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S3-138: Indus Co Enterprises, Sterling Lowe
694 Plays10 days ago
The guys sit down with Sterling Lowe of Indus Co Enterprises out of Baltimore Maryland to hear about how this industrial coatings company transitions to snow management operations in the winter. Indus Co is truly a family affair, and Sterling takes us through all the roles his family members play in the company as they tackle winters in Maryland.
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Transcript
Introduction and Host Backgrounds
00:00:40
The SnowJobs Podcast
Here we go, Snow Jobs Nation. Happy Monday. We are back again bringing you episode 138 of the Snow Jobs Podcast, main show powered by Top Gun Backblades. As always, I'm Steve.
00:00:52
The SnowJobs Podcast
You know who's here with me.
00:00:59
The SnowJobs Podcast
Jeremy Lindstrom in the house, live from Fargo. What is up, Jay?
00:01:04
RICK JAMES
Hey, Steve-O, not a lot.
00:01:05
The SnowJobs Podcast
How we doing?
00:01:05
RICK JAMES
How about you?
00:01:06
The SnowJobs Podcast
Good. Good week. Good week.
00:01:08
RICK JAMES
Been busy. Been busy this week. Yep.
00:01:11
The SnowJobs Podcast
God's juice, man, right?
00:01:12
RICK JAMES
God's juice about ran out. Yep.
00:01:15
The SnowJobs Podcast
You're out?
00:01:16
RICK JAMES
I got two loads left until my rail cars get here next week.
00:01:18
The SnowJobs Podcast
Oh, my goodness.
00:01:20
RICK JAMES
So, yeah.
00:01:20
The SnowJobs Podcast
What are they going to do?
00:01:21
RICK JAMES
Yeah, it's
00:01:21
The SnowJobs Podcast
they're just The whole state's going to be blinding dust again?
00:01:25
RICK JAMES
going to be shut down probably. Shut down.
00:01:28
The SnowJobs Podcast
ah And you're spraying what? You're spraying sugar beets now or something?
00:01:33
RICK JAMES
Just the piling. So we had a big week of doing all the piler slates and stuff like that. We always do before in the harvest. Sugar beet harvest starts off October 1st usually, but I heard today is going to wait a week because it's going to be too
00:01:45
The SnowJobs Podcast
Oh, no good. much heat in Fargo.
00:01:49
RICK JAMES
hot. So, yeah.
00:01:49
The SnowJobs Podcast
Fargo is the new Phoenix. yeah No snow and 80 degrees.
00:01:51
RICK JAMES
Yeah.
00:01:54
RICK JAMES
Doc Locke right there.
00:01:56
The SnowJobs Podcast
The Doc Lock of the week. That's good.
00:01:57
RICK JAMES
Yeah.
00:02:00
The SnowJobs Podcast
You know, he'll still start talking about the jet stream and stuff, you know. Well, here we go.
00:02:18
The SnowJobs Podcast
100% accurate.
00:02:19
RICK JAMES
Yes.
00:02:21
The SnowJobs Podcast
ah
00:02:21
RICK JAMES
Doc lock.
00:02:22
The SnowJobs Podcast
Doc lock of the week. I can't wait to have Robin Nick on here though. And, and hear what the winter outlook is. See if they're ah see how far off they're going to be.
00:02:30
RICK JAMES
Yeah.
00:02:33
RICK JAMES
Yeah. I'm going to probably chisel that in stone because sure it'll be right out.
00:02:39
The SnowJobs Podcast
That's going to be coming up next month already. Wow. I mean, we're, we're into October now.
00:02:42
RICK JAMES
Yep. Yep.
00:02:44
The SnowJobs Podcast
It's a it's coming up fast, man.
00:02:44
RICK JAMES
Definitely. Oh, yeah. Yeah, it'll be ah be before we know it.
00:02:51
The SnowJobs Podcast
Are you ready?
00:02:52
RICK JAMES
so Oh, yeah. Oh, he's ready.
00:02:54
The SnowJobs Podcast
You know you're getting early snow.
00:02:56
RICK JAMES
No.
00:02:57
The SnowJobs Podcast
No? No early snow this year?
00:02:58
RICK JAMES
What's early snow? what's what's What's early snow for you?
00:03:00
The SnowJobs Podcast
don't like late October, early November?
00:03:03
RICK JAMES
that's That's standard. We're using it out.
00:03:04
The SnowJobs Podcast
That's standard snow. When was your first snow last year? Do remember?
00:03:08
RICK JAMES
oh I have to look at my phone, but... Yeah, I don't think it was until November last year.
00:03:14
The SnowJobs Podcast
All right.
00:03:14
RICK JAMES
So, and we've had, we've had snow on like, I've been, I've been lifting sugar beets and like first, second week October, we've had snow.
00:03:16
The SnowJobs Podcast
All right.
00:03:22
RICK JAMES
So, oh yeah.
00:03:22
The SnowJobs Podcast
Really? Not lately, though.
00:03:26
RICK JAMES
ah Yeah, within the last 10 years. remember,
00:03:29
The SnowJobs Podcast
We had an early one last year, so I'm going to see. I mean, it wasn't supposed to be snow. It was supposed to be rain, and you know, wet pavement.
00:03:35
RICK JAMES
ah I remember. i remember
00:03:37
The SnowJobs Podcast
Yeah, no. It wasn't supposed to be five inches, but that was early.
00:03:41
RICK JAMES
Yeah, you were in firehouse.
00:03:42
The SnowJobs Podcast
i was That was early November. No, that was the night i I didn't believe him, and I said, no, you know what? I'm going to stay up, and I'm just going to wait, and that started coming down, and that was when I took the angry videos at 1.30 in the morning of ah snow-covered roads driving in to grab the machines, and, oh, yeah, nice call, guys.
00:03:53
RICK JAMES
Whatever.
00:04:01
RICK JAMES
I thought it all melted, though. Didn't melt, though?
00:04:02
The SnowJobs Podcast
What's that?
00:04:03
RICK JAMES
there Did he do anything?
00:04:03
The SnowJobs Podcast
No, that was the last one of the season.
00:04:04
RICK JAMES
I can't remember.
00:04:05
The SnowJobs Podcast
That was the one in April.
00:04:05
RICK JAMES
Oh, yeah. Yeah, Yeah, yeah.
00:04:07
The SnowJobs Podcast
That was that what they were actually possibly correct on. That was an elevation based thing. But yeah, yeah, they I'll give them that one ah in April.
00:04:13
RICK JAMES
Possibly correct. You're either right or you're wrong, Steve. there's There's black and white. This is how we run the show.
00:04:19
The SnowJobs Podcast
Well, I mean, it's April. It's April, you know, like that's really hard to call that. Hey, listen, it's probably going to be wet roads only. You know, it's not going to accumulate.
00:04:27
RICK JAMES
That's their job.
00:04:27
The SnowJobs Podcast
If it does, it's going to melt off.
00:04:28
RICK JAMES
That's their job. um no No free passes here.
00:04:30
The SnowJobs Podcast
It's there.
00:04:32
RICK JAMES
No free passes.
00:04:32
The SnowJobs Podcast
Dude, think about if they were baseball players, they'd be in the Hall of Fame. They're right three times out of ten.
00:04:36
RICK JAMES
Yeah.
00:04:37
The SnowJobs Podcast
That's it.
00:04:38
RICK JAMES
Yeah, exactly.
00:04:39
The SnowJobs Podcast
It's good to go. All right, so what are we doing tonight, brother? we got We got a different one on tonight, little bit different than normal, right?
00:04:45
RICK JAMES
Yeah.
Guest Introduction: Sterling Lowe and Indusco
00:04:47
The SnowJobs Podcast
This is our first ever company from the state of Maryland, I believe, right?
00:04:47
RICK JAMES
Yeah.
00:04:52
RICK JAMES
No, top dog.
00:04:52
The SnowJobs Podcast
We even talked to... Top Dog is everywhere. That's a multi-state endeavor.
00:04:57
RICK JAMES
Yeah, was home base is his home base
00:05:00
The SnowJobs Podcast
his His boat is docked in Maryland, but I mean, they don't...
00:05:03
RICK JAMES
I'm just telling you. If you said that, Tom would get on you.
00:05:06
The SnowJobs Podcast
ah
00:05:08
RICK JAMES
see He was from Maryland, too. so
00:05:10
The SnowJobs Podcast
Do they do airports? Do they do Baltimore airport? No, right?
00:05:15
RICK JAMES
I don't think so at Dallas.
00:05:15
The SnowJobs Podcast
They do Dulles. indeed That's D.C.
00:05:17
RICK JAMES
Oof.
00:05:18
The SnowJobs Podcast
I'm going to declare this the first snow company from the state of Maryland. And, yeah, so that's what we got tonight. Tonight we feature Sterling Lowe from Indusco of ah Baltimore. They're, like, just outside of Baltimore area, but they service the entire Baltimore area.
00:05:34
The SnowJobs Podcast
They're a bit different, like we said, than most companies we talk to. it's It's mostly because of what they do when they're not pushing snow, and they're going to tell us all about that. All right, the other cool thing about Indusco is that it is very much a family affair, and I think we're going to meet a bunch of them tonight.
00:05:50
The SnowJobs Podcast
Sterling's going to come on. He's going to tell us all about it, take us through the Indusco family tree, and, you know, it's going to be interesting. You know, it's going to be good. Everybody's met Sterling at events, so ah if you've met him, very very nice guy, very good family, and now we're looking forward to hearing from them. But before we get to talking to Sterling, as always, we're going to hear from Team Top Gun.
00:06:11
The SnowJobs Podcast
and we're going to come back to a really quick week in review, and then we'll get into it.
00:06:46
The SnowJobs Podcast
All right, gang, we're back. So we'll do a quick week of review here. A couple show announcements we got. The the last one we're going to be doing this year that we know of anyway is coming up Thursday, October 2nd for the second annual Northeast D. Icing Solutions Field Day. That's in Uxbridge, Massachusetts.
00:07:04
The SnowJobs Podcast
Starts at 9 a.m. m ah It's going to have Jordan Smith doing his de-icing, his liquid de-icing talk. ah It's going to have a discussion on the benefits of live edge wing plows and a ah panel discussion for first year. Yeah, Jeremy's already laughing.
00:07:22
The SnowJobs Podcast
Dude, say what you will. A lot of people liked that argument show last last week when, you know, we had Maddie left wing young.
00:07:27
RICK JAMES
That was great.
00:07:29
RICK JAMES
Yeah. Jeez. He's going to be there too, isn't he?
00:07:29
The SnowJobs Podcast
ha, ha, ha, ha.
00:07:32
The SnowJobs Podcast
Yeah, oh yeah, we'll get into it all over again.
00:07:33
RICK JAMES
Oh boy.
00:07:35
The SnowJobs Podcast
All over again. And I had...
00:07:37
RICK JAMES
I got to get Johnny to come.
00:07:37
The SnowJobs Podcast
a
00:07:38
RICK JAMES
We got to get John Fardick to come then.
00:07:40
The SnowJobs Podcast
Oh, definitely. Get them up there. Like, why should we go in there outgunned?
00:07:43
RICK JAMES
Yeah.
00:07:46
The SnowJobs Podcast
Like, let's bring some backup.
00:07:46
RICK JAMES
I'll go again.
00:07:50
The SnowJobs Podcast
We'll bring some ah some guys that actually know the truth. ah But yeah, so that's...
00:07:54
RICK JAMES
I'll go on a suicide mission.
00:07:56
The SnowJobs Podcast
Yeah, no, get them to get them up there. That would be great, actually. um Come on. be good time uh but yeah we are doing a panel discussion that i guess jeremy and i are going to moderate and that's going to be again first year liquids users and their thoughts on that uh it also has an after hours networking event so please rsvp by september 25th if you plan to attend well that's over right september 25th is uh today when we're recording this so it's going to be past the date so you'd have to call pat salmon personally and ask if you can still come
00:08:19
RICK JAMES
Yesterday. Should
00:08:28
RICK JAMES
we give his phone number? we give his phone number out?
00:08:30
The SnowJobs Podcast
you Yeah, we probably should post this his his personal self.
00:08:32
RICK JAMES
Yeah. Yeah.
00:08:33
The SnowJobs Podcast
that I'm sure he would be okay with that, know, in the interest of helping snow guys.
00:08:34
RICK JAMES
Let's do it. He would be.
00:08:37
The SnowJobs Podcast
Jesus.
00:08:38
RICK JAMES
Yeah, I know he would.
00:08:41
The SnowJobs Podcast
What else do we got? ah Oh, we got to give a shout out to ah our friends at the band Rev Theory. They did their first live show in 10 years. They did it this past weekend.
00:08:52
The SnowJobs Podcast
It was awesome. I got to ah got to watch a little video on that.
00:08:53
RICK JAMES
you
00:08:56
The SnowJobs Podcast
They sounded good. They sounded the same. And the the layoff ah so they could raise their kids and stuff didn't seem to affect them much because they were awesome again. So congratulations to Rev Theory. Thank you again for allowing us to use our intro and outro music.
00:09:12
The SnowJobs Podcast
so it's It's pretty cool. them I told them, you know, just get us an address. We'll send you some swag so you guys can wear that stuff on stage. That'd be cool.
00:09:19
RICK JAMES
Yeah. Yeah. That'd be cool.
00:09:22
The SnowJobs Podcast
That'd be really cool.
00:09:23
RICK JAMES
If we got, you know, we got the shortage. So yeah.
00:09:26
The SnowJobs Podcast
Well, there is a shortage. So, and you know, those guys I'm sure tour in the winter. So it's, ah you know, they'll be cold. They need their car hearts and stuff.
00:09:34
RICK JAMES
Right. Right.
00:09:36
The SnowJobs Podcast
six so ah What else we got guys if you want the chance to have your snow company featured on season two of storm chasing with the snow jobs Make sure you get your submission in like yesterday.
00:09:46
The SnowJobs Podcast
All right winter is coming fast We have to finalize what companies are we're going to feature this season so get it done get it into storm equipment And that way we can ah let your peers vote on it and see if if you make the cut right, there's no company too small, you know, don't don't be nervous about doing it.
00:10:00
RICK JAMES
Right.
00:10:03
RICK JAMES
no everybody's Everybody's so worried about it.
00:10:05
The SnowJobs Podcast
Just do it
00:10:06
RICK JAMES
That's what everybody's so worried about. They're so worried they're they're not worthy of it. and it's is
00:10:10
The SnowJobs Podcast
Well, that's, even I said that.
00:10:11
RICK JAMES
Everybody's worthy. and we don't we don't anyone
00:10:12
The SnowJobs Podcast
I'm like,
00:10:13
RICK JAMES
You don't have to do whole production. like we you know we Just send your logo and a little bit about your company and we'll put it on and see who votes for it. i mean
00:10:22
The SnowJobs Podcast
Absolutely. And I mean, I get it. I get the apprehension for for guys because I like i I said to
Industry Events and Opportunities
00:10:27
The SnowJobs Podcast
you the other day, if if I wasn't doing this podcast with you and I wasn't involved in storm chasing, I wouldn't submit my company for it. I'd be like, no, I want to watch somebody cool.
00:10:36
The SnowJobs Podcast
Like, you know, but, you know, you never know what's going to be cool on camera. Right. So everybody's got characters.
00:10:40
RICK JAMES
Yeah, but
00:10:42
The SnowJobs Podcast
Everybody's got cool guys and cool shit. So get your ah get your company in there.
00:10:45
RICK JAMES
the way you got to look, the way you got to look at it is you just, you want to showcase your team. You know, that's what it's all about.
00:10:52
The SnowJobs Podcast
hundred percent
00:10:52
RICK JAMES
Showcasing your team. You're proud of your guys. but Put a submission in there. You know, if you don't make this one, maybe you'll make next year. So.
00:10:59
The SnowJobs Podcast
absolutely so yeah get that in as soon as possible do not miss the cutoff and uh hopefully we'll see on season two of storm chasing with the snow jobs uh guys keep hitting the the uh like and subscribe button on apple podcast and spotify and uh keep definitely doing reviews of the show uh we really appreciate that and it helps us uh keep going and keep bringing you what we got to bring you right so thanks in advance for doing that snow jobs nation stores again stocked and ready for orders do not let the uh long sleeve shortage coming this winter affect you get your stuff now make sure you get it uh you got anything else buddy all right cool then let's hear from our partners and we'll be right back and we'll get into it
00:11:39
RICK JAMES
I don't think so.
00:12:48
The SnowJobs Podcast
All right, gang, we are back. We are back. that It's pretty cool to hear the Razorback already is going to be offered in multiple different colors. You can get it in the yeah Battleship Gray from Storks. You can get it in black.
00:13:04
The SnowJobs Podcast
the But they're all going to have that Snowjobs decal on them. That's pretty freaking cool.
00:13:10
RICK JAMES
All the Arctic stuff, is that's amazing.
00:13:11
The SnowJobs Podcast
i know who sent us the picture of the yellow uh sectional with the with the snow job sticker on it was that smythe gotcha very cool well yeah so you can get those things now and a bunch of colors that's cool very cool
00:13:12
RICK JAMES
That's awesome. That's...
00:13:16
RICK JAMES
Steve, Arctic Steve. Yeah. really cool.
00:13:27
RICK JAMES
I would love to have a black or gray one.
00:13:30
The SnowJobs Podcast
yeah absolutely i think the black looks great i think the this i actually think the storks one will look cool too that'll look really good
00:13:30
RICK JAMES
Any plow.
00:13:37
RICK JAMES
That's going to be cool. Yeah.
00:13:38
The SnowJobs Podcast
but all right let's not waste any more time gang so let's welcome sterling low to the snow job sterling how are you bud it's it's going it's going long time they'll see
00:13:46
Sterling Lowe
Good guys. How's it going? Glad to be here.
00:13:47
RICK JAMES
Hey.
00:13:51
Sterling Lowe
Yeah.
00:13:52
RICK JAMES
Yeah.
00:13:52
Sterling Lowe
Up at not too long ago.
00:13:54
The SnowJobs Podcast
Nope. Nope. What last week? Last week.
00:13:57
RICK JAMES
Last week.
