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S2-102: Happy New Year! Listener Questions with the boys!
983 Plays16 days ago
Happy New Year SnowJobs Nation! In the first episode of 2025 we sit down with Mike Santolucito of ODP, Robert Thyng of RD Outdoor, and Shawn DiVencenzo of Native Property Maintenance to give our views on questions sent in to the show by some of our amazing listeners!
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Transcript
Introduction and New Year Greetings
00:00:40
The SnowJobs Podcast
Happy new year, snow jobs nation. We are back again, bringing you episode one Oh two of the snow jobs podcast main show powered by Top Gun Backblades. As always, I'm Steve. Welcome to 2025. You all know who's with me. Snowby one Kenobi, Rick James, Mr. Jeremy Lindstrom.
00:01:08
The SnowJobs Podcast
It's up, Jay.
00:01:10
RICK JAMES
Oh, just another night with the boys.
00:01:12
The SnowJobs Podcast
Yeah. Yeah. We got to put this one together in a hurry, right?
00:01:13
RICK JAMES
Happy New Year.
00:01:15
The SnowJobs Podcast
Happy new year, brother.
00:01:16
RICK JAMES
Yeah, yeah. Happy New Year.
00:01:18
The SnowJobs Podcast
Had to.
00:01:18
RICK JAMES
Yeah, we figured better record something in case we get shipped out,
Storm Chasing Plans and Gear Humor
00:01:22
RICK JAMES
huh?
00:01:22
The SnowJobs Podcast
Absolutely. We are being mobilized storm chasing, mobilizing to head East.
00:01:25
RICK JAMES
Storm chasing.
00:01:29
RICK JAMES
Big storm coming, hopefully.
00:01:30
The SnowJobs Podcast
Yep. They said they needed the best and Jeremy was available. So get on a plane, get your snow pushing Crocs, get your snow pushing Crocs.
00:01:34
RICK JAMES
Yep. On the plane to nowhere.
00:01:40
RICK JAMES
Crocs.
00:01:40
The SnowJobs Podcast
Yeah. There you go.
00:01:42
RICK JAMES
I should wear my lugs. I should wear my lugs.
00:01:43
The SnowJobs Podcast
Well, your guys were like, you got, your guys were sandals slippers, the whole mine and the, in the loaders, the zoo bass pants, right?
00:01:46
RICK JAMES
Socks. Yeah.
00:01:50
RICK JAMES
Yeah. Yeah, definitely.
00:01:55
The SnowJobs Podcast
I've seen, I've seen those in a couple of pictures.
00:01:55
RICK JAMES
Oh, you got to be comfortable.
00:01:58
The SnowJobs Podcast
Yes.
00:01:58
RICK JAMES
You You got to wear sweats or you can be in there for a while. You know, you got to be comfortable.
00:02:01
The SnowJobs Podcast
Unless you break down and then you're going to be uncomfortable.
00:02:05
RICK JAMES
Well, you worry about that later. you know You don't think about the breakdowns. You just think about sitting on a nice warm loader.
00:02:11
The SnowJobs Podcast
There you go.
00:02:12
RICK JAMES
Letting us know, talking to your boys.
00:02:14
The SnowJobs Podcast
How was your new year? Is everything good?
00:02:17
RICK JAMES
Oh yeah, that was great.
00:02:19
The SnowJobs Podcast
2025
New Year Reflections and TV Show Discussions
00:02:20
The SnowJobs Podcast
is upon us.
00:02:20
RICK JAMES
Yeah, yeah.
00:02:21
The SnowJobs Podcast
We are whole new year.
00:02:22
RICK JAMES
Didn't do anything. How about you? Do anything?
00:02:26
The SnowJobs Podcast
I worked.
00:02:26
RICK JAMES
Oh, you were in a big city, weren't you?
00:02:28
The SnowJobs Podcast
Yeah, I worked, I was in the big city, uneventful, uh, until the overnight and then everybody got stupid, but, uh, you know, that's to be expected, but yeah, it's a good, I'm glad, uh, 24 is over.
00:02:33
RICK JAMES
Yeah.
00:02:38
RICK JAMES
what what do you mean
00:02:42
The SnowJobs Podcast
25 is upon us. It's a, I just realized we only got two more episodes before the season two finale.
00:02:50
RICK JAMES
Season are we gonna have a big cliffhanger or what?
00:02:52
The SnowJobs Podcast
I don't know. I mean, we'll, we'll see. We'll, we'll, we'll.
00:02:54
RICK JAMES
Like a yellow snowman being or what?
00:02:56
The SnowJobs Podcast
Well, I haven't watched it yet. Don't ruin it. Don't ruin it for me.
00:02:58
RICK JAMES
You haven't watched Yellowstone yet
00:03:00
The SnowJobs Podcast
No, I, I do. to it You know what happens when, when a show goes on hiatus like that, I just kind of, I can't get back into it. I'm on the other shows. You watch land, man.
00:03:11
RICK JAMES
Yeah, that's a great show.
00:03:13
The SnowJobs Podcast
Landman is awesome. That is a great show. Love Billy Bob Thornton in that. That's, that's a fantastic show. If you're looking to pass time.
00:03:22
RICK JAMES
Lioness? You watch Lioness?
00:03:23
The SnowJobs Podcast
No, I can't get into that. That's, no, I just can't do it.
00:03:25
RICK JAMES
That's a good one too.
00:03:27
The SnowJobs Podcast
I watched a couple episodes. I just, yeah.
00:03:30
RICK JAMES
Do you see the latest episode of Snowchasing?
00:03:33
The SnowJobs Podcast
Of what?
00:03:34
RICK JAMES
Snowchasing?
00:03:35
The SnowJobs Podcast
Snow chasing?
00:03:37
RICK JAMES
Storm chasing.
00:03:38
The SnowJobs Podcast
Storm chasing? No, I haven't seen it.
00:03:39
RICK JAMES
Yeah, it comes after storms, snow chasing comes storm chasing.
00:03:41
The SnowJobs Podcast
I have not seen it.
00:03:43
RICK JAMES
Pretty good.
00:03:44
The SnowJobs Podcast
Is it?
00:03:45
RICK JAMES
Paper view.
Storm Predictions and Snow Chasing Logistics
00:03:46
The SnowJobs Podcast
Oh, okay.
00:03:46
RICK JAMES
Paper view.
00:03:48
The SnowJobs Podcast
but Well, yeah, we got a storm coming in and actually, uh, what are they saying? Sunday to Tuesday, Sunday to Tuesday, storm coming in.
00:03:55
RICK JAMES
Yeah, that's what I'm hearing.
00:03:58
The SnowJobs Podcast
So by the time this episode is dropping, the storm should be hitting. If the weather guys are correct, we'll, uh, you know, uh,
00:04:05
RICK JAMES
why wouldn't they be cue the music i love that we gotta keep that one go um do some
00:04:14
The SnowJobs Podcast
I can't hear that enough. I can't, I can't hear that one enough. yeah Excuse me, doctor. Uh, but yeah, we'll see. I mean, it, I don't know.
00:04:25
The SnowJobs Podcast
It's, I think it's going to trend a little north. I'm going to, I'm going to go out on a limb, say it's going to trend a little bit north, maybe a hundred, 150 miles. I think we're going to get touched by it for a couple inches, but, uh, you know, we'll see.
00:04:37
RICK JAMES
Hey, if I'm going out east, I'm going to find it.
00:04:40
The SnowJobs Podcast
Yeah.
00:04:40
RICK JAMES
I'll find it.
00:04:40
The SnowJobs Podcast
Oh, you're, you, well, that's a nice thing.
00:04:41
RICK JAMES
I'll track it down.
00:04:43
The SnowJobs Podcast
We're, we're going out there for ECF's episodes. So they got plenty of sites. So we're going to find snow somewhere.
00:04:50
RICK JAMES
Yep.
00:04:50
The SnowJobs Podcast
Storm chasing will find snow somewhere to get on film for ECF.
00:04:50
RICK JAMES
We'll definitely find it.
00:04:55
The SnowJobs Podcast
So that'll be great.
00:04:56
RICK JAMES
Yep. And, uh, I could be in, uh, metal plus if you want to believe that.
00:05:01
RICK JAMES
So yeah. Well, if I'm working for ECF, you know, they put me in a loader, I'll be in a,
00:05:01
The SnowJobs Podcast
Really?
00:05:05
The SnowJobs Podcast
Yeah, that's true. Celebrity guest push.
00:05:08
RICK JAMES
Yeah.
00:05:09
The SnowJobs Podcast
Yeah, we'll see. We'll see. Well, yeah, I hope it pans out. I mean, because ah it's looking pretty cold and pretty dry for the next three weeks.
Surprise Snow Incidents and Preferences
00:05:18
The SnowJobs Podcast
We got a lot of dry air up here. So I don't know. We'll see how much snow we actually get out of it. But I think we could get a couple inches out of this one. We got snow tonight. I walked out of the hockey rink and ah roads were covered. Cars were covered. I almost shit myself. I'm like, my God.
00:05:34
The SnowJobs Podcast
It just didn't, uh, you know, didn't happen. I said, what note, no weather texts. Then everybody, all the weather guys said, Nope, nothing on radar. I'm like, well, it's roads are covered and it's below freezing.
00:05:47
The SnowJobs Podcast
So.
00:05:48
RICK JAMES
Did you talk to him?
00:05:49
The SnowJobs Podcast
Mm-hmm. I did Nick said, nothing's on the radar.
00:05:51
RICK JAMES
What mix?
00:05:53
The SnowJobs Podcast
It's a localized Lake band or whatever, you know, what do they call them?
00:05:54
RICK JAMES
Oh, and
00:05:58
RICK JAMES
something that doesn't happen.
00:06:00
The SnowJobs Podcast
squall squall yeah no it's not real you're not you're not really seeing what you're seeing because i'm not seeing it on radar so it's not really happening um i mean well honestly what are they supposed to do though if it's not on the radar they just gotta to wait until somebody calls it in i guess and like yeah
00:06:01
RICK JAMES
Squawk.
00:06:05
RICK JAMES
Yeah.
00:06:08
RICK JAMES
i I would tend to agree with that. so
00:06:14
RICK JAMES
mean I don't know. Wait for you, I guess, to call it in.
00:06:19
The SnowJobs Podcast
Well, let me tell you, I just, and I couldn't get ahold of anybody. I'm calling like, I'm 20 minutes away from Fishkill.
00:06:23
RICK JAMES
Oh, boy.
00:06:25
The SnowJobs Podcast
I'm calling my guys and nobody's answering the phone. I'm like, they're either out already or they're scrambling to get loaded and get out. But then I finally got ahold of a guy and he's like, no, we, we got a little, you know, maybe 10 minutes of flakes, but nothing really covered over besides the cars.
00:06:40
The SnowJobs Podcast
I was like, all right, we're good.
00:06:40
RICK JAMES
Oh.
00:06:42
The SnowJobs Podcast
So we're gonna, we're gonna, it's still snowing though. So I think we're gonna have to head out because it's below freezing.
00:06:48
RICK JAMES
Hmm.
00:06:48
The SnowJobs Podcast
and it will be say goodbye to above freezing for the next three weeks here in the northeast winter as i remember it as a kid this is uh i'm i'm excited all these snows in november and december i am dude i love listen i love the cold weather
00:06:52
RICK JAMES
That's cold air. Cold air.
00:06:59
RICK JAMES
You're definitely not excited. You're definitely not excited. You are not. You've youve been bitching about it. You've been bitching about all the snow already. You were like, it too we don't get this.
00:07:10
The SnowJobs Podcast
I don't want two inches. I want big storms. Let's go. I'll take it every four days. You can drop a big one on me, but the two inches pisses me off. I don't like two inches.
00:07:18
RICK JAMES
just a tip
00:07:19
The SnowJobs Podcast
No, no, no, no. Give me the whole thing. Give me the one at all.
00:07:22
RICK JAMES
it was
00:07:25
The SnowJobs Podcast
ah It takes me the same amount of time to push two inches and 12 inches. The only difference is the billing. I can't bill as much, but it takes us, to I don't know what it is, but we can clear 12 inches just as quick as we can clear two.
00:07:41
The SnowJobs Podcast
It takes us the same amount of hours and I can't figure it out, but it's true. It's ah the deviation is is ridiculous, but yeah, but that's where we're at brother.
00:07:50
RICK JAMES
So we'll have to do some, let's do some Instagram lives. If we're involved, the snow happens already.
00:07:56
The SnowJobs Podcast
Absolutely. Absolutely. Well, definitely. We got no shortage of guys we can contact. I think Jersey's going to get some s snow so we can hit the salt satie up.
00:08:03
RICK JAMES
Yeah.
Listener Interaction and Store Updates
00:08:06
The SnowJobs Podcast
We'll see if, uh, if his spreaders are fixed and he can go out salt and salt them. ah
00:08:11
RICK JAMES
yeah
00:08:12
The SnowJobs Podcast
Oh man, so what are we doing tonight? We have another another group of guys because we had to put this together last second for Jeremy's celebrity travel schedule. ah We weren't sure if we were going to be able to get to our regularly scheduled episode, so we put one together tonight. Got another group of the guys. We're going to kick around some listener questions that we put out today and some of those topics.
00:08:32
The SnowJobs Podcast
Uh, it was last we said, storm chasing is being dispatched to go film ECF. Uh, so we needed to get something recorded before Jeremy hits the road. So tonight for your listening pleasure, we have Mike Sano Lesito from ODP, and we're trying to convince them to be the co-host of the next big podcast for snow. The odd couple Robert thing of already outdoor and Shawn, even Jenzo of native property maintenance in Jersey.
00:09:03
The SnowJobs Podcast
ah it's lamons as um
00:09:03
RICK JAMES
That's...
00:09:05
The SnowJobs Podcast
oh shit
00:09:05
RICK JAMES
there.
00:09:07
The SnowJobs Podcast
ah But before we get into it with those guys and get them in here, let's hear from team Top Gun and we'll do a quick week in review.
00:09:46
The SnowJobs Podcast
All right, gang, we're back. We can review last week. We had Pat Salmon, Matty Muscles Young and Dustin Van Hale. They came on with us. And again, we were just kind of messing around talking about whatever was in our heads, whatever topics we we wanted to kick around, see where it went. And the feedback we got from a ton of you guys were that you really loved that episode. You loved that kind of episode and that you laughed your asses off. And we definitely did have a lot of fun, a lot of laughs on that. That was a good time.
00:10:16
The SnowJobs Podcast
Was it not Jeremy?
00:10:18
RICK JAMES
It was a good time.
00:10:18
The SnowJobs Podcast
Oh, he's all right. I thought you were muted.
00:10:21
RICK JAMES
No, I'm not muted.
00:10:22
The SnowJobs Podcast
ah Okay. But yeah, no, we had a, we had a good time with those guys. We thank him as always for coming on with us. Couldn't do it without him. What else we got here. Uh, as we keep touching on the Eric guest, these Memorial shirts, they are available on the plow, right?
00:10:35
The SnowJobs Podcast
Marking stakes website. Get over there, get them before they're gone, all right? Support Eric's Kids College Fund. um What else we got here? Same thing. Jeremy just touched on it. If you guys are getting a storm, if you're out there doing it, reach out, let us know. We'll do an Instagram Live with you while you're out there. And what else? Snowjobs Nation Store. Keep hitting it. We love it. All these orders are coming in. Good theyre good to see.
00:11:01
The SnowJobs Podcast
Jeremy will, uh, be on hiatus for a couple of days, but he'll get the orders filled when he gets back from his celebrity guests pushing. Uh, you're going, you're now you're going, you're going.
00:11:09
RICK JAMES
Let's hope, hope, hope I get to go celebrity gas pushing. I mean, let's hope if I get scared away.
00:11:16
The SnowJobs Podcast
It's coming.
00:11:16
RICK JAMES
Oh, I'm going, I'm going somewhere.
00:11:16
The SnowJobs Podcast
It's a lock, bro. It's a lock.
00:11:19
RICK JAMES
What happened to the last lock? Was a swing and a miss.
00:11:22
The SnowJobs Podcast
oh We don't want to talk about that. We don't want to talk about that.
00:11:28
The SnowJobs Podcast
Oh man. Like and subscribe wherever you're listening to us. All right. Otherwise Jeremy gets upset. He wants likes and subscribes.
00:11:35
RICK JAMES
I do.
00:11:37
The SnowJobs Podcast
And that's a, you got anything else Jared? Did I cover it all?
00:11:40
RICK JAMES
Well, I think I covered it.
00:11:42
The SnowJobs Podcast
Good. How are the new sweatshirts doing?
00:11:43
RICK JAMES
Yep.
00:11:45
The SnowJobs Podcast
They're, they're going pretty good, right?
