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S2-98: Signature Land Services, Anchorage Alaska
799 Plays13 days ago
The guys welcome Tim Schrage of Signature Land Services to the show for our first episode ever in Alaska! Tim takes us through his impressive business, and its focus on being a one stop shop for all their clients' needs!
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction and Milestone Anticipation
00:00:40
The SnowJobs Podcast
Here we go, Snow Jobs Nation. We are back again bringing you episode 98. Two away, Jay. Two away from big 100 of the Snow Jobs
00:00:47
RICK JAMES
Yeah, yeah
Sponsorship and Hosts
00:00:51
The SnowJobs Podcast
podcast.
00:00:51
The SnowJobs Podcast
Powered by Top Gun Backblades. As always, I'm Steve. You know who's with me? Snow Pimp Rick James.
00:01:06
The SnowJobs Podcast
Jeremy Lindstrom's in the house with me.
Weather Challenges and Equipment Experiences
00:01:08
The SnowJobs Podcast
What's up, Jay? How are we? Another Sunday night recording.
00:01:11
RICK JAMES
doing good doing good wait Another Sunday night.
00:01:15
RICK JAMES
Yeah
00:01:15
The SnowJobs Podcast
Hopefully all goes well. Good internet all around.
00:01:18
RICK JAMES
Yeah, we got some freezing rain here all day or rain now it's freezing so Or I got got salt salt guys are all ah salting right now. So Yeah, we've been busy I mean and now not like a a lot of snow but like ah we've been steady I guess of the work so Yeah sure did I love that things awesome We use the last year a little bit
00:01:28
The SnowJobs Podcast
You've been on fire, dude. You've been doing stuff like every two days. Good for you. You got to play with the LaRue I see.
00:01:41
The SnowJobs Podcast
You've been dying to do that. Two years, two full years, almost trying to get that thing. That's great.
00:01:48
RICK JAMES
Yeah, that's fun.
00:01:48
The SnowJobs Podcast
Good for you, man. No, uh, shopping carts sucked into it.
00:01:50
RICK JAMES
We're sharing a lot of bolts. We're sharing a lot of bolts the other night though. I don't know.
00:01:54
The SnowJobs Podcast
Oh yeah.
00:01:55
RICK JAMES
I brought it in. I thought it was some adjustment was out, but they say there wasn't. I don't know. Sheared a lot of bolts.
00:02:01
The SnowJobs Podcast
What'd you hit?
00:02:02
RICK JAMES
Nothing. I really did. I don't know if I'm proud.
00:02:05
The SnowJobs Podcast
Standard snow guy response. I don't know. I don't know what I hit.
00:02:07
RICK JAMES
No, no, I mean there was nothing in a pile. i I sat there and watched Jackie run it and it just kept sharing both of them. I took it and I brought it into the shop and they couldn't finally run with it.
00:02:19
RICK JAMES
They couldn't get it to share both cars. Nobody can do that one. So I brought it out last night, did another pile and I shared about eight bolts last night and and there's nothing in the pile. I don't know.
Snow Activity and Equipment Adjustments
00:02:31
The SnowJobs Podcast
Interesting. You get a bad batch of Chinese bolts.
00:02:33
RICK JAMES
Probably, probably. That's what I was kind of thinking because they're don't know Whatever is what it is.
00:02:39
The SnowJobs Podcast
No. All right.
00:02:40
RICK JAMES
Not a big deal of change. It takes about five minutes Yeah,
00:02:43
The SnowJobs Podcast
That's a pain in the butt though. You shouldn't have to. If it's all, all it's doing is chewing snow.
00:02:48
RICK JAMES
I just started taking smaller bites and then it worked a little better how Well, if you can buy us more expensive water Yeah, oh well it was it was fun it was it was good it was we had a
00:02:51
The SnowJobs Podcast
Maybe you should have bought a more expensive snowblower.
00:02:56
The SnowJobs Podcast
It's like my mortgage dude from my house. Holy crap.
00:03:03
The SnowJobs Podcast
Well, you guys have been busy, man. You probably ah you got to be close to topping your pushes from all of last year if ah if you're not already there, right?
00:03:10
RICK JAMES
Around six six pushes and six pushes. so Yeah, you know Three full pushes and three cleanups.
00:03:21
RICK JAMES
So What we got for a total snow looking up right now Yeah, I mean there's nothing big but we make the best of it We got a whole six point two inches of the year hammer down and
00:03:21
The SnowJobs Podcast
Gotcha. Well, you guys are rocking. Beats last year billable.
00:03:36
The SnowJobs Podcast
What'd you have last year? 10?
00:03:38
RICK JAMES
ah No, they they they say the total is like 16 something but Maybe 12 and we got like four or five and I was in October on the grass.
00:03:41
The SnowJobs Podcast
I know what they say. What did you actually get though? Okay.
00:03:50
The SnowJobs Podcast
Well, you're on your way.
00:03:50
RICK JAMES
So Yeah, hopefully it turns around we get busy here and hopefully everybody is busy because we don't get the storm chase around too, so
00:03:51
The SnowJobs Podcast
You're on your way.
00:03:57
The SnowJobs Podcast
Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. We kind of missed on the, uh, the
Weather Forecast Skepticism and Warm Weather Preview
00:04:02
The SnowJobs Podcast
first one that was, uh, swinging a mess. Yeah. Yeah. We actually have some, we have some audio I recorded of me going after the weather guys.
00:04:03
RICK JAMES
Yeah swinging a mess there
00:04:10
The SnowJobs Podcast
if you I don't know. You want to hear it.
00:04:12
RICK JAMES
I do I want to hear always
00:04:13
The SnowJobs Podcast
You do like, this is was their explanation for, for missing that.
00:04:41
RICK JAMES
Yeah. Yeah.
00:04:43
The SnowJobs Podcast
Sound about right.
00:04:43
RICK JAMES
yep it sounds perfect yeah definitely yep I'm sure there's logical explanation why yeah yeah like we fucked up half a degree is all we need
00:04:47
The SnowJobs Podcast
i Oh my God, I couldn't resist. ah
00:04:54
The SnowJobs Podcast
I'm sure there, there's a new weather term to explain it. I'm sure pond effect overcame Lake effect, pushed it right back out in middle Lake. It's always something, right? Oh man. Half a degree. That's it. Half a mile. Half a degree. It's all oopsie.
00:05:15
The SnowJobs Podcast
Oh man. All right, brother.
00:05:16
RICK JAMES
Good to be back.
00:05:17
The SnowJobs Podcast
Well, we've been, we've had a couple already.
00:05:17
RICK JAMES
Good to be back.
00:05:20
The SnowJobs Podcast
We've had a couple pushes and we've had a bunch of saltings. We had a, they were out again last night for just a little dusting, but yeah, they had to, had to throw some salt.
00:05:26
RICK JAMES
You guys. Yeah. I think everybody had a little group or, or it's a big group. Now it's a head snow, except for Sean, I think. Right.
00:05:35
The SnowJobs Podcast
seaun's now Sean's not getting snow.
00:05:36
RICK JAMES
I think everybody else has pushed snow or done something.
00:05:37
The SnowJobs Podcast
It's not happening. He spent way too much on equipment this year.
00:05:40
RICK JAMES
yeah Yeah.
00:05:40
The SnowJobs Podcast
He's not getting a drop. Not one flake.
00:05:42
RICK JAMES
Yeah.
00:05:43
The SnowJobs Podcast
Oh, man.
00:05:43
RICK JAMES
So that's pretty good.
00:05:44
The SnowJobs Podcast
But yeah, yeah we're we're doing all right. We'll see. ah It's going to warm up for a couple days here. It looks like Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday is going to be almost in the 50s. It's 50. Nick's got it at like 50 to 52 Wednesday during the day.
00:05:57
The SnowJobs Podcast
And then he says that there could be some back end snow with that rain that we're supposed to get Wednesday day, Wednesday night. He thinks it's going to turn over, change over to snow when the cold front pushes back in.
00:06:08
The SnowJobs Podcast
So we will, we will definitely be watching that.
00:06:11
RICK JAMES
just play that clip again
00:06:13
The SnowJobs Podcast
Yes, exactly. Right. Yes. Jet stream of bullshit coming out of your mouth.
00:06:16
RICK JAMES
but
00:06:19
RICK JAMES
oh
00:06:20
The SnowJobs Podcast
Oh shit. All right.
00:06:21
RICK JAMES
or nuform
00:06:21
The SnowJobs Podcast
Well, let's get going here. So guys, last week we had Scott Lezak and Anthony Mann on with us. They were talking about the first storm of the season in the Northeast a few weeks ago. All right. Most of us, most of us got way more than they, than they called for right from a wet pavement to six inches.
00:06:37
The SnowJobs Podcast
Uh, but it's always good to hear, you know, those guys got feet. Those were the 21 inches and 19 inches, I think.
00:06:43
RICK JAMES
yeah Yeah, let's do that.
00:06:46
The SnowJobs Podcast
So they got a couple. So ah yeah it's always good to hear about these first storms of the year, guys. ah you know Lots of things go wrong. Problems are always encountered. And you know how we deal with them and get past them is ah is beneficial for guys to hear. So thanks to Scott and Anthony for coming on and doing that with us.
00:07:03
The SnowJobs Podcast
Today, what are we doing?
Guest Introduction: Tim Schragge from Alaska
00:07:05
The SnowJobs Podcast
We are doing our first episode ever in the state of Alaska, all right?
00:07:09
RICK JAMES
Finally.
00:07:10
The SnowJobs Podcast
And we have Tim Schragge from Signature Land Services with us, all right? It's about time. We've been meaning and wanting to get Alaska on the Snow Jobs map um from but for a long time now.
00:07:21
The SnowJobs Podcast
We've been talking to Tim about doing an episode, and we're finally able to make our schedules mesh up. So Tim's here with us tonight. He's going to tell us all about doing snow in Alaska. So we're excited for this one.
00:07:32
The SnowJobs Podcast
But before we get into it with Tim, let's hear from Team Top Gun. We're going to come back to a little bit of a week in review and we'll get this rolling.
00:08:12
The SnowJobs Podcast
All right, sorry, they caught me mid-cough there. Bad timing. So a couple of things we got to get out there for the week in review. ah The Eric Gasty's Memorial Shirts, they're still available on the Plowwright Marking Stakes website.
Community Updates and Celebrations
00:08:25
The SnowJobs Podcast
Little button at the top of the web page. ah So click on that, get some shirts to ah benefit Eric's kids, right benefit their college fund. um thank Big, huge thanks to a lot of the guys that already did so.
00:08:38
The SnowJobs Podcast
Uh, we've heard that they, uh, they're definitely, uh, being sold. So thank you very much for doing that. And everybody else, uh, get on that. All right. Uh, let's see what else we got. Oh, Jay, we, we got to send the, we got to send out a big congratulations to a snow jobs.
