Snow removal price calculator
Price a driveway per visit or as a seasonal contract, from the area you clear, the equipment you run and the rate your business needs.
The property
How you clear it
Your business
Quote a whole route without visiting a single driveway
Yardclaw measures the driveway and walkways of any property from satellite imagery and prices it from your own rates. Five measurements are free, with no card.
How the price is built
- Clearing time is the driveway area divided by your equipment's rate, plus the walkways at a hand rate.
- Snowfall depth scales that time. Deeper snow means slower passes and more places to put it. The defaults add 30% for 3 to 6 inches and 70% for 6 to 12.
- Unload, load and drive time is billed, since a snow route is mostly short stops.
- Price per visit is hours times your rate plus salt, or your minimum if that is higher.
- Seasonal price is the per-visit price times the number of visits you expect.
Per visit or seasonal contract?
Per-visit pricing follows the weather: a heavy winter pays well and a light one barely covers the equipment. A seasonal contract fixes your income before the first snowfall and puts the weather risk on you instead of the client. Many operators sell seasonal contracts to most of the route and keep per-visit pricing for the rest.
To set the visit count for a contract, use the number of snowfalls over your trigger depth in an average winter where you work, not last year's count. Then put a cap or a surcharge clause in the contract for winters far above normal.
About the default rates
The equipment rates are conservative starting points for residential driveways, where turning, garage doors and parked cars slow everything down. A truck plow is far faster on open pavement and far slower on a short driveway with nowhere to push. Time a few of your own and overwrite the numbers.
Should the public sidewalk be included?
Only if the client is responsible for it where you work and wants it cleared. Measure it separately so it shows as its own line.
What about the plow ridge at the street?
Return visits to clear what the city plow leaves are a common source of unpaid work. Price them as a separate per-visit charge, or state in the contract how many are included.