00:11:46
RICK JAMES
They weren't going pretty good. Yeah. This week's been kind of slow, but ah but last week.
00:11:49
The SnowJobs Podcast
That's the holidays.
00:11:50
RICK JAMES
they one Yeah. Yeah.
00:11:52
The SnowJobs Podcast
As soon as the snow starts flying again, they'll start flying off again.
00:11:53
RICK JAMES
No, I got.
00:11:55
RICK JAMES
Yep. I hope so. Yep.
00:11:58
The SnowJobs Podcast
All right.
00:11:59
RICK JAMES
Get them out of here. Get them out.
00:12:00
The SnowJobs Podcast
All right. Well, with that, let's hear from our partners and we'll be right back and we'll get into it with the boys.
Guest Introductions and Winter Performance
00:15:00
The SnowJobs Podcast
All right, we're back. So let's do it. Let's welcome the boys and Rob Sean, Mikey. What's up guys? How are you? Happy new year.
00:15:08
Mike Santolucito
Happy New Year. How we doing?
00:15:10
RICK JAMES
Hey guys.
00:15:10
The SnowJobs Podcast
Good.
00:15:11
Native Snow
happy new year
00:15:11
The SnowJobs Podcast
Oh, always.
00:15:12
Brine Daddy
Nice hat.
00:15:13
The SnowJobs Podcast
Oh, Rick James has the hat on.
00:15:15
Native Snow
that period
00:15:15
Mike Santolucito
Where's the coat?
00:15:16
RICK JAMES
Yeah, it's over there.
00:15:16
The SnowJobs Podcast
Get a picture. Get a picture.
00:15:18
RICK JAMES
I'll go get it.
00:15:19
The SnowJobs Podcast
Oh man. Oh, Mike, are you standing?
00:15:22
Mike Santolucito
I am. I'm currently in the middle of a renovation.
00:15:24
The SnowJobs Podcast
Oh,
00:15:25
Mike Santolucito
I have nowhere to fucking sit.
00:15:27
The SnowJobs Podcast
Oh, okay. I was going to say, I thought it was just a power move. Like he's just going to stand the whole time.
00:15:30
Mike Santolucito
Oh, no, no, I'm still incredibly short.
00:15:33
RICK JAMES
Kitty's got the chair.
00:15:34
The SnowJobs Podcast
ah Oh man. Everybody had a good new year though.
00:15:39
Brine Daddy
Yeah, pretty good.
00:15:39
Mike Santolucito
yeah
00:15:39
The SnowJobs Podcast
Oh my God. Get a, somebody to get a photo of that. Rick James is now Don the pimp coat and hat.
00:15:43
Mike Santolucito
See, what the hell do? Like, this is the picture I wanted to put on my story. not That's great.
00:15:49
The SnowJobs Podcast
That is that's bad ass.
00:15:50
RICK JAMES
Uh, yeah, I don't know if I'd get this on, uh, to TSA.
00:15:51
The SnowJobs Podcast
That's bad. You got to wear that in the loader plowing for a ECF. If you get in the loader.
00:15:58
The SnowJobs Podcast
Wear it. Just wear it, dude.
00:16:00
RICK JAMES
I'm not wearing this.
00:16:01
The SnowJobs Podcast
Wear it.
00:16:02
Mike Santolucito
You can definitely wear it.
00:16:03
RICK JAMES
ah
00:16:03
The SnowJobs Podcast
Dude.
00:16:04
Mike Santolucito
They're not going to search you hard.
00:16:05
The SnowJobs Podcast
Oh, you should so wear that on the plane.
00:16:06
RICK JAMES
yeah
00:16:08
RICK JAMES
Yeah.
00:16:08
The SnowJobs Podcast
That would be a conversation piece right there.
00:16:10
RICK JAMES
Oh, look at that freak. I like it.
00:16:12
The SnowJobs Podcast
No. They'd be they like, that's Rick James.
00:16:14
RICK JAMES
I don't care.
00:16:15
The SnowJobs Podcast
Holy shit.
00:16:16
RICK JAMES
Oh yeah.
00:16:17
The SnowJobs Podcast
That's Rick James. Oh, so everybody had a ah good holiday there.
00:16:19
RICK JAMES
Yep.
00:16:23
The SnowJobs Podcast
Christmas and New Year's were good.
00:16:25
RICK JAMES
Mm hmm.
00:16:25
Brine Daddy
Very good.
00:16:26
Mike Santolucito
Yeah.
00:16:26
Native Snow
Yeah, very good.
00:16:27
The SnowJobs Podcast
All right, good.
00:16:27
Mike Santolucito
Great.
00:16:29
The SnowJobs Podcast
How's the winter going for everybody so far?
00:16:32
Native Snow
Better than expected, that's for sure.
00:16:33
Mike Santolucito
Can't complain.
00:16:36
The SnowJobs Podcast
I'm sorry, better than expected.
00:16:36
RICK JAMES
Better than.
00:16:38
Native Snow
Yeah, we actually got some events, you know, salting events in December.
00:16:40
RICK JAMES
Oh.
00:16:41
Native Snow
We haven't had that in a while.
00:16:43
The SnowJobs Podcast
The pin, the pinata.
00:16:43
Brine Daddy
How did you salt them?
00:16:46
The SnowJobs Podcast
I was going to say it the pinata. Uh, how did you solve them?
00:16:49
RICK JAMES
ah
00:16:50
Native Snow
Very, very carefully.
00:16:50
RICK JAMES
Well,
00:16:52
Brine Daddy
The salt shaker?
00:16:53
The SnowJobs Podcast
He got all those.
00:16:55
Native Snow
That's it.
00:16:55
The SnowJobs Podcast
No, he he had all those. What what was that brand? The spreader Charles Walters spreader drop spreaders.
00:16:58
Mike Santolucito
ah
00:17:00
Native Snow
mother I had the guys, the guys were in the pickup beds and they were just dumping bags and we were driving around. It's all good. Got to get it done.
00:17:08
The SnowJobs Podcast
Oh, man.
00:17:09
Native Snow
I had to order new tires for those those spreaders. Wore the threads right off.
00:17:14
The SnowJobs Podcast
who Oh, my God.
00:17:14
RICK JAMES
How you didn't do anything Couple four couple four
00:17:15
Mike Santolucito
That's impressive.
00:17:19
The SnowJobs Podcast
that You were too funny, dude. Yeah, we heard you had some spreader issues.
00:17:23
Native Snow
Yeah, a couple.
00:17:24
The SnowJobs Podcast
Yeah. but No big deal.
00:17:26
Mike Santolucito
We got to go down to Jersey.
00:17:27
The SnowJobs Podcast
We got it.
00:17:28
Mike Santolucito
I don't believe half these stories.
00:17:30
The SnowJobs Podcast
Oh, no, they're real. He videos. he He sends you videos of some of it. When you're doing a video chat with him, you'll see it.
00:17:39
RICK JAMES
Yeah.
00:17:39
Brine Daddy
Fucking grab the water!
00:17:42
RICK JAMES
I must have missed that.
00:17:44
The SnowJobs Podcast
Oh, man. Good times. Good times. How many ah salt events have you had, Sean?
00:17:51
Native Snow
I think we solved it three times.
00:17:54
The SnowJobs Podcast
Wow.
00:17:55
Native Snow
Yeah, pretty good.
00:17:55
The SnowJobs Podcast
All right. Any plowings yet? Any pushes?
00:17:57
Native Snow
No plowings.
00:17:58
The SnowJobs Podcast
No pushes.
00:18:00
Native Snow
No, the one day I thought it was going to accumulate.
00:18:00
RICK JAMES
You even have plows?
00:18:02
Native Snow
Yeah, we got some plows, a couple, two or three.
00:18:04
The SnowJobs Podcast
No. Two tree.
00:18:06
RICK JAMES
Two or three.
00:18:07
Native Snow
The one day I thought it was going to accumulate, but the salt, thankfully, held it off. So that was good.
00:18:13
RICK JAMES
Ah, the freighter.
00:18:13
The SnowJobs Podcast
Thankfully.
00:18:15
Native Snow
Thankfully.
00:18:16
The SnowJobs Podcast
So you get, you get paid more for salting than you do for pushing.
00:18:16
RICK JAMES
Ah, seasonal.
00:18:20
Native Snow
Doesn't everybody?
00:18:23
The SnowJobs Podcast
I don't know. I guess it depends on ah how you write it up.
00:18:27
Native Snow
I don't know. Maybe.
00:18:29
The SnowJobs Podcast
Robert, you've been pushing yet.
00:18:32
RICK JAMES
He's been pushing.
00:18:32
Brine Daddy
Yeah, we pushed three times.
00:18:34
The SnowJobs Podcast
All right, that's good.
00:18:35
Brine Daddy
Only about eight and a half yeah about eight and a half inches of snow.
00:18:39
The SnowJobs Podcast
Mike, any pushes that you knew about in advance, you've you had a bunch of surprise.
00:18:44
Brine Daddy
but
00:18:44
The SnowJobs Podcast
You've had a bunch of surprise pushes.
00:18:44
RICK JAMES
on How many pushes have you had?
00:18:47
Mike Santolucito
Yeah, we've, uh, what's that?
00:18:50
RICK JAMES
How many pushes have you had?
00:18:53
Mike Santolucito
Uh, you're probably hitting 10 at this point, more saltings, more saltings and push, but yeah, it's been a really good December.
00:18:56
RICK JAMES
Really?
00:18:57
The SnowJobs Podcast
Really.
00:19:01
Mike Santolucito
I was just looking at the, uh, the totals for like the end of 24 and it was more than I was expecting.
00:19:02
Brine Daddy
ah
00:19:07
Mike Santolucito
Some were in the twenties already, some were in the thirties. A lot of them were like 15 inches already. We granted we've had some warm storms.
00:19:12
RICK JAMES
Really?
00:19:13
Mike Santolucito
So I'm sure a lot of that melted off. So we didn't really get to actually push it off, but yeah, guys been busy.
00:19:17
The SnowJobs Podcast
Yeah, it definitely did.
00:19:20
RICK JAMES
Hmm.
00:19:20
The SnowJobs Podcast
That's awesome though. Yeah.
00:19:21
RICK JAMES
Good for you.
00:19:21
The SnowJobs Podcast
I mean, that was event wise. It's definitely been the busiest December we've had in years.
00:19:27
RICK JAMES
I heard a little birdie told me Mikey was out on a van track in one storm.
00:19:28
The SnowJobs Podcast
for the Northeast.
00:19:33
RICK JAMES
Is that what I heard?
00:19:34
Mike Santolucito
Whoa, whoa, whoa. Who got that on tape?
00:19:35
The SnowJobs Podcast
That was a rumor. That was a rumor.
00:19:37
Mike Santolucito
That was the first time I ever tried one of those SSVs, to be honest, and I'm really impressed with that thing.
00:19:42
The SnowJobs Podcast
I told you.
00:19:42
Mike Santolucito
That is a fantastic little unit.
00:19:44
The SnowJobs Podcast
I told you what what attachment you have on with just a blade or.
00:19:46
Mike Santolucito
i had the I had the brom on it. It was like three inches of like moderate heavy snow, but it powered right through it.
00:19:52
The SnowJobs Podcast
No issues, right?
00:19:55
Mike Santolucito
Even windrows, it was leaving.
00:19:55
The SnowJobs Podcast
Yup.
00:19:57
Mike Santolucito
It was still flicking it right, like nothing.
00:19:59
The SnowJobs Podcast
Yep.
00:19:59
RICK JAMES
ah
00:20:00
The SnowJobs Podcast
I know things, bad-ass, bad-ass.
00:20:00
Mike Santolucito
Yeah.
00:20:02
The SnowJobs Podcast
We had it in the ice storm the other morning. We kept pulling that frost up and that, that broom just, just blew it, blew all that stuff. It was like shrapnel. It was great.
00:20:12
Mike Santolucito
Yep.
00:20:13
The SnowJobs Podcast
It was great. But yeah, no, the SSVs are cool, man.
00:20:15
RICK JAMES
Huh.
00:20:17
The SnowJobs Podcast
They are cool. That's good.
00:20:18
RICK JAMES
Hmm.
00:20:19
The SnowJobs Podcast
We've had we just had our first ah bunch of problems
Equipment Experiences and Comparisons
00:20:22
The SnowJobs Podcast
this year. We've never had a problem. We ah we now have we have a seized idler pulley ah bearing.
00:20:25
Mike Santolucito
Olds unit. Oh, yummy.
00:20:33
The SnowJobs Podcast
So yeah, that's, uh, interesting. That's an interesting one can considering how well we D salt and lube and, you know, uh, fluid film and everything.
00:20:44
The SnowJobs Podcast
It's kind of odd that that would happen through a machine with 57.
00:20:45
Mike Santolucito
Yeah, but that that grit still gets in there somehow.
00:20:48
The SnowJobs Podcast
It does. I'm sure. But 57 hours that I would not expect that to happen at that point, but yeah.
00:20:50
Mike Santolucito
Oh, so that's a new unit. It's like, what, a year old?
00:20:57
The SnowJobs Podcast
Yeah. It was last year's, uh, last year's unit.
00:21:00
Mike Santolucito
Hmm.
00:21:01
The SnowJobs Podcast
So, but we're, we're making do and then we have the proverbial throttle cable snap, which seems to be an every year thing now.
00:21:09
RICK JAMES
Mm.
00:21:10
The SnowJobs Podcast
But it is what it is, man.
00:21:11
Mike Santolucito
Yeah.
00:21:11
The SnowJobs Podcast
i and And again, I don't that's not really on Ventrac, is it? It's a then then throttle cable be an engine.
00:21:16
Mike Santolucito
No, those are any faction with somebody else.
00:21:18
The SnowJobs Podcast
Yeah, engine issue.
00:21:18
Mike Santolucito
Yeah.
00:21:20
The SnowJobs Podcast
So that's more of a cow thing, but is what it is. But like I said, I mean, as as much as hard as we use those things and as what those guys do to them, they're those things are tanks.
00:21:31
The SnowJobs Podcast
We should have a lot more breakages that we do. So if it was orange, would it be in pieces at the curb picking it up? but Oh boy. So what else? Anybody got, what's everybody throwing out their new equipment this year? Anybody got anything new they're throwing out there?
00:21:51
Brine Daddy
ah Just for us really just that live box right now we bought a 12-foot metal plus live box which Scrapes good, but um with wet heavy snow.
00:21:59
The SnowJobs Podcast
Nice.
00:22:03
Brine Daddy
It definitely does not roll the snow No Honestly, I'm gonna I'm gonna say the Arctic still
00:22:05
The SnowJobs Podcast
No, no, it does not. So what's better? What do you like better? The live box or the Artix?
00:22:16
The SnowJobs Podcast
All right.
00:22:18
Brine Daddy
Because on a GCB 409 side by side, a 10-5 LD Arctic with a 12-foot live box, side by side, no snow tires, literally identical machine, the Arctic will, like that machine that has the Arctic on it, will pass you multiple times.
00:22:18
RICK JAMES
go
00:22:36
Brine Daddy
Because that, I mean, again, it's it is it is a little bigger, the live box, but it's it just ah completely slows that machine down.
00:22:45
The SnowJobs Podcast
Yeah, I could definitely see that and because it's not rolling the snow. You're seeing the full weight of the collection.
00:22:50
Brine Daddy
Right.
00:22:52
Brine Daddy
I mean, the the first time we used it, we had like four inches of like dry pottery snow and there was no problems. You know, you could fill that thing as much as you wanted, no problem. But once it was once we got that wet concrete snow.
00:23:03
The SnowJobs Podcast
Oh, I was waiting for it.
00:23:05
RICK JAMES
a da hi Oh, agree.
00:23:05
Mike Santolucito
Concrete!
00:23:05
The SnowJobs Podcast
I was waiting for it. Oh, great. ah
00:23:09
Brine Daddy
Yeah, that just. It's a decent plow, it scrapes really good. But again, if I had to choose, I would definitely probably go with an Arctic just for that rolling purpose where you don't really realize when you're you're running just Arctic long enough until you kind of bring in something else in the mix and then all of a sudden you're like, yo, this does not work as good as an Arctic does.
00:23:17
The SnowJobs Podcast
All right.
00:23:30
The SnowJobs Podcast
Nope. I hear you.
00:23:32
RICK JAMES
You're going to be crucified. You're going to be crucified now for saying those words. The mafia is coming for you.
00:23:39
The SnowJobs Podcast
ah Are the shoes holding up on the live box?
00:23:39
Brine Daddy
Come and get me.
00:23:44
Brine Daddy
So far, yeah, I mean, we've only pushed three three times.
00:23:45
The SnowJobs Podcast
Okay.