00:08:54
The SnowJobs Podcast
Favorite. Mr.
00:08:55
RICK JAMES
Oh, yeah?
00:08:55
The SnowJobs Podcast
Billy Moore of executive out in Michigan got engaged Saturday night, got engaged to his girlfriend.
00:08:56
RICK JAMES
Oh, yeah. I'd get engaged in the last minute. Yeah. Congratulations.
00:09:04
The SnowJobs Podcast
the Now, fiance Angela.
00:09:06
RICK JAMES
Yeah.
00:09:07
The SnowJobs Podcast
So congratulations to them, that's awesome.
00:09:09
RICK JAMES
That's great. Yeah.
00:09:10
The SnowJobs Podcast
I tried to attend the big moment, but the the timing was off. They told me 650, it was actually 750 and i ah I could not be away from the ah the store that long.
00:09:21
RICK JAMES
Yeah.
00:09:21
The SnowJobs Podcast
And freaking Rockefeller Center was a goddamn freak show nightmare. There had to be 10,000 people around that stupid ice rink. You couldn't move.
00:09:30
RICK JAMES
Yeah. Yeah.
00:09:31
The SnowJobs Podcast
I bumped into, what?
00:09:32
RICK JAMES
Watching them. Watching them. Just watching them. Get engaged.
00:09:35
The SnowJobs Podcast
Maybe. I mean, Billy's pretty popular, so I don't know.
00:09:38
RICK JAMES
Yeah. I'm just, I'm glad Angela finally moved on for me. That's, that's good.
00:09:44
The SnowJobs Podcast
oh
00:09:45
RICK JAMES
Congratulations, Angela.
00:09:46
The SnowJobs Podcast
ah you're You're unattainable, you know? She couldn't wait forever.
00:09:51
RICK JAMES
Yeah.
00:09:52
The SnowJobs Podcast
Oh, that's great. man oh But yeah, congratulations to them. it was ah He put the video of it out there. It was really cool. It was a nice moment for them. I'm glad it worked out.
00:10:02
RICK JAMES
Yeah definitely.
00:10:02
The SnowJobs Podcast
I'm glad she said yes, dude. Cause that's like a, that's an all time freaking, you're going viral forever.
00:10:08
RICK JAMES
Well he steals everything.
00:10:08
The SnowJobs Podcast
That's like suicidal viral, you know, 10,000 people with cameras, every Japanese tourist and their brother will have a camera on you filming that whole thing.
00:10:17
RICK JAMES
Oh yeah.
00:10:17
The SnowJobs Podcast
And, uh, in Rockefeller center.
00:10:19
RICK JAMES
That's a no brainer. I mean you've married Billy if you could.
00:10:21
The SnowJobs Podcast
Yeah, no, it's good. Good for them. Congratulations guys. And we'll have to see our, uh, see if the wild man of snow bandits gets an invite to the wedding. We'll have to.
00:10:31
RICK JAMES
Yeah.
00:10:32
The SnowJobs Podcast
have to see how it goes.
00:10:34
RICK JAMES
Definitely. Well, we were invited out there. We i with we just make it.
00:10:37
The SnowJobs Podcast
We were.
00:10:39
RICK JAMES
I didn't make it.
00:10:40
The SnowJobs Podcast
I made it.
00:10:40
RICK JAMES
You were close. You were close.
00:10:41
The SnowJobs Podcast
I was incorrectly given time. I had to park the ah park ah about 10 blocks away, I think, because I couldn't get any closer without getting blocked in.
00:10:52
RICK JAMES
Couldn't use the old special technique, huh?
00:10:53
The SnowJobs Podcast
So.
00:10:55
The SnowJobs Podcast
Yeah, I did, but it wasn't, dude, it was total gridlock, total gridlock for 10 to 15 blocks in all directions.
00:10:59
RICK JAMES
I didn't know who you were.
00:11:03
The SnowJobs Podcast
I did bump into Jordan Smith.
00:11:05
RICK JAMES
Oh really?
00:11:06
The SnowJobs Podcast
Yeah. And the misses, Mrs.
00:11:06
RICK JAMES
Wow.
00:11:07
The SnowJobs Podcast
Smith.
00:11:07
RICK JAMES
Wow.
00:11:08
The SnowJobs Podcast
Yep.
00:11:08
RICK JAMES
Nice.
00:11:08
The SnowJobs Podcast
Saw them. I saw Tony Donovan.
00:11:10
RICK JAMES
I'm a big apple. What? Oh yeah, I saw Tony, some pictures of Tony was there. That's cool.
00:11:14
The SnowJobs Podcast
Yep.
00:11:16
RICK JAMES
I feel left out now.
00:11:16
The SnowJobs Podcast
I saw Mike from a U S snow pros saw him.
00:11:20
RICK JAMES
Nice.
00:11:20
The SnowJobs Podcast
So there were, there were people there ready to ah help them celebrate the big moment. So congratulations, Bill and Angela. And now we wish you guys all the best. ah What else we got here?
00:11:29
RICK JAMES
yeah
00:11:31
The SnowJobs Podcast
Spotify, it's that time of year.
Spotify Stats and Female Audience Growth
00:11:33
The SnowJobs Podcast
So Spotify released their 2024 wrapped last week, all the stats and stuff. And ah even though that's actually only our third most popular platform, as far as listens and listeners go, ah the numbers and stats they gave the show were absolutely awesome.
00:11:48
The SnowJobs Podcast
ah So to go over a couple of them for year 2024, our listenership on Spotify was up 112 percent. We were streamed in 20 different countries, which is crazy.
00:12:01
The SnowJobs Podcast
um Let's see, we were the top show for 500 listeners. We were a top five show for 1200 more listeners, and we were a top 10 show for 1400 additional listeners.
00:12:13
The SnowJobs Podcast
So that's pretty good, man. ah Not bad for our third most listened to platform.
00:12:14
RICK JAMES
Not bad.
00:12:18
The SnowJobs Podcast
The most listened to episode of the year on Spotify. Very close race. What do you think it was, Jack?
00:12:25
RICK JAMES
I have no idea.
00:12:27
The SnowJobs Podcast
Come on.
00:12:29
RICK JAMES
Uh, oh, um, Arctic.
00:12:32
The SnowJobs Podcast
i you would You know what?
00:12:32
RICK JAMES
We're gonna be, we're gonna be straight.
00:12:33
The SnowJobs Podcast
I thought it was going to pull it out, but it was it actually, Josh Gomez's original episode, the ah the season finale, season one finale, edged him edged out Randy straight from Arctic by just a few hundred listens.
00:12:39
RICK JAMES
Oh, okay. Yeah. Yep.
00:12:46
The SnowJobs Podcast
And that was out of like, each of them had like over 25,000.
00:12:50
RICK JAMES
Nice.
00:12:50
The SnowJobs Podcast
So that's that's a pretty tight race there. So pretty awesome to get those stats and we wanna thank all our Spotify listeners greatly for their support and you know keep going guys, it's it's awesome. I wish Apple would do something like that because Apple's like like almost four times the listens and listeners we we have on Spotify and that's by far most our most popular platform. So I wish they would do something like that.
00:13:15
The SnowJobs Podcast
Um, what else? yeah Oh, so something else we wanted to get out there though, with the recent release of the Spotify rep 2024 stats, we now know that not only do we have a ton of new listeners, we actually have doubled our female listenership now up to like.
00:13:31
The SnowJobs Podcast
10 percent or 12 percent, which is pretty cool. All right. that there Because there are a lot of women in the snow game and we personally know a bunch of them that do a phenomenal job. And because we have all these new female listeners that we can only assume are in snow because why else would you listen to the show if you weren't? um We wanted to tell you about something really awesome that just happened. that You guys can be a part of it in the future. ah Val Lezak, wife of Scott Lezak of Inspire You and Jillian Burns of Burns Landscape and Snow Management.
Empowering Women in Industries
00:14:01
The SnowJobs Podcast
They created an organization called Influential Encounters. It's an organization to help empower women in male majority industries. ah that's They're starting with snow and ice management. And it's for all women, no matter what positions they hold within the industry, within the companies that they work for. um They just held their first event last week in Boston. From everything we heard, it was a huge success. They had 35 women um from all across the women are i'm sorry all across the country in snow.
00:14:29
The SnowJobs Podcast
ah They all got together to network, share experiences, learn from each other, et cetera. Elaine Pasquale was the keynote speaker. And from everybody we've talked to, it was just a fantastic evening. It was a great atmosphere, a lot of great information passed between people, and that's just awesome. So congrats to Val and Jillian. ah It sounds like you had a huge success and something that's much needed in the industry for you. ah Their next event, if you're interested, ladies, is April 24th in Pennsylvania.
00:14:58
The SnowJobs Podcast
ah If there are are any snow women out there listening who are interested, tickets and more information can be so can be found sorry on their website at influentialencounters.com. Anything else, Jay? You got any store stuff you want to get out there, buddy?
00:15:13
RICK JAMES
Don't just buy it. We got the new release that sweatshirt. We just released a new one. It's being made Thank hopefully this week. I don't know if I'll get it this week, but not this week next week We'll get it in here, but they're on the store already So if you want to order soon, I get them in I'll start shipping them.
00:15:27
The SnowJobs Podcast
They're awesome.
00:15:29
RICK JAMES
They're pretty cool. I think so Yeah, yeah, and then they're a little more money because there's a lot more detail too, but that's the way it is so
00:15:30
The SnowJobs Podcast
They look great, dude. They look badass. I love them. They really look good. So is what it is. Is what it is. Pay for quality.
00:15:41
RICK JAMES
Yeah, no, they're pretty sweet.
00:15:42
The SnowJobs Podcast
Well, you heard him.
00:15:42
RICK JAMES
So.
00:15:43
The SnowJobs Podcast
The store is open and stocked. Get all your Christmas gift giving needs there. Jeremy, he's ditched his snow pimp outfit for a little elf shoes and Santa hat.
00:15:53
RICK JAMES
Yes.
00:15:53
The SnowJobs Podcast
All right. He's filling all the orders as fast as they come in.
00:15:56
RICK JAMES
I got I got a whole bunch more cards and yes, just the other day.
00:15:56
The SnowJobs Podcast
So make sure you get them.
00:16:00
RICK JAMES
So we'll pick up also.
00:16:00
The SnowJobs Podcast
Sweet.
00:16:02
RICK JAMES
We're ready to go.
00:16:03
The SnowJobs Podcast
All right. You got anything else, brother?
00:16:04
RICK JAMES
I don't think so.
00:16:04
The SnowJobs Podcast
We cover it all.
00:16:05
RICK JAMES
I think we got it.
00:16:07
The SnowJobs Podcast
All right, guys, and let's hear quick commercials here from our partners and we will be right back and get into this with Tim.
00:19:07
The SnowJobs Podcast
All right, gang, we are but back. All right. So let's just get into this. Tim's going to unmute and he's going to join us. We're going to bring him in. So let's welcome Tim Shroggy to the snow jobs.