00:13:57
The SnowJobs Podcast
Yeah, that was good.
00:13:58
RICK JAMES
Yeah.
00:13:58
The SnowJobs Podcast
That was good. And you travel, you always travel heavy.
00:14:00
RICK JAMES
One time.
00:14:01
The SnowJobs Podcast
That's ah every time we see you, you got a whole gaggle of people with you. So it's, it's, it's cool to see it's a family affair. That's awesome.
00:14:09
Sterling Lowe
we try to make sure that everybody yeah gets a chance to see what's going on.
00:14:09
RICK JAMES
Yeah.
00:14:13
Sterling Lowe
I don't want to be the only one dragging this cart forever.
00:14:17
The SnowJobs Podcast
Absolutely.
00:14:17
RICK JAMES
That's great.
00:14:18
The SnowJobs Podcast
Absolutely. So you want to introduce us to some people, introduce them to the audience.
00:14:23
Sterling Lowe
Yeah, absolutely. So, you know, pretty much since the beginning and before the beginning, my brother, Ryan, you know, he was, he was we worked together in our former company family member.
00:14:34
Sterling Lowe
um And when we started the business, he came over, he's been here since, you know, he's been drug through the mud in every one of my crazy ideas and lots.
00:14:43
RICK JAMES
Hey
00:14:43
Sterling Lowe
And so Ryan's here.
00:14:44
The SnowJobs Podcast
ah
00:14:45
Sterling Lowe
Hey, what's up guys? How's going?
00:14:47
The SnowJobs Podcast
How are you, bud?
00:14:47
RICK JAMES
Ryan.
00:14:48
Sterling Lowe
Doing good.
00:14:49
The SnowJobs Podcast
Good to meet you.
00:14:49
Sterling Lowe
he's He's always nervous about what crazy lot I'm sending him to each year. He's like, where am I going now? like Right.
00:14:55
The SnowJobs Podcast
Don't worry about it.
00:14:56
Sterling Lowe
I'm the one who sends the furthest away just to prove everybody else that ah he's not giving them the worst lot that there is.
00:14:56
The SnowJobs Podcast
Just get it done. worst ones usually are the
00:14:57
RICK JAMES
Yeah.
00:15:03
Sterling Lowe
Right.
00:15:03
The SnowJobs Podcast
furthest away.
00:15:03
Sterling Lowe
I've got to send my own brother forward.
00:15:07
RICK JAMES
yeah
00:15:07
The SnowJobs Podcast
the worst one the worst ones usually are the furthest away
00:15:07
Sterling Lowe
Well, that's it. obviously
00:15:11
Sterling Lowe
Everybody's like, hey, I want the one right down the street. like We all want that one. Yeah.
00:15:14
The SnowJobs Podcast
Exactly.
00:15:15
RICK JAMES
even better
00:15:16
The SnowJobs Podcast
Exactly. It's a seniority based thing.
00:15:19
Sterling Lowe
Well, and the secret is I got the farthest away a lot, but it's the easiest one out there. So nobody knows that.
00:15:23
The SnowJobs Podcast
Oh, the networks.
00:15:24
Sterling Lowe
don
00:15:24
RICK JAMES
even better even better
00:15:25
The SnowJobs Podcast
Good for you. ah that's awesome.
00:15:27
RICK JAMES
even better
00:15:28
The SnowJobs Podcast
That's great.
00:15:28
Sterling Lowe
We have Maddie and Darla, which you guys have met. They've been, you know, I've drugged them around at all the different shows. they're hustle in there. So, you know, obviously I'm in Dusko and they're in Dusko as well, but they're of a spinoff doing a driveway brine called the Custom De-Icing Solutions, which is kind of our our brine.
00:15:49
Sterling Lowe
It really started from you guys because listening to some of your guys at Snowblow Driveways here in Baltimore, snowblowing driveways is not really an option, but spraying brine on driveways is.
00:16:00
The SnowJobs Podcast
Gotcha.
00:16:03
Sterling Lowe
And that's where we go got the idea.
00:16:04
RICK JAMES
that's That's very unique.
00:16:05
The SnowJobs Podcast
That's really cool.
00:16:06
RICK JAMES
Yeah, that's unique.
00:16:07
The SnowJobs Podcast
I've actually never heard of anybody that normally driveway guys that are doing bulk driveways don't apply any product. Usually it's just clearing the driveway. that's pretty cool.
00:16:16
Sterling Lowe
We get so many one-inch events. We get so many nuisance events that you know people are, you know they they don't want to, they're going to shovel anything, but they don't have to do anything if we spray brine.
00:16:25
The SnowJobs Podcast
Sure. Sure.
00:16:26
Sterling Lowe
So, so.
00:16:27
RICK JAMES
Right?
00:16:27
The SnowJobs Podcast
That's pretty cool.
00:16:29
Sterling Lowe
you go
00:16:29
The SnowJobs Podcast
So you guys don't clear the driveways. You just spray them down and you're good to go.
00:16:32
Sterling Lowe
We have a couple, um but the the goal is to spray it. We don't want to plow it.
00:16:38
The SnowJobs Podcast
Nice.
00:16:39
Sterling Lowe
Ideally, you're looking for route density. So if if you can find driveways that are close to the commercial sites that you're already doing, you can of double up.
00:16:45
The SnowJobs Podcast
Sure.
00:16:47
Sterling Lowe
The guys that are spraying parking lots can spray driveways, and it's a kill two birds with one stone. You spray driveways during the day, spray parking lots at night, you know
Sterling's Journey and Business Insights
00:16:57
Sterling Lowe
and then when it's snowing,
00:16:57
The SnowJobs Podcast
That's awesome.
00:16:57
RICK JAMES
yeah
00:16:59
The SnowJobs Podcast
That's definitely different than the normal model that we talk about.
00:17:01
RICK JAMES
That's outside the box.
00:17:03
Sterling Lowe
And that way you never sleep. yeah you're You're awake day, night.
00:17:06
RICK JAMES
Yeah, perfect.
00:17:07
The SnowJobs Podcast
Perfect. You sleep in April.
00:17:09
RICK JAMES
Perfect. Yeah.
00:17:12
The SnowJobs Podcast
ah That's cool.
00:17:12
RICK JAMES
That's great.
00:17:13
The SnowJobs Podcast
So, yeah, I mean, take us, start us off. Tell us about all the all the family businesses and what you guys do and yeah when you found it, whatever you want to talk about.
00:17:20
RICK JAMES
Yeah. Let us
00:17:22
Sterling Lowe
Yeah. so I started, you know, got into the trades in high school. So, uh, not myself and a couple of buddies left you know we couldn't hack high school any longer so we went out on work study our junior and senior year, started hanging drywall with a company that his father was working for it's like four or five of us that all went out.
00:17:40
Sterling Lowe
Um, some of the guys stayed in it. I was about three years in after I graduated and i was doing side work, you know, like as it was, you, we were always doing clubbing basements, all kinds of stuff.
00:17:51
Sterling Lowe
Anything you could do to make extra money.
00:17:51
The SnowJobs Podcast
Mm-hmm.
00:17:53
Sterling Lowe
Uh, everybody's chasing beer money back then. So,
00:17:58
Sterling Lowe
my wife who was not my wife at the time we dated forever and, uh, her father, i was doing side work for him and he's like, Hey, why don't you come paint with me? So at the time i was like, ah, I hate painting.
00:18:11
Sterling Lowe
Um, why would I do that?
00:18:14
The SnowJobs Podcast
ah
00:18:14
RICK JAMES
Yeah.
00:18:15
Sterling Lowe
Went to work with him and, uh, you know, um, Her and I ended up getting married. We'd been together for anyway you know forever anyway. And I spent 15 years in the family business hustling commercial painting.
00:18:28
Sterling Lowe
So, you know, hospitals, you name it, you know, you know, 124.
00:18:33
The SnowJobs Podcast
And do you still hate painting?
00:18:35
Sterling Lowe
You know, with anything you do, at some point you age out and you're like, all right, I better focus on this project because this is all I know how to do.
00:18:38
RICK JAMES
yeah
00:18:44
Sterling Lowe
So, like, you know, it's time to put your head in the game and and and do it.
00:18:44
The SnowJobs Podcast
Yeah.
00:18:47
The SnowJobs Podcast
ah
00:18:48
Sterling Lowe
So, you know, we did.
00:18:48
The SnowJobs Podcast
ah
00:18:50
Sterling Lowe
My brother was working at this at the same time, working for my father-in-law. My wife, she had two brothers that worked in the business as well. And we just did all kinds of stuff.
00:19:01
Sterling Lowe
oh One year we were doing we were doing a ton of hospital work and back in 2006, one of our customers was a local hospital and there was somewhat of a regime change. So like the new management was saying, hey, we need to stop sending our in-house electricians and plumbers out to shovel sidewalks on at the hospital because every time it snows and we have a pipe burst i don't have a you know plumber to fix it so they asked us if we were interested in doing the snow and at the time it was it was you know that company and we were working with another guy he landed the snow contract under my you know i was the one that pushed him off the ledge and talked him into doing it and uh i don't know
00:19:29
The SnowJobs Podcast
yep
00:19:47
The SnowJobs Podcast
Had you guys ever done snow before? that it was just like, no.
00:19:50
Sterling Lowe
not other than dry our own driveway and you know like you know on the side here there
00:19:54
The SnowJobs Podcast
Nothing like jumping into the deep end. I'm going to take a hospital, start off.
00:19:57
Sterling Lowe
it want to start with o
00:19:58
RICK JAMES
Oh, we'll do a hospital. Why not?
00:20:01
Sterling Lowe
But I will say had the one buddy of mine, Jeff Lozier. I, uh, I leaned on him heavy cause he was doing like, he was doing a lot of the national accounts. So he had like 45 Mr. Tires.
00:20:13
Sterling Lowe
He was doing all over the place.
00:20:14
The SnowJobs Podcast
Mm-hmm.
00:20:14
Sterling Lowe
And, uh, yeah He's like, it's easy. All you do, you know you need this, you need that. He set us up. And so the first year we were doing the hospital under my father-in-law's company.
00:20:26
Sterling Lowe
And then got through that year. We went into the hospital. We were working under you know, the oversight of the in-house landscape guys. So pretty much they, they showed us, you know, and, and we thought we knew everything at the time.
00:20:36
The SnowJobs Podcast
Good.
00:20:41
Sterling Lowe
Cause we're like, you know, there's going to curb to curb blacktop. There'll be nothing mother nature can throw at us that we can't solve. Well, we were wrong.
00:20:48
RICK JAMES
Thank you.
00:20:49
Sterling Lowe
Um, but we still did the job and we did a good job. Uh, you know, we put a lot of effort into it and, uh,
00:20:51
The SnowJobs Podcast
good
00:20:55
Sterling Lowe
So the the next year, i decided to break out on my own, walk through the door in September. And my wife's holding up. We had two little kids and she was holding the the third brand new baby that was like three days old.
00:21:09
Sterling Lowe
and I was like, hey, hon, I think I just quit my job. And yeah which also happened to be you know with her father.
00:21:13
RICK JAMES
ah
00:21:14
The SnowJobs Podcast
ah
00:21:16
Sterling Lowe
So she was like, you jaw drop. What are you were you kidding me?
00:21:18
The SnowJobs Podcast
oh man it's a bold move that's a bold move
00:21:20
Sterling Lowe
So then in Dusko was born.
00:21:24
Sterling Lowe
Well, you know, it's just one of those things.
00:21:24
RICK JAMES
Yeah.
00:21:26
Sterling Lowe
It's ah it's it's that progression where you're like, all right, it's it's my turn. I want to go out and and do what i want to do.
00:21:32
The SnowJobs Podcast
and how did uh how did the father-in-law take that bet i bet there was
00:21:36
Sterling Lowe
ah There were some rough years. Like it was, you know, like...
00:21:39
The SnowJobs Podcast
i bet i bet there was
00:21:40
Sterling Lowe
And on top of that, we all live within like blocks of one another. Like I can walk to my mother's house. My sister who is not here today is like the the saving grace in the office.
00:21:51
Sterling Lowe
You know, she's the one that's firing out the invoices and, um you know, I'll get back to her. But she's across the street. Mother, wife's parents up the street.
00:22:02
Sterling Lowe
My brother's up the street.
00:22:03
RICK JAMES
Oh, Yeah.
00:22:04
Sterling Lowe
Sister-in-law's up the street.
00:22:04
The SnowJobs Podcast
Wow.
00:22:06
Sterling Lowe
Everybody's close. So we were...
00:22:07
The SnowJobs Podcast
That's cool.
00:22:08
Sterling Lowe
We were on top of one another and now we're a lot more like normal people where everybody has a little piece of their own life that they live. They, know, they have their own job. Um, and, uh, you Thanksgiving's wonderful. So it's all good.
00:22:19
Sterling Lowe
Yeah.
00:22:20
The SnowJobs Podcast
ah Yeah, that that's really cool to have that much family that close and at the same time, not cool at all.
00:22:27
Sterling Lowe
Yeah.
00:22:27
The SnowJobs Podcast
Like, you know, it's...
00:22:28
RICK JAMES
Yeah. Yeah.
00:22:29
The SnowJobs Podcast
but
00:22:30
Sterling Lowe
yeah If you're not used to having people nearby with four daughters, it was a spectacular thing. Grandparents were within walking distance, aunts and uncles and everybody all over the place.
00:22:37
The SnowJobs Podcast
Oh, that's great.
00:22:40
Sterling Lowe
That was a good thing.
00:22:41
The SnowJobs Podcast
That's cool.
00:22:42
RICK JAMES
That's great.
00:22:43
Sterling Lowe
So started in Dusko.
00:22:43
The SnowJobs Podcast
Very
00:22:46
Sterling Lowe
My father-in-law didn't want anything to do with snow. He's like, you can keep that nightmare. I'll keep doing what I know how to do. And we did, guess that was 2007. We did three or four more years at the hospital.
00:22:58
Sterling Lowe
And 2010, I had bid a bunch of shopping centers that we were doing painting for. so we were doing commercial roofs. You know, our painting business pretty much involved a lot of industrial. So hospitals.
00:23:13
The SnowJobs Podcast
Sure.
00:23:14
Sterling Lowe
we're sand blasting tanks it's food service places for you know flour storage We do epoxy floors. either One day we're painting an office somewhere. you know The next day we're up you know cleaning up the side of a building where its side had been taken down.
00:23:30
Sterling Lowe
Pressure washing, parking a lot st striping, you name
00:23:31
RICK JAMES
Mm-hmm. Oh.
00:23:32
The SnowJobs Podcast
h
00:23:34
Sterling Lowe
Coatings.
00:23:37
Sterling Lowe
But on the snow side, um we had priced, in 2010, we had priced a bunch of shopping centers for a painting customer. And we were still involved in the hospital.
00:23:48
Sterling Lowe
And we didn't land any of the shopping centers. um we had We had a blizzard in December, um like one of those 40 hours straight, you know, where just been out until you just can't do it anymore.
00:23:58
The SnowJobs Podcast
Yep.
00:24:01
Sterling Lowe
And thank God it stopped snowing so we could all go home for a little while um And then we had a decent January and in the end of January, i get a call from my customer that I priced all these shopping centers with.
00:24:14
Sterling Lowe
And they said, uh, if we fire three vendors, can you take, take over three shopping centers? And they were like, you know, 20 acre site, 20 acres of asphalt. And then two, 10 acres of asphalt, um, on a whim. So they had five day cancellation clause on their contracts.
00:24:32
Sterling Lowe
And of course I said, yeah, no problem. You know, pull out your notes.
00:24:35
RICK JAMES
ah
00:24:36
The SnowJobs Podcast
This wasn't, and tell me this wasn't the year that you had that like massive mega storm where all the states were sending rescue loaders into, into Maryland. Was it?
00:24:46
The SnowJobs Podcast
Holy shit.
00:24:46
Sterling Lowe
Eight days later, we got the first. So.
00:24:48
RICK JAMES
Oh.
00:24:49
The SnowJobs Podcast
I remember that.
00:24:51
Sterling Lowe
but
00:24:52
RICK JAMES
ah
00:24:52
The SnowJobs Podcast
ah holy shit i remember that
00:24:53
Sterling Lowe
so Yeah. We had two back-to-backs. They were like a week apart and, uh, you know, we pulled it off, you know, because we knew what we were doing. We'd been doing snow enough. Um, I had vendor partners that I pulled in, like, you know, uh, the guy, Jeff, that was talking about, he has a bunch of wheel loaders. So I had him doing big sites, pushing off.
00:25:14
Sterling Lowe
Um, we, we handled it like, you know, season froze. We had no issues whatsoever.
00:25:17
The SnowJobs Podcast
That's awesome.
00:25:19
RICK JAMES
That's great.
00:25:19
Sterling Lowe
So the first storm hit, um, in that first week in February and we had finished up a site in Annapolis and then we were heading over to check on the guys in Laurel and phone rang.
00:25:32
Sterling Lowe
They were like, hey, the roof is collapsing on the site in Annapolis. from the snow load we need you to send 15 guys back and meet our engineer to figure out what we can do.
00:25:46
Sterling Lowe
So, you know, make some phone calls, gather up some guys, shovels, whatnot. We're going up on the roof, do something. We turn around and back, jump in with an with an engineer. we go up a roof ladder, get up on the roof, and there's places where there are nine feet of snow because of drifting.
00:26:01
The SnowJobs Podcast
Wow.
00:26:02
RICK JAMES
Oh.
00:26:02
Sterling Lowe
You know, like the roots have different
00:26:04
The SnowJobs Podcast
Yep.
00:26:04
Sterling Lowe
and it would just drift over there were places where it was ready to collapse
00:26:08
The SnowJobs Podcast
Geez.
00:26:08
Sterling Lowe
and like in In the grocery store, they had a ah pharmacy where the walls were framed from floor to ceiling. So any deflection in the roof and the drywall was crapping on the studs and it was popping off.
00:26:20
The SnowJobs Podcast
Wow.
00:26:21
Sterling Lowe
So we go up and we we start measuring snow. you know We're weighing it. yes We're cutting out 12 inch by 12 inch squares and putting it a bucket, taking it downstairs and weighing it to see you know how much weight is actually potentially on the roof.