00:23:47
Brine Daddy
I mean...
00:23:48
The SnowJobs Podcast
That's, I mean, that, that was enough from what we were hearing last year. Like they were wearing down last year, right?
00:23:51
Brine Daddy
Yeah.
00:23:53
The SnowJobs Podcast
Sean, you, you have that happened last year with the shoes.
00:23:55
Native Snow
They have four pushes on a 16 foot.
00:24:00
The SnowJobs Podcast
so So, but supposedly metal plus did correct that problem on the shoes this year for, for this year's models. So that's good to hear that they're, they're staying intact. Good.
00:24:10
Brine Daddy
Yeah.
00:24:11
The SnowJobs Podcast
Like it. What about you, Mike? What's ODP? You guys switched over some stuff, didn't you?
00:24:18
Mike Santolucito
Uh, for what, for boxes?
00:24:19
The SnowJobs Podcast
For now, didn't you? ah Yeah.
00:24:22
RICK JAMES
equipment wise, didn't you guys go away? Didn't you go to something different this year? I thought you guys were op cats.
00:24:26
Mike Santolucito
Uh, so we, we ended up getting the, uh, the Bobcat Steiner version of the, the Ventrac 4520 series.
00:24:26
The SnowJobs Podcast
no
00:24:31
RICK JAMES
Oh yeah.
00:24:33
Mike Santolucito
I have no feedback on it because I don't really have any sites in, in my network that are using them right now, but they haven't broken yet. And that's always a good thing for us. Downtime sucks. We, I haven't heard on the storm vision that some of our boxes got. Um, I think we're compiling that information. We're going to unveil it to everybody and see what the feedback was in its entirety. But we did just grab some of those series buckets. We grabbed, uh, two, two of, I think the three artists for the, uh, the full size come out through two seventies and then.
00:25:06
Mike Santolucito
We got three of the skid steer buckets that are going to go on some Bobcat L85 mini loaders. And we haven't tried them yet. We just got them in. So I'm excited to see how the guys enjoy those.
00:25:17
Mike Santolucito
But I got my hands on them and it it is a beefy unit. That's going to be a very hard unit to break.
00:25:20
The SnowJobs Podcast
Yeah. And you guys are able to get those because you are in the, the facility care network.
00:25:24
RICK JAMES
It's still the key.
00:25:26
Mike Santolucito
That is correct. Yep.
00:25:27
The SnowJobs Podcast
Gotcha. Yeah. They're not for sale, but you can get them if you're in the FC network.
00:25:31
Mike Santolucito
Yeah.
00:25:32
The SnowJobs Podcast
So that's cool. That's it. It's good to hear. I mean, they look, they look bad-ass. We saw the one at Simon that looked pretty cool.
00:25:37
Mike Santolucito
Mm-hmm.
Brine Truck Innovations
00:25:40
The SnowJobs Podcast
Sweet.
00:25:40
Mike Santolucito
Oh, well, we also converted 90% of our Brian trucks to full electric, no pony motors. And the guys said it's not a night and day difference, but it's just nice having that instantaneous on-off, like a polycaster or a tornado, like no lag, no waiting for the engine to get warm, no misfire, and no worrying about the choke freezing up, just push and go.
00:25:58
The SnowJobs Podcast
Yeah.
00:25:59
RICK JAMES
Hm.
00:26:06
Mike Santolucito
and the
00:26:07
RICK JAMES
Did they shoot as far?
00:26:08
Mike Santolucito
De-icing Depot guys, they gave us a new controller that's about half the size. You know, it has the same um interface almost that we were kind of looking for. I know the VSI is on like a nice tablet, which is cool.
00:26:19
Mike Santolucito
This is almost the same thing. It's just on a hard controller that is going to be next to you in the cup holders.
00:26:22
RICK JAMES
Is that
00:26:25
Mike Santolucito
So the guys like it so far.
00:26:27
RICK JAMES
a cameo?
00:26:29
Mike Santolucito
What's that?
00:26:29
RICK JAMES
Are they cameons? Is that what you guys use?
00:26:31
Mike Santolucito
No, the cambions are 50 gallon units that we use on the Ventrax. Those are just for the walkways.
00:26:36
RICK JAMES
Okay.
00:26:37
Mike Santolucito
Actually, no, we do have, it is it a 50 on the tool cats?
00:26:39
The SnowJobs Podcast
I was going to say, yes, you do.
00:26:43
Mike Santolucito
Yeah, I think it's a 50 or 75 on the tool cats that we have.
00:26:50
The SnowJobs Podcast
Well, let's talk about that, because that's one of the listener questions that came in from Alec Harder.
00:26:50
Mike Santolucito
yeah
00:26:55
The SnowJobs Podcast
What brine equipment are you guys using? So we've got a bunch of bunch of guys here that use brine now. So what's everybody, what what kind of equipment are you guys using for brine?
00:27:01
Mike Santolucito
Mmhmm.
00:27:06
Brine Daddy
great VSI, 305
00:27:08
The SnowJobs Podcast
Roberts, VSI, all of it modified turbocharged.
00:27:11
Brine Daddy
legacy sprayer, then we have a 1600 gallon legacy sprayer and a VSI Brian Buddy that I modified.
00:27:23
Brine Daddy
Yes.
00:27:25
RICK JAMES
modified.
00:27:26
Brine Daddy
Yes, I redid all the i did redid all the plumbing and converted everything to two inch.
00:27:26
RICK JAMES
He did.
00:27:30
Brine Daddy
and then put a bigger five horsepower electric pump hooked up to it.
00:27:36
The SnowJobs Podcast
Wouldn't it be better to just get the big brine maker?
00:27:36
Brine Daddy
It doesn't, no, not ah not at the cost in a way, not for a couple of grand for a new pump and some fittings and a couple of hours of my time.
00:27:39
The SnowJobs Podcast
No.
00:27:49
The SnowJobs Podcast
What's that new brine? What's the big brine maker going for? Like 30 grand?
00:27:53
Brine Daddy
Yeah, I believe so.
00:27:54
The SnowJobs Podcast
Jesus.
00:27:54
RICK JAMES
I think that you're right, yeah.
00:27:56
The SnowJobs Podcast
Better make a lot of brine. Do you have anybody up there, Robert, that you could sell to anybody else around you using brine?
00:28:04
Brine Daddy
um A guy I know that bought some Brian office last year. He actually bought a Brian buddy from Pat salmon this year. So other than that, there's really nobody really into it.
00:28:17
Brine Daddy
I say that he did.
00:28:18
The SnowJobs Podcast
so Pat fucked you The Genesis He's probably Brian buying Brian from the other guy
00:28:22
RICK JAMES
She uses Osamah.
00:28:23
Brine Daddy
I say that, but there, but there is a, there is a truck around me that's driving around that has a three or five sprayer.
00:28:25
RICK JAMES
and summer ah
00:28:31
Brine Daddy
It's not a legacy. And I have no idea who it is. I've been trying to, I've been, yeah, to Genesis. I've been trying to catch him, like see him at a store and pull in Poland, just to talk and see who it is. But I haven't, I haven't seen him yet.
00:28:47
Brine Daddy
Yeah, probably. I honestly, we honestly made one batch of, well, not one batch, sorry. We made, we filled up our 6,000 gallon tank, storage tank, and that's really been it. I mean,
00:29:00
Brine Daddy
We've had some salt events and stuff like that, but i mean you're not we're not going through as much material as we were last year, because i mean we only have we've only had you know three pushes.
00:29:08
The SnowJobs Podcast
yeah.
00:29:10
Brine Daddy
and So we haven't really made much prime this year. We're just kind of waiting in limbo.
00:29:16
The SnowJobs Podcast
Cool.
00:29:17
RICK JAMES
When's the big rig going to get rolling with the metal plastic?
00:29:20
Brine Daddy
Actually coming into the shop tomorrow morning this guy's supposed to be back tomorrow Take the whole front of the motor apart reset the timing take out the injection pump take out the injectors Rebuild the injection pump yeah rebuild the injection pump order new injectors put new injectors in An injection pump back and put it all back together and hopefully she runs Yeah, no shit
00:29:26
RICK JAMES
know
00:29:31
The SnowJobs Podcast
Oh, is that it? Jesus. Did you buy this from Sean?
00:29:46
Mike Santolucito
yeah Listen, flat rate is only two hours of work.
00:29:46
RICK JAMES
the
00:29:49
The SnowJobs Podcast
ah Holy shit.
00:29:49
RICK JAMES
Yeah.
00:29:49
Native Snow
Nobody did.
00:29:50
RICK JAMES
Hey, you got a deal on that.
00:29:52
Brine Daddy
No, I knew what I was getting myself into.
00:29:54
The SnowJobs Podcast
All right.
00:29:56
RICK JAMES
Yeah.
00:29:56
Brine Daddy
you know but it was madete It was basically, it's got the 1600 gallon VSI sprayer and then it's got the, what is it, the 10, what is it, the 17?
00:29:57
RICK JAMES
Well, that's got this.
00:30:07
The SnowJobs Podcast
I have no idea.
00:30:08
RICK JAMES
10, 10, 36, 85 or something, 85 footer.
00:30:09
The SnowJobs Podcast
It's your truck.
00:30:13
RICK JAMES
Is that what it's on the front or 80?
00:30:14
Brine Daddy
Yeah, it's 85, yeah, yeah.
00:30:15
RICK JAMES
No, it's an 80 or is it 80 or 85?
00:30:17
Brine Daddy
I'm gonna plow, ah yeah, I'm gonna go plow ah runways with it.
00:30:17
The SnowJobs Podcast
ah yeah
00:30:20
Brine Daddy
It's not wide, it is 85 feet.
00:30:21
RICK JAMES
That's good.
00:30:22
The SnowJobs Podcast
um Oh man.
00:30:22
RICK JAMES
ah Nice. Good for you, buddy.
00:30:26
The SnowJobs Podcast
Mikey, what's, so what's ODP running for, uh, for your liquid stuff for your Brian?
00:30:31
Mike Santolucito
So for the Ventrac 4520 units, we're running the Camian H series 50 gallon brine units. Um, we were running a version from turbo turf.
00:30:44
Mike Santolucito
It was about four, maybe three and a half, four feet long from the three point hitch out. It made it really back heavy.
00:30:49
The SnowJobs Podcast
Oh, yeah.
00:30:51
Mike Santolucito
Even if you have like the snowblower on the front and the turning radius was absolute garbage. If you have like a soft curve walkway, it would just go into the grass.
00:30:56
The SnowJobs Podcast
Yeah, that's not good.
00:30:58
Mike Santolucito
So this one, this one's very tall. It's a little slender. It almost goes like to the point where you can't really see behind you very well, unless you're a tall guy like Jeremy, you could probably see right over it. but it centers itself really well.
00:31:09
Mike Santolucito
So you don't have to mess with the center weight too much on the machine. And you can, even if you have just a plow on it, it's still very balanced. You can run with a full load to treat the locks.
00:31:17
The SnowJobs Podcast
Hmm.
00:31:18
Mike Santolucito
um So we're going to stick with those and we're running the de-icing depot truck units. We were running 500 gallon units for the pickups, but now we're just sticking with the 750s for our 550 trucks.
00:31:33
The SnowJobs Podcast
Okay. What, uh, what brine maker are you using?
00:31:37
Mike Santolucito
D icing depots 2000 gallon unit Yeah, that was the first unit that we bought in that thing.
00:31:39
The SnowJobs Podcast
Hmm. Okay. Very good.
00:31:44
Mike Santolucito
I don't think we've changed the motor on at once That's that's still cranking the original Honda motor on it i' know at The Brian truck units themselves we went through Honda after Honda like
00:31:49
The SnowJobs Podcast
Well, yeah, it's a Honda. There you go. Really?
00:31:56
Mike Santolucito
three Honda motors a year for some of these things, just even with cleaning it, even with fluid filming, it's just the way that that, the way that that spray back on the road or the spray back from the unit kept hitting the flywheel and kept hitting all the components.
00:32:00
RICK JAMES
Wow.
00:32:07
Mike Santolucito
Like it was, it was junk. If you weren't there, steam cleaning it and fluid filming it immediately after running it, it was junk. So we started buying the predator motors but from Harbor Freight because it was just getting too cost prohibitive to keep buying these Honda's.
00:32:14
The SnowJobs Podcast
no shit yeah
00:32:16
RICK JAMES
Hm.
00:32:18
The SnowJobs Podcast
No shit.
00:32:23
Mike Santolucito
It just wasn't even working out. but That was half the reason that we switched to the electric units when D-Icing Depot finally found a, uh, a Marine pump motor that worked for it really well. It was just, we were were sick and tired of replacing it. The cost to switch it out made sense in like a three year period. Like we we'd make it back in less than that.
00:32:40
The SnowJobs Podcast
Cool. Love it.
00:32:42
Brine Daddy
Mike, are you guys making brine in one spot and then trucking it?
00:32:45
Mike Santolucito
One spot. Yep.
00:32:47
Brine Daddy
What are you guys trucking it with?
00:32:47
Mike Santolucito
the 60,000 gallons in that, in that one spot in Manchester. Uh, we run that thing day and night. We got two shifts going. So, uh, Don Stockman, who's been doing it for years for us. He's our, our horticulture manager. He's been with us for over 20 years. He is just dedicated to the brine making in the winter. He doesn't do any snow for us anymore, except for that. And the tanker is a 9,000 gallon.
00:33:11
Mike Santolucito
ah Polar tanker that we bought like three years ago and we just have one of our our good vendor subs take his tractor hook it up and just Run loads anywhere that we can we got sensors on the tanks this year So as soon as we see that it's below, you know half We're just topping these things off and I've been waiting for the guys to tell us what they need Yeah tank track, yep
00:33:30
Brine Daddy
It's cool.
00:33:30
The SnowJobs Podcast
What is that? You got the tank track or what what do they call those tank track? Yeah, that's, that's cool.
00:33:35
Mike Santolucito
And then it's got the little tube on the outside for the guys if they wanted to shine a flashlight on it and see how much they've used for like bigger storms that they've pulled off at a few times.
00:33:43
The SnowJobs Podcast
Nice. So Mike, would you say those Kami and, uh, those Kami and UTV or whatever they are, spray units, those 50 gallon ones, would they benefit if if they, if Kami and put like a simple camera on the back of it that can be run into the cab?
00:33:44
RICK JAMES
That's nice.
00:33:59
Mike Santolucito
Yeah, I mean,
00:34:01
The SnowJobs Podcast
If it affects visibility.
00:34:01
Mike Santolucito
If it's on the three point hitch, you can lower it a little bit, but we put it on the the actual trailer hitch so that it doesn't have that chance to kind of dip down lower and lower and lower as it has that weight on it.
00:34:06
The SnowJobs Podcast
Mm hmm.
00:34:09
The SnowJobs Podcast
Yeah.
00:34:12
Mike Santolucito
Um, we haven't had any instances where guys back up into stuff because they can't see. I think it's just really like, you just going to be careful and remember it's back there. It's like around the back. I'll just care remember it's behind you.
00:34:22
The SnowJobs Podcast
Cool. Love it. What else we got here? Billy Apple from Wisconsin wants to know, how do you guys combat burnout in yourselves and your team throughout the winter?
00:34:34
The SnowJobs Podcast
How do you overcome it?
00:34:36
RICK JAMES
There's no such thing.
00:34:37
Brine Daddy
Okay.
00:34:38
RICK JAMES
There's no sense.
00:34:38
The SnowJobs Podcast
Jeremy says there's no such thing, Billy.
00:34:40
RICK JAMES
You have to fricking do it.
00:34:41
The SnowJobs Podcast
There's no burnout. Just get it done.
00:34:42
RICK JAMES
There's no burnout. You just have to, you got to motivate.
00:34:45
The SnowJobs Podcast
Well, you would know, dude, 47 pushes two years ago.
00:34:46
RICK JAMES
Yeah. yeah
00:34:47
The SnowJobs Podcast
If you guys weren't burned out then, then there is no such thing as burnout in Glacier.
00:34:50
RICK JAMES
I don't, my guys, I don't really think my guys got burned out that year. More or less their wives got sick of it, but honestly, they, they, they just showed up to work. I mean, I'm sure there are days they didn't want to come, but he's got to motivate them to be a cheerleader, tell them how great they are.
00:35:05
The SnowJobs Podcast
I don't know, they seem to have a really good freaking time.
00:35:06
Mike Santolucito
Mmhmm.
00:35:07
The SnowJobs Podcast
like It's almost like ah it's an amusement park for them.
00:35:09
RICK JAMES
well Yeah, it is Honestly it is it's I mean the guys all even even even the guys I mean we have a
00:35:11
The SnowJobs Podcast
like That's their night out. that Instead of going to the bar, they get in the ah they get in the loaders and they just have a grand old time talking to each other.