00:19:19
The SnowJobs Podcast
Tim, how are your brother?
Alaskan Snow Management and Business Insights
00:19:21
The SnowJobs Podcast
How's things up there?
00:19:21
Tim Schrage
Man, you know, it's ah just sitting here looking at the weather forecast and things are good. It's it's winter time.
00:19:30
RICK JAMES
All right.
00:19:30
The SnowJobs Podcast
Nice, nice. How much snow you have so far?
00:19:33
Tim Schrage
Oh, 25 inches for the season so far.
00:19:35
RICK JAMES
All right, let's get started.
00:19:38
The SnowJobs Podcast
and Okay. Not bad.
00:19:39
Tim Schrage
Yeah, that's you know, it it almost doesn't count that we got 20 inches in the last two days, October.
00:19:40
The SnowJobs Podcast
Beaten Fargo.
00:19:41
RICK JAMES
so Yeah, it's not hard.
00:19:46
Tim Schrage
So November was a really slow month for us.
00:19:50
The SnowJobs Podcast
Wow.
00:19:51
RICK JAMES
Oh really?
00:19:52
The SnowJobs Podcast
When do you usually start getting snow up there? Like regularly?
00:19:57
Tim Schrage
You know, we typically will have a dusting by October, um by Halloween in October. And then November is normally our first real snow month where we're below freezing the whole time. And then in we'll push on through till, you know, we'll still get snow in April, sometimes May.
00:20:13
The SnowJobs Podcast
Cool. All right. Sweet. Jay, you want to take us away?
00:20:17
RICK JAMES
Yeah, Tim, why don't you tell everybody about Signature Land Service?
00:20:23
Tim Schrage
Land services, yeah.
00:20:23
The SnowJobs Podcast
Yep.
00:20:24
RICK JAMES
I sadly say Landscape again, Signature Land Service.
00:20:24
The SnowJobs Podcast
Signature land services.
00:20:25
Tim Schrage
Yeah.
00:20:27
RICK JAMES
Why don't you tell everybody about your Signature Land Service, how you guys got started, and how long you've been in business.
00:20:32
Tim Schrage
So this is the third business my wife and I have actually started. So this one in particular, we started in 2008, and it was kind of an impetus. We were doing some real estate development in the town here and and My wife looked at me and said, hey, we're having a heck of a time getting contractors to show up to do snow plowing to and fix and maintain our large yards and all of our exterior services. And so we had the bright idea of starting Signature Land Services. And we named it that because we didn't really know what we were going to do, right? We weren't going to landscape. and We knew we were going to do more than that. So Signature Land Services, it was. And we've been explaining what we do for ever since then.
00:21:17
Tim Schrage
Um, but, uh,
00:21:18
The SnowJobs Podcast
yeah i was good to say it doesn't say anything about paving
00:21:21
RICK JAMES
Yeah. ah
00:21:21
Tim Schrage
well, yeah. So, so, yeah. So for, you know, in 2008, that was just myself and, uh, my wife and, uh, and a couple of guys that we were pointing and shooting every day. And then in 2012, we had, uh, mixed it at our last business or previous business. And I started running it full time as in the ops guy and my wife as our client, uh, client development and relationship manager. And.
00:21:47
Tim Schrage
And we brought some guys over from our previous business. Once their non-competes were up and off and running, we were with signature land services.
00:21:54
Tim Schrage
we we started and When we were doing real estate development, we were using the company mostly to do um value added products. We were excavating undeveloable undevelopable grounds. A lot that our snow dump is on had 18 feet of heat in it. So it was really undevelopable.
00:21:55
The SnowJobs Podcast
Nice!
00:22:17
Tim Schrage
So we had a screening plant going and we were bagging topsoil, sending it to Las Vegas and wherever anybody wanted high quality peat, the rest of it we were screening into topsoil. And about that same time we started to really get heavily into the commercial snow removal business. And then from there we added a paving division asphalt paving. And then shortly thereafter we added our concrete exterior concrete division.
00:22:44
Tim Schrage
and then sweeping division and on and on and on. Wherever there's a market that's symbiotic with what we're doing, we're probably in it.
00:22:54
The SnowJobs Podcast
Whatever Alaska's into next you guys are gonna add it That's great Yeah, that's awesome
00:22:58
Tim Schrage
Yeah, yeah. Well, it's really driven by what what our clients are after, right? I mean, you know, I laugh all the time or just i tell our guys all the time, man. We're a department store. We want to make sure we're the easy button for our clients, and when they pick up the phone, we'll provide the solution and figure out what they need to get done. If we got to sub it out, if we got to general it, if we got to be their partner in it, then that's what we're going to do.
00:23:24
RICK JAMES
Well, because he is.
00:23:24
The SnowJobs Podcast
Yes, sir. Nice. An anchorage is growing, right?
00:23:29
Tim Schrage
Anchorage is actually uh shrinking um the state of Alaska is about yeah it's it's believe it or not even though all the greenies are showing up up here trying to save the world um so you know we're still we're still a we're still a uh resource state we're still a resources extraction state mining uh oil development gas and uh timber and you know granted we have a big
00:23:33
The SnowJobs Podcast
Shrinking?
00:23:41
RICK JAMES
but
00:23:56
Tim Schrage
tourist business, it it certainly doesn't overcome those other the resource industries. and And so yeah, we've had an out migration out of the state.
00:24:01
The SnowJobs Podcast
Mm hmm.
00:24:04
Tim Schrage
It's a big concern. It's mostly young folks ah are average, average age of our person up here is 40 years old now, where, you know, 20 years ago it was 25.
00:24:14
RICK JAMES
Oh wow.
00:24:14
The SnowJobs Podcast
Really?
00:24:15
Tim Schrage
Yeah.
00:24:16
The SnowJobs Podcast
Wow.
00:24:17
Tim Schrage
In case you didn't notice, I was born and raised here and it was a tour guide before all this happened so you know I've i've got all kinds of worthless statistics about Alaska.
00:24:18
RICK JAMES
Oof.
00:24:18
The SnowJobs Podcast
Interesting.
00:24:27
The SnowJobs Podcast
No, that's awesome.
00:24:27
RICK JAMES
I like it.
00:24:28
The SnowJobs Podcast
I love it.
00:24:29
RICK JAMES
It's good to hear.
00:24:29
The SnowJobs Podcast
I love it. i thought I thought I read somewhere Anchorage, their population was on the way up. Oh, maybe that was an old magazine.
00:24:37
RICK JAMES
Wow.
00:24:38
The SnowJobs Podcast
Oh, interesting. That's great.
00:24:40
RICK JAMES
um
00:24:40
The SnowJobs Podcast
So what you got, you said you basically do it all now, but what are your specialties? What services do you guys specialize in?
00:24:50
Tim Schrage
Well, it's it's really snow removal, commercial snow removal. It's asphalt paving, a mixture of residential and commercial. We have to do all. And then concrete services, which is mostly commercial.
00:25:04
Tim Schrage
It's sidewalks, curb gutter, ADA improvements.
00:25:08
The SnowJobs Podcast
Gotcha.
00:25:08
Tim Schrage
Nothing super glamorous.
00:25:11
The SnowJobs Podcast
Very cool. Yeah.
00:25:12
RICK JAMES
Nice.
00:25:12
The SnowJobs Podcast
It pays the bills, pays the bills.
00:25:15
Tim Schrage
But don't yeah add it all together.
00:25:15
RICK JAMES
what's What's your weather like out there?
00:25:17
Tim Schrage
i mean If you can walk on it, we can pretty much do it.
00:25:19
RICK JAMES
Go ahead.
00:25:22
The SnowJobs Podcast
There you go.
00:25:22
RICK JAMES
yeah There you go.
00:25:24
The SnowJobs Podcast
What did you have, Jay?
00:25:25
RICK JAMES
So what's your weather like up there Tim? Is it, I mean, how cold does it get? We always hear of Alaska is pretty cold.
00:25:34
Tim Schrage
You know. In January, we typically have a pretty good cold spell. We're relatively warm in Anchorage. here We're kind of, you know, you get a little bit further south than us and winter is probably a lot more like what it's in like in and Pennsylvania or or New York. um But in Anchorage, we're but kind of South Central, we call it. We're pretty much, but I would say mild, right? We'll do minus 20, minus 25 for a couple of weeks in January, but our average temperature throughout the winters, you know, upper teens, maybe 20.
00:26:08
RICK JAMES
ah sounds you Sounds warmer than me.
00:26:09
The SnowJobs Podcast
Interesting.
00:26:12
The SnowJobs Podcast
Oh, here we go. Here we go.
00:26:13
Tim Schrage
Well, I was thinking about you.
00:26:14
The SnowJobs Podcast
Do you have the wind Tim? Do you have any wind?
00:26:18
Tim Schrage
But you mentioned that I was just looking at the forecast.
00:26:21
The SnowJobs Podcast
but
00:26:21
Tim Schrage
Well, you were running commercials in the bills. And we've got a weather advisory out today for 40 to 70 mile an hour winds.
00:26:24
RICK JAMES
There you go.
00:26:29
Tim Schrage
So
00:26:30
The SnowJobs Podcast
Oh, Fargo's got nothing on that.
00:26:32
RICK JAMES
That's normal. That's normal.
00:26:33
Tim Schrage
the only the only difference between The only difference between Fargo and us, though, is usually we get those big winds.
00:26:34
RICK JAMES
That's a big.
00:26:34
The SnowJobs Podcast
That's normal.
00:26:39
Tim Schrage
Typically, it's coming out of the southeast, and it actually brings our temperatures up.
00:26:43
RICK JAMES
Oh, you have trees too and mountains.
00:26:44
The SnowJobs Podcast
Oh, and okay.
00:26:45
Tim Schrage
So, yeah.
00:26:46
The SnowJobs Podcast
That's interesting.
00:26:48
RICK JAMES
We don't have that.
00:26:49
Tim Schrage
You have hills.
00:26:50
The SnowJobs Podcast
They have trees. They have trees and mountains.
00:26:51
Tim Schrage
Yeah.
00:26:52
RICK JAMES
Yeah, we we don't have that here. We have flat land.
00:26:52
The SnowJobs Podcast
Yeah.
00:26:56
The SnowJobs Podcast
Oh man. So you this is a snow show. We want to hear about your snow business. What type of sites are your bread and butter? Like what are you guys specialized in as far as snow sites?
00:27:07
Tim Schrage
Well, first off, let me tell you what we don't do. And I don't do anything i't do anything that has a bed in it.
00:27:10
The SnowJobs Podcast
All right. Perfect.
00:27:13
Tim Schrage
So no hotels, no condos, no residential. So um we draw a pretty hard and fast line.
00:27:17
The SnowJobs Podcast
Okay.