00:26:36
Sterling Lowe
And knowing that we have another 24-inch storm like two days away, it's coming, the next the second storm, it's coming. So they give us the go-ahead, shovel the whole roof.
00:26:47
Sterling Lowe
At this time, it was ah it it was a big grocery store. And just about the time we got set up to shovel that roof, the like so that that person worked for the insurance company. So the insurance company said, well, it's cheaper shovel the roof than it is to build on a new building when the roof collapses.
00:27:02
The SnowJobs Podcast
So they think.
00:27:03
Sterling Lowe
Yeah.
00:27:04
The SnowJobs Podcast
I haven't gotten the bill yet.
00:27:05
RICK JAMES
Mm-hmm.
00:27:08
Sterling Lowe
So we're we're we're funneling guys up on the roof. you know like We had 50 guys to shovel the roof. We had a plan to stage guys. It was like three-man crews. You'd set them 10 feet apart.
00:27:19
Sterling Lowe
The goal was not to get every inch of snow off the roof. The goal is to get it down to four or five inches.
00:27:25
The SnowJobs Podcast
Wow.
00:27:25
Sterling Lowe
So we had guys shoveling snow onto a tarp and then dragging the tarp to the edge of the building, throwing it over. Skid loaders hauling snow out to the edge, wheel loaders making piles. and just about the time we got that system working, they said, shovel the rest of the shopping center.
00:27:41
Sterling Lowe
So we're in a, you know, a, well, I guess that would be a, uh, 10 acres of, ten acres a parking lot there's acres of
00:27:49
The SnowJobs Podcast
wow
00:27:52
RICK JAMES
Oh wow.
00:27:52
Sterling Lowe
shovel. And then the phone rang and they said, oh, and do Laurel too, do Bel Air, do down in DC. We shoveled like, don't know, 8 million square feet of roof in two weeks.
00:28:06
Sterling Lowe
Through the storm, 250 guys shoveling roofs. I'm sucking on an oxygen tank most days trying to
00:28:13
The SnowJobs Podcast
Why are we even, we shouldn't even be talking to you right now.
00:28:13
RICK JAMES
wow.
00:28:16
The SnowJobs Podcast
You should be retired living on a beach so or something after that.
00:28:19
Sterling Lowe
Well, unfortunately, i was pretty young in the business, so we we did well. it was It was a good gig, but I always teased because the the guy we were working for always said, he's like, well, we we don't care you know how you do. We just don't want you buying a yacht off of us. And after the after this was all over, I said, if it ever happens again, don't worry about a yacht because if it ever happens again I'm buying two yachts.
00:28:41
Sterling Lowe
I learned my lesson on the first one.
00:28:44
The SnowJobs Podcast
Oh, man.
00:28:46
Sterling Lowe
There'll be two yachts.
00:28:46
The SnowJobs Podcast
That's crazy.
00:28:46
RICK JAMES
that
00:28:48
Sterling Lowe
So we picked up those sites 2010 and it seems like every year since because because we've had like in Baltimore um in the past 15 years, we've had anywhere from 0.2 inches three years ago to 77 inches that year.
00:28:48
RICK JAMES
That does not sound fun.
00:29:06
RICK JAMES
Wow.
00:29:07
Sterling Lowe
And we in I think it was 2016, we had 30 inches in one shop.
00:29:11
Sterling Lowe
thirty inches in one shop so the noreaers are
00:29:15
The SnowJobs Podcast
Yeah.
00:29:16
Sterling Lowe
ah piece of what we do So, you know, yeah we would always be on our big sites and there would be a small pad site nearby that a bunch of guys with pickup trucks would have 15 McDonald's, let's say.
00:29:28
Sterling Lowe
And we'd get one of those big storms and both of them would have drive shafts run off in the McDonald's parking lot. And we're out there running loaders and getting the job done. So it kind of, it kind of secured our spot because they knew when the big stuff fell that we could pull it off.
00:29:41
The SnowJobs Podcast
yeah
00:29:45
Sterling Lowe
Um, so we've been kind of there ever since we've done all these stuff and every time they buy, I think I have every single site in the state of Maryland for the one, one company, uh, except for one.
00:29:56
Sterling Lowe
And, uh, you know, every time, you know, they're always like, well, if we get a big storm, we're not going to be in trouble because these guys have proven that they can not only get it off the parking lot, but get it off the roof if they have to.
00:30:08
The SnowJobs Podcast
Yeah, and that's a real possibility down there because that's usually right about where the Nor'easters make that hard left and come north. you know It's like they come they start to go inland at that point a little bit, and they ride they ride up the coast, but they they reach further inland.
00:30:19
Sterling Lowe
yeah
00:30:27
The SnowJobs Podcast
So Baltimore is like the battleground there of what's going to happen. and did you You guys didn't have a Nor'easter. Did one of those hit you last year, the southern ones?
00:30:36
Sterling Lowe
The southern one missed us. So like the one where you guys are, Jeremy, where you were down in Richmond.
00:30:41
The SnowJobs Podcast
yep gotcha cool oh yeah i was just gonna ask that good call
00:30:42
RICK JAMES
Yeah, Fredericksburg, I
00:30:42
Sterling Lowe
both southern like it it grazed it but didn't have
00:30:48
RICK JAMES
think. Yeah. What is the average snowfall out there in Baltimore?
00:30:52
Sterling Lowe
It used to be 20 inches, and I think it's down like, you know, last year we got the southern sites got 18. The stuff far north got 14, and I think our average might be between 14 and 18 inches.
00:31:06
The SnowJobs Podcast
okay
00:31:07
Sterling Lowe
But, you know, here it depends on your proximity to the Chesapeake bay and are you north and west of I-95 because that's the strike zone is the further north and west of I-95, the more snow you're going to get
00:31:21
The SnowJobs Podcast
And if you get any nor'easters that year, like, yeah.
00:31:24
Sterling Lowe
Yes. Yeah. mean, know, we've had those, well, the year we got 33 inches snow, 30 it fell one shot. yeah.
00:31:30
The SnowJobs Podcast
Yeah.
00:31:31
Sterling Lowe
so
00:31:31
The SnowJobs Podcast
I mean, that's and that's a real thing. I mean, you guys, yeah, you might have a 16, 18-inch average now, but you could very easily have 50 to 70 inches of snow, no problem on any given year with a Nor'easter or two.
00:31:44
Sterling Lowe
Yeah, and I think they're saying this year we're looking at that 1314 analog year.
Snow Management Challenges and Innovations
00:31:50
Sterling Lowe
And back then we were, you know, our northern property saw 40 inches of snow.
00:31:55
Sterling Lowe
Not that we're somebody.
00:31:55
The SnowJobs Podcast
Who's saying that?
00:31:55
The SnowJobs Podcast
The weathermen? Oh.
00:32:05
The SnowJobs Podcast
but i had to
00:32:05
RICK JAMES
Yeah.
00:32:05
Sterling Lowe
and exactly
00:32:07
The SnowJobs Podcast
ah Yeah.
00:32:08
RICK JAMES
well
00:32:09
The SnowJobs Podcast
Oh, shit. Oh, man. Well, that's ah that's crazy. that So, yeah, that that's interesting. I mean, so you you're kind of between a rock and a hard place because you you have to price basically on a lower winter, like 16 to 18.
00:32:27
The SnowJobs Podcast
But then do you have something in? Like, how do you handle that? The potential for those nor'easters if you're on like a seasonal type deal?
00:32:34
Sterling Lowe
So we, it's, it's rare. Like, I won't say there's no seasonals here because there are some seasonals.
00:32:40
The SnowJobs Podcast
Okay.
00:32:42
Sterling Lowe
The guys that are doing so like your customers that are doing seasonals, you know, if they're, they're a company that has properties outside of Maryland, they know what a normal seasonal structure looks like.
00:32:53
The SnowJobs Podcast
Sure.
00:32:54
Sterling Lowe
They know what 50 inches of snow is and guys plowing snow for a solid four or five months. And when they come here and they're like, yeah, but you know, three years ago we got nothing.
00:33:05
Sterling Lowe
why would i Why would I sign a seasonal deal with you to pay you a pile of money with the chance of getting nothing?
00:33:06
RICK JAMES
Hmm.
00:33:08
The SnowJobs Podcast
Gotcha. Gotcha.
00:33:12
Sterling Lowe
So often, yeah if if people have seasonal deals, if you get hit hard, you're done. Because the floors and caps, I mean, I know there are people that are out there that have floors and caps as well.
00:33:26
Sterling Lowe
But most of the seasonal deals I hear about are guys doing stuff just rock bottom cheap. And, you know, maybe, maybe they're doing that just to offset some of their costs because everything else they do is hourly.
00:33:34
The SnowJobs Podcast
Yeah.
00:33:37
The SnowJobs Podcast
Yep. Hoping for no snow. That's, uh, yeah.
00:33:39
Sterling Lowe
Um, one of the big models could,
00:33:39
RICK JAMES
So what do you do?
00:33:44
RICK JAMES
what So what do you what are your contracts like then? Are they per time, hourly?
00:33:46
Sterling Lowe
Most of what we do hourly, yeah there's a ton of hourly stuff here.
00:33:48
RICK JAMES
What? Hourly?
00:33:50
Sterling Lowe
you Usually you put a contract together, you know the ah RFP comes out, they're looking for hourly pricing, per inch pricing and seasonal pricing. And you know, you could put a bunch of imaginary numbers on paper for seasonal and per inch because they're gonna award it hourly.
00:34:05
RICK JAMES
Mm-hmm.
00:34:08
RICK JAMES
Gotcha.
00:34:10
Sterling Lowe
lot of the other companies around here, some of the model is to do it on a per inch. um you know rate, so zero to two, two to four, and then there their idea is sub out all of the labor to anybody you can find with a plow and and supply the salt.
00:34:20
The SnowJobs Podcast
True.
00:34:20
RICK JAMES
ye
00:34:31
The SnowJobs Podcast
Hmm. That's interesting.
00:34:32
Sterling Lowe
That's
00:34:33
RICK JAMES
well What was Mark saying last week at the SMS? He was talking, lot of guys are starting to charge per event. Did you hear him say that?
00:34:43
RICK JAMES
Or am I not, was I not understand?
00:34:44
Sterling Lowe
it. So per event, would you per inch so like
00:34:48
RICK JAMES
perrian Okay, yeah, I understand the per inch, but but we i was trying I must have been trying to read too deep into what he was saying.
00:34:48
Sterling Lowe
back
00:34:54
The SnowJobs Podcast
No, you got it. It's per event, but the event is broken down until it's increments.
00:34:55
RICK JAMES
but
00:34:58
The SnowJobs Podcast
so but It's basically incremental.
00:35:00
Sterling Lowe
Yeah, if the storm drops eight inches and the weather report says you got eight, that's what you bill for.
00:35:01
RICK JAMES
Yeah. yeah
00:35:06
The SnowJobs Podcast
Yeah.
00:35:07
RICK JAMES
Gotcha.
00:35:07
Sterling Lowe
But usually that's also with the add of a per application on salt.
00:35:07
RICK JAMES
Yep.
00:35:13
The SnowJobs Podcast
Yes.
00:35:13
Sterling Lowe
So you're getting paid you know for that per inch plus you know two applications of salt, sidewalks, parking lots.
00:35:21
RICK JAMES
Gotcha. Yeah. Yeah. We do that too. So he's something, but I was like, I don't know. was thinking too deep or something that Mark was coming up with something new. And I was like, what is this about? Yeah.
00:35:31
Sterling Lowe
Well, and then there's always the per plan.
00:35:31
RICK JAMES
Yeah.
00:35:35
Sterling Lowe
how seven eleven is play you or yeah
00:35:37
The SnowJobs Podcast
Yeah.
00:35:38
RICK JAMES
yeah ye
00:35:39
The SnowJobs Podcast
Yep. hundred percent 100%. besides the, are you still doing the hospitals or no?
00:35:45
Sterling Lowe
So, um, there was, for us, there was you know a whole regime change back in 2011. So we don't do the hospitals. We still have all of the, um, all of the shopping centers.
00:35:57
Sterling Lowe
And then we have picked up a new one.
00:35:57
The SnowJobs Podcast
Okay.
00:35:59
Sterling Lowe
It seems like every year, most of what we're doing right now, we have been doing for,
00:36:06
Sterling Lowe
We lost one to a sale last year, a property sold. But we've been doing this stuff since 2010.
00:36:13
The SnowJobs Podcast
So what are are shopping centers that's your bread and butter? Are you doing any other type sites or no?
00:36:18
Sterling Lowe
So we also do, we've done smaller distribution centers, like, you know, 150 dock doors on a, you know, on a grocery store, know, distribution center.
00:36:27
The SnowJobs Podcast
Mm-hmm.
00:36:29
Sterling Lowe
We've never done anything, you know, two million square foot, you know, Amazon type stuff, but, you We do some office a lot of office and a lot of office warehouse flex.
00:36:41
Sterling Lowe
So you know it's like a storefront on one side and all dock doors on the back.
00:36:45
The SnowJobs Podcast
Yep.
00:36:45
Sterling Lowe
So whatever they put in there, and it's all different businesses. we We just took one of them over last year. That is, it's three buildings, soon to be nine buildings.
00:36:56
Sterling Lowe
That'll be two and a half million square feet when it's all said and done, of asphalt and sidewalks.
00:37:01
The SnowJobs Podcast
Very cool.
00:37:02
Sterling Lowe
And it's a nice site. That's one that we we took to all liquid Brian.
00:37:08
The SnowJobs Podcast
Yeah, we're going to to get right to that.
00:37:09
RICK JAMES
Yeah, because yeah because you you're you're all in the liquid, aren't you?
00:37:11
The SnowJobs Podcast
We're going to have to go right in there.
00:37:14
Sterling Lowe
So we haven't completely made the transition, of you know, with With any craft, you know, whether, like especially here in Baltimore, you need snow to practice what it is you're doing.
00:37:26
Sterling Lowe
um
00:37:26
RICK JAMES
Yep.
00:37:27
Sterling Lowe
This will be our sixth year in liquid brine. And like our first real year in it, you know, it hardly snowed at all. We sprayed brine twice that year. We were, uh, two years ago, we had, 12 or 13 inches of snow, but that all fell almost in one week.
00:37:43
Sterling Lowe
So you, you kind of get all the toys out and then it's time to pack them up or sit around, you're waiting for another storm and the snow machine gets turned off. And, um, yeah, so, um, we, we have transitioned.
00:37:51
RICK JAMES
Oh yeah.
00:37:55
Sterling Lowe
So we have a couple of sites. Ryan does a site that is, you know, he sprays Brian on all the roads they treat the sidewalks as they can and then, you know, we'll back it up with some, uh, sidewalk product, granular product on the sidewalks.
00:38:11
Sterling Lowe
And a lot of that has to do with the fact that it's an hour or 15 minutes away from our shop. Um, so you're You're always playing that game on a time and material contract of, well, let's you know if I put a lot of time and effort into setting this thing up and it doesn't snow, am I going to justify it?
00:38:17
The SnowJobs Podcast
Gotcha.
00:38:17
RICK JAMES
oh yeah
00:38:17
The SnowJobs Podcast
Cool.
00:38:28
Sterling Lowe
So we we we'll drag our feet a little bit with setting a site up completely until we know you know for sure that it looks like we're going to actually have a snow season, which is a new thing because you know it used to always snow.
00:38:40
The SnowJobs Podcast
cool
00:38:44
RICK JAMES
Yeah.
00:38:44
The SnowJobs Podcast
Yeah.
00:38:46
The SnowJobs Podcast
changing a little bit but hopefully it's coming back if we get two of these winners in a row that'll be good did you guys do okay last winter or not really you said it was all right okay
00:38:47
Sterling Lowe
yeah
00:38:54
Sterling Lowe
Yeah, I mean, it was, you know, it's the best winter of the last three. So, you know, guys are complaining about winters. Yeah, you know, 18 inches. eighteen inches
00:39:03
The SnowJobs Podcast
well i believe Yeah, I believe the weathermen are throwing their pin on that, that it's ah all the numbers and and all the ah all the stuff looks like it's going to be identical to last winter.
00:39:14
The SnowJobs Podcast
So they're putting that out there.
00:39:15
Sterling Lowe
yeah
00:39:16
The SnowJobs Podcast
So we'll see.
00:39:18
Sterling Lowe
It's hard. I try not to look too far ahead because it seems like no matter how much effort they put into forecasting and, you know, we like in D.C., I think we have the Washington. i think it's the Washington Post puts out like 14 different weather guys for predictions for the season.
00:39:38
Sterling Lowe
And every year, one of them is right. but it's never the same guy
00:39:43
The SnowJobs Podcast
yeah i mean yeah a broken clock is right twice a day okay oh shit uh jay you want to take it want to take them into ah your favorite portion there the deness leasing equipment segment there you go
00:39:48
RICK JAMES
oh
00:40:00
RICK JAMES
You got it. All right, Sterling. Let's tell everybody about all your equipment you got from your, what are you running for pushers, loaders, and your sprayers, everything, sidewalk machines.
00:40:06
The SnowJobs Podcast
what do guys run
00:40:13
Sterling Lowe
Yep. So our, sidewalks, um, we run those holder trackers. So we have five of those 992 oddball articulating trackers.
00:40:20
The SnowJobs Podcast
Okay.
00:40:21
RICK JAMES
Hmm. Yep.
00:40:25
The SnowJobs Podcast
Yeah.
00:40:26
Sterling Lowe
We bought them out of a out of a of Ottawa. There's a company and holder has a location up in Canada and they lease them to the city of Ottawa. And once they get so many hours on them, they they they sell them. So we bought five of them about five years ago.
00:40:41
RICK JAMES
Wow.
00:40:41
Sterling Lowe
Phenomenal machines when when they're working.
00:40:43
RICK JAMES
Yep.
00:40:45
Sterling Lowe
um they They're pretty key.
00:40:47
The SnowJobs Podcast
Are they?
00:40:47
Sterling Lowe
And
00:40:47
RICK JAMES
I was going ask, i have heard some I've heard they kind of break down a lot or something.
