metrics
- Utilities $2.17 / GSF
- Custodial $1.33 / Cleanable SF
- Maintenance $1.69 / GSF
- Parking and Paving $1529 / Acre
- Groundskeeping $3405 / Acre
- MAIL $0.73 / GSF
- Mail Services $0.22 / GSF
- Environmental Health and Safety $0.35 / GSF
- Fixed Costs (Includes: Building, Leasehold Improvements, Furniture/Equipment) $ 3.71 / GSF
Move / Churn Cost Metrics
- Box Move Costs $317 / Person Moved
Customer Satisfaction
- Satisfaction With Overall Facilities Services 3.80 on a 1 to 5 scale