00:27:21
Tim Schrage
And then car dealerships and gas stations come right after that. um But most of our most of our sites we do are
00:27:25
The SnowJobs Podcast
Okay.
00:27:31
Tim Schrage
all overnight commercial there they range anywhere from our largest shopping centers about 65 acres of asphalt down to your you know your local dentist office.
00:27:41
Tim Schrage
um Yeah it's out across the boards in a small market you you know you've got lots of property owners that own a variety of different properties and and you kind of take what they have.
00:27:42
The SnowJobs Podcast
Okay.
00:27:54
The SnowJobs Podcast
Nice. Are you guys like the big dogs up there in Anchorage as far as snow removal or are there other companies that are your like your size?
00:28:02
Tim Schrage
No, there's there's a handful that are that are pretty similar to us. um You know, as far as equipment wise, I would say we're the largest, but that doesn't mean that we're the highest grossing or the most profitable.
00:28:07
The SnowJobs Podcast
Okay.
00:28:13
Tim Schrage
Right. I mean, don't don't confuse business.
00:28:15
The SnowJobs Podcast
Gotcha. Well, if you have a lot of equipment, you're probably not the most profitable, especially with the prices to get out of pay to get them up to Alaska.
00:28:21
Tim Schrage
Yeah.
00:28:26
RICK JAMES
yeah
00:28:27
Tim Schrage
You know, that is
00:28:27
The SnowJobs Podcast
Oh my goodness.
00:28:29
Tim Schrage
That is something that you know people that don't live up here don't really get is that everything that we have here comes by boat or by air or by a truck. And it's it's ah it's expensive to get equipment here and or even parts.
00:28:44
The SnowJobs Podcast
Can't imagine. I can't imagine there.
00:28:45
RICK JAMES
oh
00:28:46
The SnowJobs Podcast
It's a it's expensive as hell here, you know, in the the ah continental. I can't imagine getting it up to Alaska, what they what they add on as far as shipping and stuff and surcharges and all that good stuff.
00:28:57
Tim Schrage
That's why we call you the lower 48.
00:28:58
RICK JAMES
might
00:29:00
The SnowJobs Podcast
Well, that's it. There you go.
00:29:05
The SnowJobs Podcast
Oh, man, Jeremy, you asked him about you asked him about his weather there. But did we we got to we got to hear, you know, anchorage.
00:29:12
RICK JAMES
Well, that's the average.
00:29:12
The SnowJobs Podcast
How much snow? What do you guys average a year?
00:29:16
Tim Schrage
So I just was pulling that up on our on our on our stats here. And the last five-year average was 104.3 inches. That's the five-year average.
00:29:28
The SnowJobs Podcast
ah
00:29:28
Tim Schrage
78 on the 10-year and 80 on the 15-year average. So last year we pulled down a 136-inch window.
00:29:33
RICK JAMES
Okay.
00:29:34
The SnowJobs Podcast
Wow.
00:29:38
The SnowJobs Podcast
So you're on your way up.
00:29:38
RICK JAMES
Wow.
00:29:40
Tim Schrage
Well, I think this year we're on our way to the donut hole.
00:29:40
The SnowJobs Podcast
The average is going up.
00:29:43
Tim Schrage
I expect that we're not going to get the kind of snow we've had the last few years. it's It's been wrapping up from you know the mid 80s to up 120, 136 per winter.
00:29:54
Tim Schrage
I expect we'll probably have more about 80, 85 inch winter this year.
00:29:59
The SnowJobs Podcast
Interesting.
00:29:59
RICK JAMES
So it's You get a lot of for talking about inches and stuff. Let's just go like contract wise. ah You do a lot of hourly up there. or Is that seasonals or do they do any of that? up what's What's your contracts?
00:30:09
Tim Schrage
You know, seasons are the rarity, usually institutional um sites that have either multi-tenants or on a common area maintenance type of situation where they're charging their tenants back.
00:30:24
Tim Schrage
will usually push towards a ah seasonal contract, but those are pretty far in view between. Most of the market here is either hourly or by push.
00:30:35
Tim Schrage
And I would say that, you know, the bulk of our contracts are per push or per occurrence.
00:30:37
RICK JAMES
Per push.
00:30:43
The SnowJobs Podcast
Well, I guess if you're getting, you know, a hundred inches if per push kind of works out, then you know, you're not going to, you're not going to have a zero a winter of nothing. Like some places down here in the Northeast where you could really strike out, you can, you could have such crazy deviation.
00:31:00
The SnowJobs Podcast
You get an average 45 inches and get five. So I don't think that's happened too much.
00:31:04
Tim Schrage
Right. Well, that's what we're facing.
00:31:06
The SnowJobs Podcast
up there That's what you're facing.
00:31:06
Tim Schrage
Yeah, it would be real difficult to sell. It would be real difficult to sell seasonals based on our last three or average, which is like 120 inches. So, yeah.
00:31:16
RICK JAMES
All right.
00:31:16
The SnowJobs Podcast
yeah
00:31:18
RICK JAMES
So is your perp pushes like a 0 to 2? And is that how you do it? Or how do you do it, if I can ask?
00:31:24
Tim Schrage
No, our purpose is when we drop a blade on the ground. So, you know, if we
00:31:29
RICK JAMES
Oh, really? There's no open covering permits.
00:31:30
Tim Schrage
Yeah, we we roll in as soon as we hit the ground. Now granted, we may have trucks, loaders, skinnies, mini loaders, that type of stuff. But when we go onto the site, we push it clear if that's our charge.
00:31:43
RICK JAMES
Oh, gotcha.
00:31:45
Tim Schrage
If we come back four hours later, they get another per push.
00:31:45
The SnowJobs Podcast
Gotcha.
00:31:46
RICK JAMES
either a lot of like, right that's That's a good deal.
00:31:46
The SnowJobs Podcast
what
00:31:49
The SnowJobs Podcast
Cool.
00:31:52
RICK JAMES
You got a lot of like, um, we always call them one. Um, I mean, high profile concept there that you're, you're on all day long or over and over and over like, or it's no kind of a, you know, a big deal.
00:32:03
Tim Schrage
You know, we will go. Yeah, we, you know, we're a little bit behind a lot of lot of areas, as far as that goes.
00:32:13
Tim Schrage
You know, 15 years ago, when I first started, a four-inch trigger wasn't unusual, and our average trigger now is one. You know, so, but two two-inch two itch triggers is still pretty much the um the market standard where we're at.
00:32:20
RICK JAMES
Okay.
00:32:21
The SnowJobs Podcast
Okay.
00:32:27
Tim Schrage
We just have pushed our clients to a one-inch trigger. so we do have you know our handful of de-icing accounts will hit multiple times but rarely are we staying on site where we're going to go through push drive lanes push entrances throw some gravel down or salt depending on what that what the contract states but really no no ah zero or high tolerance where we're we're camped out all day.
00:32:51
RICK JAMES
Don't get ch-
00:32:52
The SnowJobs Podcast
Tim, is Anchorage like, is that a down to black pavement area? Or is it accepted to have, you know, you scrape off what you can and then the rest stays?
Innovative Road Treatment Techniques
00:33:02
The SnowJobs Podcast
Because I know certain places that get regular snow, they don't really mind, you know, have not having black pavement. It's just a way of, it's the way it is there. ah Do you guys take it down to black pavement?
00:33:14
Tim Schrage
So to give you a context right now, there's people skating on my on the street with ice skates in front of my house.
00:33:21
The SnowJobs Podcast
Okay, perfect.
00:33:22
Tim Schrage
So um that's that's certainly the standard for our municipality for the for the government crews.
00:33:28
The SnowJobs Podcast
I like it.
00:33:29
Tim Schrage
It is probably the only counts that go bare payment are typically either medical or they're a national retailer that has put their standard forth in the market. They're the rarity.
00:33:40
Tim Schrage
Most of the time it's scraped it down to to a bare minimum, put some gravel on it. If the temps warm up or they'll authorize some salt application, we'll go and scrape it back down the pavement.
00:33:52
RICK JAMES
Gravel you're talking gravel you put you just put gravel.
00:33:52
The SnowJobs Podcast
cool
00:33:55
RICK JAMES
There's no none assaults on a thing really up there.
00:33:58
Tim Schrage
Well, you know, salt's $500 a ton and our market landed in our yard.
00:34:02
RICK JAMES
What?
00:34:03
The SnowJobs Podcast
ah Everything's more expensive up there.
00:34:03
Tim Schrage
so And and and i have i have a million and a half I have a million and a half pounds of it, 750 tons in my yard right now.
00:34:05
RICK JAMES
Yeah, it's even more than this
00:34:12
Tim Schrage
And so to give you a context, we're talking about weather. you know We're coming up on winter solstice. We'll be down to about four, four and a half hours of daylight. So we don't get any solar game. Our ground temps are frozen all winter long.
00:34:28
Tim Schrage
And so what you might in Minnesota put 500 pounds an acre, we may have to put 1500 pounds an acre to make it work so that the multiplication at the cost of the tonnage is expensive.
00:34:38
RICK JAMES
right
00:34:40
Tim Schrage
So gravel, gravel is the standard assaulted gravel. Yeah.
00:34:44
RICK JAMES
Hence the and so sweeping division of his company.
00:34:45
The SnowJobs Podcast
That's awesome.
00:34:46
Tim Schrage
yeah
00:34:48
Tim Schrage
That, you know, that that is actually, that that's a true story.
00:34:49
The SnowJobs Podcast
Yeah, right?
00:34:49
RICK JAMES
that it
00:34:49
The SnowJobs Podcast
Yeah.
00:34:52
Tim Schrage
That is part of our division. I've got, we've got, our company does full on sweeping. We've got, you know, CDL, uh, sweeper trucks sitting out back. And in the spring we sweep up between six and 8,000 tons of gravel and we stockpile it at our auxiliary facility.
00:35:05
RICK JAMES
Reuse it.
00:35:08
Tim Schrage
And then we re-screen it and add some more fractured to it, add three to 5% salt and stockpile it for the winter.
00:35:16
RICK JAMES
Nice.
00:35:16
The SnowJobs Podcast
I love it. I love it when you're getting both ends.
00:35:17
RICK JAMES
Good for you guys.
00:35:17
Tim Schrage
Yeah. Yeah.
00:35:19
The SnowJobs Podcast
That is awesome. Putting it down, picking it up, getting paid both times.
00:35:22
RICK JAMES
Yeah.
00:35:24
Tim Schrage
Yeah.
00:35:24
The SnowJobs Podcast
That's outstanding.
00:35:26
The SnowJobs Podcast
That is awesome. What, what kind of storms do you guys get in Anchorage?
00:35:28
Tim Schrage
The bulk, everybody in our market gears for a two to four inch snowfall. That by far is the average. We will get
00:35:29
The SnowJobs Podcast
Are they, you know, do you have a, ah a storm that happens more often? Do you get big ones? You get, you know, two to fours. What do you usually get?