00:35:23
RICK JAMES
large number of guys on this call we can't always talk about, but those are some of the guys that are not, you know, that they're off on their own and they still showed up every time and didn't care. You know what I mean? At least they didn't tell me they did.
00:35:34
RICK JAMES
They, they just pushed through and they, you know, they're all making good money. So it's, uh, and I always just tell them he's going to end sooner. I mean, tomorrow can be, I mean, you never know when it's over.
00:35:43
The SnowJobs Podcast
Yeah.
00:35:46
RICK JAMES
It's snow, you know, some, any, any input for your last push.
00:35:46
The SnowJobs Podcast
You never know.
00:35:50
RICK JAMES
Who knows? I don't know.
00:35:51
The SnowJobs Podcast
Billy, I would i to answer that question for us, I would say make it as fun as you can. If you got a good group of guys, which most snow guys are characters in one form or another, you know, embrace that. And like when we started doing the headsets and getting guys on the same party call like Glacier did,
00:36:10
The SnowJobs Podcast
Dude, though, like guys were having fun. The time flew. It went a lot quicker than it used to. We had a couple of really big, long storms and guys were still like breaking each other's balls, having a good time.
00:36:22
The SnowJobs Podcast
I think anything you can do to, to kind of, you know, make the time pass quicker,
Team Motivation and Burnout Strategies
00:36:28
RICK JAMES
Mm hmm.
00:36:28
The SnowJobs Podcast
I think is a, is a win.
00:36:30
RICK JAMES
And it's ah everybody. I get a lot of messages what we use. I mean, and you can use whatever you want. I mean, we did just, you know, cell phone calls for years, but kept getting more and more guys.
00:36:30
The SnowJobs Podcast
So I.
00:36:35
Native Snow
Thank you.
00:36:40
RICK JAMES
So now now we we are using Google Meets. Just download that app on your phone and make a group. And ah so we I can get like 30 some people on there or something.
00:36:46
The SnowJobs Podcast
Yep.
00:36:48
RICK JAMES
But yeah, it's.
00:36:50
The SnowJobs Podcast
Yep.
00:36:50
RICK JAMES
But yeah, Google Meets is what we use. And I don't know, that's like you said, it's just, you got to make it fun for the guys. And you know, like you said, everybody's, all these snow guys are, they're all characters and kind of all the same one.
00:37:02
RICK JAMES
And you've seen it when we go out, I'm talking, yeah I'm talking all these guys on our phone, when we're pushing snow and Fargo, all you guys are either pushing or you're out or whatever.
00:37:04
The SnowJobs Podcast
Yeah.
00:37:11
RICK JAMES
So it's just, it's just fun to. you know You got to have a conversation, keep it light and fun, and guys will make it through, I think. But what do you guys think, Robert? What do you guys do for burnout anything?
00:37:23
Brine Daddy
I don't really think I ever get burned out from snow.
00:37:25
The SnowJobs Podcast
Yeah. Oh, it hasn't really happened with enough regularity up in the Northeast with us.
00:37:26
Brine Daddy
And then I just, it's not really.
00:37:30
The SnowJobs Podcast
Right. The last year.
00:37:31
Brine Daddy
I mean, we're not, it's not like we're pushing two or three times a week. I mean, I mean, lately we're probably, I'd say the past five years, we're lucky to push maybe once every two weeks.
00:37:42
The SnowJobs Podcast
Hmm.
00:37:43
Brine Daddy
You know, so.
00:37:45
The SnowJobs Podcast
Yeah, there's no burnout there.
00:37:45
Brine Daddy
I mean, sometimes, yeah, i mean I mean, I would say I guess the only time that, you know, it may be, may feel like burnout is just you're so tired from these like long lingering storms that we've had previous years where, you know, you're talking 24 hours, it's still spitting snow, it's still scraping. And, you know, you had 48, 50 hours by the time you're, you know, it's done snowing and you still got to clean up. I mean, I mean, that's,
00:38:11
Brine Daddy
I don't even know if I'd really consider a burnout. i mean it's just so You're just tired and want to go home.
00:38:15
The SnowJobs Podcast
Frustrated.
00:38:16
Brine Daddy
You're you're just frustrated.
00:38:16
RICK JAMES
Right.
00:38:17
Brine Daddy
like Jesus Christ, when's this going to end?
00:38:17
The SnowJobs Podcast
Yeah.
00:38:18
RICK JAMES
Yeah.
00:38:19
Brine Daddy
Yeah.
00:38:19
RICK JAMES
its It's more of a frustration.
00:38:20
The SnowJobs Podcast
Yeah.
00:38:21
RICK JAMES
Yeah.
00:38:21
The SnowJobs Podcast
Yeah.
00:38:21
RICK JAMES
ye Yeah.
00:38:21
Brine Daddy
yeah But i mean like Jeremy said, it's always going to end.
00:38:24
The SnowJobs Podcast
But listen, the best way to combat frustration is left. If you have fucking something to break it up like that and then laugh about it, the frustration will go away and you'll buy yourself another hour of not wanting to kill somebody.
00:38:37
The SnowJobs Podcast
Cause this thing is still just dicking around, dropping flakes. Like that one we had last year where it just, accumulat it just kept accumulating. We had it cleaned up three times and oh, you got snow possible snow showers for the next two hours.
00:38:52
The SnowJobs Podcast
Yeah. Well, it wasn't showers.
00:38:53
Brine Daddy
Gotta fuckin' reach around.
00:38:55
The SnowJobs Podcast
Yeah, exactly.
00:38:55
RICK JAMES
Yeah, you got a lot to reach around.
00:38:56
The SnowJobs Podcast
You had the old reach around. Yep. The, uh, side winder reach around, uh, the dirty Sanchez, whatever the hell they called it that day.
00:39:06
RICK JAMES
Yes.
00:39:06
The SnowJobs Podcast
But it, uh, yeah, we had that thing, black pavement three different times, and then we had to scrape it all and salt it all again three times that, and that, that happens. So I think anytime you can just have fun with it, you know, get right back at it, have the guys take a break.
00:39:16
RICK JAMES
Oh, every time.
00:39:24
The SnowJobs Podcast
You know, get something to eat, have some laughs, get back on the phone on on the phone, on the headsets and just try and keep it light. And the more you laugh, the quicker the time will go.
00:39:35
RICK JAMES
um i I've noticed it like a real stop for a break and stuff like that.
00:39:35
The SnowJobs Podcast
That's me anyway.
00:39:40
RICK JAMES
You guys have fun with that. but after a break, it takes them a while to get back to God.
00:39:44
The SnowJobs Podcast
Yes. Yeah.
00:39:45
RICK JAMES
It's like, oh shit, we shouldn't have probably taken a break. And now, I mean, they'll eventually get back, but it takes a lot to get them back going. Cause they, you know, they got some food in the belly and they had, had a good time sitting down for a little bit, but it does take a little bit of time to get them back rolling, but it happens.
00:40:00
RICK JAMES
I mean, you got a good team. It happens. How about you, Mikey?
00:40:02
The SnowJobs Podcast
absolutely
00:40:03
RICK JAMES
You got, you got a pretty big team out there. What do you guys do?
00:40:06
Mike Santolucito
Yeah, I mean, it's the same thing, right? You got to make it fun because you really got to be truly gifted to do this for a living. It it takes a certain mentality to enjoy what we do. So the more fun you can make it, whether it's the group chats, whether it's just cracking a few jokes and keeping it light and not taking it too serious. you know
00:40:28
Mike Santolucito
Right now, right? Like it, the world is serious enough as it is. And I just, I can't stand when clients or when operators get frustrated over something they can't control. Like this is the weather. We we have, we have no say in what's going to happen.
00:40:40
The SnowJobs Podcast
yeah We didn't do this.
00:40:41
Mike Santolucito
Yeah, we didn't ask for this.
00:40:42
The SnowJobs Podcast
yeah ah
00:40:43
Mike Santolucito
Like we we signed up for it.
00:40:43
The SnowJobs Podcast
ah ah
00:40:44
Mike Santolucito
We're, we're an essential part of the economic infrastructure of the nation. We keep the roads clear, the lots clear as people can actually go to work.
00:40:55
Mike Santolucito
ah EMS and fire and police can get there safely and do their job. But you know, at the end of the day, when it comes to taking care of the guys, just bring them coffee. energy drinks, bring them snacks, you know, get a bunch of pizzas, get a couple boxes of joe, if it's shovelers, like get some cheap, you know, like tube socks, get some hand warmers, some extra gloves. I mean, whatever it takes, ah it's miserable out there. We're all fighting through it together. we We've been fighting through it for years. We know what it's like out there, even when you're not in, in the shit anymore. And you're, you're either in the office or you're in a car like me, like,
00:41:31
Mike Santolucito
You remember what it's like, see? You remind these guys that it's gonna pass, it's gonna end, help out where he can you can. I try to make an effort, even if there's a site that's not down a guy or whatever, I still get out there and shovel.
00:41:43
Mike Santolucito
I still get out there and operate, because this is what I love. I absolutely love doing snow. I've absolutely destroyed myself mentally doing it, but I still go back to it, because I love it.
00:41:51
RICK JAMES
ah Yeah, because we're mental You're nothing without your team
00:41:54
Mike Santolucito
You know, but that's, that's it.
00:41:55
The SnowJobs Podcast
Well that's it. Well a little crazy.
00:41:56
Mike Santolucito
Just keep it and and take care of your team the best you can. And if that's just, you know, spending a little bit of money to get them food and drinks and something to stay warm, if it keeps them happy and it keeps them employed, it's benefiting you.
00:42:12
The SnowJobs Podcast
No. And I also find that if you if you stop and they're doing their thing and they're doing a great job, if you just stop and tell them like you guys are killing it, like this looks phenomenal.
00:42:22
Mike Santolucito
Mm-hmm.
00:42:23
The SnowJobs Podcast
Like you're you guys are just knocking it out of the park. That will reenergize them for a little bit. You know, I like.
00:42:29
Mike Santolucito
thousand percent That's so you do that you go through the same thing you buy it for the SSV guys and they still don't wear it
00:42:30
The SnowJobs Podcast
We I spent money on getting them waterproof, weatherproof, like reflective pants, jackets, the whole thing. They don't fucking wear them. They don't want like you can do that, though, but they don't wear them. They still like they still just go.
00:42:49
The SnowJobs Podcast
One guy does. John will.
00:42:50
Mike Santolucito
good
00:42:51
The SnowJobs Podcast
John will. He's at one complex by himself on an SSV. He will be all turtled up in all his waterproof stuff and he gives it hell. He wears the whole ensemble. I got him the goggles, like um the waterproof pants, the the waterproof jacket, everything.
00:43:03
Mike Santolucito
and
00:43:07
The SnowJobs Podcast
He will do it. But the other guys at the other complex, they are like, I don't know, just hardcore. They don't want to do it. They they say they get too hot. because they're, they're doing more manual handwork than SSV work.
00:43:20
The SnowJobs Podcast
So they say they get too hot on, uh, you know, with the waterproof layer on it. So, but Hey, God bless them.
00:43:26
Mike Santolucito
I got that.
00:43:27
The SnowJobs Podcast
But just, yeah, just give them a pat on the back, tell them, Hey, fucking awesome. Do you guys need anything? Cause you guys are killing it right now. This looks so good. You know, just, you know, make sure you know that they know, make sure that you let them know how important, like they're doing the most important work on the site.
00:43:44
The SnowJobs Podcast
Doesn't matter how clean the fucking lot is. That's not where somebody's going down.
00:43:46
RICK JAMES
No, no ah We let's see what let's see what Sean says cuz I know I just make some kiss ring you just make some kiss the ring and
00:43:47
Mike Santolucito
Yeah.
00:43:48
The SnowJobs Podcast
You know, so they're doing the most important ah stuff. And like Jeremy says all the time, the sidewalk guys kind of are the unsung, you know, they don't get enough credit for what they do. So.
00:43:59
Mike Santolucito
well
00:44:01
The SnowJobs Podcast
Yeah, Sean, how do you how do you deal with your burnout?
00:44:06
Native Snow
Yeah, it's it's tough to burn out in Jersey. We got a lot so much snow, you know, the crew morale is always down.
00:44:11
RICK JAMES
what
00:44:12
The SnowJobs Podcast
ah but ah
00:44:15
RICK JAMES
Yo, I said kiss the ring. you Keep working.
00:44:17
Native Snow
No, it's, it's, um you know, same thing you guys all said, but ah we haven't had that much snow in the last couple of years. So we definitely have not dealt with any burnout. Um, I mean me personally, yeah, me personally, I can go three, four days in a row without even thinking about taking a nap.
00:44:27
RICK JAMES
Just your truck.
00:44:34
Native Snow
One's snowing. My mind is just going all over the place. I'm driving.
00:44:38
The SnowJobs Podcast
Yep.
00:44:38
Native Snow
I probably do four or 500 miles in a snow storm. As you guys seen, I posted my pictures on how far I go. And you know, it's, uh, to me, that's the exciting part about it is just like,
00:44:49
The SnowJobs Podcast
Can I do it?
00:44:50
Native Snow
It's going. It's it's like, all right, we're going to figure this out this storm.
00:44:51
RICK JAMES
Have a minute at duck and donuts in a while.
00:44:53
Native Snow
Putting the puzzle together. I'm sure the guys.
00:44:56
The SnowJobs Podcast
You're like Indiana Jones, every snowstorm's an adventure. Can I get there?
00:44:59
Native Snow
That's it.
00:45:00
The SnowJobs Podcast
Can I get it done?
00:45:01
Native Snow
but The guys definitely probably get tired. But like I said, we haven't had that much snow where they get burnt out. And I don't think they you know they sign up for it. They know what they know what it is. All the guys are good.
00:45:12
Native Snow
you know I try to treat them right when we get big storms. I'll get guys hotel rooms if they if I need to.
00:45:17
Native Snow
I'll buy a McDonald's, whatever's open.
00:45:17
The SnowJobs Podcast
Mm hmm.
00:45:18
RICK JAMES
Yeah.
00:45:19
Native Snow
you know Hey, I'll stop at a certain site or I'll give one of my managers you know a card and, hey, go buy these guys some food.
00:45:26
Native Snow
I'll try to take care of the shovelers, buy the shovelers coffee, shovel a box of Joe. and Just ever anything that anything that you can do to help the guys, just power through it. i mean Listen, I'm up for 48 hours on a two-inch snowstorm, but they don't want to be up for 24 hours.
00:45:26
The SnowJobs Podcast
Yeah.
00:45:35
RICK JAMES
Yeah.
00:45:39
Native Snow
Nobody wants to be up. you know
00:45:41
Native Snow
So it's just one of those things I've taken into consideration and just try to take care of everybody as best I can.
00:45:41
The SnowJobs Podcast
Yeah.
00:45:48
RICK JAMES
yeah
00:45:48
Mike Santolucito
Hey, do any of you guys rotate your operators and their shovelers just to try and keep guys fresh?
00:45:52
The SnowJobs Podcast
Nope.
00:45:53
Native Snow
No.
00:45:53
RICK JAMES
i I have on a few, few like big storms we've had during the past. I probably only happened like a handful of times, honestly, where I i ran shifts.
00:46:02
RICK JAMES
You know, yeah I had a bunch of hotel rooms where I, I had guys rotate through and stuff that's only happened by my, you know, maybe a handful of times.
00:46:02
Mike Santolucito
yeah
00:46:11
The SnowJobs Podcast
Oh, you mean like take one operator out of a machine, put another operator in where that guy takes a break or actually put switch your shovelers, put them in machines and put the operator shoveling.
00:46:21
Mike Santolucito
So a little broader than that, right? So if, if I got 10 shovelers on a site and it's nine o'clock at night, place is empty. It's snowing an inch an hour. There's no need for me to have them all out there.
00:46:31
Mike Santolucito
Keep five, take, take five out, let them get warm, change, then shuffle those guys in, bring the other guys back out.
00:46:32
RICK JAMES
No.
00:46:33
The SnowJobs Podcast
Oh, yeah, yeah. Yes.
00:46:41
Mike Santolucito
And then for operators, if you got more than one operator on site, as long as the loader's going or something that can yard off a good amount of snow. You can rotate those guys for a two or a three hour nap if if it's nightfall and you don't have to be up until one or two a.m.
00:46:47
RICK JAMES
Yeah.
00:46:53
Mike Santolucito
to start yardin' off the next two or three inches. like it' it's ah It's a marathon, not a race.
00:46:57
The SnowJobs Podcast
Yeah, we do that on the. We do that on the big sites on big storms.
00:47:00
RICK JAMES
Yeah.