00:40:53
Sterling Lowe
Yeah, so they they have like a thousand hoses on them. So, you it's one of those things where you want to make sure that all of your hoses in any of the articulating places are in good shape.
00:40:56
RICK JAMES
Yep. Yep.
00:41:03
Sterling Lowe
We found weak points in the the radiators on them. So, you know, like we've had long enough that we've like we've started to rebuild some things like we took the fans on them that are belt driven.
00:41:17
Sterling Lowe
The belts are really hard to change. So when they go bad, you kind of like have to take the whole back of the machine apart to do it. We've swapped them out for electric fans, and we've tried to make some upgrades so that we can keep them running.
00:41:31
Sterling Lowe
They've been a little of pain, but they're completely self-contained. We have one of them that's got a Schmidt brine sprayer on it, kind of like the Schmidt de-icer or salter you guys have.
00:41:40
RICK JAMES
hit
00:41:44
The SnowJobs Podcast
Nice. Yeah.
00:41:44
RICK JAMES
Yep. They're awesome.
00:41:46
Sterling Lowe
Yeah, I mean, it's ah it's a, they're like kind of before their time. i mean, yeah they're really a great piece of equipment for some of them.
00:41:51
The SnowJobs Podcast
yeah
00:41:51
RICK JAMES
Yeah. Yeah. They're the great machines when they work. I mean, our, a lot of our municipals have them around here and stuff, but you know, you don't see too many, think one contractor's got one that you bought somebody, but yeah, they, they got a big price tag on them too.
00:41:59
Sterling Lowe
right
00:42:07
RICK JAMES
Cause a local dealer here in town, our pressure washer guy, he started their Karcher, the Karcher brand.
00:42:15
Sterling Lowe
ye
00:42:15
RICK JAMES
They started selling holders in town here like last year. So, but,
00:42:19
Sterling Lowe
Yeah, municipal is who's buying them new because they're 150 grand just for the machine.
00:42:25
The SnowJobs Podcast
ye
00:42:25
RICK JAMES
Mm-hmm.
00:42:26
Sterling Lowe
but But we've had good luck. When we keep them running, there they work really well. Brooms on the front, we do mostly plows. We swap all of our sidewalk plows out to rubber cutting edges just so we're not scratching up sidewalks.
00:42:39
Sterling Lowe
um They have drop spreaders on the rear. We have one of the machines that has a a big feedler kind of like a Schmidt unit, but it's a hydraulic driven salt spreader.
00:42:51
Sterling Lowe
So it's just's a hopper that sits on the bed. Super nice, you know, nice machine. They're all, they're either GPS or they're driven off of the wheel speed of the machine that reads off the tack.
00:43:04
Sterling Lowe
And so when you stop, it stops.
00:43:05
The SnowJobs Podcast
That's cool.
00:43:07
RICK JAMES
nice
00:43:08
Sterling Lowe
therere they're They're big machines. And we actually were thinking about putting a 10 foot Arctic on, which I set one up with last year. and put it out on a parking lot because if it's loaded, the machine weighs like 9,000 pounds with, you if it's loaded down with salt or brine.
00:43:23
RICK JAMES
oh
00:43:25
The SnowJobs Podcast
Yeah, so it's a skid, basically.
00:43:26
Sterling Lowe
Yeah, i mean, it's ah it's a heavy-duty piece of equipment.
00:43:27
RICK JAMES
yeah
00:43:30
Sterling Lowe
So we were run those. We have a ton of skid loaders either in-house or through our subs that work with us all together. You know, a bunch of cat 287 track machines, some running protex, which is, you know, that rubber squeegee thing here in the Baltimore area.
00:43:47
RICK JAMES
Oh yeah.
00:43:51
RICK JAMES
oh yeah
00:43:52
The SnowJobs Podcast
It works.
00:43:52
Sterling Lowe
It's common.
00:43:54
Sterling Lowe
I brought in four arctics last year. You know, after listening to you guys, I was like, all right, well, I'm going to have to try it.
00:44:02
The SnowJobs Podcast
All right, how'd they do?
00:44:04
Sterling Lowe
They, you know, like pretty much every guy that I put behind. So we put one on, we have a 907 cap machine. We put a 13 foot on that and I put an operator in it that is capable, you know, like a guy that, that, that, you know he's, he's run our big loaders and all that kind of stuff.
00:44:17
RICK JAMES
yeah
00:44:21
The SnowJobs Podcast
Listen close, Matt Young, to what you're about to hear.
00:44:23
RICK JAMES
Yeah. I knew that was going.
00:44:24
The SnowJobs Podcast
all right.
00:44:25
RICK JAMES
Yep.
00:44:25
The SnowJobs Podcast
Listen closely, Matt. but Go ahead, Sterling. Sorry.
00:44:28
Sterling Lowe
Every single person that I, you know, I, we had a guy that's got a big jump like one of the biggest john deeer track machines we put a thirteen foot on his and dumped him on like a 150,000 square foot, ask, you parking a small a grocery store and a couple of little small stores next to it.
00:44:42
The SnowJobs Podcast
Mm-hmm.
00:44:46
Sterling Lowe
You know, he stayed there and mopped it up completely by himself. And all of them were like, don't ever bring me any piece of equipment except for this thing right here. Like, where has this been all these years?
00:44:55
The SnowJobs Podcast
Yep. Yep.
00:44:57
Sterling Lowe
What
00:44:57
The SnowJobs Podcast
Yep.
00:44:57
RICK JAMES
Yes. Oh, Matt.
00:44:59
The SnowJobs Podcast
ye that's ah yeah That's pretty much the consensus. but the But again, you have to use them to actually appreciate them.
00:45:04
Sterling Lowe
do you mean?
00:45:08
Sterling Lowe
Well, and the guy that I, the the guy, Josh, that I put on my, my wheel loader, um, yeah, he's the guy that's been running loaders for us every winter, uh, you know, nine 30 with a 16 foot pro tech on it.
00:45:08
RICK JAMES
Yeah.
00:45:21
Sterling Lowe
Um, just a great operator. And, you know, he was like, oh, well, we'll try it out see how it does. And in no time black. he had figured out how to leave nothing behind, like nothing against the curb, you know every detail checked, to the point where I was like, well, how did you get up close to the building without scraping the building?
00:45:42
Sterling Lowe
And they figured it out.
00:45:44
The SnowJobs Podcast
There you go
00:45:44
Sterling Lowe
And when you when you pair those things with our brine operation, it just compliments the brine because you have to put less salt down.
00:45:54
The SnowJobs Podcast
go Sure 100% There's so little left behind Absolutely
00:45:57
RICK JAMES
right
00:46:00
Sterling Lowe
Um, so we run a bunch of loaders, bunch of skid loaders. Um, we are, our goal is to start transitioning. So like, this is everything we own where this is Ford country. So, um, you know, we're all four trucks.
00:46:14
Sterling Lowe
Uh, my brother and I, um, for our brine sprayers, we run those 500 gallon camion units, uh, in a F350 dually.
00:46:21
The SnowJobs Podcast
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
00:46:22
RICK JAMES
Mm-hmm.
00:46:24
Sterling Lowe
Um, trucks or Fords are all of our brine equipment just so happens to be, um, know, I got a buddy that runs, uh, extreme fabrication out in Western Maryland or Westminster out here.
00:46:38
Sterling Lowe
He, he sold me my first brine maker or brine sprayer. Um, and it happened to be a cameo unit and we were, you know,
00:46:45
The SnowJobs Podcast
So that's great, actually, because we don't get a lot of Camion guys on here. We're mostly a VSI by boss show. But tell us about the Camions, you know, all about them what the good, the the bad.
00:46:53
RICK JAMES
Yeah. Mm-hmm.
00:46:57
The SnowJobs Podcast
You know, what do you think?
00:46:58
Sterling Lowe
So, you know, like I'm a huge Jordan Smith fan. I mean, like, you know like a lot, you know pretty much everything we know about liquid Brian, you know, we've got gotten listening to him, you know, telling us how to do it.
00:47:02
The SnowJobs Podcast
Mm hmm. Yeah.
00:47:12
Sterling Lowe
We love the VSI units. But we came from, like when we were doing all granular, we were Swenson, um Western. um you know We came from a time when you were out in the parking lot, soaking down you know a gas motor with WD-40, trying to figure out why this thing won't start.
00:47:32
The SnowJobs Podcast
ah yeah yeah
00:47:33
Sterling Lowe
and And when we had the option to go brine, it was like, hey, this thing's got an electric motor on it. And we had already started to convert over to Swenson electric motor salt brokers.
00:47:44
The SnowJobs Podcast
Gotcha.
00:47:45
Sterling Lowe
And to go back to a gas motor was not even in the car.
00:47:45
RICK JAMES
right.
00:47:48
Sterling Lowe
I was like, there's no way I'm doing that again. I don't want to be fighting, you know, Honda, Briggs and Stratton. None of them start in a snowstorm when you really need them. kept
00:47:58
The SnowJobs Podcast
No, especially around salt.
00:47:58
RICK JAMES
right
00:48:00
Sterling Lowe
Right. So that was the reason we jumped on Cameon. We bought a 500 gallon unit. um They have the best tanks in the in the industry, you know whether they're stand up tanks or whether it's the the tanks on their sprayers.
00:48:14
RICK JAMES
Okay.
00:48:20
Sterling Lowe
Their units come with the baffle balls in So 500 gallon tanks just loaded with baffle balls.
00:48:24
The SnowJobs Podcast
Nice.
00:48:26
Sterling Lowe
You can fill it full with that 350. It doesn't slosh around at all.
00:48:30
The SnowJobs Podcast
That's awesome.
00:48:31
Sterling Lowe
Um, you know, aside from that, you know, there are some subtle differences between the camion units and the VSI units, but I think they, you know, they, they run exactly the same. You get a, you can get a gas motor on a camion.
00:48:47
Sterling Lowe
Uh, we just picked up a 1000 from SNS that has the hydraulic motor on it still up there. I gotta go pick it up. But, um,
00:48:55
RICK JAMES
Mm-hmm.
00:48:57
Sterling Lowe
You know, that thing will put out, you know, three times what our electric. But, you know, most of the time when we're out spraying, you're spraying at 40 gallons an acre. If there would be, if you were doing distribution and you needed to get large volumes of brine out in, you know, wide open areas, I would say maybe gas motor is the way to go.
00:49:06
The SnowJobs Podcast
Yep. Yep.
00:49:19
Sterling Lowe
With the gas motors, you can self-load. So you don't need a separate motor to to fill your tank.
00:49:24
The SnowJobs Podcast
yep
00:49:25
RICK JAMES
Yep.
00:49:25
Sterling Lowe
Um, we can do that as well with the electric motors. Um, it's a little, on our older camion units, it's a little tricky. You have to understand your equipment really well to get it to suck up the fluid with an electric motor.
00:49:38
RICK JAMES
Well, the cameons will suck in too, huh?
00:49:40
Sterling Lowe
You can do it. Yeah.
00:49:42
RICK JAMES
Okay.
00:49:42
Sterling Lowe
Um, and then, you of course the hydraulic units will, will really, and I forget what the numbers are on the hydro units, but I think the hydros do two or three times what a gas motor will do.
00:49:42
The SnowJobs Podcast
cool.
00:49:53
The SnowJobs Podcast
yeah
00:49:53
RICK JAMES
Yep.
00:49:53
Sterling Lowe
Um, So, yeah, big fan of the.
00:49:55
The SnowJobs Podcast
that's cool
00:49:57
Sterling Lowe
So as far as the Cameon units go, that was our first brine maker. We bought the little Cameon unit, which is just like the little VSI unit meant to be loaded with bags.
00:50:05
RICK JAMES
Yep.
00:50:07
Sterling Lowe
And, you know, I think for us, you know we started out buying product from someone else. We bought our first sprayer and a 3000 gallon upright tank and then had a bunch of totes delivered.
00:50:20
Sterling Lowe
And, you know, your, your goal is to have to take the delivery of at least 4,500 gallons. Cause that's what the truck can handle.
00:50:27
The SnowJobs Podcast
Yep. yep
00:50:28
Sterling Lowe
So we put 3000 in the tank and then the remainder and whatever totes we had sitting around.
00:50:28
RICK JAMES
you
00:50:33
Sterling Lowe
And that worked for the first two years. And then we said, all right, well, we want to make our own, you know, starting to hear stories about guys doing it. We bought a small brine maker and, know, instantaneously, I was like, we're we're drowning in labor, make making any volume of brine with these smaller units.
00:50:49
The SnowJobs Podcast
yeah
00:50:52
Sterling Lowe
So we were looking to upgrade. I like the VSI. We've been up to Pat Salmon's last year and watched them make brine up there. like the new cameon brine maker.
00:51:05
Sterling Lowe
And this past year at in Pittsburgh, we left Syma and I was chasing an auction for four Henderson brine units.
00:51:17
Sterling Lowe
And we were driving home from Pittsburgh where I won the auction.
00:51:18
RICK JAMES
Mm-hmm.
00:51:21
Sterling Lowe
And I was like, only reason I won this auction is because everybody's got their nose in Syma right now and nobody's looking at the auction.
00:51:26
The SnowJobs Podcast
Yep, possibly.
00:51:28
Sterling Lowe
So, sent two tractor trailers down, loaded them up, brought this stuff back. And I was like, they have to talk to the, essentially there was a DOT down in Virginia, VDOT, and they, they had some extra money.
00:51:40
Sterling Lowe
They, they were like, what do you want to do with it? And the guy in charge of their snow operation said, let's upgrade our brine units because yeah it's going to be needed sooner or later. So they bought all new equipment and we picked up four of theirs.
00:51:51
The SnowJobs Podcast
Yep.
00:51:55
Sterling Lowe
Um, I don't have a use for four, but we we test test fired all of them. They all work great. And they make a mountain of brine. I mean, they do.
00:52:05
RICK JAMES
Oh.
00:52:05
Sterling Lowe
if you can If you can feed it with enough water, they you know they will they will make a
00:52:08
RICK JAMES
Water. You just need water.
00:52:12
Sterling Lowe
you know, 70, 10,000 gallons an hour. And they're automated. That's the nicest thing about them is you don't have to, you know, most of the the VSI and the camion are batch makers.
00:52:23
Sterling Lowe
So they'll make a batch.
00:52:24
RICK JAMES
Mm-hmm.
00:52:24
Sterling Lowe
You throw some valves, pump it out, make another batch, throw the valves, pump it out. This thing, if you say fill my frack tank with 21,000, as long as you keep it fed with water and salt, it'll keep going until it's full.
00:52:37
The SnowJobs Podcast
Wow.
00:52:37
RICK JAMES
Wow.
00:52:39
The SnowJobs Podcast
And you you have four of these?
00:52:41
Sterling Lowe
four of them yeah we bought we picked up all four of them
00:52:42
RICK JAMES
Oh, maybe I should sell one.
00:52:43
The SnowJobs Podcast
Are you looking to move them?
00:52:44
Sterling Lowe
It costs me more to ship them.
00:52:45
RICK JAMES
I'll buy one.
00:52:46
The SnowJobs Podcast
Oh, yeah. you looking to move them?
00:52:47
RICK JAMES
Mm-hmm.
00:52:49
The SnowJobs Podcast
Throw some information out there.
00:52:49
Sterling Lowe
Well, I had, I listed them on Facebook marketplace, but I think a lot of guys, they are very technical. um And I have a ah local guy who was with the Maryland. yeah He basically maintained them all for the state of Maryland.
00:53:06
Sterling Lowe
And he started a company called BPS prime. And he does all of the, the like Penn dot all of, I think he's in Maryland, Virginia, but you know, he's become a close friend because you know, he knows how to keep this thing running and he knows everything about him because he works on for the state. So
00:53:26
RICK JAMES
That's awesome. Sounds great.
00:53:28
Sterling Lowe
yeah, it's a, it's a nice set. So um there are, well, we were asking 50 for them.
00:53:30
The SnowJobs Podcast
What's the price? what are you look What are you looking for them?
00:53:36
Sterling Lowe
There are 125,000
00:53:37
The SnowJobs Podcast
OK. Wow.
00:53:39
RICK JAMES
Mm-hmm.
00:53:39
The SnowJobs Podcast
All right.
00:53:41
Sterling Lowe
So, you know, I have i have i have four. There are two or that are newer than the other ones, and the two older ones need to have the Salinity readers upgraded, and that's like a $6,500 upgrade.
00:53:53
The SnowJobs Podcast
Gotcha.
00:53:55
Sterling Lowe
But they're they're an unbelievable piece of equipment. So our intention was we got one set up here at our shop in a sea container and we're making brine here.
00:54:06
Sterling Lowe
And then we were going to set one up on a trailer and do a mobile unit. And I'd really like to have one somewhere else making brine besides here because we're like at the farthest end of all of our properties that we service.
00:54:10
RICK JAMES
um yeah. Mm-hmm. Yep.
00:54:20
Sterling Lowe
So it's nice here.
00:54:21
The SnowJobs Podcast
Gotcha.
00:54:23
Sterling Lowe
Um, I got a guy that will truck it for us. So, um, you know, we're as, as a painting contractor, we don't have 18 wheelers and dump trucks and that's not something we have.
00:54:32
The SnowJobs Podcast
yeah
00:54:34
Sterling Lowe
So find a guy that does and pay him to move it.
00:54:37
The SnowJobs Podcast
That's it.
00:54:37
RICK JAMES
yeah
00:54:38
The SnowJobs Podcast
100%. Well, that's pretty cool.
00:54:40
Sterling Lowe
So,
00:54:41
The SnowJobs Podcast
So, Artics and Brine.
00:54:42
RICK JAMES
A mobile unit would be kind of cool. so that Kind of what Todd did.
00:54:46
Sterling Lowe
well, they had one.
00:54:47
RICK JAMES
Todd did that for years, he said.
00:54:47
The SnowJobs Podcast
Todd did that. Yeah.
00:54:48
RICK JAMES
Yeah.
00:54:48
The SnowJobs Podcast
Todd did that.