00:35:36
Tim Schrage
the boat everybody in our market gears for a two to four inch so all that
00:35:41
Tim Schrage
by far the way is that is the average we will get a handful of 10 to 12 inch plus events a year, but it's definitely more of a rarity, like maybe one or two.
00:35:41
The SnowJobs Podcast
Okay.
00:35:56
The SnowJobs Podcast
gotcha
00:35:57
Tim Schrage
We'll get a handful of six inch events, but like I said, most of it's two to four.
00:35:57
The SnowJobs Podcast
Gotcha.
00:36:04
The SnowJobs Podcast
Very cool.
00:36:04
RICK JAMES
Something we're about the same almost as Fargo and Anchorage the weather wise that's Besides I mean, we're just getting little clippers and stuff here.
00:36:09
Tim Schrage
Right.
00:36:13
RICK JAMES
But I mean Weather wise seems like we're pretty much on par for what you have we have.
00:36:21
The SnowJobs Podcast
What do you get down to, Jeremy? What's what's your what's your normal low?
00:36:25
RICK JAMES
Oh Yeah in January I have a few weeks of negative 20 for a couple weeks or so sometimes so Yeah, it gets colder
00:36:25
The SnowJobs Podcast
You're in the negative 20s? Yeah.
00:36:32
The SnowJobs Podcast
Great.
00:36:34
RICK JAMES
So yeah.
00:36:35
The SnowJobs Podcast
All right.
00:36:35
Tim Schrage
Yeah, we we call them nuisance events here.
00:36:36
The SnowJobs Podcast
What do you think Jay? We're gonna go ahead Tim.
00:36:41
RICK JAMES
no
00:36:43
The SnowJobs Podcast
Oh man, this is great. I love, uh, I love hearing about there's just such differences.
00:36:48
RICK JAMES
Oh, yeah.
00:36:49
The SnowJobs Podcast
You know, it's it's awesome. It's absolutely awesome. This is why we do this. Uh, do you want to take them into the, uh, Dinesse leasing Jeremy Lindstrom equipment segment?
00:36:58
RICK JAMES
Yeah, I sure do.
00:36:59
The SnowJobs Podcast
All right. Do it.
00:37:01
RICK JAMES
All right, Tim, let's hear about all your equipment. Yeah. Best part of the show. I like it. So I want to know your salters, pushers, um, quit loaders, sidewalks, everything.
00:37:14
Tim Schrage
Well, the last five years, we've really pushed our heavy equipment side. We recognize that that was where the marble was going to go. um So we this winter, we've got 26 wheel loaders in the fleet, 18 of those are company-owned. We've got our Aideron lease with our local manufacturers. We actually own more loaders than most of our rental houses have for rent, which is probably similar to you and the Dakonis.
00:37:43
Tim Schrage
Uh, mostly running 30,000 pound class loaders, five 21 cases, six 21s. Um, you know, we've got in the rental foods, we've got some, uh, Devlin's and Komatsu's. Um, we still only look at some and John Deere's. Um, most of those are fitted with 12 foot, uh, or 11 and a half foot Arctic sectionals that we run down the road with. And.
00:38:07
Tim Schrage
the and loaders that are on site will run 17s to 22s in Arctic sectionals. A lot of our loaders will run and plow four or five accounts then drop that small blade and and pick up on the larger site we've got those blades stuck down. And then You know, our plow trucks, we're running mostly dodges on our plow trucks with our preferred plow is the Snow Wex, you know, 80, 85 11s or 85 10s with the downward pressure makes a big difference when your plows are only really working to cut out for the loaders.
00:38:43
The SnowJobs Podcast
Mm
00:38:46
Tim Schrage
We do very few parking lots with just plow trucks.
00:38:47
The SnowJobs Podcast
hmm.
00:38:50
Tim Schrage
So their work is gives them quite a bit of flexibility. And then sidewalk crews, we've got 11 sidewalk crews that that drive around town plus our on-site guys. The on-site guys are using a combination of Ventrac SSVs, Bobcat L23s, and still we still have one old Ventrac like 3400.
00:39:17
Tim Schrage
um the
00:39:18
The SnowJobs Podcast
yeah ah love
00:39:20
Tim Schrage
We pretty much the bulk of our our guys running around town usually have a trailer with with two vents or not to ventricle to snow Raiders in it. We've got um the bulk of that fleet is mags ours.
00:39:34
Tim Schrage
ah We've got some older snow Raiders in there, but probably I think we have three SSVs and maybe 17 snow Raiders. So somewhere in that neighborhood.
00:39:43
The SnowJobs Podcast
Yeah, I love it.
00:39:46
RICK JAMES
It's quite a bit.
00:39:46
Tim Schrage
The mags have definitely been our choice. And then we use blue shovels, you know, those guys, the entry level guys, they get their shovel certificate.
00:39:53
RICK JAMES
Yeah.
00:39:54
The SnowJobs Podcast
yeah
00:39:54
RICK JAMES
Yeah.
00:39:55
Tim Schrage
Hey, you can't get away from using a shovel.
00:39:55
RICK JAMES
Yeah.
00:39:56
The SnowJobs Podcast
nice
00:39:56
RICK JAMES
yeah
00:39:58
Tim Schrage
And then, you know, we also, we also, you know, a big part of our business is hauling snow. And we've got dedicated snow disposal sites for our clients.
00:39:58
The SnowJobs Podcast
ah
00:40:09
Tim Schrage
We don't open our sites up to other contractors and unless they're, unless it's an emergency and they're in a pinch, we'll will help them out. but And then those were running um case, a couple of case dozers and and some cloths.
00:40:19
The SnowJobs Podcast
Yeah. Nice.
00:40:23
RICK JAMES
um
00:40:24
The SnowJobs Podcast
Tim, you run mostly stand-on sidewalk machines. The guys are out in the elements.
00:40:28
Tim Schrage
Yeah, we do. And and and the the the sidewalk machines that were run, we have some we have some do TVs also, but they're mostly set up to keep the the guys warm.
00:40:30
The SnowJobs Podcast
Wow.
00:40:42
Tim Schrage
And and then we're slowly switching over to the L23s in the podcast.
00:40:47
Tim Schrage
That's a handy machine. But a lot of our stand-ons, you know, keep in mind that we're putting them in enclosed trailers and dragging them on a truck.
00:40:47
The SnowJobs Podcast
OK.
00:40:50
The SnowJobs Podcast
Nope.
00:40:55
The SnowJobs Podcast
Mm hmm.
00:40:55
Tim Schrage
So they're going to hit a site. They're going to be there for 30, 40 minutes, you know, three, four guys for an hour tops. They're back in a warm pickup truck again to the next site. So they're not they're not out looking for a port-a-potty, you know.
00:41:04
The SnowJobs Podcast
Got it.
00:41:08
RICK JAMES
Yeah.
00:41:08
The SnowJobs Podcast
Gotcha. That's what we do. Okay. I was going to say men are men. Jeremy's saying he can't get the stand ons and Fargo.
00:41:14
RICK JAMES
No.
00:41:15
The SnowJobs Podcast
Can't get anybody to run them.
00:41:16
RICK JAMES
Not around here, are these guys.
00:41:17
Tim Schrage
I'll tell you what. The feedback from our guys on the on the mags with the with the little bit of heat that comes out of your hands and your
Equipment Maintenance Challenges and Strategies
00:41:25
Tim Schrage
feet, they they say it's ah it's a game changer for them.
00:41:30
The SnowJobs Podcast
Cool. That's awesome.
00:41:32
RICK JAMES
Yeah.
00:41:32
The SnowJobs Podcast
See, see Jeremy where men were men, Alaska.
00:41:35
RICK JAMES
I know. ah Hey, you're adam it's that's fine. I mean, they would probably be better than what we're fucking using.
00:41:43
The SnowJobs Podcast
but but
00:41:43
RICK JAMES
Every day, every time we go out, at the sidewalk shop is just, looks like a war zone of broken shit. So I can't, I mean, what's that?
00:41:51
Tim Schrage
Our stop step.
00:41:52
The SnowJobs Podcast
Go ahead, Tim.
00:41:56
Tim Schrage
I said our stop step is the same, you know, it's a same story, different place.
00:42:01
RICK JAMES
Yeah.
00:42:02
The SnowJobs Podcast
Same circus, different clowns.
00:42:03
RICK JAMES
oh I tell you what we went out to was the last Wednesday or Thursday we had to clean up and I Came back to shop and they're broken plows.
00:42:04
The SnowJobs Podcast
That's it.
00:42:13
RICK JAMES
I'm like what the fuck happened These little those are the worst ones for us seem like the piddly ones and the most stuff breaks. I mean it was just stuff that Like they cut an edge or something like that was just I mean it wasn't like they didn't like break it just you know, it's normal where they kept something and rip something off or Yeah, it was a tough night think mechanics weren't too happy and they showed up to work next morning, but they got all fixed I think I same same guy Yeah, yeah Yeah, it's
00:42:39
Tim Schrage
but I found that our mechanics are never happy. i mean you just You give them the the best tools in the world to work with and and and they all they see is the carnage coming to the shop.
00:42:46
The SnowJobs Podcast
Yeah,
00:42:52
The SnowJobs Podcast
yeah no, they can't be happy. That would, it's but it's a betrayal of their oath as mechanics. They have to be miserable all the time.
00:43:00
Tim Schrage
we have We have to buy them rubber tools so when they throw them across the shop they don't hurt anybody.
00:43:00
The SnowJobs Podcast
ah but
00:43:07
The SnowJobs Podcast
oh oh Man I've heard you know that that's not the first time I've heard that the SR mag the one thing it does better than anything else is Distributes heat to the hands and the feet We've heard that a couple times now um And that is the one thing the SSV we we run the SSVs we love them But that is the one thing my guys say is they would love to have um
00:43:20
RICK JAMES
I try that.
00:43:33
The SnowJobs Podcast
something on their feet, like a little bit of heat down at their feet. Their thighs are warm as hell because the engine compartment is open. So their thighs get warm, their knees are warm, but their hands and feet are cold. I think with the new ones, the 2120 SSVs, I think they have heated, I think they have heated grips, heated hand controls, but they don't, they don't mind. I have all 2100s.
00:43:57
Tim Schrage
Yeah, we've we've we've moved away from the SSBs. It's not so much of a dollar issue as um we struggled with the belt systems and and training people to change them over.
00:44:06
The SnowJobs Podcast
The belts. Yep.
00:44:08
Tim Schrage
um you know there's We actually have a pretty good dealer for those up here, but the mags are so much more similar to what Our guys will see out in the field with wheel loaders or the like for changing hydraulic hoses.
00:44:22
The SnowJobs Podcast
Sure.
00:44:23
Tim Schrage
And then getting rid of the belts is an issue issue was an issue for us for sure.