00:47:02
The SnowJobs Podcast
We'll send them to the hotel, rotate them out.
00:47:02
RICK JAMES
Well, I don't know about that. It is a race come morning.
00:47:07
Mike Santolucito
Yeah, that's true.
00:47:07
RICK JAMES
It was a race to make sure your shit's done by morning.
00:47:08
The SnowJobs Podcast
You get it all done.
00:47:09
Mike Santolucito
Shit, that's true.
00:47:10
The SnowJobs Podcast
You get it all done.
00:47:11
RICK JAMES
It's like, uh, yeah.
00:47:14
Native Snow
I definitely tell the operators Yeah, I definitely tell the operators and you know the shovel guys when everything closes take extended breaks or whatever just make sure that
00:47:14
Mike Santolucito
yeah I don't know, that's something I've done over the years and it works really well.
00:47:18
The SnowJobs Podcast
Yeah.
00:47:18
RICK JAMES
Yep.
00:47:27
Native Snow
If you're taking breaks, don't let it fall way behind where it becomes an issue come morning.
Operational Strategies and Competition
00:47:32
Native Snow
You know you want to you want to take a two hour nap, three hour nap in the car?
00:47:32
The SnowJobs Podcast
yeah
00:47:35
Native Snow
That's fine. I don't care. Just make sure that you know that it's not dumping three inches an hour right now. And when you wake up, there's going to be 10 inches and we can't move it now. Now now we have an issue.
00:47:45
Mike Santolucito
yep
00:47:45
Native Snow
you know So as long as the guys understand that, I'm cool 100% with doing that.
00:47:48
Mike Santolucito
Yeah.
00:47:50
Native Snow
um We don't really rotate too many guys because it's a logistical nightmare. We're just not set up like that. um But, you know, that's the way we operate.
00:47:57
The SnowJobs Podcast
Yeah.
00:47:59
Mike Santolucito
Yeah.
00:48:00
Native Snow
a na
00:48:01
Mike Santolucito
Everybody wants to put the hero cape on, you know what I mean?
00:48:01
The SnowJobs Podcast
Cool.
00:48:03
Mike Santolucito
But there is a time where you're going to take care of your yourself so you can keep pushing to get to the end of the storm safely.
00:48:08
Native Snow
Absolutely. Safety first.
00:48:11
The SnowJobs Podcast
Cool, cool. Let's see what else we got here. How does the decision salt versus plow differ from region to region and what factors influence it for you guys?
00:48:23
Native Snow
Salt.
00:48:23
The SnowJobs Podcast
Sean, we know what you do.
00:48:23
RICK JAMES
Sal's at ease.
00:48:23
Brine Daddy
On.
00:48:24
RICK JAMES
Sal's at ease. He's smiling big. Let's hear this.
00:48:27
Native Snow
The salt at all.
00:48:28
RICK JAMES
so Salt, salt, salt.
00:48:28
The SnowJobs Podcast
Yeah, let's start with you, Sean.
00:48:30
The SnowJobs Podcast
How do you determine salt versus plow?
00:48:32
Native Snow
You got 12 inches, you put down 18 inches of salt, you're good.
00:48:36
RICK JAMES
I got a...
00:48:36
Mike Santolucito
ah
00:48:37
The SnowJobs Podcast
ah ah ah
00:48:38
Mike Santolucito
The gates at 10.
00:48:38
Native Snow
yeah So we get we get a lot of marginal temps here. So there's storms that we can melt away potentially, as long as you know, with the ground temperature being a little bit warmer.
00:48:50
The SnowJobs Podcast
Mm hmm.
00:48:50
Native Snow
And um it's really just storm dependent, week dependent, day dependent because everything changes hour to hour.
00:48:57
The SnowJobs Podcast
Sure.
00:48:58
Native Snow
you know it could be in We get two inches, there's times we get two inches. and it never even sticks to the pavement and we're just you know we're salt and we're doing whatever and there's other times we get two inches it sticks instantly it don't matter if you have salt down or not so it really just it's storm dependent i don't think you can say it's probably a little bit of region dependent also but i'm sure jeremy has the same issues especially like the october snowfalls that he gets i'm sure you can salt some of it away rather than your you're your January snow falls where it's below freezing and it's sticking instantly and salt's doing absolutely nothing.
00:49:29
Native Snow
you know so like you kind of That's a storm dependent, weather dependent thing.
00:49:35
The SnowJobs Podcast
Well, they got that really angry Brian up there.
00:49:36
RICK JAMES
Yeah. Yeah. Spun in circles.
00:49:39
Mike Santolucito
Really agitated.
00:49:40
The SnowJobs Podcast
It's extremely agitated.
00:49:41
RICK JAMES
Agitated. Extremely, it's like we talked about last show.
00:49:44
The SnowJobs Podcast
but but ah
00:49:45
RICK JAMES
It's just fire flames coming out the back.
00:49:47
The SnowJobs Podcast
Devil Brian.
00:49:48
RICK JAMES
Devil brine.
00:49:50
The SnowJobs Podcast
Uh, yeah, I think, I think you hit that right.
00:49:51
RICK JAMES
The most expensive.
00:49:54
The SnowJobs Podcast
Sean, I think it's totally different for Jeremy scraping. Those guys are out in half an inch.
00:49:59
RICK JAMES
yeah Yeah, definitely. We, you know, we played the game before. Oh, we can buy salt design, which you can, but you're going to put a lot of salt down, but it just makes more sense to send the crew out, scrape that little layer off for us and then put the salt down.
00:50:07
The SnowJobs Podcast
Mm hmm.
00:50:12
RICK JAMES
I mean, at least for us, that makes more sense. So we just, if we just kind of go to that model where like, you know, we could have probably salted, it but it looks hell of a lot better to scrape it off and put a little salt on top.
00:50:22
RICK JAMES
So, I mean, here, I mean,
00:50:23
The SnowJobs Podcast
I, you just nailed it. Cause I was, I was just going to say that it's all what you determine is good enough for your company. Like for us, we are using tier one fucking plows.
00:50:31
RICK JAMES
You definitely can.
00:50:34
The SnowJobs Podcast
We are looking for super fucking clean lots and you know, we're scraping. It takes nothing to, to have a machine with an Arctic run around and scrape it off and then dump a little salt.
00:50:46
RICK JAMES
Right.
00:50:46
The SnowJobs Podcast
You know, that's, you're going to get every little bit.
00:50:47
RICK JAMES
I mean, you definitely see the lots on town.
00:50:48
The SnowJobs Podcast
We don't want any. Yeah. Yeah.
00:50:51
RICK JAMES
Definitely see who's who pushed it off and installed and rather, you know, lace versa.
00:50:54
The SnowJobs Podcast
A hundred percent. A hundred percent. And that's, I think what separates us around here. Cause you'll go by some lots and you know how it looks. It's black in the middle, but all the corners, you know, you, you still have snow in all the corners and they're all rounded off because of where the salt didn't get to. Um, but you know, having a lot that's perfectly clean, that's what we go for every time. So, I mean, we're scraping an inch. We're scraping it.
00:51:19
RICK JAMES
Obviously depends on you guys contracts to what they expect from you
00:51:22
The SnowJobs Podcast
Yeah. And honestly, if it's above freezing, which normally happens here, not this year so far, but what normally happens here is you're scraping off an inch or two and it's 37 degrees.
00:51:33
The SnowJobs Podcast
So we can use minimal salt after we, you know, after we're scraping with Artix, we're, you know, we're throwing out a couple of kernels. I know Sean hates hearing that, but you know, i mean we literally can get by with it a handful of salt on a lot of sites.
00:51:43
RICK JAMES
but
00:51:48
The SnowJobs Podcast
The ground, the the ground temperature is above freezing. The air temps above freezing. There ain't, you know, there's not, after yeah an article goes through in a condition like that, there's really not much need for salt, especially not IBG magic like we use.
00:52:01
Native Snow
Yeah, we just experienced that. So this year ah you didn't hit me up on the equipment segment, but we bought a bunch of stuff and a couple of articles totally left me out.
00:52:10
The SnowJobs Podcast
Welcome to the family.
00:52:10
RICK JAMES
yeah i
00:52:11
The SnowJobs Podcast
like Welcome to the family.
00:52:11
Native Snow
like So. um
00:52:13
The SnowJobs Podcast
Have you, you haven't scraped with them yet though, right?
00:52:15
Native Snow
One of my guys did scrape one of the lots because they got a little bit of ah more accumulation where the cars were parked and everything. So we salted all the lanes, everything was melted and it just looked like, like you were just talking about like dog crap after we were done.
00:52:26
Native Snow
So we're like, when the cars leave, you know, just had a guy with a skid just moving some stuff and then we came by and salted it again. But it was nice. I mean, obviously it was super marginal temps and snow only stuck in specific spots um where there wasn't a heavy residual salt and
00:52:36
RICK JAMES
Yeah, right here.
00:52:43
Native Snow
You know, the guy liked it. I didn't even run it. I didn't even see it being ran, but you know, uh, yeah, I guess we'll find out this week. I think we're going to get some snow. They're saying so we'll see.
00:52:53
The SnowJobs Podcast
Cool.
00:52:53
RICK JAMES
Yeah.
00:52:54
The SnowJobs Podcast
What about you, Robert?
00:52:57
Brine Daddy
I was just thinking, I think anything pretty much under half an inch will normally just just treat. I mean, because again, marginal temperatures, you know it's going to be sunny in 37, 40 degrees the next day. So it's like everything's going to be melted by 11.30 noon. But anything over and over an inch, I think, will usually scrape all um high high priority sites and then obviously solve the math or grind, whatever.
00:53:22
The SnowJobs Podcast
Do we all pre-treat?
00:53:24
RICK JAMES
ah So I was just going to say is who's all pre-training.
00:53:25
Native Snow
Yes.
00:53:25
The SnowJobs Podcast
Cause I think we all do, right? So yeah, I mean, yeah.
00:53:27
Mike Santolucito
Yes, sir.
00:53:27
Brine Daddy
Yeah.
00:53:30
The SnowJobs Podcast
So that, I mean, then that makes a big difference too.
00:53:31
RICK JAMES
We don't, we don't preach very much.
00:53:33
The SnowJobs Podcast
You what, right, Jay?
00:53:33
Native Snow
Don't pretreat.
00:53:34
RICK JAMES
We don't really preach read that much here. I mean, let's yeah.
00:53:36
The SnowJobs Podcast
No.
00:53:36
Mike Santolucito
Well, it's so cold where you are, I mean.
00:53:38
The SnowJobs Podcast
Kind of waste.
00:53:39
RICK JAMES
I mean, our, our, uh, preacher would probably be our, a little heavier salt thing that we do.
00:53:39
The SnowJobs Podcast
Yeah, there.
00:53:43
RICK JAMES
And also it'll be on a lot. So.
00:53:48
The SnowJobs Podcast
Gotcha.
00:53:49
RICK JAMES
Yeah.
00:53:49
RICK JAMES
But you guys all pre-treat. I mean, you made That makes a huge difference from where you guys are at. and You don't get that bond, obviously. That's why you're doing it.
00:53:49
The SnowJobs Podcast
So yeah, I mean, I think it.
00:53:56
Native Snow
Yeah.
00:53:56
The SnowJobs Podcast
yeah ah Yeah.
00:53:56
Mike Santolucito
Yeah.
00:53:57
RICK JAMES
so
00:53:57
The SnowJobs Podcast
I was just going to throw that example out there just as an argument's sake. like If you have a truck plow um and that's what you're plowing with and you don't pretreat and you have below freezing temperatures on the pavement, if plowing off a half an inch might do more harm than good, we've all seen that where it just packs it down.
00:54:16
The SnowJobs Podcast
you know It doesn't quite scrape at all. It just you know kind of packs it.
00:54:20
Mike Santolucito
Yeah, it doesn't have to wait.
00:54:20
The SnowJobs Podcast
So yeah, so then, I mean, in that case, you, you might want to salt, you know, you might want to try and salt it away before you, you plow it off for angry Brian, devil Brian.
00:54:28
RICK JAMES
My brine. Brine.
00:54:32
Mike Santolucito
Mm-hmm, spray and pray.
00:54:32
RICK JAMES
Yeah, devil brine. Spray and pray.
00:54:37
The SnowJobs Podcast
But yeah, so I think we, I think we kind of covered that. I think it's basically the result. It's, I think it's a result space decision. What, what are you going for? What's, what's acceptable to you and your customers?
00:54:50
The SnowJobs Podcast
Um, what else we got here, boys?
00:54:50
Mike Santolucito
yeah
00:54:53
The SnowJobs Podcast
Oh, this one will be fun. Jeremy Kirkham wants to know how do you guys, what do you guys do to combat low ball bidders?
00:55:03
Brine Daddy
Be the lowest bidder, right, Sean?
00:55:03
Mike Santolucito
Walk away.
00:55:04
The SnowJobs Podcast
and please
00:55:04
Native Snow
bit
00:55:04
RICK JAMES
Oh, Lord.
00:55:05
Native Snow
and
00:55:05
The SnowJobs Podcast
but That's one way to combat it.
00:55:07
Native Snow
You bid it lower.
00:55:07
The SnowJobs Podcast
What if you want to, what if you want to be in business next year and how do you combat them if you still want to be in business next year?
00:55:08
RICK JAMES
Way to go, Sean.
00:55:11
Native Snow
Bid it lower even the next year, too.
00:55:16
The SnowJobs Podcast
Jesus.
00:55:17
RICK JAMES
Oh, Jesus.
00:55:18
Brine Daddy
Drive that price down so far.
00:55:19
RICK JAMES
Are you a national, Sean?
00:55:19
Brine Daddy
Nobody can ever make money ever again.
00:55:20
The SnowJobs Podcast
yeah ah
00:55:21
RICK JAMES
Are you a national?
00:55:22
Native Snow
And he's on the dollar.
00:55:22
RICK JAMES
Are you a national, Sean?
00:55:22
The SnowJobs Podcast
ah He's trying to go national at this point.
00:55:24
Native Snow
I was on the dollar.
00:55:26
RICK JAMES
Look on the bright side.
00:55:26
Native Snow
No.
00:55:27
The SnowJobs Podcast
He's doing the the what the salt only model. He's throwing that out.
00:55:31
RICK JAMES
Just in case you want to be in business,
00:55:31
The SnowJobs Podcast
But no, what are you guys doing?
00:55:31
Native Snow
I don't know.
00:55:31
Mike Santolucito
Yeah, just walk away.
00:55:33
Native Snow
and don't know if you can I don't know if you can combat it as much as you can just walk away from the site, let the site fail, let the people, when you're talking to the customers, explain to them why your price is different than the other guys.
00:55:33
Mike Santolucito
Just walk away.
00:55:47
Native Snow
All you can do is educate them as much as possible.
00:55:48
RICK JAMES
education Educate.
00:55:51
Native Snow
Let them see the difference.
00:55:53
Mike Santolucito
Mm-hmm.
00:55:53
Native Snow
Let them have actual snow. Let them have a failure and then they'll haul you back or they're not going to. Some people just want the lowest price no matter what. It doesn't matter what you say, what you do, what kind of equipment you use, how professional you are.
00:56:06
Native Snow
They just want the lowest bidder and other times it's
00:56:07
The SnowJobs Podcast
hu Yeah.
00:56:08
Mike Santolucito
right
00:56:10
RICK JAMES
And those are customers you don't want anyway, so.
00:56:12
Mike Santolucito
but
00:56:12
Native Snow
Yeah, exactly. you't You don't want those customers. And other times you try to explain to a customer they're like, well, we've been doing it like this forever. Well, their guy retires, they get the next lowest bidder, the next guy that the next time they came in as ah as the lowest bidder was not good.
00:56:26
Native Snow
And then they understand what what the difference is between you and them.
00:56:28
Mike Santolucito
Right. Yeah, it's like Steve always says If you do the bid presentation and you do it well and you come with every single dollar value and what goes into that bid, the tooling package that you have for it, the staffing that you have to find for it, if they still don't understand the value that they're getting and they still just want to go with the lowest bidder, it's better served by somebody else.
00:56:51
Mike Santolucito
Don't don't even stress about it.
00:56:51
The SnowJobs Podcast
Yes.
00:56:52
Mike Santolucito
There's so much work out there that you can get. That one property is not going to make or break you.
00:56:56
The SnowJobs Podcast
hundred percent 100%. 100%. Yeah. If you can get in front of them for a presentation, um that's obviously, like Mike said, that that is definitely a key. And also if you can, if they will be willing to, you've already presented your bid, they have your prices. If they are willing to show you the other bids.