00:54:49
Sterling Lowe
Yeah, they have one at the, i guess it's the APWA, the Public Works Show. There was one they had, a brand new one on a trailer, and I don't i don't know what they get for it. But similar to what I have, but you but whatever the new model is, still makes the same thing it' still making the same product.
00:55:03
RICK JAMES
Yep.
00:55:05
RICK JAMES
Yep.
00:55:06
The SnowJobs Podcast
Very cool.
00:55:08
Sterling Lowe
And then you know we run, like I said, for wheel loaders, we have... we I have a sub that has them. So he runs, think he's got two 928s, a 930, and a 924. And they're older models.
00:55:22
RICK JAMES
Mm-hmm.
00:55:23
Sterling Lowe
It's down here when you're looking. at So that's one of the other things is you know for us, we've always had ah model that says, well, we don't fire the wheel loaders up until there's at least two inches the snow of snow parking a lot because the Protex, yeah they leave so much snow behind.
00:55:38
Sterling Lowe
You need something to you know to fill in the gaps.
00:55:39
The SnowJobs Podcast
Yeah. Yep.
00:55:42
Sterling Lowe
And with the Arctic's were able to change that model and say, all right, well, and and I, this year I'm pushing my guys that have been running sites for some, like, you're going to still drive the same truck there.
00:55:54
Sterling Lowe
You just got to get out of the truck and get into the loader and push for the loader.
00:55:57
The SnowJobs Podcast
Yeah. It's
00:56:00
Sterling Lowe
And then you jump back in the truck to spread salt or spray brine or whatever. Um, and, uh,
00:56:04
RICK JAMES
Mm-hmm.
00:56:05
The SnowJobs Podcast
a good plan.
00:56:08
Sterling Lowe
because it's never been, know, we, you know, sometimes we look back at our history and we're trying to figure out like, know, like similarities between different storms. We always had trouble figuring out, you know, well, what are they have in common and why are the numbers so different? And usually it's because, well, we didn't fire any wheel loaders up until it was two and a half or three inches of snow.
00:56:28
The SnowJobs Podcast
Yep. yep
00:56:28
Sterling Lowe
It trucks and skid loaders pushed off the the light stuff. And it wasn't until there was some heavy lifting to do that. We fired wheel loaders up. Um, So that's kind of a new model for us this year. Like if we put an Arctic on the front of the loader, can we do it in, you know, the one site that we took over, it was kind of crazy at how quick we mop those things up with those. We ran a skid loader with a 13 and a wheel loader with 13.
00:56:54
Sterling Lowe
And then I was there with my truck. So like on the trucks we like to run, we're Fisher XLS guys. So the, like a wide app.
00:57:01
The SnowJobs Podcast
Yep. Yeah, the wideouts. Yep.
00:57:03
Sterling Lowe
Um, and no real reason. It's just, you know, it's what I bought the first time when I was getting started. I liked the fact that the Fisher had a V blade with a trip edge built into it back in 2006. And, uh, my dealer happened to have an XLS blade when I was getting one of my plows mounted.
00:57:15
RICK JAMES
Yeah.
00:57:21
Sterling Lowe
They're like, why don't you try this thing? This is, uh, I think nobody wanted it. She couldn't sell it. And she's like, try this.
00:57:26
RICK JAMES
Hmm. yeah
00:57:28
Sterling Lowe
And I was, yeah, I was hooked.
00:57:28
The SnowJobs Podcast
I'll take it. ah
00:57:30
Sterling Lowe
Like once, once you, you know, if you don't want it for driveways but for plowing parking lots
00:57:35
The SnowJobs Podcast
Sure.
00:57:35
Sterling Lowe
yeah they they do so well in sco mode and
00:57:36
RICK JAMES
yeah
00:57:39
Sterling Lowe
They're a really nice
00:57:42
The SnowJobs Podcast
That's cool. So the Arctic's worked out well for you.
00:57:46
Sterling Lowe
setup. And, hey, ah I think, you know, one of these days i'm I'm going to put a metal plus on the front of ah a loader.
00:57:52
The SnowJobs Podcast
Yeah, you just, you're too happy right now. You need some misery. Yeah.
00:57:56
Sterling Lowe
ah Well, you know, because we run the wing plows, you know, I can see how there could be some efficiency, you know, in ah in a wing plow.
00:58:00
RICK JAMES
Yeah.
00:58:06
Sterling Lowe
I can see how there could be some headaches as well.
00:58:06
The SnowJobs Podcast
Yeah. Oh, absolutely. There is. ah We're just breaking balls. There absolutely is.
00:58:10
RICK JAMES
Yeah. we We just have to break the balls on that, but yeah.
00:58:12
The SnowJobs Podcast
When you were doing the panel discussion at SNS, you couldn't see the videos that were up on the screen behind you, leaving so much snow behind.
00:58:15
Sterling Lowe
ah yeah
00:58:19
The SnowJobs Podcast
I'm like, what are they screaming about the scrape for? How can you say scrape and not look behind you and see how much snow is being left behind by these plows?
00:58:28
Sterling Lowe
Well, and, you know, like the bottom line for us is cost. So, you know, it was one thing to go from a pro tech that you can pick up for 3,500, 5 grand for whatever to an Arctic.
00:58:36
RICK JAMES
Yeah.
00:58:37
The SnowJobs Podcast
Yep.
00:58:40
Sterling Lowe
That's, you know, i think they were like 13,000 for the 13 LDs and change. thirteen ld
00:58:44
The SnowJobs Podcast
Yep, they're usually about a grand a foot.
00:58:44
Sterling Lowe
and
00:58:44
RICK JAMES
Mm-hmm.
00:58:46
Sterling Lowe
and you know And then you're like, well, we have this really nice metal plus that's 26,000 for the same thing. that just That's a hard sell.
00:58:53
The SnowJobs Podcast
It is.
00:58:54
Sterling Lowe
In this market, that's hard
00:58:55
RICK JAMES
Get a snowing. Get a snowing. Try a snowing.
00:58:58
Sterling Lowe
Right, exactly.
00:58:59
The SnowJobs Podcast
Yeah, art it makes snowing.
00:59:01
Sterling Lowe
Yeah. have Have you guys ever, have you run the truck clouds, they aren't the Arctic truck clouds yet?
00:59:06
RICK JAMES
Yeah.
00:59:07
The SnowJobs Podcast
ah jeremy has i my mine came and killed the snow so i have not i'm looking forward to it though
00:59:07
RICK JAMES
Yeah.
00:59:13
RICK JAMES
They're fantastic. They work great. So just like, I mean, yeah, like, I mean, the Razorbacks, just like they're, yeah.
00:59:16
The SnowJobs Podcast
yeah everybody we've talked to that's run them loves them so it's an arctic on a truck what's not to love right
00:59:27
RICK JAMES
Yeah.
00:59:27
Sterling Lowe
Yeah, I have a 550 I need to put a plow on this year, and and I keep looking at the Arctic, and I keep looking at the the big arms one.
00:59:36
The SnowJobs Podcast
Snow power.
00:59:37
Sterling Lowe
Snow power, yeah.
00:59:38
RICK JAMES
Oh, yep. Yep.
00:59:39
The SnowJobs Podcast
i don't think you can go wrong with either one.
00:59:40
RICK JAMES
Both good choices.
00:59:41
The SnowJobs Podcast
Either of them.
00:59:42
RICK JAMES
Yeah. Both good choices.
00:59:42
The SnowJobs Podcast
Yep. that's uh it'll handle 550 i'll handle both of those no problem but yeah it's uh it's interesting yeah i i know what you're saying though it's it's quite a jump up in price and it's like you you just really gotta weigh what you're doing with it and if the added you know versatility is is worth it but
01:00:07
Sterling Lowe
I was talking to Scott Lezak the other day and he said, you kind of put it into perspective. He's like, you know, you got 200,000 for a loader, 50,000 for a plow or a metal plus on it.
01:00:18
Sterling Lowe
He's like, if I have to buy three loaders and I can put two metal pluses on two, $200,000 loaders and they can prevent me from having to buy that third loader, it's saving a pile of money.
01:00:32
The SnowJobs Podcast
yeah
01:00:34
Sterling Lowe
You know, so whether it's metal class or whether it's Arctic, you know one way or another, you're trying to figure out how can I do this more efficiently?
01:00:43
The SnowJobs Podcast
Oh, that's the name of the game.
01:00:43
Sterling Lowe
You know, with one less guy or one less piece of equipment, you know, how do we do it?
01:00:47
RICK JAMES
yep that's the problem
01:00:50
The SnowJobs Podcast
It's the hidden cost. It's the hidden cost to get you, right, Jeremy? Tell them all about the hidden costs.
01:00:54
RICK JAMES
yes yes hydraulic oil people make funny all the time
01:00:54
The SnowJobs Podcast
but Hose maker, hydraulic line maker. Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha. ah
01:01:03
RICK JAMES
ah No, it's...
01:01:04
The SnowJobs Podcast
uh no like i we i we ran one the last two years and it definitely has its place yeah it definitely has its place it uh it can definitely if you if you got a win row like that that's great that's that's your game right there if you need to win row
01:01:09
RICK JAMES
They're good blouse. yeah Yeah, they're they're fine.
01:01:19
Sterling Lowe
Well, like I could see on a big distribution center running that where you're training to pull everything away from the trucks or you're the big, long road.
01:01:25
The SnowJobs Podcast
sure
01:01:26
RICK JAMES
Mm-hmm.
01:01:28
Sterling Lowe
But if you're going to then switch over to boxes, why metal plus boxes and not arctics? That doesn't make any sense.
01:01:35
The SnowJobs Podcast
uh i don't know probably just one stop shopping maybe or or they're just i don't know
01:01:40
Sterling Lowe
Well, but you don't have the flexibility with the sides on a metal plus like you do with
01:01:43
The SnowJobs Podcast
know no no no you don't as far as boxes yeah i just
01:01:44
RICK JAMES
No.
01:01:47
Sterling Lowe
with ARC. Right.
01:01:50
RICK JAMES
No, I think a lot of guys a lot of guys say metal plus boxes and they don't have to worry about the the rubbers breaking when they ram in the piles and stuff is what I've heard. Yeah.
01:01:59
The SnowJobs Podcast
that's true everybody we've talked to like who runs both robert sean that i don't think there's any contest they they both said the arctic box or the arctic sectional by far but yeah i don't understand i think it's probably they're getting a deal because they're buying you know live edge wing plows and the box at the same time maybe keep it all same brand what
01:02:06
RICK JAMES
Yeah.
01:02:20
Sterling Lowe
yep
01:02:20
RICK JAMES
I they throw them in.
01:02:24
The SnowJobs Podcast
ah
01:02:24
RICK JAMES
I think they throw them in.
01:02:25
Sterling Lowe
but for
01:02:25
The SnowJobs Podcast
they throw them in yeah they just give them to you if you they figure ah
01:02:26
RICK JAMES
Let's try to get rid of them.
01:02:29
The SnowJobs Podcast
this guy just got freaking raped paying thirty thousand dollars for a plow we'll we'll throw him one of these boxes for free the shoes will be gone in an hour and a half anyway so
01:02:39
Sterling Lowe
Well, that's what we ah we haven't gotten to that because, you know, we don't have, know, at least last year, we didn't have a hundred hours of pushing on them.
01:02:40
RICK JAMES
Yeah.
01:02:47
Sterling Lowe
So I'm anxious to see, you know, what the shoe situation will be like and as we start.
01:02:52
The SnowJobs Podcast
On the Artics, you'll be fine.
01:02:52
Sterling Lowe
Yeah. Yeah.
01:02:55
The SnowJobs Podcast
you That'll last you a good long time. You didn't do 100 hours on them. um Oh, that should...
01:03:00
Sterling Lowe
We did not, we didn't even do a hundred hours on. We brought, I bet you we did 60 hours on it. Yeah, maybe, uh,
01:03:07
The SnowJobs Podcast
You'll probably get at least three to four seasons out of those minimum. and I don't think you'll...
01:03:12
RICK JAMES
Depends on the operator.
01:03:13
The SnowJobs Podcast
Yeah, it it definitely does depend on the operator as well. As my guys, one of my guys a couple years ago... he He watched the video on how to properly run an Arctic, how to line up the triangles on the plates, and then decided at some point to just start ignoring that and was literally rolling it forward and just grinding down the cutting edges.
01:03:32
Sterling Lowe
Right.
01:03:38
The SnowJobs Podcast
like I'm like, these are brand new edges. What the hell happened to these things? I don't know. They're not scraping anymore. I'm like, they're not scraping because you got no edge left. Like, what the hell did you do to this thing in 50 hours? And that's what he was doing. I watched him. I'm like, dude, you're,
01:03:52
The SnowJobs Podcast
you're not using, you're not lining up triangles. Like, what are you talking about here?
01:03:55
Sterling Lowe
right
01:03:57
The SnowJobs Podcast
But it happens. It's definitely, it's usually the, ah it's usually the Indian, not the arrow when it comes to that.
01:04:03
Sterling Lowe
Well, I would think that with the Arctic, it's, it's probably one thing and with the metal plus it's probably a little more, you know, like, especially the bigger, the piece of equipment, if you're putting it on a nine 38, um, you can do damage quick, the bigger machine.
01:04:13
The SnowJobs Podcast
Sure.
01:04:14
RICK JAMES
Yeah. Mm-hmm.
01:04:16
The SnowJobs Podcast
Oh, yeah.
01:04:19
The SnowJobs Podcast
And it always scares me when the the boxes are built, when you see boxes built with bracing already. You know saying? Like the diagonal bracing, like the metal plus has a ah diagonal brace from the mold board to the plate, to the side plate.
01:04:28
Sterling Lowe
Oh yeah.
01:04:33
Sterling Lowe
Yeah.
01:04:35
The SnowJobs Podcast
So it's like, that always scares me because I think boss, I think boss's box has that too. where they have a bra a diagonal brace on them.
01:04:44
Sterling Lowe
Yeah.
01:04:44
The SnowJobs Podcast
I'm like, what is not what is wrong with the design of this that you need additional bracing already? So.
01:04:50
Sterling Lowe
I don't know if any of our protects have it or not. We've got a hodgepodge, some Caterpillar branded ones with trip edges out there and, uh,
01:04:57
The SnowJobs Podcast
Mm-hmm.
01:04:59
RICK JAMES
Mm-hmm.
01:04:59
The SnowJobs Podcast
Hey, Protex still work, man. Jersey is loaded with them.
01:05:02
RICK JAMES
ah see Oh, yeah.
01:05:03
The SnowJobs Podcast
There's a ton of Protex.
01:05:03
RICK JAMES
Especially on that area, the wet snow.
01:05:05
The SnowJobs Podcast
Yeah.
01:05:05
Sterling Lowe
yeah
01:05:06
The SnowJobs Podcast
Yeah, they squeegee very well.
01:05:06
RICK JAMES
Mm-hmm.
01:05:09
The SnowJobs Podcast
They definitely do. So you guys use a contracted weather forecast service. Any weathermen we got to meet up?
01:05:15
Sterling Lowe
So um I guess the last last year we were, we split our zip codes between True Weather and Weather Pros.
01:05:27
The SnowJobs Podcast
Perfect. Who was better?
01:05:27
RICK JAMES
OK.
01:05:29
Sterling Lowe
um
01:05:30
The SnowJobs Podcast
ah that's the ah but
01:05:32
Sterling Lowe
I can't say that anyone was better or worse.
01:05:32
RICK JAMES
ah
01:05:34
Sterling Lowe
Like they got...
01:05:34
The SnowJobs Podcast
Both equally terrible.
01:05:37
RICK JAMES
Oh boy.
01:05:37
The SnowJobs Podcast
Got it.
01:05:39
RICK JAMES
Only one has an Emmy. Only one has an Emmy.
01:05:41
The SnowJobs Podcast
Only one has an Emmy currently. Oh, my God.
01:05:44
Sterling Lowe
Yeah, we had no terrible weather forecasting.
01:05:44
RICK JAMES
Yeah.
01:05:47
Sterling Lowe
And I mean, it it was one of those things where, you know, what was predicted happened.
01:05:52
The SnowJobs Podcast
Good.
01:05:53
Sterling Lowe
You know, and
01:05:54
RICK JAMES
yeah
01:05:55
Sterling Lowe
The idea was like, well, let's let's blend their forecasting and see you know when one says this. Because a lot of times, they're only 20 miles apart.
AI and Weather Forecasting: The Future?
01:06:04
Sterling Lowe
and They're forecasting pretty much the same weather event.
01:06:04
The SnowJobs Podcast
Sure.
01:06:06
Sterling Lowe
So we would yeah just what you but kind of wait to see um what they had to say. So we've been using those guys. we had a local guy a local facebook amateur weather guy that we liked um ah around this guy christopher brecy who was a uh baltie's a baltimore kid not one of those guys that hypes anything um yet you know he was really good at you know kind of telling you what was coming without any speculation like you know there's skin in the game whatsoever so
01:06:26
The SnowJobs Podcast
okay
01:06:39
The SnowJobs Podcast
Good. Yeah, no bullshit. Just the weather.
01:06:40
RICK JAMES
Yeah.
01:06:41
Sterling Lowe
yeah yeah we always do and then like for
01:06:42
The SnowJobs Podcast
That's great.
01:06:44
Sterling Lowe
whether we use weather underground
01:06:47
The SnowJobs Podcast
Okay.
01:06:48
Sterling Lowe
i use that I use that all the time.
01:06:50
The SnowJobs Podcast
I glance at that every now and then just to compare it.
01:06:50
RICK JAMES
Yeah.
01:06:53
Sterling Lowe
Yeah.
01:06:54
The SnowJobs Podcast
See how accurate it is.
01:06:54
RICK JAMES
Same.
01:06:55
The SnowJobs Podcast
I'm waiting for the AI weather to take over.
01:06:56
RICK JAMES
I download, I don't, I, I don't like, I downloaded it on AI weather app the other day.
01:07:00
The SnowJobs Podcast
Did you send it?
01:07:00
RICK JAMES
Just, uh, yeah, just, uh, cause everybody's talking about.
01:07:02
The SnowJobs Podcast
You got to send it to me.
01:07:03
RICK JAMES
ah Okay.