00:44:29
The SnowJobs Podcast
I agree completely. like The ah that that would definitely be a problem, especially in in really cold temperatures. You know, those belts are going to be harder to get her because it's tight. There's not a lot of give in those belts when they're on, right? There's it's very tough. And if you got big hands, it's even tougher.
00:44:46
Tim Schrage
<unk> what they all say so
00:44:50
Tim Schrage
So yeah, the other thing from a shop mechanic point of view, the SSVs are more difficult to work on.
00:44:50
The SnowJobs Podcast
oh
00:44:57
Tim Schrage
they're They're harder to change starters. They're um you know they're much tighter cowed. It's a bigger disassembly to get into the guts of those things and work on it.
00:45:08
Tim Schrage
I mean, if my mechanics had their druthers, it would be all the old school Snow Raiders because they got a little Honda engine sitting out there that you darn near can't.
00:45:16
The SnowJobs Podcast
Yep.
00:45:17
Tim Schrage
pulling off the back of a sander and and fix it. And yeah, speaking of that, that's the one piece I didn't cover sanders. So and that's what we call them. We do have dedicated Salters, but you know, our fleet of trucks, mostly we have nine trucks set up with a variety of different sanders. We've got For our larger accounts, we're running 26,000 GBWR Freightliner Internationals.
00:45:49
Tim Schrage
We've kind of modified sanders to fit our market. So we started off with what would have been ah like a five yard or five yard mire at our local fab shop ah and you know make them taller, then put degrades on it like a DOT truck.
00:46:07
Tim Schrage
So we can get about we get about seven yards in them.
00:46:08
The SnowJobs Podcast
Yep.
00:46:10
Tim Schrage
Um, they're plumbed into the PTOs of the truck. But one of the cool things that we did when we did those is, um, our local, our local fab shop that does all the state updates, uh, Bob services up here did, uh, they went and cut the, cut the front of the sander and shortened up them the, the, uh, uh, chain on it so that it slides right up to the headache rack of the dump truck around the doghouse. So we don't get a bunch of all rear axle weight, um, makes a big difference.
00:46:40
Tim Schrage
Um, we've got a number of, you know, the Chevy top kicks set up, um, uh, HDs with, uh, body mounted Sanders four or five yarders. And most of those are gas engines. Then, uh, we started moving towards, uh, 5,500 Dodges with four yard gas powered Sanders on those. Salters were running, um, snow X with the, with the, uh, what they call the new logger on them.
00:47:09
Tim Schrage
but they're electric and they work fine for, yeah, helix.
00:47:11
The SnowJobs Podcast
The Helix.
00:47:13
Tim Schrage
They work fine for salt and reedering. It's pretty good on it, um but they they don't work at all for gravel. It's just too heavy.
00:47:22
The SnowJobs Podcast
Gotcha.
00:47:22
Tim Schrage
yeah
00:47:23
RICK JAMES
Yeah, are you are you running snow tires on your equipment up there for your loaders?
00:47:23
The SnowJobs Podcast
Cool.
00:47:27
Tim Schrage
No, no, we we, we take whoever is in the most amount of trouble in the company, whether they're, you know, on light duty or something like that.
00:47:29
RICK JAMES
No
00:47:37
Tim Schrage
And they sit out there and they groove those tires every time a new loader comes in. So you actually, yeah, every one of our, our loaders is grooved.
00:47:41
The SnowJobs Podcast
There you go.
00:47:41
RICK JAMES
oh
00:47:46
Tim Schrage
And we do have some that have snow tires on it, mostly on a replacement, but you know, keep in mind, our ground is usually frozen. Um, usually if we're not down to bare pavement, we are, um, we are on a hard pack of some sort with gravel on it.
00:48:02
Tim Schrage
So the snow tires make a bigger difference running down the road and not sliding through stop sites more than they do pushing snow.
00:48:02
The SnowJobs Podcast
Gotcha.
00:48:11
The SnowJobs Podcast
gotcha
00:48:12
RICK JAMES
How's the grooving? It doesn't help quite a bit. You figure?
00:48:15
Tim Schrage
It helps.
00:48:15
RICK JAMES
Grooving your tires up?
00:48:16
Tim Schrage
It's a hundred percent better than, um, you know, our rental fleet, uh, all have, uh,
00:48:19
RICK JAMES
Not.
00:48:21
Tim Schrage
just regular old, you know, Cory tires on them, and and they are, it's it's a night and day difference.
00:48:29
RICK JAMES
Oh yeah.
00:48:32
The SnowJobs Podcast
Awesome.
00:48:32
RICK JAMES
Hard rubber. Hard rubber on cold. Doesn't go good together.
00:48:36
The SnowJobs Podcast
No.
00:48:36
Tim Schrage
Yeah. yeah
00:48:38
The SnowJobs Podcast
Uh, anything else, Jay, on equipment that you what you want to hear about?
00:48:41
RICK JAMES
as far as equipment up there as far as dealerships and stuff and how's your service and stuff pretty decent or to get stuff or
00:48:48
Tim Schrage
So that's yeah, that's a that's a big decision factor on on on the type of equipment we run. The dealers that we're working our two preferred dealers are our case, Yukon equipment up here, and then also Craig Taylor, which is Bobcat Devlin and Those guys, they cater to to our size company.
00:49:12
Tim Schrage
As you get into the cats and and and again to John Deers, those dealers are really geared for our North Slope operations and and highway contractors.
00:49:22
The SnowJobs Podcast
Mm-hmm.
00:49:23
Tim Schrage
um you know If I call the two dealers that we work with and say I got an issue, we're in the door and they're getting us out. Some of them, we've got some newer John Deers in our fleet and they're a great rental house, but if we have, if we own one and it breaks down, you might as well plan on buying another one to get you through the season.
00:49:32
RICK JAMES
this.
00:49:32
The SnowJobs Podcast
Nice.
00:49:43
RICK JAMES
Oh well.
00:49:43
The SnowJobs Podcast
No, shit.
00:49:46
RICK JAMES
well
00:49:46
The SnowJobs Podcast
That's crazy. Hmm. Sweet. And you're running all artics. Punnels.
00:49:52
Tim Schrage
We have a handful of Daniels still in there.
00:49:53
The SnowJobs Podcast
be having him. OK, yep.
00:49:55
Tim Schrage
you know you know They're set up with a steel top edge and a double rubber cutting edge on the bottom. But we we pretty much are almost all sectionals. It's easy that way.
00:50:07
Tim Schrage
We just have one stack of blocks to replace.
00:50:10
The SnowJobs Podcast
Yeah, Adam, there you go. Very cool. What else, Jay? You got anything else, bud?
00:50:16
RICK JAMES
Are you gonna say something about your blocks I thought I was gonna of Tim was gonna say some of his blocks
00:50:19
The SnowJobs Podcast
You said.
00:50:24
Tim Schrage
Well, you know, it's not the cold.
00:50:24
The SnowJobs Podcast
That's a good question.
00:50:24
The SnowJobs Podcast
Actually, you guys break a lot of blocks up there in the cold.
00:50:29
Tim Schrage
It's when we get a heavy wet snow and and the fact that if our, it's it's accounts where we don't haul their snow every snowfall. So about two thirds of our account we haul, we haul their snow every snowfall.
00:50:40
The SnowJobs Podcast
and Okay.
00:50:43
Tim Schrage
It's not an issue. It's the accounts where we've got old snow piles and operators that aren't.
00:50:46
The SnowJobs Podcast
Gotcha.
00:50:49
Tim Schrage
It's that two to four event, inch event where they're pushing towards the pile and They get there and rather than predicting it and bringing the blade up, they hit it with it and they knock all the bottom blocks right off of the blade.
00:50:59
Tim Schrage
So we keep about a hundred blocks in stock typically.
00:51:04
RICK JAMES
Yeah.
00:51:04
Tim Schrage
And I would say out of, you know, um, you know, we got 26 wheel loaders out there, maybe 34, 30, 35 sectionals. We go through on an average event, probably three, four blocks.
00:51:18
RICK JAMES
Yeah, or something.
00:51:18
Tim Schrage
total you know our our our worst one was like 30 an event which makes it really hard to make money yeah oh man well you know there
00:51:19
The SnowJobs Podcast
That ain't bad.
00:51:24
RICK JAMES
I'm there.
00:51:25
The SnowJobs Podcast
Wow. Yeah. With what they gloss now.
00:51:28
RICK JAMES
I'm in there.
00:51:30
The SnowJobs Podcast
My God. Take a block, take a block of rubber and stamp Arctic on it and 7,000% markup. Like holy crap.
00:51:37
Tim Schrage
there are 98 bucks a piece before our shop time in our market so they're they're real money
00:51:41
The SnowJobs Podcast
Yeah. Oh, they're not cheap.
00:51:42
Tim Schrage
Um, you know, so even, even five of them, you know, it's 500 bucks. It goes out the door for, for nothing, you know, in the, in the shipping to get everything here, you you certainly don't, um, you don't ship those things overnight.
00:51:56
Tim Schrage
Um, and might add though, on those sectionals, we have, you know, been steadily converting, um,
00:51:57
RICK JAMES
No.
00:52:02
Tim Schrage
come here in order to winter winter services and shoes on those.
00:52:05
The SnowJobs Podcast
The winter.
00:52:07
Tim Schrage
what What a difference that is, lifespan wise.
00:52:08
RICK JAMES
Oh, oh, life.
00:52:08
The SnowJobs Podcast
pu Yeah. Yeah.
00:52:11
Tim Schrage
It hurts real bad to ship like 6,000 pounds of those things up here you know from the Midwest.
00:52:18
RICK JAMES
Like, they play for themselves.
00:52:18
Tim Schrage
you know it's's It's the cost of materials plus one third in six weeks to get here, but it's it's it's worth its weight in gold.
00:52:19
The SnowJobs Podcast
yeah
00:52:26
RICK JAMES
Oh, those things are the ticket.
00:52:27
The SnowJobs Podcast
Yeah. Winter equipment's great.
00:52:29
RICK JAMES
They're the ticket. Have you used any of other edges yet on the Arctic's or no?
00:52:31
Tim Schrage
We have not yet.
00:52:34
Tim Schrage
So I'm sure we're going to get there.
00:52:34
RICK JAMES
Yeah.
00:52:37
RICK JAMES
Yeah, yeah the the shoes are unbelievable. I mean, we can go, you know, five seasons on without changing that pad or whatever, you know, it's crazy.
00:52:46
Tim Schrage
You know, it it if you know, if the whole if the whole Arctic sectional would just make a reversible shoe, we could get a lot more life out of it out of the shoes they there.
00:52:47
The SnowJobs Podcast
That's awesome.
00:52:54
Tim Schrage
You know, it is. It's the back 10 percent through to the mold board. And the front looks like brand new.
00:52:59
RICK JAMES
Mm-hmm. Yep, it's because they're healing.
00:53:02
The SnowJobs Podcast
Yep. That is true.