00:57:15
The SnowJobs Podcast
and you can go over them with them. Say, look, here's a list of things like we do it. We have the list. These are the questions you want to ask all these other contractors that you're getting bids from. are Because we want them to compare apples to apples, right? um But what we also can do is we just had it happen to us. Actually, we had a site that failed and they called us in.
00:57:38
The SnowJobs Podcast
And, uh, they, we, we had the ability to make a a bid proposal to them and they showed us another guy's price. And so you guys are like two and a half times higher, you know, even your per push prices are two and a half times higher. So you have a two acre lot here.
00:57:56
Mike Santolucito
Mmhmm.
00:57:56
The SnowJobs Podcast
You know, and you, this is not something we're going to put ah a machine on. It's not big enough for a machine. It doesn't justify the cost. It is going to be a truck or two trucks doing this.
00:58:06
The SnowJobs Podcast
There was a guy that submitted a fucking bid for one to three to push it off for $310 with salt for a two acre lot.
00:58:17
RICK JAMES
Wow.
00:58:18
Native Snow
Wow.
00:58:18
The SnowJobs Podcast
And I'm like, it can't be fucking done. Like he is, he something is wrong. He is, he's either not going to show up. That cannot be, you're going to do it for less than free.
00:58:26
Mike Santolucito
It can. You're just going to do it for free.
00:58:29
The SnowJobs Podcast
It's going to cost you money at the end of that. I mean, how, how long is it going to take you in a truck with an eight foot blade to plow an acre?
00:58:39
The SnowJobs Podcast
If you're not going, you know, Shawn DiVincenzo 500 miles an hour.
00:58:42
Mike Santolucito
Us or the bullet?
00:58:44
The SnowJobs Podcast
Well, that's, yeah that's what I'm saying. Like no, no silver bullet, normal plow guys.
00:58:50
Native Snow
curb to curb, probably like an hour and 20 minutes.
00:58:54
The SnowJobs Podcast
per acre.
00:58:55
Native Snow
Yeah, I would say that's an average 45,
00:58:56
The SnowJobs Podcast
i'll I'll whittle it down. I'll even give you 45 minutes that you can do an acre.
00:59:00
Native Snow
I think 45 minutes is for a power cloud when an experienced operator or the guy that knows what he's doing is like 35 to 45 minutes.
00:59:08
The SnowJobs Podcast
Okay. Let's say for argument's sake, you can get an acre done in 45 minutes in a truck in a wide open lot where your wind row and whatever with an eight foot plow. So an hour and a half is a minimum to get that two acres done.
00:59:21
Native Snow
Mm hmm.
00:59:21
The SnowJobs Podcast
You're telling me like, what is everybody getting for truck rates now with a a truck and operator and a truck with a plow and a spreader and an operator? I mean, low ball truck rates, you've got to be 175 bucks an hour, right?
00:59:37
Mike Santolucito
Yeah, somewhere in there.
00:59:37
The SnowJobs Podcast
Anybody disagree? Anybody lower? What, Jay?
00:59:41
RICK JAMES
Yeah, we're way lower over here.
00:59:43
The SnowJobs Podcast
You're way lower, really? Well, you're you're out there.
00:59:44
RICK JAMES
Yeah.
00:59:45
The SnowJobs Podcast
I'm telling you, Northeast prices are totally different.
00:59:46
RICK JAMES
Yeah. Yes, I know.
00:59:47
The SnowJobs Podcast
Like, wo like Robert, what are you what he is that low for you or is that high for you?
00:59:48
RICK JAMES
I know.
00:59:54
Brine Daddy
I honestly don't know. i mean we have We have one truck with a plow that is on the that's on a route and everything else is just all the equipment.
00:59:55
The SnowJobs Podcast
Okay. That's true.
01:00:02
Brine Daddy
you know My truck has a plow, but that's just like touch up and help here and out there.
01:00:04
Native Snow
i think
01:00:06
Brine Daddy
i mean it just We don't do anything hourly. so i mean
01:00:11
The SnowJobs Podcast
Yeah, but you gotta to have at least an hourly
Financial Management and Pricing in Snow Operations
01:00:13
The SnowJobs Podcast
rate in your mind when you're bidding these that, yeah, like like what I have to get because of my cost for that truck, that operator, that spreader, the depreciation on the spreader, depreciation on the plow, the insurance on the truck.
01:00:13
Native Snow
the Baseline yeah So on my
01:00:25
The SnowJobs Podcast
Like you have to have a baseline number prepared that you can operate off of to say how how much money I have to get back for an hour of work with that truck. Because you have to also have an average number of hours per winter that truck is plowing and making you money.
01:00:41
Brine Daddy
No, yeah.
01:00:42
The SnowJobs Podcast
Or am I, or am I way too, uh, am I being weight way, way too over analytic?
01:00:44
Brine Daddy
No.
01:00:45
Native Snow
No, I think you're right.
01:00:46
Brine Daddy
I agree. I agree to that, but, and again, I mean, I'm not pricing these that like crazy, I guess I want to say, or like putting that much kind of detail into it.
01:00:59
Brine Daddy
I mean, i mean again, at the end of the day, you know, if I have, I have a Ram 5500 that has a, you know, three odd salter and a boss following in front of it.
01:01:07
The SnowJobs Podcast
Yup.
01:01:07
Brine Daddy
Well, I don't have to have that. Well, I'm sorry. No, ah I'm saying that wrong. I have that truck for the for the summertime. And then it has a couple pieces of equipment.
01:01:17
The SnowJobs Podcast
Yes. Yes.
01:01:19
Brine Daddy
So as far as I'm concerned, that entire truck is already recovered from April to then.
01:01:24
The SnowJobs Podcast
I got you. I got you.
01:01:26
Brine Daddy
So again, you know what I'm doing is saying, hey, yes, it's going to take you know
01:01:30
The SnowJobs Podcast
This is bonus money.
01:01:32
Brine Daddy
exit Well, yes and no, because I am figuring like, hey, you know X amount of this truck, so I'm going to recover the payment on this truck, you know and then a little bit of this, a little bit of that, and then you know whatever I am for payroll, for labor, you know some repair maintenance and stuff like that, then obviously you know your products you buy in solid calcium, brine, whatever you have.
01:01:51
The SnowJobs Podcast
Yep.
01:01:53
Brine Daddy
So, I mean, I've never really figured it out to a true actual dollar amount, to be begin be be completely honest.
01:01:58
The SnowJobs Podcast
I got you. No, it's okay.
01:02:00
Brine Daddy
They just kind of like bulk everything together and in ah a sense. i mean you know Because we're we're still just a little under you know half a million in sales with snow.
01:02:11
Brine Daddy
So it's you know we're not big enough in the snow where you can kind of separate everything completely and then have like two full separate divisions of say install summer and then snow and everything.
01:02:20
The SnowJobs Podcast
Yep.
01:02:23
Brine Daddy
So we just still combine our budgets all together and everything else.
01:02:27
The SnowJobs Podcast
I got you. Yeah, I was just, you know, I was trying to see what the previous guy was doing it for. And I'm like, that that's why he's not here anymore. That's why he didn't show up the last two storms.
01:02:38
The SnowJobs Podcast
He he was broke.
01:02:40
Native Snow
So going back to that, on my contracted price for hourly rates, this is if we get a call for to relocate snow, water main break, whatever.
01:02:41
The SnowJobs Podcast
He couldn't do it.
01:02:41
Brine Daddy
Yeah.
01:02:52
Native Snow
ah We have I think 185 an hour in ah in there for our pickup truck with a plow. That's not what I'm pricing. That's not what I'm pricing my work at per acre though.
01:03:02
The SnowJobs Podcast
Mm-hmm.
01:03:03
Native Snow
So I'm more probably like, depending on a lot, three to 500 is what I try to get per hour. if I'm being, virtual if I'm being honest, yes, that's what I'm trying to get here on an acre lot.
01:03:10
The SnowJobs Podcast
Per truck.
01:03:11
RICK JAMES
breaker means.
01:03:12
Brine Daddy
What?
01:03:14
The SnowJobs Podcast
Wow. God bless you.
01:03:17
Native Snow
Yeah, so I mean, that's, I mean, yeah, I mean, we're getting some of the work, right?
01:03:19
The SnowJobs Podcast
And you're getting it. All right.
01:03:22
Native Snow
we're not getting We're not getting all of it. We do a lot of bids and win a couple, but that's why we got to make sure.
01:03:26
The SnowJobs Podcast
There you go. Well, I mean, at those rates, you can afford to not win them all.
01:03:29
Native Snow
That's why we got to make sure we show up and do the right job. I can't sit there and tell people these are my rates.
01:03:33
The SnowJobs Podcast
There you go.
01:03:33
RICK JAMES
Yeah.
01:03:34
The SnowJobs Podcast
Oh, that's a hundred percent accurate.
01:03:36
Native Snow
These are my rates, and this is why. And then not perform. You're going to do it for those rates, you got to perform.
01:03:39
The SnowJobs Podcast
Absolutely.
01:03:39
RICK JAMES
Yeah.
01:03:41
Native Snow
And that's why I said, listen, we got to just get stuff done. I don't really care. I don't get stressed out about it. And it is what it is. We got to figure it out. Ship breaks. We got to get another piece of equipment over there.
01:03:52
Native Snow
And we don't have a ton of accounts. We have 30 whatever accounts. That's why I'm spread out all over the place, because I can't get dense with those rates.
01:03:52
The SnowJobs Podcast
Yeah.
01:04:03
Native Snow
But those rates make numbers. ah Make money, I should say. Those numbers make money.
01:04:06
The SnowJobs Podcast
Yeah.
01:04:07
Native Snow
so that's So that's what I'm in here for.
01:04:07
RICK JAMES
Yeah.
01:04:09
Native Snow
I'm not here to be a charity event, you know?
01:04:12
The SnowJobs Podcast
I agree. I mean, I i think.
01:04:12
RICK JAMES
right Awesome. no you Know your worth.
01:04:16
The SnowJobs Podcast
Yeah, I think, and I think everybody just kind of said it, like let them, let them fail and they will fail. Um, but if you can get in front of the people and you can actually start going down a checklist and saying, are they giving you this? Are they doing this or are they doing that? What are they using? Oh, they're only using untreated salt. that Do you care about your.
01:04:38
The SnowJobs Podcast
your grass and your bushes. Do you care about your concrete? You know you got brand new concrete sidewalks. They're using untreated salt. You know you can you can kind of start to poke holes in the low bid and say, well, listen, if you want to go just based on, like you guys said, low bid alone, that's your prerogative.
01:04:57
The SnowJobs Podcast
Be my guest.
01:04:57
Mike Santolucito
Mm hmm.
01:04:58
The SnowJobs Podcast
but you know Mike says it all the time, better served by others. like That's no problem. But if you if this matters to you and this matters to you, because we'll we'll ask them, like what do you want? like What are your needs from a snow guy? Do you just want to have no worries from November 1st to April 15th every year? You don't want to have to even think about it no matter what comes. Then you need a snow management company. You don't need a plow guy.
01:05:23
The SnowJobs Podcast
You know, and like we use that analogy a lot because the last two storms, I was telling Jeremy, I mean, we were talking on Christmas Eve. I should have been home three hours earlier, but I wasn't because I had to jump, go grab another truck, jump in a truck because we were going to bail out two churches that didn't get plowed. The plowed guy didn't show up for three and a half inches. Just didn't come. And they got midnight. They got all the Christmas Eve masses in two hours.
01:05:52
The SnowJobs Podcast
You know, so, I mean, that stuff happens. and And if they want that, if they want to roll the dice, if they're gambling, you know, if they're, they're, you know, Shawn's basically they're gamblers there, you know, they're just rolling the dice. That's okay. But that's, that's not for us that, and the and like we say it all the time, there's plow guys and there's snow management professionals. And those have two, those are two very different things and have two very different price points. So you just got to decide as a customer, which, which of those you are leaning towards.
01:06:22
The SnowJobs Podcast
You know, and if you can get them to, to, to open up the other bids and you can start going through, Oh yeah, this guy's plowing on commercial auto. He doesn't even have a GL policy. You know, like you can start, you know, really poking holes in the facade of the low price.
01:06:36
The SnowJobs Podcast
and And at the end of the day, they may still go with it and that's okay.
01:06:40
Mike Santolucito
Mm hmm.
01:06:41
The SnowJobs Podcast
You're not going to win everything, but anybody got any other, any other low ball, how to beat low ballers.
01:06:45
Brine Daddy
No, ma'am. E lower.
01:06:53
The SnowJobs Podcast
Pete lower. He's kidding.
01:06:59
The SnowJobs Podcast
lower jesus ah Oh, man.
01:07:01
Brine Daddy
No, I think what everybody said makes sense. It's just, you know, you got to show them your worth and, you know, stick to it. And, you know, if you're doing low bid work, You know, I know I'm joking saying be lower, but if you, if you are actually being lower, I mean, you're not actually even making money.
01:07:16
Brine Daddy
You're probably going to start working backwards. So, you know, there's, there's absolutely no sense in doing it.
01:07:18
The SnowJobs Podcast
Yeah, I don't know how.
01:07:21
Brine Daddy
Stick to your gun, show you, you know, show your worth and it's all you can do.
01:07:26
The SnowJobs Podcast
Yeah, I don't know how some guys are are still in, bit I mean, these are the hardest times snow companies have ever seen. And if you're, if you like, there are companies we've heard are lowering their prices this year going into this season.
01:07:35
Brine Daddy
Hmm.
01:07:41
The SnowJobs Podcast
Like how the fuck is that going to happen? Like, how do you think that's okay? Our prices are up 40%. How the hell are you lowering your prices and thinking you're going to survive?
01:07:53
Brine Daddy
not.
01:07:54
The SnowJobs Podcast
Is it just out of desperation that, Hey, we need to get this many sites because, you know, we're already losing money and, you know, let's, let's lose less money type thing.
01:08:05
The SnowJobs Podcast
We know we're already in a loss. We're already, in you know, in the red, but let's be.
01:08:09
Mike Santolucito
Well, it's incredible though, right? Cause we're all raising our prices because of the inflation and the economy, all the bullshit we've gone through the last three years.
01:08:14
The SnowJobs Podcast
Yes.
01:08:16
Mike Santolucito
Why the hell would these guys lower their prices? They're going to be lower than us anyways.
01:08:21
The SnowJobs Podcast
I know, i don't I don't get it. I i don't mind losing by 5%, 10%. I'm just dumbfounded when I go in there and I lose by 75%.
01:08:32
The SnowJobs Podcast
Like how? How the fuck are you doing?
01:08:34
Mike Santolucito
Mm-hmm.
01:08:35
The SnowJobs Podcast
Like, I just want to take the guy out for a coffee and just say, hey, break it down to me. Tell me what I don't know that you do. How are you making fucking money doing this? There's a guy charging for a yard of salt, $80, applied.
01:08:51
Mike Santolucito
Gag.
01:08:52
RICK JAMES
What?
01:08:53
The SnowJobs Podcast
I'm like, what?
01:08:55
Mike Santolucito
He can have that.
01:08:55
The SnowJobs Podcast
How the fuck are you even getting a yard of salt around here for 80?
01:08:56
RICK JAMES
Is that real?
01:08:59
Mike Santolucito
I can't get a yard less than 90.
01:09:00
The SnowJobs Podcast
Forget your spreader, your time, your fuel.
01:09:05
The SnowJobs Podcast
Dude, it's ah it's and it's crazy. it's it' Some stuff is crazy. But you know what? you you can't You could try and help those guys, but, and hope that at the end of the day, it's just, they don't know what they don't know.
01:09:19
The SnowJobs Podcast
But there's nothing you can really do about them. They're always going to be out there. The guys have different situations. They, they have different reasons for going low, but, uh, you know, the best you can do is help hopefully try and educate them.
01:09:33
The SnowJobs Podcast
Say, Hey, listen, you can still be lower than us, like Mike said, but you don't need to be that much lower.
01:09:38
Mike Santolucito
Uh huh.
01:09:38
The SnowJobs Podcast
Like you can make more money and still win this bid.
01:09:44
The SnowJobs Podcast
Anybody got anything else on that one?
01:09:48
Brine Daddy
No sir.
01:09:50
The SnowJobs Podcast
Oh, this one we can spend the whole show on. I don't even know if I want to do it. I get, I think we kind of have to, but so Johnny from Johnny from Jersey.
01:09:59
RICK JAMES
The commercial.
01:10:01
The SnowJobs Podcast
Uh, I don't know. Uh, I am only in snow a few years now. I'm looking to expand my number of sites. I keep getting offers from national brokers to take sites in my area, but everything I read says to stay away from brokers.
01:10:16
The SnowJobs Podcast
What are your feelings on working for national brokers?
01:10:19
Mike Santolucito
This is the one time where you can believe everything you read.