01:07:04
Sterling Lowe
I would think with AI, they'll be...
01:07:05
RICK JAMES
So,
01:07:06
Sterling Lowe
you would think ai would be taken over weather reporting just like every
01:07:09
The SnowJobs Podcast
hundred percent. i was done I don't need any of them.
01:07:11
Sterling Lowe
right
01:07:12
The SnowJobs Podcast
not even
01:07:15
The SnowJobs Podcast
ah ah
01:07:16
RICK JAMES
Who are you going to call in the middle of the night if you don't have call
01:07:18
The SnowJobs Podcast
I'll still call. I'll still call and say, Hey, guess what?
01:07:19
Sterling Lowe
Right, there's been like a
01:07:20
The SnowJobs Podcast
AI, AI took your job. Yeah.
01:07:23
RICK JAMES
Nick? Jesus.
01:07:23
The SnowJobs Podcast
I'm kidding. I'm just playing. ah
01:07:27
RICK JAMES
oh
01:07:28
The SnowJobs Podcast
But yeah, I mean, that's i like that was something that I didn't understand. at the And we'll have to ask Rob about that when they come on to do their thing at the Buffalo show. Like he was hyping up like how how accurate the AI weather was for tracking that hurricane.
01:07:43
The SnowJobs Podcast
Like they nailed the track like 10 days out, nailed it. And I'm like wait a minute. I'm thinking to myself, like, if AI weather is this good and this accurate, doesn't that, like, totally screw you guys?
01:07:54
The SnowJobs Podcast
Like, we nobody needs you. They can just, you know, Google a what the AI weather report is for their zip code and get it. but So he'll have to explain how that's going to benefit the actual weather guys, too.
01:08:01
Sterling Lowe
I think AI is
01:08:05
Sterling Lowe
after all of us. Yeah. Yeah.
01:08:08
The SnowJobs Podcast
Oh, absolutely.
01:08:09
RICK JAMES
Yeah.
01:08:10
The SnowJobs Podcast
Absolutely. I mean, shit, you could do this podcast. You could literally do this podcast with AI.
01:08:16
Sterling Lowe
yeah
01:08:16
RICK JAMES
Calm down.
01:08:16
The SnowJobs Podcast
The guys in the firehouse, like, literally were making songs about dudes, professionally produced songs. It was really, really funny.
01:08:24
RICK JAMES
Oh yeah.
01:08:25
The SnowJobs Podcast
You just typed in the couple names and a couple of the topics you wanted it to cover, and boom, in four or five minutes, it was spitting out a fully produced, like, crazy and whatever genre you wanted song. So, yeah, I think AI is coming for everybody, you know, sooner or later.
01:08:42
Sterling Lowe
Yeah. I liked one episode you guys were talking about the, you know, like whatever, uh, automated sidewalk machines and instead of doing that, just do the, uh, um, the Tesla robots just trip with 40 of them out there and
01:08:50
RICK JAMES
Oh yeah. yeah
01:08:54
RICK JAMES
Left hand robotics.
01:08:57
The SnowJobs Podcast
Hell yeah
01:08:58
RICK JAMES
Yeah.
01:08:59
The SnowJobs Podcast
Absolutely.
01:08:59
RICK JAMES
Yeah, that'd be awesome. I'd like to try that. Call
01:09:02
The SnowJobs Podcast
Teaching how to teach you how to cook and clean to go.
01:09:05
Sterling Lowe
right
01:09:05
RICK JAMES
Elon.
01:09:06
The SnowJobs Podcast
Good.
01:09:07
RICK JAMES
call elam
01:09:07
The SnowJobs Podcast
The off season. oh Yeah. Yeah. It's pretty good.
Driveway Treatment Strategies
01:09:11
The SnowJobs Podcast
So you got weather guys. What else you got for him,
01:09:15
RICK JAMES
Well, what do you guys do when you're when you're doing in your driveways? Are you just using ah you just using your sprayer in your pickup? Are you using a wand? What are you guys doing for the driveways?
01:09:23
The SnowJobs Podcast
Good question.
01:09:25
Sterling Lowe
So you know all of the sprayers on the trucks, there are three-section sprayers. So you've got center and two sides.
01:09:32
RICK JAMES
Yep.
01:09:33
Sterling Lowe
you know one of the One of the markets that we're after are the $150 driveway.
01:09:40
The SnowJobs Podcast
Mm-hmm.
01:09:41
Sterling Lowe
you know Some of these driveways are so small, you're like, figure we can come in. We can be in and out in 15 seconds to spray a driveway and move on to the next one.
01:09:51
RICK JAMES
Yep.
01:09:52
Sterling Lowe
We haven't really narrowed down like what and out of transmission and a truck backing in and out of a million driveways.
01:10:03
Sterling Lowe
But, know, we were looking at some of the the John Deere tractors, like a 4066 or 6060 Kubotas.
01:10:09
RICK JAMES
Yep.
01:10:11
Sterling Lowe
Yes.
01:10:12
RICK JAMES
Put a three-point cameo on it or something like that.
01:10:14
Sterling Lowe
yes Yeah.
01:10:15
RICK JAMES
Yep.
01:10:16
Sterling Lowe
They would be really good because you'd be less, you know, we wouldn't be forward and reverse. try yeah Some of these small neighborhoods that have really lucrative driveways, you can, you know, like if one of the, one of the issues we were having is we said, okay, well, if we're going let's just say we got every other driveway in this neighborhood and we send out a text alert that we're coming to spray and they put their cars out on the street, you won't able to get down a road.
01:10:40
RICK JAMES
Oh, yeah. Right.
01:10:42
Sterling Lowe
ah
01:10:42
The SnowJobs Podcast
Gotcha.
01:10:43
Sterling Lowe
So, um,
01:10:45
The SnowJobs Podcast
What about like a tool cat or something like that? Or UTV?
01:10:48
Sterling Lowe
It would work, what like you would want to be in an HOA or something like that.
01:10:52
The SnowJobs Podcast
Yeah.
01:10:53
Sterling Lowe
You would want to be something where you can just send somebody out. And our initial thought was every place we have a large commercial site, just zoom out on the on the on the map.
01:11:07
Sterling Lowe
And usually there's 8,000 houses around, you know, because any place that has a target, you know, or, a you know, a typical shopping center is is heavily occupied with folks.
01:11:15
The SnowJobs Podcast
Sure. Mm
01:11:16
RICK JAMES
Mm-hmm.
01:11:20
Sterling Lowe
And it's, you know like what we, so I guess you guys had Stefano on, probably been two years ago.
01:11:26
The SnowJobs Podcast
hmm.
01:11:28
Sterling Lowe
And
01:11:28
The SnowJobs Podcast
Yep. Long time.
01:11:29
Sterling Lowe
we were in the middle of our snow season when I was like, well, that sounds like a great idea. We could do liquid brine, um, instead of driveways. And I pitched it to my daughters and, uh, you know, it was, we were late to the game for that year.
01:11:44
Sterling Lowe
And then this past season has been our first year. And so there, there's a market of, of route density where you get every drive, you need every driveway in the neighborhood or every other drive.
01:11:55
The SnowJobs Podcast
Yep. yep
01:11:56
RICK JAMES
Mm-hmm.
01:11:57
Sterling Lowe
There's another market of, well, my driveway is a quarter mile or is a you know half mile long. Those people, you know if they're not plowing it with their own tractor, they're certainly not salting it.
01:12:10
Sterling Lowe
So if you have somebody to come in and pre-treat it, then they have to work half as much. And then there's another market of, You know, if I try to leave my house with an inch of snow on the driveway, I'm going to die in a pile of car wreck at the bottom of the hill when I go out into the street.
01:12:26
Sterling Lowe
So those treacherous driveways are a, you know, there's no route density with them, but they're driveways that, you know, will be willing to pay and more money than you would get out of ah out of a little cycle.
01:12:28
The SnowJobs Podcast
Gotcha. Sure.
01:12:38
The SnowJobs Podcast
sure
01:12:42
RICK JAMES
Are you doing, are you doing, are you fanning on driveway or just pencil tipping or what are you spraying?
01:12:48
Sterling Lowe
Um, most of the time we're doing pencil tips.
01:12:48
RICK JAMES
Like,
01:12:50
Sterling Lowe
So like, it's, it's fun. Cause we have a, we have a crazy driveway directly across the street from our house. Um, with one of our friends and there's like three, three driveways side by side and we spray them.
01:12:58
RICK JAMES
Nice.
01:13:03
Sterling Lowe
And it really is amazing how, you know, like it once you spray it, you know, obviously it's not going to melt off five inches of snow, but for that one inch storm, um, you know, if you get a dusting and most of what we get is an inch or two,
01:13:17
Sterling Lowe
and you just give it time, it will melt off.
01:13:18
RICK JAMES
yeah
01:13:21
Sterling Lowe
It does the trick. Um, and you don't have to do a fan.
01:13:24
The SnowJobs Podcast
i'm sure.
01:13:25
Sterling Lowe
You can do pencil tip.
01:13:27
RICK JAMES
Yeah. And do you do it just pre-trading were saying, right?
01:13:30
Sterling Lowe
Yep.
01:13:30
RICK JAMES
Or do you it?
01:13:30
Sterling Lowe
That's the whole idea. So like when the girls put together their, um, their model, so you can, you can go to their website, they have different size driveways.
01:13:32
RICK JAMES
Yep. yep
01:13:40
Sterling Lowe
You can click on it. It shows you a video of how it happens. Um, you can, if if you have If your driveway is an odd driveway, they can send a request.
01:13:51
Sterling Lowe
They'll put together a ah quote and send it out. We were using, so as far as software, i don't know if there's a software question coming. but
01:13:59
The SnowJobs Podcast
Yep.
01:13:59
RICK JAMES
Yeah. Yeah.
01:14:01
Sterling Lowe
so So we started with CrewTracker.
01:14:02
The SnowJobs Podcast
Hit it.
01:14:06
Sterling Lowe
The year we had 250 guys shoveling roofs. And i had I was doing the Todd Dickerson yellow line paper. And I was like ready to kill myself.
01:14:14
RICK JAMES
Yeah.
01:14:15
The SnowJobs Podcast
Yeah. Yeah. Legal pad. Absolutely.
01:14:17
Sterling Lowe
and Legal pad.
01:14:17
RICK JAMES
the
01:14:19
Sterling Lowe
We started with Crew Tracker that year. And at at the time, i don't know if you know Dan Gilliland, he's the guy that's one of the sales guys for Cameon.
01:14:30
The SnowJobs Podcast
I've heard the name.
01:14:31
Sterling Lowe
So that was his business back then. And my sister, Teresa, when she came, like the year we had the blizzard, the back-to-back blizzards, I pulled her out of the, she was a teacher and she was doing tutoring.
01:14:47
Sterling Lowe
And she was like, I need to take a break from teaching. She came into my office to try to help me wrangle all the paperwork. So her and I flew out to, I think it was Missouri at the time.
01:14:58
Sterling Lowe
and trained on crew tracker. And then we used crew tracker for a couple of years. And as you have it with software, like it meshes with like 80% of what you do and the other 20%, you got to figure out how to make it work.
01:15:09
RICK JAMES
Yeah.
01:15:09
The SnowJobs Podcast
Yep.
01:15:09
RICK JAMES
Mm-hmm.
01:15:11
The SnowJobs Podcast
Yep. 100%.
01:15:13
Sterling Lowe
ah We did follow soft two years ago the thought that it would jive with the driveways.
01:15:16
The SnowJobs Podcast
Okay.
01:15:17
RICK JAMES
oh
01:15:18
The SnowJobs Podcast
From Canada.
01:15:23
Sterling Lowe
We liked it. And then we let it go and use Nektid last year. And Nektid, N-E-K-T-Y-D, and it's a company out of Colorado.
01:15:30
The SnowJobs Podcast
What was it? What was it last year?
01:15:37
The SnowJobs Podcast
Never heard of that. Check it out.
01:15:39
Sterling Lowe
So for, so like, I forget how Follow Soft Build, but like, so Nektid, you pay per user.
01:15:47
The SnowJobs Podcast
Yep.
01:15:48
Sterling Lowe
So for commercial sites, it was a little difficult to make jive because, you know, they kind of want you to to log in every single one of your sidewalk guys. And we kind of run our sidewalks, our commercial sites like, all you're in charge of the lot.
01:16:04
Sterling Lowe
You're clocking in. You know, we might have the, you know, another loader, now you know, skid loader.
01:16:06
The SnowJobs Podcast
yeah
01:16:09
Sterling Lowe
Those guys can clock in, but you're going to just say how many sidewalk guys you have. They don't need to individually clock in.
01:16:14
The SnowJobs Podcast
yep
01:16:15
RICK JAMES
Kivolowitz- Right yep Kivolowitz- Well, let's.
01:16:17
Sterling Lowe
and that was hard to to achieve with Nectic. But it's awesome for the driveways because it's it's there's there's a text line. you know like There's so many things that make it work.
01:16:30
Sterling Lowe
You can wrap with it. You can put all your driveways into different routes and schedule, and it's a really nice setup.
01:16:33
RICK JAMES
mar
01:16:37
The SnowJobs Podcast
That's awesome. Good to know. Nick did was the name.
01:16:39
Sterling Lowe
I think this year, we're going to leave Nectic for a residential side and switch to Yeti for the commercial side.
01:16:45
RICK JAMES
Hey, Eddie. Yep.
01:16:46
The SnowJobs Podcast
Yeti. We are familiar with. We hear great things about Yeti.
01:16:50
Sterling Lowe
Yeah. And we like software. So,
01:16:57
The SnowJobs Podcast
Better than yellow legal bed.
01:16:59
Sterling Lowe
well, it it just makes getting paid quicker, better. And so if we were seasonal, it kind of doesn't matter. You're, you know, you're, you're, what you're keeping track of is for your benefit.
01:17:11
The SnowJobs Podcast
sure absolutely
01:17:13
Sterling Lowe
records, but for time material, you know, you've got to get those invoices out, get all that stuff together and get it out so you can get paid, so everybody can get paid. Um, so,
01:17:24
The SnowJobs Podcast
well since you guys brought up the software how many guys are you actually running during a storm okay well
01:17:24
RICK JAMES
So. Wow.
01:17:29
Sterling Lowe
so if it's, if we're rocking and rolling everywhere, we can be up to a hundred guys, uh, sidewalks.
01:17:35
RICK JAMES
wow
01:17:36
Sterling Lowe
We run a lot of sidewalk guys, um, But you know we run a lot of equipment. So in some of our big sites, we might run two big wheel loaders, two skid loaders, you know a truck or two, and then you know five or six sidewalk guys and a piece of sidewalk equipment across you know nine, I think we're 10 big sites last year.
01:17:52
The SnowJobs Podcast
Cool.
01:17:58
RICK JAMES
What do you run for side hockey equipment if you're running equipment, besides shovels?
01:18:01
Sterling Lowe
So,
01:18:01
The SnowJobs Podcast
The holders, besides the holders.
01:18:04
Sterling Lowe
mostly the holder tractors. So it's holder tractors and the guys, um, you know, we have places where i have places where I really want to put a snow rain.
01:18:07
RICK JAMES
Just the holders? Okay. Yeah.
01:18:14
Sterling Lowe
Um, but we just haven't gotten to it yet.
01:18:15
RICK JAMES
Mm-hmm.
01:18:17
Sterling Lowe
Um, I think we have one site that I'm like, snow Raider would be awesome here.
01:18:17
The SnowJobs Podcast
Gotcha.
01:18:22
Sterling Lowe
you know, the snow Raider mag, we have a site that's like four acres of sidewalks, like city blocks. And you know, we're, we, we want to put a mag there next year. Um,
01:18:34
Sterling Lowe
But it's it's always difficult. Like we're that company that's buying equipment in February because we're like, all right, we've we've got some snow money. Let's spend it on some new stuff.
01:18:42
The SnowJobs Podcast
Yeah.
01:18:43
Sterling Lowe
When you buy it in October, you're just making sure it doesn't snow.
01:18:44
The SnowJobs Podcast
Yep.
01:18:44
RICK JAMES
Yeah.
01:18:48
The SnowJobs Podcast
Absolutely.
01:18:48
RICK JAMES
Right, right.
01:18:49
Sterling Lowe
that
01:18:49
The SnowJobs Podcast
That's the old adage. Absolutely. 100%
01:18:51
RICK JAMES
Yeah.
01:18:52
Sterling Lowe
Guaranteed to not see snow when you bought equipment at a time.
01:18:55
RICK JAMES
Mm-hmm.
01:18:56
The SnowJobs Podcast
never fails. It's usually when you're really excited about the new equipment. Like, I'm i'm so excited to try this thing. No, that's going to kill you.
01:19:04
RICK JAMES
Oh,
01:19:05
Sterling Lowe
Yeah. Yeah. Well, that was the holder tractors. I bought them and we were five years old. All right, man, these things, we get a big storm. These things are going to kill it. And they do, they they do a good job.
01:19:15
RICK JAMES
yeah.
01:19:17
The SnowJobs Podcast
Very cool.
01:19:18
RICK JAMES
Yeah. getting back to your driveways one more time, how do you how do you guys like market that and stuff? the I mean, yeah.
Marketing and Competition in Baltimore
01:19:24
Sterling Lowe
So, um, the girls, they, they've been like targeting neighborhoods. Um,
01:19:29
RICK JAMES
Mm-hmm.
01:19:30
Sterling Lowe
You know, we, we don't, we honestly don't run the greatest marketing operation. Like I don't have a crew of sales guys or anything like that. So, um, you know, for a commercial side, you know, we're, we're touching on those customers.
01:19:43
Sterling Lowe
We have a few of those like perfect customers, like your, your class a customer, you're like, well, they, they own the property, they manage the property, they build the property, you know, they pay you,
01:19:52
The SnowJobs Podcast
Yup.
01:19:55
The SnowJobs Podcast
That's who I want.
01:19:56
RICK JAMES
yeah
01:19:57
Sterling Lowe
so we stick with those those yeah special customers on the driveway side, you know, our first, uh, our first order of all right how how do you qualify this customer is where is it and is it close to one of our commercial sites?