00:53:05
RICK JAMES
Yep.
00:53:05
The SnowJobs Podcast
Very true. Anything else about equipment, Jay, we're going to talk about.
00:53:09
RICK JAMES
Um, I was just gonna well since we're kind of still talking about that. That's how about employee wise up there How's your employees? I mean like you got a lot of full-time guys or you've got a lot of seasonal guys that get a push or how are they to find?
00:53:22
Tim Schrage
You know, this year's been better, our recruiting efforts. we definitely We definitely picked up the pace on recruiting. We run about 50-ish employees year-round. So um those guys are, you know, they're, for the most part, our turnover's super low. They're lifers. I mean, our company really values our, you know, our guys. with A lot of our guys have been since we' been with us since we started.
00:53:49
Tim Schrage
They got health insurance and retirement and all of the packages that you need to keep a good crew on. We had about 100 Cecil's. diecils lot of those are yeah seasonal equipment operators and then the bulk of that is shovelers. and Last year when we got 130 inches and roof started collapsing in our market and everybody started paying a ridiculous amount of money under the table for roof shovelers, we went from 67 shovelers to 11.
00:54:18
Tim Schrage
And and you you couldn't find you couldn't find a shovel to save your life to be on the ground.
00:54:19
The SnowJobs Podcast
Whoa.
00:54:25
Tim Schrage
I mean, they were all making $40-plus dollars an hour shoveling roads for cash, you know. it was talk to people so But yeah it's better.
00:54:31
RICK JAMES
Yeah.
00:54:34
The SnowJobs Podcast
Wow.
00:54:35
Tim Schrage
I think the the market in general for employees has gotten better, but the wages are a lot higher than they were three years ago.
00:54:44
RICK JAMES
Yeah.
00:54:45
The SnowJobs Podcast
Cool, very cool. All right. Uh, what else do I have here? Oh, let's you guys are not doing any liquids, right? Liquid the icing.
00:54:55
The SnowJobs Podcast
Nothing. Before I get to my other question.
00:54:56
Tim Schrage
Well, we used to we used to we we sold our liquid um equipment off. you know There was a big push at one point in time to go liquids up here.
00:55:02
The SnowJobs Podcast
Okay.
00:55:06
Tim Schrage
And in a bunch of us, I'd say probably a dozen of us jumped on the bandwagon. And it's a great tool in the bag to have for the the schult what we call the shoulder season, you know late October, early November, ah March, April.
00:55:24
Tim Schrage
The challenge is you know we were making our own calcium to add to the sodium brine to make it hotter, make it work. um it just Because of the lack of daylight and solar gain in our market, it's dark 20 hours a day.
00:55:44
Tim Schrage
and so you know If you make a mistake at 11 p.m.
00:55:45
The SnowJobs Podcast
Yeah.
00:55:47
Tim Schrage
at 1 a.m., you might as well get your ice skates on and skate across the park a lot. so um
00:55:53
Tim Schrage
Everybody's pretty much gotten back to granular for for the counts that we get down to bare pavement. um We might you know shoot some calcium at the spinner to to activate it quicker, but generally ah it's it's salt.
00:55:53
The SnowJobs Podcast
but
00:56:10
The SnowJobs Podcast
Hmm. Very interesting. I like that. Uh, do you guys use a weather forecast service?
00:56:17
Tim Schrage
Well, we we don't. yeah we are guys Our guys are are pretty pretty tuned up on, I would say that they're probably qualified meteorologists themselves.
00:56:21
The SnowJobs Podcast
All right.
00:56:29
Tim Schrage
um You guys have reach arounds and all the other things you call it down there. We call it down slow here.
00:56:34
RICK JAMES
yeah
00:56:34
The SnowJobs Podcast
ah
00:56:35
Tim Schrage
So our, you know, we have a, you know, we live in a hole, right?
00:56:35
RICK JAMES
ah
00:56:39
Tim Schrage
So there's mountains all around us and and the and Prince William Sound the Gulf hole last year right over the mountains from us. And so that's our, that's our influencer for our our bigger weather events.
00:56:51
Tim Schrage
um but yeah So we're fortunate that we have we have a NOAA office right here in
Weather Monitoring and Business Goals
00:56:57
Tim Schrage
Anchorage. So get pretty good um we get pretty good information, pretty good detailed weather descriptions of what we think is going to happen. But I'm looking at my screen right now, and I've got ah got snow and freezing rain in the forecast for the next 10 days. So you know it's a look out your window the window program.
00:57:17
The SnowJobs Podcast
Gotcha. Well, that's, uh, I mean, that's definitely a warm way to do it. I'll tell you, I think weather pros is up in Alaska now, right?
00:57:26
RICK JAMES
Yeah, I know I'm next to there up there.
00:57:28
The SnowJobs Podcast
Yeah.
00:57:28
Tim Schrage
Yeah, they are.
00:57:28
The SnowJobs Podcast
Look, they're doing, they're doing somebody in Alaska.
00:57:29
Tim Schrage
Now we do. we do use We do use weather works for our post event data. So we do provide our clients with with that a rear view mirror look at what happened.
00:57:42
Tim Schrage
um But as far as forecasting wise, um you know we're we're out, almost like we'll be out tonight.
00:57:43
The SnowJobs Podcast
Gotcha.
00:57:49
Tim Schrage
I mean, every Sunday night, whether it rains, shines, or snows, it's Our guys, our sidewalk crews go out with area supervisors and they they inspect properties. They make sure that everything's high and tight before the work week begins.
00:58:03
Tim Schrage
So it's pretty rare that we don't have somebody on staff 24 hours a day at any point in time.
00:58:04
RICK JAMES
that's
00:58:12
Tim Schrage
So, you know, there's, yeah.
00:58:14
The SnowJobs Podcast
It's awesome.
00:58:16
Tim Schrage
That's the, that's the client you work for, right? I mean, that's what they're expecting.
00:58:20
The SnowJobs Podcast
Absolutely.
00:58:21
RICK JAMES
yeah
00:58:21
The SnowJobs Podcast
Absolutely.
00:58:22
RICK JAMES
ah I had a question and I just lost it.
00:58:23
The SnowJobs Podcast
What else you got, Jay?
00:58:27
RICK JAMES
I gotta think of what it was. It was something I figured.
00:58:31
The SnowJobs Podcast
All right. So the one thing i I think you covered, do you guys have any seasonal employees or you use all your full time guys? Like you said, shovelers, but do you bring in any more operators?
00:58:43
The SnowJobs Podcast
out of those 55 that you already have.
00:58:46
Tim Schrage
Yeah, most of the most of the ah ah big chunk of the operators that are out there running equipment for us are not our year round folks. They're coming from other construction companies.
00:58:56
The SnowJobs Podcast
Okay.
00:58:58
Tim Schrage
They're returners almost every year. Our shovel leads and things like that are coming from again, other other um companies that might be doing concrete or landscaping that don't do winter services. So we've got a pretty good return percentage of those. Our core staff is mostly um either supervisors or their site leads on larger sites where they're they're managing their own staff.
00:59:28
The SnowJobs Podcast
Gotcha. So what do you guys swell up to personnel wise for a storm?
00:59:33
Tim Schrage
Maximum 160.
00:59:35
RICK JAMES
Hmm.
00:59:36
The SnowJobs Podcast
Okay. That's a lot of people.
00:59:38
RICK JAMES
Well.
00:59:39
The SnowJobs Podcast
That's a lot of people.
00:59:41
Tim Schrage
Yeah.
00:59:41
The SnowJobs Podcast
Do you remember what you had, Jay?
00:59:42
RICK JAMES
Yeah, like do you guys get a lot of blizzards up there and stuff.
00:59:45
Tim Schrage
A lot of blizzards.
00:59:45
RICK JAMES
tim
00:59:46
The SnowJobs Podcast
Like we talk um just wind with the wind.
00:59:47
RICK JAMES
Yeah. Yeah. With the wind, you get a lot of blizzards or.
00:59:51
Tim Schrage
So we do we do a what we call the Matt Valley, which is about a 50 minute drive from here. It's right on the other side. It's literally like 20 miles from us if you went across the inlet. It's about an hour drive from our our main shop. So we have a shop, we have three different shops and we keep a shop out there and then two shops in town. um But that area is really prone to wind. They get a ton of gap winds through the valley there.
01:00:15
Tim Schrage
And it is like last week, I think we were out almost every day of the week. I mean, they get two feet of snow and then it blows off the roofs and somehow they get it three feet off the roofs, right?
01:00:26
Tim Schrage
It's you leave there for six hours and you got a six foot drift against the building.
01:00:27
RICK JAMES
you
01:00:32
The SnowJobs Podcast
Wow.
01:00:32
RICK JAMES
that
01:00:33
The SnowJobs Podcast
She got a little everything.
01:00:34
RICK JAMES
Yeah So So when you Holland you do you guys have any big blowers, I don't think you mentioned but do you have any like big Blowers or anything like that or you just you just bucket everything in but
01:00:35
Tim Schrage
Yeah, we don't we don't see much of that.
01:00:35
The SnowJobs Podcast
She got all the conditions going on.
01:00:37
Tim Schrage
Yeah. Yeah.
01:00:46
Tim Schrage
No, you know, probably a lot like, you know, maybe before the show start, I heard you guys talking about blowers and, you know, like, they don't do really well with wheel stops, shopping carts, you know, truck chains, things like that, they come into our snow dumps.
01:01:04
Tim Schrage
As you well know, I mean, you're surprised at what you load out of the parking lots, you know.
01:01:07
RICK JAMES
Oh god, yeah. Yeah, we're pretty particular where we blow, that's for sure.
01:01:10
Tim Schrage
um Yeah, so pretty much everything is, is we start hauling the same night that it's snow. So we've got a hauling hauling cruise that start, you know, about two, three hours after our plow equipment goes out. And then, you know, on it, then from there, it's just all stockpiled. and And we just work our way through the priority accounts. It takes us, I don't know, three days to do a two to four inch hold off.
01:01:39
RICK JAMES
Oh yeah.
01:01:39
The SnowJobs Podcast
Wow.
01:01:40
RICK JAMES
You should get a snow cat.
01:01:41
The SnowJobs Podcast
That's pretty crazy.
01:01:42
RICK JAMES
Snow cat to push up.
01:01:42
Tim Schrage
What's that?
01:01:43
RICK JAMES
You should get a snow cat to push up.
01:01:45
Tim Schrage
Well, that's what we use the dozers for. So we use LGPs um and the, you know, I think I was looking at the year to date.
01:01:49
RICK JAMES
Yeah.
01:01:54
Tim Schrage
I think we've held about 3000 loads somewhere now.
01:01:58
The SnowJobs Podcast
Wow.
01:01:58
RICK JAMES
yeah
01:02:00
The SnowJobs Podcast
That's awesome.