01:10:22
The SnowJobs Podcast
There you go.
01:10:24
RICK JAMES
There you go. Mike broke it down right there is all you need. And
Challenges with National Brokers
01:10:28
RICK JAMES
don't feel special if you're getting it.
01:10:28
Mike Santolucito
If it has a counter button, just hit the X.
01:10:31
The SnowJobs Podcast
I told you, yes.
01:10:32
RICK JAMES
yeah
01:10:33
The SnowJobs Podcast
Anything you get that already has a counter offer button for you to hit, you know.
01:10:33
RICK JAMES
that
01:10:37
Mike Santolucito
And if you really want to get mad, just take that number they offered you, add 60% to it, and then after you're done throwing up, throw your computer out the window.
01:10:46
The SnowJobs Podcast
Yeah. i
01:10:47
RICK JAMES
and Don't feel special if you if they're asking you for a bid. They send a mass email to every contractor that has no other name.
01:10:53
The SnowJobs Podcast
exactly exactly they they carpet bomb the area yes they they carpet bomb an entire area until they have been told under no circumstances will i ever accept anything from you stop sending um yeah fool i
01:10:55
RICK JAMES
but you're I'm sorry, you're not special. You're not special. not special
01:11:07
Mike Santolucito
Mm-hmm. Well, wait, though, does it depend on the broker? Because Josh's model's been pretty good with us and a lot of people that I know.
01:11:16
The SnowJobs Podcast
there are, listen, there are, we, I think people, there are good brokers out there.
01:11:19
RICK JAMES
There, there, there are good.
01:11:22
The SnowJobs Podcast
There are brokers that are doing it.
01:11:22
RICK JAMES
Do you got to do your homework?
01:11:22
Mike Santolucito
Yeah.
01:11:23
RICK JAMES
gotta do your homework
01:11:25
The SnowJobs Podcast
And we've said that if you are the traditional broker model, like, and a broker can be in any field, you can be in real estate, you know, you can be in airplanes, yeah you know, you can be whatever, but a normal broker model, the brokerage fees are anywhere between eight and 15%.
01:11:25
Native Snow
on
01:11:43
The SnowJobs Podcast
is what the normal brokerage fee model is in any field.
01:11:48
Mike Santolucito
It's the same margin you would put on your vendor partner.
01:11:48
The SnowJobs Podcast
If if you're doing... Exactly. If you're doing that, then, and you pay on time and you do everything you say you're going to do as a broker, and I know they exist, you know, uh, facility care is doing it that way.
01:12:01
The SnowJobs Podcast
I think us snow pros, I think is that, um, shit, I think is, is that the other guy?
01:12:05
Native Snow
You might.
01:12:07
The SnowJobs Podcast
I can't remember if that's the name of his company, but I've heard he's very good to work for. He takes a normal, a normal brokerage fee off the top and that's it. Um, But, you know, these other there are brokers out there that we can't mention by name or shouldn't mention by name.
01:12:23
The SnowJobs Podcast
um We all know who they are. Anybody that's been in snow for more than a couple of months knows who they are that are taking 50 to 60 percent off the top. And they're they're going into these.
01:12:33
RICK JAMES
And they make you, they make you, sorry, interrupt, but if they make you jump through all these hoops, hoping you skip one part of their little checklist.
01:12:35
The SnowJobs Podcast
Yeah, go ahead, Jay.
01:12:40
The SnowJobs Podcast
Yes.
01:12:42
RICK JAMES
I mean, obviously you gotta be professional and do what you gotta do, but they're banking on contractors not doing one little thing. So they don't have to pay them. They're banking on guys to miss a step or, Oh, we didn't take a picture or something, but the job got done, you know?
01:13:00
RICK JAMES
they're they're They're wanting you to do that so they can make it hard for you to get payment. you know That's what they're banking on. A lot of these are banking on that. so
01:13:08
Native Snow
Yeah, I was just going to say that.
01:13:08
Mike Santolucito
Mm hmm.
01:13:08
The SnowJobs Podcast
I think that's probably true.
01:13:11
Native Snow
the hardest the the Aside from the prices being super low, um the hardest thing to working with the nationals is all the different kind of apps that you have to use and how confusing you can get.
01:13:23
Native Snow
The apps all suck and they expect you to take all these photos like you have nothing else to do.
01:13:23
RICK JAMES
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
01:13:29
Native Snow
um but service their property while they make all the money and you're making nothing. That's part of the issue with the national broker model.
01:13:36
RICK JAMES
Great.
01:13:39
Native Snow
um I would say they're not all bad. A lot of them that are the good ones will work with you and you could talk to them and you can negotiate with them and you can say, listen, I'm not going to be able to use this app all the time.
01:13:52
Native Snow
Is this going to be an issue? Because if it is, then I'm just not the I'm not the guy for you. Shit happens. I might send a guy there that doesn't even have doesn't even know how to use a smartphone because something happened that a lot broke down.
01:14:04
Native Snow
like There's so many moving parts in the snow. And they're like and if they tell me, no, that's not OK, then you're not the you're not the broker for me. You know what I'm saying?
01:14:13
Native Snow
Not that I work not that i work for a lot of them.
01:14:13
The SnowJobs Podcast
Yeah.
01:14:13
Mike Santolucito
Yeah.
01:14:15
Native Snow
I do work for Mike from US Snow Pros. He's he's been good. This is my first year with him. The numbers weren't terrible. um you know I have some other broker work that I deal with very, very little bit. And we negotiated. We sat down. and There was a reason why they, so a couple of actual brokers came to me because of this show and said, listen, we, we want you to service these sites.
01:14:39
Native Snow
We know that you'll get the job done. What is it going to take? And I gave them my numbers and then they came back and we're like, okay, that works for us. Or no, it doesn't work. And then we didn't, we didn't do business, you know?
01:14:49
Native Snow
So, um, it is, I don't think that they're all bad.
01:14:52
The SnowJobs Podcast
i would
01:14:53
Native Snow
There's a lot of bad ones though.
01:14:54
The SnowJobs Podcast
yeah
01:14:55
Native Snow
And that's the,
01:14:55
Mike Santolucito
Yeah.
01:14:56
Native Snow
The trick is to know your numbers, know your worth, know that they're, if they're sending you offers, they're taking 50 to 60% right off the top.
01:14:59
The SnowJobs Podcast
yes
01:15:04
Native Snow
So just, if they're sending you their offers, just throw them away. They're no good. And that's it.
01:15:10
The SnowJobs Podcast
i yeah I agree. I can only speak for myself. My philosophy on it is So every one of these sites that is now done, so say like a large big box store that 20 years ago was the store manager's responsibility to go out to a local company and hire a local snow contractor.
01:15:33
Mike Santolucito
Okay.
01:15:33
The SnowJobs Podcast
And you were hired at a ah rate that was that was respectable, that that made you made money, their store was safe, and that was all good.
01:15:43
The SnowJobs Podcast
Now those have been taken away by people going in and saying, we're going to take all these locations. So those store managers don't have to worry about it. And we're going to do them for this low ball price. They get in there, they get a hundred of them and then they farm them out for an even lower low ball price. I, but me personally, I will never do that. I will never work for, for that model. Uh, just because I believe local work should be kept local.
01:16:14
The SnowJobs Podcast
That's just my own personal thing and I won't contribute to the continuation of that. um But I will say to to each his own, you guys gotta do what works for you.
01:16:25
The SnowJobs Podcast
But I would stress, know your numbers and get your numbers. Don't settle for way less than you need to. And at the end of the day, the problem is that you keep reading, like, like Mike said, believe everything you read. You, you hear nothing but horror stories sometimes about getting paid, even if you've done the work, because you missed a photo or you missed a report, uh, you know, I dotted or T cross.
01:16:49
The SnowJobs Podcast
So that's the risk, you know, that, that is the risk, but at the end of the day, if everything makes sense and you've, you've done all your due diligence, you read that contract backward and forward, and it works for you financially. You got to do what you got to do when nobody, you know, nobody's going to be able to tell you different and nobody should, you know, you run your own business.
01:17:10
Native Snow
If they're not willing to change the contract for wording that doesn't work for your company, then don't do it. Because they're not the brokers you want to work for.
01:17:16
The SnowJobs Podcast
That's some, there you go.
01:17:17
Mike Santolucito
read thing every little piece of fine
01:17:20
The SnowJobs Podcast
Yes.
01:17:20
Native Snow
30 pages in there and it's all unusual.
01:17:23
Mike Santolucito
Give it to your lawyer if you don't have time for it.
01:17:25
Native Snow
yeah
01:17:25
Mike Santolucito
He'll go through it. She'll go through it.
01:17:26
Native Snow
yeah
01:17:26
The SnowJobs Podcast
Well, that might be a good use of $250. Have your lawyer review it for the hour.
01:17:34
The SnowJobs Podcast
But yeah, i mean that's that's what I would say. that's the That's as politically correct as I can be. i ah That's my own personal feeling.
01:17:40
RICK JAMES
I mean, it's just frustrating. It's frustrating how they, but how they're low balling you and they want to, and they want, and if you do get it, like you said, like I said, they want you to miss a step.
01:17:54
RICK JAMES
I mean, number one, they're low balling you, but they want you to spend all this extra time on this app and do all these extra things for them. But yet they're not paying you for any of that. So, I mean, that just tells you to run.
01:18:03
The SnowJobs Podcast
Yeah. You know, and it's funny too, because somebody said that the other day in one of the arguments ah was that, well, we, we missed a step.
01:18:15
The SnowJobs Podcast
You think we got nothing else to do. And the response was, well, that step that you missed is what we use to go bill the customer to get you paid. So without that, we can't go get you paid, which I don't know if that's true or not.
01:18:30
Mike Santolucito
You really think they're not gonna get paid on their end.
01:18:31
The SnowJobs Podcast
That's the thing you don't know. Exactly. that's You don't know what's true and what's not.
01:18:34
RICK JAMES
yeah exactly
01:18:35
Mike Santolucito
Come on.
01:18:37
The SnowJobs Podcast
But I said, all right, you know that's at least a semi plausible. I'll give you that that. That did not completely ring as total bullshit right off the bat, which most of it usually does.
01:18:49
The SnowJobs Podcast
I'm like, all right, I'll actually entertain that one for a minute. But yeah, you know like I said, we we could go down that rabbit hole all day. I'm sure there are guys that have had great experiences with them.
01:18:59
RICK JAMES
Yeah, exactly.
01:19:01
The SnowJobs Podcast
I'm sure there are guys out there that are in key areas that need to be serviced that maybe they get better rates. You know, maybe it's an area where they don't have a lot of, a lot of fish to choose from. And, and they, they get guys that that had, they get them the right money to get it done. I've heard of that happening. So if, if that happens to be you, then God bless you, get it done. And hopefully, uh, you know, everything goes well and you get paid.
01:19:27
The SnowJobs Podcast
But, uh, yeah, and we could do a whole episode on that alone.
01:19:27
Mike Santolucito
Yeah.
01:19:31
The SnowJobs Podcast
We could do 10 episodes on that, but yeah.
01:19:32
RICK JAMES
Miniseries.
01:19:33
Native Snow
Well.
01:19:35
The SnowJobs Podcast
Yeah. I won't, I won't personally contribute to that model the that that doesn't work for, for the people I know. And, and that the way I do my business, i I want to keep snow local, local snow stays local.
01:19:51
The SnowJobs Podcast
Anybody got anything else? We gotta run some commercials here.
01:19:53
Brine Daddy
the only thing i would the only thing i would The only thing I would say real quick is just if you know new guys coming up you know like this question just you know haven't been in it very long, don't know you know which way to go when you know brokers and nationals are reaching out and stuff.
01:19:54
The SnowJobs Podcast
Go ahead.
01:20:06
Brine Daddy
Just you know join the you know Snow Jobs Nation Facebook page and just ask questions. i mean it ah There's a ton of people in there that are always willing to answer questions thoroughly.
01:20:16
Brine Daddy
i mean It's not like these other Facebook pages of people ragging everybody out for everything. I mean, this is a pretty educational place for people to learn new things as well.
01:20:27
The SnowJobs Podcast
Yeah, absolutely.
01:20:27
Mike Santolucito
Yeah. Amen.
01:20:28
RICK JAMES
Yep.
01:20:29
The SnowJobs Podcast
it's ah It's definitely a resource. and I will say that Snowpla Mafia actually that does a good job of tackling that issue as well, but they are a little more violent in language.
01:20:41
The SnowJobs Podcast
like
01:20:42
Brine Daddy
Mary.
01:20:42
The SnowJobs Podcast
ah that's ah like There's some aggressive dudes in there. But ah but you can still get some information out of it. there's There's a lot of a lot of those discussions have taken place on on that site.
01:20:52
Brine Daddy
Mm hmm.
01:20:57
The SnowJobs Podcast
So if you need.
01:20:57
Native Snow
Every day Every single day ah You weep you gotta weed through the bullshit to get to some truth too, you know, so
01:20:58
RICK JAMES
It's like you got to cut through the bullshit.
01:20:59
The SnowJobs Podcast
Every day. Yeah, yeah, yeah I mean, you you start seeing the same players, you you start seeing the same name, saying the same stuff and you're like, OK, we can throw that out. He always says that about everything.
01:21:10
The SnowJobs Podcast
But the conversations are there. So you can you know, you can you can find some some sources and some resources
01:21:21
The SnowJobs Podcast
100 percent.
01:21:22
Mike Santolucito
Mmhmm.
01:21:23
The SnowJobs Podcast
All right, boys, let's hit some commercials. We'll come back and we'll keep going a little bit.
01:22:31
The SnowJobs Podcast
All right, we're back. What else we got boys? Anything else we want to talk about?
01:22:38
Mike Santolucito
We have any more questions or no?
01:22:40
The SnowJobs Podcast
Uh, not that we can do quickly. So we're gonna we'll save those.
01:22:46
Mike Santolucito
OK.
01:22:47
The SnowJobs Podcast
We'll save those for another dime. There's some deep dive questions in there.
01:22:53
Mike Santolucito
There is one thing that I had kind of tied into one of the questions in terms of like your your variable accounts.
Profitability and Market Dynamics for New Contractors
01:23:00
Mike Santolucito
The ones that in our area, right where we get a lot of half inch dusting, coatings,
01:23:06
Mike Santolucito
You know, you, you get those long drawn out 12, 14 hour events and you know, the client is expecting to pay X, you know, whether it's zero to three or one to three plus your treatments and anything else you have in there. Don't forget. Like when you talk to them about trying to win this bid, you know, what they're looking for, what the other guys are bidding against, you know, what their contract looks like. Don't forget to add your site monitoring and your ice check line on them in there.
01:23:34
Mike Santolucito
because that is always going to be T and M and that's where you're going to be able to hide, not really hide, but charge per hour for the guys that are there waiting, keeping the site safe. You know, if you have a one to three trigger, but you came in at 0.2 inches, you can't bill for a one to three, even if you had to yard off that dusting or that sloppy coating to get a ah good treatment down, right?
01:23:56
Mike Santolucito
If you have that line in there and you charge for whatever you need, if it was the loader or the skits here for two hours, shovelers just getting a little bit of slop off the door for an hour, that's where you're going to make sure you don't lose your shirt on small storms like that.
01:24:09
Mike Santolucito
So when you're talking to these guys about, you know, bidding a property and you're, you're doing the bid walkthrough, that should be one of the things that you definitely bring up to them. Just because we hate getting the callbacks, right?
01:24:21
Mike Santolucito
Hey, you know, you guys treated this morning, it's getting covered over again.
01:24:21
Native Snow
Bye.
01:24:24
Mike Santolucito
You know, when you come back. If you can keep your guys on site, you don't want to lose your shirt by paying them, but not being able to charge for a one to three, just have that monitoring line item in there. Cause we're, we're going through the same thing, right? We're everybody here on this podcast is trying to change the industry in one way or the other. And to make it more profitable and make it safer for the client, for you. If you, if you know your numbers and you have that line in there.
01:24:48
Mike Santolucito
Even if you can't bill for the pushing that you did, you can still make up in the hourly rate for what those guys were able to do, whether it was just sitting there, making sure the place is safe, retreating a few areas, or like we found out for a couple of these little storms, right? You get like three quarters of an inch or 0.2 inches, whatever the the forecast, you know, certified total says. Charge for whatever your time is because your time is worth money and you're not going to build your business if you don't charge for your time.
01:25:14
Mike Santolucito
You know, these variable contracts are, they're not set up for you to lose money, but they're not set up well for you to be profitable. Unless you had a tenure there where you've kind of changed the course of the RFP, you've kind of built it up over the years and added some of this stuff in there, but you know, you're cut and dry one to three, three to six, six to nine, whatever. They're not gonna have that stuff in there. And that might be something that sets you apart from somebody else who'll be like, oh, these guys have monitoring in there, so that means we don't have to call them back.