01:20:15
Sterling Lowe
Um, is one of those commercial sites an hour away or is it that one that's close to the shop?
01:20:15
RICK JAMES
Gotcha. Yep.
01:20:20
Sterling Lowe
Um, and then they have done a really good job of a lot of Facebook marketing. Um, we're using the, uh, the driveway markers, um, like they use up, up North, um,
01:20:29
RICK JAMES
the
01:20:32
RICK JAMES
yep
01:20:33
Sterling Lowe
And yeah, there's a QR code on that that people can scan. and you know that's one of the things about our Cameon equipment is those things stick out like a sore thumb going up and down the river.
01:20:44
The SnowJobs Podcast
Yeah.
01:20:45
Sterling Lowe
Those big orange tanks, you know which is another thing, you know like we always tease because you know we've been in it for five years.
01:20:47
RICK JAMES
Perry Kivolowitz- Perry Kivolowitz- Oh.
01:20:55
Sterling Lowe
This might be our sixth year. There's a few guys out there that are doing brine. But, you know, if I see a brine tank on the road, it's mine. Like I'm passing one of my own trucks and and we're we're an hour and 15 minutes up and down the highway, you know, driving through town and you don't see other people spraying brine.
01:21:07
The SnowJobs Podcast
nice
01:21:16
Sterling Lowe
Not to say that they don't do it, but it's just not that prevalent.
01:21:16
RICK JAMES
ah
01:21:20
RICK JAMES
Yeah.
01:21:20
The SnowJobs Podcast
Yep, hear you're saying. Cool. ah Do you guys have, like, you're just talking a little bit about your competition for brine or lack of lack thereof.
01:21:31
The SnowJobs Podcast
Is there a lot of competition for snow in your area? A lot of guys doing snow?
01:21:35
Sterling Lowe
tons. Um, you know, like, uh, one of the big landscape guys, uh, Akerst is a big landscape company. They're a big Simon. Uh, yeah, I think what the owner, one of the owners there was like president Simon for like seven or eight years.
01:21:50
Sterling Lowe
They're, they're a huge snow company around us.
01:21:50
The SnowJobs Podcast
Yep.
01:21:54
Sterling Lowe
Um, and, and then there's, you know, landscape companies, you know, we're, we're Baltimore,
01:21:58
The SnowJobs Podcast
yep
01:22:01
Sterling Lowe
everybody wants curve the curb and blacktop around here. So I think in our market, you there are guys that have found their niche here and figured out how to do it. But I think more often than not, like we have a couple of guys, you know, we have some guys that are like running 40, 50 loaders and they subcontract for, you know, Brightview, bunch of different people. And it guys are always saying, oh, they're they're making a killing.
01:22:32
Sterling Lowe
well, we don't, we don't get enough snow here to make a killing with loaders.
01:22:33
The SnowJobs Podcast
No, they're not.
01:22:36
The SnowJobs Podcast
Not if they're subbing for Brightview. They ain't making a killing.
01:22:38
Sterling Lowe
Right.
01:22:39
RICK JAMES
Ha ha.
01:22:41
The SnowJobs Podcast
i
01:22:41
Sterling Lowe
Um, there are times when we do, but like I know with our loaders, um, you know, now, you know, if you're not, if you're running rubber squeegees, um, you know, you're not doing anything under two inches with them.
01:22:42
The SnowJobs Podcast
Pay their fuel bill.
01:22:54
Sterling Lowe
You know, if you're running, if if you're running arctics, okay, you're going to get the hours with them.
01:22:55
The SnowJobs Podcast
Yeah.
01:22:59
Sterling Lowe
Um, But a lot of our competition around here, I think, you know, if you're a big landscape company and you're really killing it in the landscapes landscape market, you know, they keep their trucks new um with with the landscape side, you know, eight, 10 months out of the year.
01:23:14
The SnowJobs Podcast
Yep.
01:23:16
Sterling Lowe
And then, you know, brand new plow, brand new salt spreader. They're not an all-in snow company, um you know, like some of the guys out there. Like, i you know, we'll go to all these different events and never see any
01:23:26
The SnowJobs Podcast
so
01:23:29
Sterling Lowe
local people, one or two maybe, but you don't stumble into the guys that you know you're bidding against because they're not there.
01:23:38
The SnowJobs Podcast
Interesting. What else you got, Jay?
01:23:44
RICK JAMES
Probably do some commercials. I got to...
01:23:47
The SnowJobs Podcast
10-4. We can do that. All right. We'll hit some commercials. We'll be right back.
01:24:41
The SnowJobs Podcast
all right gang we're back let's see what else do i have for sterling i so it's interesting you guys like you said you you are a painting company but we see you at all the events and stuff you're you're hardcore into the snow and the liquids and stuff have anything you learned in your early stages or as you started to to grow it any lessons that you want to pass on to other guys
01:25:09
Sterling Lowe
Um, yeah, I mean, for us early in the snow business, like, you know, when you're a young guy starting a business, know, you're hungry, you're going to conform to your customer in every way, just to get the job. You know, you're going to, you're going to do what they ask. You're going to, and one of the things that I've found, like for us on our liquid brine journey, um, you know, if you can, if you can early on,
01:25:37
Sterling Lowe
you know, build your brand, figure it out, figure out what it is that separates you from your competition. doesn't need to be huge. You know, like i always say, you don't need to invent a new rocket, a new bottle cap will do.
01:25:49
Sterling Lowe
um You know, you just need to find that thing that separates you from your competition. And lately for us, um it's been the the liquid brand thing where,
01:26:00
The SnowJobs Podcast
Oh, absolutely.
01:26:01
RICK JAMES
Yeah. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
01:26:01
Sterling Lowe
Everybody hears about it. They don't know much about it. If you can, if you can speak about it, um, if you can educate your customer about it, um, To everyone out there, it's the new and upcoming thing.
01:26:14
Sterling Lowe
And, uh, you know, not many guys are doing it. So as a young guy, I would say, know, if you're getting into the market, Figure out what you're good at. Stick to your guns.
01:26:27
Sterling Lowe
don't Don't fold for the and for the almighty dollar and the work will come.
01:26:33
The SnowJobs Podcast
Amen.
01:26:34
RICK JAMES
Yep.
01:26:34
The SnowJobs Podcast
Amen. Love it. What else you got for me, Jay?
01:26:39
RICK JAMES
It's going to do five.
01:26:40
The SnowJobs Podcast
Want to do five five? Take it.
01:26:42
RICK JAMES
Yep.
01:26:43
The SnowJobs Podcast
Take it away.
01:26:43
RICK JAMES
All right, Sterling, where would you like to see your company go in the next five years?
01:26:47
Sterling Lowe
So... this in the last two years, you know, brought my daughters into the office. Um, they're there. They've always been involved. All four of my girls have been involved in the, uh, in the snow business.
01:27:00
Sterling Lowe
Um, they've all, you know, the, the two younger, and have done a ton of sidewalks. The two older have done sidewalks. They've managed sidewalk crews. They've run some loaders on sites.
01:27:10
The SnowJobs Podcast
That's awesome.
Family Business Dynamics
01:27:12
RICK JAMES
You're
01:27:12
Sterling Lowe
Um, and they enjoy it. And, and, Um, you know, they learned those hard lessons. Like, you know, one time my, my one daughter was like, you know, this, this sidewalk crew sucks. We didn't get rid of them. I was like, well, let's get the job sites shoveled first.
01:27:26
Sterling Lowe
And then we'll worry about retraining them.
01:27:26
RICK JAMES
right.
01:27:27
The SnowJobs Podcast
Yeah.
01:27:27
RICK JAMES
yeah
01:27:28
The SnowJobs Podcast
Yep.
01:27:29
Sterling Lowe
You know, like, you know you don't, want to fire everybody because we shovel this place yourself.
01:27:33
The SnowJobs Podcast
Exactly.
01:27:33
Sterling Lowe
Uh, so,
01:27:34
RICK JAMES
right
01:27:36
Sterling Lowe
So with bringing them in, um you know, one of one of my things that I always say I was not great at is, you know, i always try to wear too many hats. So as I've gotten older, you know, i've started to delegate more and get things out. We're getting ready to go through a rebrand to try to twist us a little more to to be focused on industrial industrial, you know, painting and snow and all that kind of stuff.
01:28:03
RICK JAMES
Yeah.
01:28:03
Sterling Lowe
I'd like to see us double or triple our our snow operation
01:28:11
Sterling Lowe
you know and fine tune what we do.
01:28:14
The SnowJobs Podcast
And no more painting.
01:28:14
Sterling Lowe
yeah Well, I like the painting. So the painting is great.
01:28:17
The SnowJobs Podcast
You do. All right, good.
01:28:18
Sterling Lowe
But for here, like the crazy thing is, is here, know, we had six weeks, you know, like we have January 15th to March 1st is go time for us.
01:28:18
RICK JAMES
yeah yeah
01:28:28
Sterling Lowe
And if it's a busy season and you can be out three days a week, you know, all you got to do is make it through those six weeks and we can do as much business in six weeks as we do the rest of the year, you know, chasing, chasing the painting.
01:28:35
RICK JAMES
Yep. Mm-hmm.
01:28:42
The SnowJobs Podcast
Gotcha.
01:28:42
RICK JAMES
but
01:28:43
Sterling Lowe
So, you know, it would be good for for me in in five years to be
01:28:51
Sterling Lowe
to be pushing that so that the girls can take over some more. And, you know, I don't ever want I have no retirement dreams. You know, I'd like to work forever.
01:29:01
Sterling Lowe
There's no beach with my name on it anywhere. And I always tease them.
01:29:06
RICK JAMES
Yeah.
01:29:06
Sterling Lowe
I was like, one day you're going to come up and knock on a loader door and that's going to be it. I'm checked out. I know.
01:29:12
The SnowJobs Podcast
Jesus.
01:29:12
RICK JAMES
Yeah.
01:29:15
RICK JAMES
yeah
01:29:16
The SnowJobs Podcast
ah What would you say has been your best decision in the last five years to get you to the point you're at now?
01:29:24
Sterling Lowe
um bringing in, you know, even with the start of it, bringing my sister and my brother's been with me here from the beginning. And he's always the the voice of reason. Like, as I'm like, let's bite off more.
01:29:34
Sterling Lowe
We can do more. We can do more.
01:29:36
The SnowJobs Podcast
Yup.
01:29:36
Sterling Lowe
He's like, whoa, let's slow down a little bit.
01:29:36
RICK JAMES
Yeah. yeah
01:29:38
The SnowJobs Podcast
Pump the brakes.
01:29:39
Sterling Lowe
Killing me. Right.
01:29:41
The SnowJobs Podcast
That's it. The fun police. Yup.
01:29:42
Sterling Lowe
Right. I brought my sister in back in 2010 to help out the office. Like she's the, she's the, you know, she handles all of our intricate paperwork, all of those crazy billing, um you know, companies that you have to invoice through to try to get paid.
01:29:59
The SnowJobs Podcast
ye
01:29:59
Sterling Lowe
She does all the different, you know, invoice all of our state contracts. She does all that kind of stuff. And now bringing, I have 22 and 23 year old in the office. that like the first week they were here, it was like bringing magicians in because they, they've grown up on technology and everything they do, you know, like I'd still be like, Hey, what's that chat GPT thing.
01:30:17
The SnowJobs Podcast
Ah, okay.
01:30:23
Sterling Lowe
But you know, they're already rocking and rolling with it. Uh, all of the social media, um, it's, it's secondhand to them.
01:30:26
RICK JAMES
Yeah.
01:30:30
Sterling Lowe
And then, um you know With that, we've been doing, onboarded LMN year ago. and was always one of those guys that I was like, this is no business. It's a 50% profit business. You can't walk away from it because you're just making buckets of money.
01:30:47
Sterling Lowe
But in the back of my mind, I'm like, yeah, but we spent a lot of time you know working on stuff and maintaining and doing all that. I wonder if we are as profitable as we think we are.
01:30:58
Sterling Lowe
And when you sit down and you really start crunching numbers and looking at your costs, you know, in every way, you more you drill down on that stuff, the more you realize we should be charging more.
01:31:06
The SnowJobs Podcast
Yeah. 1000%. 100%.
01:31:07
RICK JAMES
the
01:31:12
The SnowJobs Podcast
Yeah.
01:31:12
RICK JAMES
Yeah.
01:31:13
The SnowJobs Podcast
hundred percent
01:31:14
RICK JAMES
Especially now that you got those artics, if you charge them per hour, you're just way too efficient.
01:31:18
The SnowJobs Podcast
yeah
01:31:19
Sterling Lowe
Well, and that's been so like, you we have some renewals this year and I was like, you're going to see some price increases, but I'm going to show you some production rate increases.
01:31:28
RICK JAMES
Yep.
01:31:28
Sterling Lowe
So while, yes, we are charging more, we're be done faster. You might be paying the same amount of money for the job, but, you know, yeah, we can do more.
01:31:37
RICK JAMES
just less time for you. Yep.
Snow Removal Anecdotes and Lessons Learned
01:31:41
The SnowJobs Podcast
Yeah, that that I've always said that that, that hourly rate just penalizes you, the people that are super efficient.
01:31:41
Sterling Lowe
Yes. Yep.
01:31:41
RICK JAMES
Yep.
01:31:47
Sterling Lowe
yes
01:31:48
RICK JAMES
Yep. All right, Sterling.
01:31:51
Sterling Lowe
yeah
01:31:51
The SnowJobs Podcast
Poof.
01:31:52
RICK JAMES
Why don't tell me you got any good plowing stories? I think we were talking about a little bit. think you might've came up with something.
01:31:59
Sterling Lowe
Yeah, we have both we have plenty. So back, I won't say the site where we were, but we had a site we were working on and we were working with another company.
01:32:11
Sterling Lowe
you We were working for them and they were doing some of the stuff in-house and they had a two-story parking garage. And when we cleared the upper deck, we would push everything to the sides.
01:32:18
The SnowJobs Podcast
Oh.
01:32:22
Sterling Lowe
And then during regular time, they would bring their crews in and go get their skid loaders and bucket stuff over the edges of the parking garage. So one Sunday we get the call, Hey, we need some crews to come in here and do a, like a, a recon mission. and we're like, well, for what? And they're like, well,
01:32:43
Sterling Lowe
whatever the guy's name was, i don't know, Ed, was up on the parking garage unloading snow and went off the third floor with his with the skid loader over the edge of the parking garage.
01:32:55
The SnowJobs Podcast
Whoa.
01:32:55
RICK JAMES
Oh.
01:32:55
Sterling Lowe
So he had built a ramp up against the edge and was just bucking it off like anybody else, but I guess he they had a
01:32:55
The SnowJobs Podcast
Sure.
01:33:03
Sterling Lowe
so if you ever you're ever bucketing that kind of stuff and you're run a new holland with a huge snow bucket be very careful because it he was shaking the snow out and it it tipped the machine over and he went over the edge the bucket got hung up in the in the fence on the second floor and it spun him around and he landed on the butt of the of the machine
01:33:06
The SnowJobs Podcast
sure
01:33:21
The SnowJobs Podcast
she
01:33:26
Sterling Lowe
And it was a real steep hill. So like, it was only a two story apartment garage, but on that side, it was three stories. Cause it was, it was like damn landed on the butt and then flipped over and landed upside down on the bucket against the tree in the woods.
01:33:32
RICK JAMES
What?
01:33:38
Sterling Lowe
And that's where it's completely like he's calling, he's calling his manager.
01:33:39
The SnowJobs Podcast
Wow.
01:33:43
Sterling Lowe
He's like, Hey, I'm going to need some help over here. I'm a, I fell off the roof and he's like, he was on an injured, but they brought us in on like a Sunday night and we, we dropped everything because they didn't want you know like the Monday morning news team on the action.
01:33:48
RICK JAMES
Wow.
01:34:02
The SnowJobs Podcast
Sure. Wow.
01:34:05
RICK JAMES
That's crazy.
01:34:06
The SnowJobs Podcast
That's a first.
01:34:06
Sterling Lowe
But yeah, anytime you're bucking snow off of a parking garage, don't do it with your snow bucket because those things are heavy.
01:34:12
RICK JAMES
Yeah.
01:34:12
The SnowJobs Podcast
Yeah, absolutely.
01:34:13
RICK JAMES
Yeah.
01:34:14
Sterling Lowe
So he was completely fine.
01:34:14
RICK JAMES
I can't believe he's fine. Holy shit.
01:34:17
Sterling Lowe
like He may have banged his door.
01:34:18
RICK JAMES
What kind of skidster was that?
01:34:18
Sterling Lowe
There was house.
01:34:19
The SnowJobs Podcast
Yeah, going to say, give that brand a shout out.
01:34:22
Sterling Lowe
It was new holly. Broke the cylinder, broke one of like the bucket cylinders, but other than that, it didn't twist anything off. It was crazy.
01:34:29
RICK JAMES
What the hell?
01:34:30
The SnowJobs Podcast
Case New Holland. There you go.
01:34:32
Sterling Lowe
But we had that.
01:34:33
RICK JAMES
Wow.
01:34:33
Sterling Lowe
we had the you know We've had your usual ah one buddy mine when he got his, he had a new Bobcat back in 2009, and he's like, man, this thing kills it. It's a two-speed. It'll do like 18 miles an hour, and it was one of the great storms.
01:34:48
Sterling Lowe
or whatever it would I was 16, whatever a Bobcat pullout would do. And I come around the shopping center, and hes he's over there looking like he's punch drunk standing in front of his machine, and he's got his windshield in his hand.
01:35:03
The SnowJobs Podcast
Oh, geez.
01:35:04
RICK JAMES
ah he hit a curve.
01:35:05
Sterling Lowe
it was so getting it across the parking a lot when he hit a manhole car.
01:35:10
The SnowJobs Podcast
Oh, that'll do it.
01:35:10
Sterling Lowe
He's like, broken ribs.
01:35:10
RICK JAMES
Yep.
01:35:12
Sterling Lowe
He thought he broke his ribs on the crossbar. you know He's like, ah, it's terrible. So...
01:35:17
The SnowJobs Podcast
That'll do it. Even and even more reason to have an Arctic.
01:35:20
Sterling Lowe
Yeah. Yeah. We were on a site one time we had, it was a circle site, a big shopping center and it had a loop road that went around it. And one of my guys, this guy, Pedro was running in a truck and, uh, I passed him.
01:35:34
Sterling Lowe
And as he's coming towards me, it's the middle of the day. Like it's a functioning shopping centers, people everywhere. We're plowing the main drag and he starts fishtailing the truck back and forth right in front of the the grocery store.
01:35:45
The SnowJobs Podcast
she
01:35:46
Sterling Lowe
And I was like, Pedro, was thinking myself, like, what what are you doing? Like, you know, it's tearing it up. And he passes me and I don't think much of it. So I go around the shopping center, come back around the other side. And I'm coming up the backside and there's Pedro running down the street.
01:36:04
Sterling Lowe
And I pull over and I'm like, Pedro, what's up? He's like, they stole the fucking truck. Like it wasn't Pedro dropping the truck.
01:36:10
The SnowJobs Podcast
Oh Jesus, oh man
01:36:14
RICK JAMES
Mm.
01:36:14
Sterling Lowe
So he had jumped out to assist somebody like shoveling a handicap ramp and a guy jumped in and took off with his truck.
01:36:20
The SnowJobs Podcast
Wow.
01:36:21
Sterling Lowe
ah So fortunately they had, they just drove it over to the home Depot that was there, left it running all four doors open, stole everything out of the wallets and keys and phones.
01:36:32
Sterling Lowe
And, but the truck was still there, but he's like, yeah, it's not a fucking truck.
01:36:35
The SnowJobs Podcast
Man, that's fucking funny. Holy shit.
01:36:40
RICK JAMES
o
01:36:41
The SnowJobs Podcast
You hear stuff all the time for the first time. Oh man.
01:36:44
Sterling Lowe
but yeah.
01:36:45
The SnowJobs Podcast
Sterling, you got anything for us, buddy?
01:36:46
RICK JAMES
That was good.
01:36:49
Sterling Lowe
Yeah.
01:36:51
The SnowJobs Podcast
Oh, all right. What you got?
01:36:53
Sterling Lowe
Jeremy, I'm always wondering what, what are you running truck wise for, for spraying calcium?
01:36:55
RICK JAMES
in
01:37:00
Sterling Lowe
So is that, it's like, is that, yeah, like when you're spraying in the summer, is that a special trailer?
01:37:01
RICK JAMES
oh in the summertime? Summertime? summer
01:37:05
Sterling Lowe
Is that just a water tanker or is
01:37:07
RICK JAMES
It's just ah just ah i have a 5,600-gallon tanker, and I have a 4-inch rope or pump on it.
01:37:15
Sterling Lowe
um Okay.
01:37:15
RICK JAMES
we i got to I had a machine shop build me a spray bar, 18-foot spray bar. I got air cylinders on it, so the wings come full up and down on it. so yeah so yeah it's so man i got it it's It's ran off a Veritech system, which is ah kind of a local company
01:37:25
Sterling Lowe
okay
01:37:33
RICK JAMES
Alexandria is little town 90 miles from here. They sell Veritech. They sell a bunch of brine brine makers and brine sprayers and stuff like that. So it's their their system.
01:37:40
Sterling Lowe
yeah
01:37:42
RICK JAMES
Force America, I think, is called, too. So, yeah.
01:37:45
The SnowJobs Podcast
They lot of DOT sales, don't they?
01:37:47
Sterling Lowe
Do you run that column or anything like that?
01:37:47
RICK JAMES
Yeah, they do lot of deal.
01:37:49
Sterling Lowe
or Or do you only do you run it in the wintertime or only in the summer?
01:37:50
RICK JAMES
What's that?
01:37:53
RICK JAMES
Uh, I've, I've ran it. We've used it once or twice, just trying to get at the end of the season, like trying to burn up some brine, covering more lots than we normally do. So we definitely could.
01:38:01
Sterling Lowe
right
01:38:02
RICK JAMES
i mean, they're, they're set up for it. So, you know, just, yeah, might, yeah.
01:38:05
The SnowJobs Podcast
They can handle the fire, Brian.
01:38:09
RICK JAMES
Melt the, melt the wings. But I mean, I'd probably should change just tips because they're just fan tips, but you know, we'll put pencil tips in if we were going to use it, but it works if we need to.
01:38:22
RICK JAMES
So.
01:38:22
Sterling Lowe
right right
01:38:25
The SnowJobs Podcast
10-4.
01:38:25
RICK JAMES
either I do it more, honestly. it's I love driving a semi-tanker.
01:38:29
Sterling Lowe
right
01:38:31
RICK JAMES
Yeah.
01:38:31
Sterling Lowe
Steve, do you do any Brian?
01:38:31
The SnowJobs Podcast
you
01:38:32
Sterling Lowe
You don't, you guys don't do it.
01:38:33
The SnowJobs Podcast
No. No, we don't. We use ah but just use so much little salt that it would take a while to get the ah ROI out. and Honestly, I mean, I don't know how much, how how long I'm going be doing this.
01:38:47
The SnowJobs Podcast
Like, you know, it could be ah another couple of years and call it a day. I mean, this is, this is becoming a full-time job.
01:38:51
Sterling Lowe
Right.
01:38:54
The SnowJobs Podcast
So it's like, you know, how, how can you manage everything that I'm doing here?
01:38:55
Sterling Lowe
Sure.
01:38:58
The SnowJobs Podcast
So we'll see.
01:38:59
Sterling Lowe
I managed to turn ah us ah you know a snow gig into a around good.
01:39:04
The SnowJobs Podcast
yeah basically it's uh yeah yeah we've managed to add work which i did not need to do that was uh we were already busy enough so um but no we've we haven't done the brian we looked into it and like i spent countless hours on the phone with adam hansen while he was still at vsi before it was boss by vsi or vsi by boss rather and um
01:39:05
RICK JAMES
Yep. Yep.
01:39:06
Sterling Lowe
ah
01:39:06
RICK JAMES
no
01:39:28
The SnowJobs Podcast
You know, we we laid out everything, every cost, every dollar for every fitting I was going to need, the piping, everything. And it was like a hundred and twenty five k And that was like, that was pre-COVID. That was like 2019. And I'm like, to outfit one truck and have my own brine-making operation and storage, and that's like, it just didn't make sense. You know, i already had the spreaders.
01:39:53
The SnowJobs Podcast
We're not using an overabundance of salt per acre. It would take me a long time to get the ah ROI out of that.
01:40:01
Sterling Lowe
yeah
01:40:01
The SnowJobs Podcast
And people don't, people, honestly, there are some people around here that don't want it. They're just so old school. They want to see physical product in their parking lot. And, you know, they just they don't even want to hear because I did a poll amongst my customers at the time.
01:40:11
Sterling Lowe
Yeah,
01:40:16
The SnowJobs Podcast
And in 2018 and 2019, I asked, you know, hey, would you be interested if we were spraying salt, Brian, rather than putting salt on your lot? And I want to say it was almost 50 percent said, no, we don't want liquid.
01:40:31
The SnowJobs Podcast
So I go, OK. that was another reason. that You know you don't don't have to twist my arm not to spend $125,000. The
01:40:37
Sterling Lowe
and we've done clear laying down here. and had good luck with it, you know, you know spreading. Yeah.
01:40:44
The SnowJobs Podcast
ah granular? Yeah, Clearlane's good. The ah state DOT uses Clearlane up here. So New York State uses it.
01:40:50
Sterling Lowe
Yeah.
01:40:51
The SnowJobs Podcast
Yeah, it's good. It looks like the Emerald emerald Highway.
01:40:54
Sterling Lowe
yeah
01:40:54
The SnowJobs Podcast
It's all green on the shoulders the whole way after a snowstorm.
01:40:57
RICK JAMES
Mm-hmm.
01:40:58
The SnowJobs Podcast
um but yeah no that works good yeah the you know if if guys are using treated salt they they use a lot less of it or they should be using a lot less of it and then You know, you're kind of in that kind of area where I don't know if it makes sense. If you have a large operation and you're using thousands and thousands of tons a year of salt, then by all means, you know, that's going to benefit you and it's going to probably be worth the CapEx. But for a smaller company like myself, it just didn't make any fiscal sense to do it.
01:41:29
Sterling Lowe
Well, it's a job to make us make the changeover, and logistics is a definite thing to consider.
01:41:35
The SnowJobs Podcast
Absolutely.
01:41:35
RICK JAMES
Oh yeah.
01:41:36
The SnowJobs Podcast
and And it's like the hidden costs that they they tell you about, but you don't think about. Like, they mention that, the oh, well, you have somebody has to make the brine.
01:41:45
Sterling Lowe
Right.
01:41:46
The SnowJobs Podcast
So now, you you know, you you have the labor hours involved with loading. You know, if you get, like, a small one, like like you said, the brine buddies, you know, the little the little brine makers. Somebody's going to have to keep constantly loading that and then pumping the batch out, you know, into the tanks.
01:42:01
The SnowJobs Podcast
um It's a lot. It's a lot of hidden stuff. And I'm just like, you know what? I was talking um a couple of my guys about it and they're just like, why would we, why would we do it now? Like we're, we're good. We got it down to a science. Like, let's just keep rolling with it. We're not damaging the environment. We're using minimal salt as it is.
01:42:19
The SnowJobs Podcast
We're using live edge plows. We're good. So yeah, haven't gotten into it. ah Probably ah unless the state mandates it probably wouldn't get into it at this point in the game.
01:42:33
The SnowJobs Podcast
And ah if they mandated it, it'd probably be the end of the game because I probably wouldn't, you know, i probably wouldn't do it or I'd have to sub somebody in.
01:42:38
RICK JAMES
yes
01:42:42
The SnowJobs Podcast
And I just, i don't know. I don't know if I'd go that route.
01:42:45
Sterling Lowe
Well, think Tony at S&S was saying the new camion units, like with this year's pricing, they're close to 30,000 bucks.
01:42:54
The SnowJobs Podcast
Oh, I know. So are the VSI ones.
01:42:56
RICK JAMES
I believe it.
01:42:57
The SnowJobs Podcast
It's it's insane. So, like, I mean, Jordan had a great point a couple weeks ago or a month ago when he was on the show, and he said, like, we made the the argument that it's just too expensive. The barrier to entry for guys to take a flyer on liquids is too high.
01:43:12
The SnowJobs Podcast
you know they they have to they They really have to go all in and understand how long it's going to take them to get their their investment out um yeah because these things are going up astronomically.
01:43:23
Sterling Lowe
Yeah.
01:43:23
The SnowJobs Podcast
like And it's the same shit. That's the thing. like It is the same shit they sold six years ago for $14,000.
01:43:31
RICK JAMES
Yeah.
01:43:32
The SnowJobs Podcast
There's not much different. There's a little maybe a sensor here. you know oh They tweaked something there, but it's it's the same same stuff.
01:43:39
RICK JAMES
It's the same thing. every Everything. Any piece of equipment is ridiculous.
01:43:41
The SnowJobs Podcast
Yeah.
01:43:43
Sterling Lowe
yeah
01:43:44
The SnowJobs Podcast
Tank is the same. Cradle is the same. Hoses are the same. Still using banjo fittings. It's all the same shit.
01:43:50
Sterling Lowe
I think my first unit was like 16,000. sixteen thousand And, you know, you guys had a good point in that, in that episode you did was, you know, all right, well, maybe you don't need to have a GPS track with breadcrumb trails for everything.
01:44:06
Sterling Lowe
Cause you don't have it for, you typically don't have it for granular product while you need it for Brian.
01:44:09
The SnowJobs Podcast
Mm-hmm.
01:44:12
The SnowJobs Podcast
True.
01:44:12
Sterling Lowe
And can it save me $10,000 per unit to not have that?
01:44:17
The SnowJobs Podcast
Yeah. I mean, some guys don't even want it off the app.
01:44:19
RICK JAMES
right
01:44:20
The SnowJobs Podcast
They want it on a physical controller. Like, they don't want it to be able to be done from your smartphone.
01:44:23
Sterling Lowe
Right? Sure.
01:44:25
The SnowJobs Podcast
It's one more thing. One more thing that might not work during a storm.
01:44:28
Sterling Lowe
sure
01:44:29
RICK JAMES
Go wrong.
01:44:29
The SnowJobs Podcast
So, like, give me a physical controller that I can use.
01:44:30
RICK JAMES
Yep.
01:44:32
The SnowJobs Podcast
Some guys don't want wireless, you know, Wi-Fi. So, but...
01:44:37
RICK JAMES
Yep.
01:44:39
The SnowJobs Podcast
Yeah, it's definitely ain't getting cheaper. Nothing we do is getting cheaper. So that it's like we say all the time, it's even more important to know your numbers, know what your overhead is and make sure you're charging right.
01:44:48
RICK JAMES
Nothing we're doing isn't cheaper, but everybody expects us to be cheaper.
01:44:52
The SnowJobs Podcast
hundred percent.
01:44:53
Sterling Lowe
Well, always say with seasonal, our seasonal contracts, that the story we get from our customer is, well, if we do seasonal, you know, you do, you get a three year deal.
01:45:04
Sterling Lowe
And so you make money one year, you break even money, you break even one year, and maybe you lose money one year. And I'm always saying, well, that sounds like three years of breaking even.
01:45:11
RICK JAMES
Mm-hmm.
01:45:14
Sterling Lowe
That's not business model.
01:45:14
The SnowJobs Podcast
Yeah. Well, if I'm breaking even, that's a loss.
01:45:19
Sterling Lowe
right
01:45:19
The SnowJobs Podcast
That's a huge loss. If I haven't made money on a winner, it's a lost winner. And I'm arms I should retire because I'm not doing something right.
01:45:27
Sterling Lowe
right
01:45:27
The SnowJobs Podcast
I'm not as good at this as I thought I was if I'm breaking even.
01:45:27
RICK JAMES
Yep.
01:45:31
Sterling Lowe
Yeah. And that's the seasonal model that you always hear down here. Well, it's seasonal. you get This is how it works.
01:45:36
The SnowJobs Podcast
I shouldn't say that's everybody ah because I know some guys, their whole model for doing snow is breaking even. Like we have a couple of paving companies around us in our area that have literally said that, like, we don't care if we lose money on this contract.
01:45:49
The SnowJobs Podcast
We just need to keep our 17 guys together over the winter because they're making us money nine months out of the year. We can't afford to lay them off for three months and and have nothing to do.
01:46:00
The SnowJobs Podcast
We won't get them all back.
01:46:01
Sterling Lowe
Right, right.
01:46:02
The SnowJobs Podcast
So their whole, you know, they they understand their their fiscal situation. I don't like it, but I can't argue with it, you know? like
01:46:09
Sterling Lowe
But why not do it and make money at
01:46:12
The SnowJobs Podcast
I agree, and i've told the guy I told the one site manager that.
01:46:12
RICK JAMES
Exactly. exactly
01:46:14
The SnowJobs Podcast
I'm like, I understand what you're saying, but, dude, you could literally up this complex $50,000 and you'd still win. Like, you were you guys were astronomically lower than the rest of us on this, astronomically.
01:46:28
Sterling Lowe
We have a seasonal that we, every year they're like, do you want to do this? And I'm like, you have a $48,000 seasonal on a 10 acre site that is the furthest west property in your portfolio.
01:46:45
Sterling Lowe
So where we got 14, they got 28 or 32 inches of snow and 48.
01:46:45
The SnowJobs Podcast
hu
01:46:47
Sterling Lowe
Yeah, they're elevation. and it's forty eight
01:46:51
The SnowJobs Podcast
Snow belt.
01:46:52
Sterling Lowe
yeah they're they're yeah they're they're in elevation
01:46:53
The SnowJobs Podcast
yeah Yeah.
01:46:54
Sterling Lowe
And I'm like, you know I'm doing the same size property for a hundred grand and 14 inches time of material. They just did it for 48,000. No, I don't want to do it.
01:47:04
The SnowJobs Podcast
Yeah, no, you can keep that.
01:47:05
RICK JAMES
No.
01:47:05
Sterling Lowe
Yeah. No, no, I'm good.
01:47:06
The SnowJobs Podcast
Don't lose my number. Lose my number. but Oh, shit. Oh, what do you think, boys? Anything else?
01:47:16
RICK JAMES
don't think so.
01:47:16
The SnowJobs Podcast
You got anything, Jay?
01:47:17
RICK JAMES
Sterling's got anything else.
01:47:17
The SnowJobs Podcast
You good? Sterling, got anything else for us before we let you go? All right.
01:47:20
Sterling Lowe
na now good
01:47:23
RICK JAMES
was a good show.
01:47:24
The SnowJobs Podcast
Thank you very much for coming on. We appreciate your time, man. That was great. That was great those our first definitely our first painting company that does snow.
01:47:31
RICK JAMES
Definitely, yeah.
01:47:32
The SnowJobs Podcast
That is for sure.
01:47:32
RICK JAMES
yeah
01:47:33
Sterling Lowe
Well, it's all encompassing and under the coding's coding's name. we we take them off we put them on.
01:47:38
The SnowJobs Podcast
Love it. I love it. That's great. And it's a family affair.
01:47:41
RICK JAMES
There you go.
01:47:43
The SnowJobs Podcast
That's really great to hear.
01:47:43
RICK JAMES
Yeah, that's awesome.
01:47:45
The SnowJobs Podcast
so All right. Well then we'll wrap it there. You know, that's going to do it for episode one 30, 138 episodes of the main show. That's going to do it for episode one 38 guys. So we want to thank Sterling and family, uh, for all the time. And, uh, they're just great people. We have the pleasure of seeing them at many events, uh, usually liquids events. It's, uh,
01:48:08
The SnowJobs Podcast
It's always good to see them. It's always a lot of laughs. Always a lot of great questions and information going back and forth. So we appreciate them very much. ah But that is it, guys. Everybody have a great week. If you are heading to Northeast De-Icing Solutions, we will see you there.
01:48:27
The SnowJobs Podcast
ah If not, everybody have a great week anyway. Keep doing your thing. Get your bids done. Make sure your prices are right. Be safe out there. Keep pushing.