01:25:44
Mike Santolucito
They're going to be sitting there waiting for, you know, the next slippery situation to happen. We don't have to worry about it. They're just going to take care of it. Yeah. I'll pay the alley, right? It's probably only going to equal like a couple hundred 1500. It's not a huge number, but it's going to save you in the long run.
01:26:00
RICK JAMES
Do you guys do that in season two, Mike, or just that?
01:26:03
Mike Santolucito
No, no, the seasonal, you no, it's really the variables, like even the tiered.
01:26:04
RICK JAMES
Okay. and didn I didn't, I just, I just don't want to know how you, how you wrap that in the seasonals.
01:26:08
The SnowJobs Podcast
Those are the CNN.
01:26:08
RICK JAMES
That'd be kind of cool. Okay. Okay. i was just yeah yeah That's what I thought.
01:26:11
Mike Santolucito
Yeah, even the tiered contracts, they're they're set up like the seasonals where we still, we have that protection with the, and the PM checks and time in there for monitoring. Um, the variables is where we're, we're trying to change the conversation on cause that's, that's going to get tighter, especially with how expensive things are getting.
01:26:25
RICK JAMES
That makes sense.
01:26:27
The SnowJobs Podcast
Mike, you want to hear the worst part of what you just said?
01:26:27
RICK JAMES
Yeah.
01:26:30
Mike Santolucito
Hmm.
01:26:30
The SnowJobs Podcast
You said we're all trying to we're all trying to make it more profitable. I don't think most of us are. I think most of us are trying to keep the same profit margin that we had four years ago.
01:26:41
The SnowJobs Podcast
Just keep it intact with the inflation on everything. like You're trying to keep the same profit margins, but you're having to basically make more profit just to keep where it is because of how expensive everything else we do.
01:26:56
The SnowJobs Podcast
in snow has gotten like it's incredible.
01:26:58
Mike Santolucito
Yeah.
01:27:00
The SnowJobs Podcast
I'm not even trying to make more money.
01:27:00
Mike Santolucito
Yeah.
01:27:02
The SnowJobs Podcast
I'm trying to make the same fucking money. Like that's, that's my biggest, uh, how am I going to do that?
01:27:05
Mike Santolucito
Yeah. With all the new added expenses, I'm just trying to make the same nut.
01:27:09
The SnowJobs Podcast
Yeah. How am I going to keep my profit margin intact when my everything I do is up 40% across the board in the last four years?
01:27:17
Mike Santolucito
Yeah.
01:27:18
RICK JAMES
All right.
01:27:18
The SnowJobs Podcast
That's the, that's the challenge. How do I keep that?
01:27:20
Mike Santolucito
But it's, it's stuff like that. That's going to help us all stay on the same level playing field so that it's your quality of work that you're you're bidding against, not your numbers.
01:27:23
The SnowJobs Podcast
Yeah.
01:27:29
Mike Santolucito
That's what this industry needs to get to and yeah, quality driven.
01:27:30
RICK JAMES
It should be. That's what it should be.
01:27:32
The SnowJobs Podcast
My only worry, my only worry is the customers have less money to spend too.
01:27:32
RICK JAMES
Quality.
01:27:38
The SnowJobs Podcast
And then, you know, when they have less money to spend there, they're kind of hamstrung in the decisions at times where, like you said, they're going to go with the lowest bidder because we have, we only have this much money and that's the only bid that's in that range to to do it.
01:27:40
RICK JAMES
Not all customers.
01:27:47
Mike Santolucito
Yeah.
01:27:54
The SnowJobs Podcast
So we're going to have to roll the dice.
01:27:56
Native Snow
Yeah.
01:27:56
Mike Santolucito
Yeah. And that's true too, but. If you break it down to your customer, what that machine's costing you, what the employees are costing you, your overhead, I mean, they'll probably, their job will drop when they know how much it actually costs to run this side of the business.
01:28:03
The SnowJobs Podcast
Oh, yeah.
01:28:11
The SnowJobs Podcast
100 percent.
01:28:11
Mike Santolucito
They have no idea, you know.
01:28:13
The SnowJobs Podcast
That's why that presentation is key.
01:28:14
RICK JAMES
Right.
01:28:14
The SnowJobs Podcast
You have to be able to explain that to them and show the crack open your books. Show them this is what I fucking pay to do your site, to do it like we do it.
01:28:23
Mike Santolucito
Yeah.
01:28:25
The SnowJobs Podcast
Like you guys just think the snow fairies show up overnight and everything's gone by 5 a.m.
01:28:30
Mike Santolucito
Exactly.
01:28:31
The SnowJobs Podcast
You know, this is what it costs to do that. Yeah, no, they and it is their jaw hits the table a lot of times like holy shit.
01:28:37
Native Snow
Mike, you having any pushback on that?
01:28:41
Mike Santolucito
ah No, this is the this is the first year that we're doing it across the board. We did like a ah beta test last year with certain clients to feel them out, you know explain it to them, see if they understand it, and it went over pretty well. you know Last year, we didn't have a lot of snow. We had a lot of treatables. We had a lot of mixing events. so We weren't able to charge for those one to threes or three to sixes.
01:29:03
Mike Santolucito
So we did have to do that just to make our bottom line, like just keeping the equipment rolling. And the guys paid and they understood it, but this year we, we have no choice. We have to do it across the board.
01:29:15
Mike Santolucito
There's just, there's just too much vulnerability there.
01:29:15
The SnowJobs Podcast
Mm.
01:29:17
Native Snow
That's good. Yeah.
01:29:18
RICK JAMES
Got a few guys.
01:29:18
Native Snow
So this year, um, I tried implementing, uh, like an equipment readiness fee. Nobody will see.
01:29:26
Mike Santolucito
We're looking into that too, for the variable accounts.
01:29:27
Native Snow
No one even they're like, Nope, no, thank you. My numbers were actually very competitive with a couple of other bids. Guys like, uh, yeah, no, you didn't win the bid because of this.
01:29:39
Native Snow
And I'm like, okay, well, I was like, and from this.
01:29:41
Mike Santolucito
Yeah. But when they see that, whatever that range is that they're paying for, it's less because they're already paying for that package. That overhead and that equipment expense is already out of there for the most part, a little bit of it's still in there, but not all of it.
01:29:47
Native Snow
Yeah.
01:29:53
Native Snow
Yeah. So I was doing it on the per event you know pricing, trying to get some kind of money out of it.
01:29:54
RICK JAMES
Yeah.
01:30:01
Native Snow
It needs a 10, 12 acre site. It needs a loader. It needs $150,000, $200,000 worth of equipment to get the site done. And it's going to be sitting there all year. And I try to implement it.
01:30:12
Native Snow
And they're like, we never heard of this before. And it's not enough people doing it. We have a lot of people. I mean, you know, you're in the same kind of market. You got a lot of lot of the competitors. So it's hard to really push that on people when they have not been used to seeing that.
01:30:26
Native Snow
They're like, why am I going to pay you if I'm not paying a seasonal contract? And it's just so it's so hard to explain it to people.
01:30:31
RICK JAMES
You still get it.
01:30:32
The SnowJobs Podcast
Or is that equipment ain't cheap?
01:30:34
RICK JAMES
All right.
01:30:34
Native Snow
It's so hard to explain.
01:30:34
RICK JAMES
They don't care though.
01:30:36
Native Snow
They don't care.
01:30:36
RICK JAMES
They don't, they don't care.
01:30:37
Native Snow
They're like, we're just why would we pay you X amount? And I wasn't even asking for a lot. Like I talked to some guys over in the industry that they were charging a decent amount, but then they were like adjusting their tiers. I was just trying to cover like a couple months of the equipment.
01:30:50
RICK JAMES
Payments.
01:30:51
Native Snow
Yeah. Like a couple months of the equipment sitting there and then hopefully we get some snow. And if we don't get any snow, at least I'm not drowning in debt. You know, it was like kind of like break even thing and then kind of go from the charging and just still it didn't matter.
01:31:00
RICK JAMES
Right.
01:31:05
Native Snow
It was like, yeah, no, we're we're not interested in that. So it was, uh,
01:31:08
The SnowJobs Podcast
Maybe you should have offered to autograph, autograph your flag football card.
01:31:08
RICK JAMES
Cause there'll be, cause there'll be good idea.
01:31:14
Native Snow
That's true. They see that spin move. They're going to send me out to Fargo to spin that line.
01:31:19
RICK JAMES
When do I get that?
01:31:20
Native Snow
ah
01:31:21
The SnowJobs Podcast
Oh my God.
01:31:23
RICK JAMES
No, it's, uh, they, the problem is there's somebody who's going to do it for cheaper.
01:31:29
Native Snow
Yes.
01:31:29
RICK JAMES
That's the same thing we always discuss.
01:31:29
The SnowJobs Podcast
Sure.
01:31:31
RICK JAMES
Somebody's going to do it cheaper. We just discussed this. It's ridiculous, but.
01:31:34
The SnowJobs Podcast
Always going to be able, always going to be able to find somebody to do it cheaper, no matter what.
01:31:38
Mike Santolucito
But that's when they come back and ask you again because they failed or because they had too many slip and falls or too many no shows or didn't show up in time or left it messy.
01:31:50
Native Snow
Yeah I think a part of the issue that we have in my part of Jersey anyway is there's a lot of guys that been in the industry for a long time that are still running dinosaurs and equipment and they're still running 1995 prices and still Probably being a little profitable because they're running a 1970 load you know and it's been paid for forever and they got a hundred guys working for their landscape company and they're just Yeah, so they're
01:31:50
Mike Santolucito
Didn't do a great job.
01:32:03
The SnowJobs Podcast
Yeah. Mm-hmm. Sure. The equipment's paid for. No DEF, no sensors going bad.
01:32:20
Native Snow
They're already in the realm of what we could do for this price. We don't need to charge an equipment readiness fee or we don't need to charge X amount.
01:32:27
The SnowJobs Podcast
Sure.
01:32:29
Native Snow
Where as guys coming up, all the younger guys and myself, it's like we got to buy a $250,000 piece of piece of equipment.
01:32:37
Mike Santolucito
Right.
01:32:37
Native Snow
The last 30 years may not last 30 years, but we got to make money on it right now. like there's no There's no way you can you could do it.
01:32:42
The SnowJobs Podcast
Yeah.
01:32:45
The SnowJobs Podcast
And not only.
01:32:45
Native Snow
I have a first contract and then pushed around each way.
01:32:47
The SnowJobs Podcast
Yeah.
01:32:49
Native Snow
You got the old timers in my area doing it this way. You got the nationals coming in and doing it this way. And we're trying to break it out that way. And the resistance is crazy. you know so
01:32:59
The SnowJobs Podcast
Yeah. No, that's definitely a good point though.
01:33:02
Native Snow
Yeah.
01:33:03
The SnowJobs Podcast
There's a lot of old school guys in the area that, that, that could be tough.
01:33:06
Native Snow
Yeah.
01:33:09
The SnowJobs Podcast
I will say this, we only took two new sites this year, but small stuff. And we were told on both of those that we were not the lowest bidder or we were not the lowest. They went with us anyway, in spite of the the presentation and the the proposal packet was what sold them on it.
01:33:26
Mike Santolucito
Yeah, yeah.
01:33:27
The SnowJobs Podcast
So that, I mean, so yeah there are, you know, there are ways to get it done.
01:33:33
Native Snow
Yeah.
01:33:34
The SnowJobs Podcast
One was, one one ah one we were told we were 20% above the lowest bidder.
01:33:40
Native Snow
more Smaller sites seem to be where you can be a lot higher on your bids and still get them. And the reason being is because um there's not enough big players taking on the smaller sites.
01:33:53
Native Snow
So there's a lot of half ass.
01:33:53
The SnowJobs Podcast
Which is totally fine.
01:33:54
Native Snow
There's a lot of half ass companies out there. And people don't answer phone calls. They don't call back. I've said this before. People won't call somebody back. And they're waiting for an answer if you're going to sign their contract or whatever.
01:34:07
Native Snow
You're going to send over the proposal. People just don't get back to you. So a lot of the small numbers, like the small sites, I get the numbers I'm looking for on the smaller sites, the one-acre site, two-acre site.
01:34:15
The SnowJobs Podcast
Oh, hell yes.
01:34:17
Native Snow
It's the 10-acre site where you submit a bid and people are like, what? Somebody's doing this for a quarter of the price. and It's like, how? But then you look.
01:34:25
The SnowJobs Podcast
Yeah, I don't want that.
01:34:25
Native Snow
and no it's honestly like going back to what we were talking about before you're looking for more adding more sites and stuff go after some smaller one acre a half acre and you could be profitable if it's if it's in a route that works for you and you don't have to be crazy
01:34:37
RICK JAMES
Learn Money Makers. there money
01:34:43
The SnowJobs Podcast
Yeah. Route density, small sites, you will make money.
01:34:45
Native Snow
ah harddiff port yeah The hardest with the small sites and not having round density is the logistics of getting shovelers there and the logistics of a plow truck breaker and whatever. like it's just It's too much moving parts. You've got to have a tight route of small places. You'll be very profitable.
01:35:02
The SnowJobs Podcast
Put a shovel or in the plow truck.
01:35:04
Mike Santolucito
Mm-hmm.
01:35:05
Native Snow
Yeah, well, if you need.
01:35:06
The SnowJobs Podcast
When the guy's plowing, the other guy's shoveling.
01:35:09
Native Snow
Don't disagree. Four or five shovelers if you got a crew cab, but some guys are running single cab and you need three or four shovelers. So that that becomes an issue also.
01:35:17
Mike Santolucito
You can fit four in there. I've seen it done.
01:35:21
The SnowJobs Podcast
um ah All right boys you guys got anything else I think Roberts falling asleep on us All right, let's wrap her up then well oh oh She wants you to take that chin strap off oh
01:35:27
Native Snow
That's it.
01:35:27
RICK JAMES
I think so.
01:35:29
Brine Daddy
my head.
01:35:29
Mike Santolucito
Very good.
01:35:33
Native Snow
I got it going. My wife's waiting for me.
01:35:35
RICK JAMES
Oh, salt daddy.
01:35:36
Brine Daddy
oh
01:35:37
Mike Santolucito
Ooh!
01:35:40
Native Snow
ah It's growing a little bit, it's growing.
01:35:42
RICK JAMES
I just saw her peeking the door behind you.
01:35:44
The SnowJobs Podcast
You did it. I, between you and Pat salmon, I mean, you guys are on the FBI's 10 most wanted lists. All right. i You're, you're definitely on some watch lists between the two of you.
01:35:57
Native Snow
Possibly.
01:35:58
The SnowJobs Podcast
Possibly. That's an interesting look. It really is. All right, boys. Well, thanks so much for the time again. We appreciate it as always.
01:36:06
RICK JAMES
was funny.
01:36:07
Mike Santolucito
Thank you guys.
01:36:08
The SnowJobs Podcast
Always fun talking to you guys.
01:36:09
Brine Daddy
any time
01:36:10
The SnowJobs Podcast
A lot of laughs.
01:36:11
Brine Daddy
and metime
01:36:12
The SnowJobs Podcast
All right.
01:36:12
Native Snow
Whoa, that was robotic.
01:36:12
The SnowJobs Podcast
Well, Robert is.
01:36:14
Mike Santolucito
What was that?
01:36:15
The SnowJobs Podcast
Yeah, Robert you I'm gonna I'm gonna mute him before he ruins the recording here Alright
01:36:15
RICK JAMES
What was that?
01:36:15
Native Snow
Mute yourself, dude.
01:36:17
RICK JAMES
yeah
01:36:22
Mike Santolucito
yeah
01:36:24
The SnowJobs Podcast
guys, well listen that's gonna do it. Thanks to the boys. We appreciate it as always always a great time with these guys Jeremy have a ah safe trip if you if you get the call Storm chasing killing it gonna get another one done storm chasing can't wait to see these episodes and
01:36:35
Brine Daddy
Anytime.
01:36:36
RICK JAMES
Oh yeah.
01:36:36
Brine Daddy
Anytime.
01:36:38
RICK JAMES
Storm cheers. I will be.
01:36:44
The SnowJobs Podcast
in the flesh, but that's going to do it for episode 102. Two away from the season two finale. Can't wait. All right. We want to thank our boys again for the time. Wish you guys all the best to the guys that submitted the questions. Hopefully gave you some information that helped you out there, but that is it guys. Everybody be safe out there. Have a great week.
01:37:13
The SnowJobs Podcast
That's it. Good night, boys. We'll see you later.
01:37:16
Brine Daddy
Yeah.