01:02:01
Tim Schrage
yeah
01:02:02
The SnowJobs Podcast
All right, Jay, what are you, you want to ah do some commercials here and then we'll come back and do the five and five.
01:02:04
RICK JAMES
Yeah. Yeah. yeah
01:02:07
The SnowJobs Podcast
All right. We'll be right back.
01:03:14
The SnowJobs Podcast
All right, we're back. Jay, want to hit five and five?
01:03:18
RICK JAMES
We'll have one more question first.
01:03:20
The SnowJobs Podcast
Oh, fire away.
01:03:21
RICK JAMES
How about competition, Tim? him was there a lot of You got a lot of competition. I know you said to get some guys your size up there, but are you guys friendly, Kyle? What's your competition like up there, if you want to call them that?
01:03:31
Tim Schrage
It's mostly friendly. ah the you know Of course, you've always got you've always got outliers there, but because we're so far away from from the manufacturers, that you know there is a camaraderie between between contractors. I talked to probably in my, what would be considered some of my larger competitors probably every week. you know it It seems like There's enough work for all of us. there's it It seems like that what if you drove around town and you looked at the key accounts that people do, you know one contractor does a lot of the retail, lot one does a lot of the industrial, one does a lot of the class A office space, which is more and in in in our wheelhouse, we do oh a little bit of everything, but a lot of class A. um It's friendly, I would describe it.
01:04:21
RICK JAMES
as As far as I like Saying it's friendly you guys your prices in line with each other you think there is there a lot of little ballers out there?
01:04:21
The SnowJobs Podcast
That's awesome.
01:04:30
RICK JAMES
or What do you got?
01:04:31
Tim Schrage
You know, I think that that relates a lot more to the type of client that you work for. we for For lack of a better term, you know most of our snow accounts are are relationship-based.
01:04:44
Tim Schrage
Our retention rate's about 99%. I think we did think we lost one account last year by virtue of a change in property managers. this They went to a lower service level with the property manager.
01:04:56
The SnowJobs Podcast
Yep.
01:04:58
Tim Schrage
And yeah you can't control that. um
01:05:03
Tim Schrage
There is a lot of trucks and trucks up there. There's there's no doubt about it. And there's a variety of different levels of service. I mean, there's there's some parking lots that you it baffles you that that that's all therere they're doing. you know um But we've been fortunate that we've we've got to, by virtue of being in town for as long as we have, but we've got a great group of clients.
01:05:27
RICK JAMES
That's good.
01:05:28
The SnowJobs Podcast
That's here too.
01:05:28
RICK JAMES
look
01:05:29
The SnowJobs Podcast
I mean, that, that doesn't change. Like New York, you drive by some properties that are in our town and you're like, how do they allow that to happen?
01:05:30
RICK JAMES
Yeah.
01:05:36
RICK JAMES
I don't know.
01:05:37
The SnowJobs Podcast
How is that passable?
01:05:37
RICK JAMES
yeah We got.
01:05:39
The SnowJobs Podcast
Like, think what the hell? A kid with a shovel could do a better job than they just did on that lot.
01:05:45
RICK JAMES
I don't, I don't understand what the, go ahead Tim.
01:05:45
Tim Schrage
it.
01:05:48
Tim Schrage
Oh, yeah, it is. You know, it's crazy. I look at the look at the slip and fall claims and items that we've defended over the years. And I look at the level of service in our parking lots. And, you know, gosh, I think actually the worst parking lots in our markets probably have the least amount of slip and falls because people look at it and go this is frickin terrible.
01:06:10
Tim Schrage
I'm going to put my cleats on before I walk across the parking lot versus a bare asphalt account that they find the one place that somebody poured their Slurpee out in the middle of the parking lot.
01:06:12
The SnowJobs Podcast
Yeah, yeah.
01:06:19
Tim Schrage
you know
01:06:21
The SnowJobs Podcast
Yeah, exactly. like Let me take my stilettos off here.
01:06:24
RICK JAMES
so wait reasonable responsible.
01:06:24
The SnowJobs Podcast
This looks slippery. like it's it's so ah would you say there's Would you say there's a lot of slip and fall claims up there or people more like I don't know how I want to say this.
01:06:35
The SnowJobs Podcast
Are people tougher? Like but tougher and reasonable? Like, oh shit, I slipped and fell.
01:06:39
RICK JAMES
responsible
01:06:41
The SnowJobs Podcast
It was because I wasn't watching where I was walking and I hit ice.
01:06:45
Tim Schrage
Well, that's funny. ah I call him a friend of me, a buddy of mine that, that he doesn't do work in the meantime, but he's my, probably my main competitor in, in the asphalt paving and the concrete into the business. He called me there days like, man, I just slipped and fell again on my pickup truck.
01:06:58
Tim Schrage
I think I broke a rib. He goes, who do I sue? And I'm like, well, was it first off? Was it on one of my lots? You know, always the first question is like, no.
01:07:06
RICK JAMES
yeah
01:07:07
Tim Schrage
yeah And I go, Hey man, so I'm going to guess that you're probably wearing your fancy, fancy tennis shoes and your bejangled blue jeans. He's like, you're right. I'm out. I take full responsibility.
01:07:17
RICK JAMES
yeah yeah Whoa, weird, somebody thinks it's a possibility.
01:07:18
Tim Schrage
You know, and so, um, you know, it, again, I was born and raised here and, and, um, the, the folks that are moving from the Midwest and East coast and as they get here,
01:07:20
The SnowJobs Podcast
ah That's great.
01:07:36
Tim Schrage
Their expectations are higher. I would say that we're experiencing, especially post COVID, we're experiencing a lot more slip and falls. People have collectively probably lost their mind in certain spaces.
01:07:49
The SnowJobs Podcast
Yeah. Well, we're sorry about all those Northeasterners that came up there, but no backsies.
01:07:50
RICK JAMES
i
01:07:56
RICK JAMES
ah Getting it I mean like we' we're talking we got a local mall in the big mall in town here They like have the worst sno they've always had like not good I just don't understand all the people go there and they got terrible snow There's lots of thick garbage and I just don't understand how they get away with that for all that traffic You know because they do it in house.
01:08:10
The SnowJobs Podcast
Did they get sued?
01:08:17
RICK JAMES
They do it in house. It's like I
01:08:18
The SnowJobs Podcast
They do it in house.
01:08:19
RICK JAMES
Yeah, so it's like, I just don't understand it.
01:08:20
The SnowJobs Podcast
Wow.
01:08:23
RICK JAMES
I was like, our lots are like beautiful and there's, you know, snow compact and icy and they got way more. I just, it's just weird to me how people get away with different things, but it is what it is, I guess so.
01:08:35
The SnowJobs Podcast
Hmm.
01:08:35
Tim Schrage
I go, I go to the gym almost every day and it's the the lot where my, where it's at is in a strip mall and it is the worst parking lot in Anchorage. Anybody from Anchorage knows exactly which club that is because it's, and I get there and they're always piling in the middle of the day or, you know, I just watched their process. And in my mind, I walk in, you know, try not to kill myself going across, you know, two foot ruts in the parking lot.
01:09:00
Tim Schrage
And I think to myself, if they just hired me to do it right, I bet you in the end, the dollars would not be that that different because they're they're just clearly you know going around in circles. It's a circus.
01:09:12
The SnowJobs Podcast
It's, it's absolutely amazing how many times that statement rings true, where it's actually going to be cheaper to do it right the first time.
01:09:13
RICK JAMES
Mm hmm.
01:09:22
RICK JAMES
Right.
01:09:22
The SnowJobs Podcast
It's just people don't get it until they're punished, you know? and oh Well, I went low ball and guess what? Like there's a property, a town away that I talked to my friend about all the time. He wanted us to take it.
01:09:33
The SnowJobs Podcast
They said they got hit with two lawsuits last year, two slip falls, but they have literally the cheapest bargain basement snow contractor on that site. that they get and it's retail. Like, yeah, you're gonna get like, my guys drive past the site during storm four or five times and routinely say like, we got 12 inches.
01:09:53
The SnowJobs Podcast
Dude, there's nine inches on that parking lot right now. People are going in and out of stores. Like they're literally trudging through snow. So it's cheaper to do it.
01:10:00
RICK JAMES
Yeah.
01:10:01
Tim Schrage
Yeah.
01:10:01
RICK JAMES
three
01:10:02
The SnowJobs Podcast
Once you pay those lawsuits to go away, like how much did you pay each of those people? 30 grand to go away, 40 grand to go away and then lawyer fees. You know, a hundred thousand dollars would have had that site done with white glove.
01:10:15
Tim Schrage
Yeah, there's there's in our market, we always talk about the fact that you know the generally speaking, everybody knows what everybody charges.
01:10:16
The SnowJobs Podcast
So it's amazing.
01:10:23
Tim Schrage
you know You can do a few apples and oranges, but at the end of the day, the only way a client is going to save money is to do a service. and you know if they you know if If they got a contractor to do it right, it's going to cost plus or minus a few percent.
01:10:37
Tim Schrage
it's it's You either go at the top tier contractor or a low tier contractor.
01:10:39
The SnowJobs Podcast
Yep.
01:10:42
Tim Schrage
There's just really no middle ground.
01:10:45
The SnowJobs Podcast
Amen. You find the same thing up there that we do here is is the customer really needs to, you can't just educate them.
01:10:47
RICK JAMES
right.
01:10:54
The SnowJobs Podcast
Sometimes they need to get, they need to get hurt. Like they need to get hit in the pocketbook to understand. Oh, okay. Now we get it. Now we understand what you're saying.
01:11:03
Tim Schrage
You know, I wouldn't say that we've had so much of that. I think that what makes the difference in our market is is how many calls the property manager or owner gets for the quality of what their parking lot looks like, right? And we've had a few accounts um with within property management groups with owners that had wanted to reduce their costs.
01:11:31
Tim Schrage
And they were back in the next season. real you know At the end of the day, it's how many calls do you want to field from upset tenants and customers versus 20% more on the dollars to just get it done right the first time.
01:11:41
The SnowJobs Podcast
Yep.
01:11:45
The SnowJobs Podcast
I gotcha.
01:11:45
Tim Schrage
you know and Yeah.
01:11:49
The SnowJobs Podcast
Cool. Jeremy, you ready now?
01:11:51
RICK JAMES
Yeah, I think so hey Tim let's do the fun fire Where do you see yourself in the next five years?
01:11:52
The SnowJobs Podcast
All right.
01:11:56
RICK JAMES
Where were you like to see see yourself in the next five years with the company?
01:12:01
Tim Schrage
you know, yeah, yeah, yeah, you know, I've, I've got, you know, there's no, no mystery, you know, I'm not getting any younger and, and our focus right now is, is really establishing, you know, good
01:12:01
The SnowJobs Podcast
In Hawaii. yeah
01:12:02
RICK JAMES
Hawaii
01:12:18
Tim Schrage
policies, procedures, job descriptions, and really trying to make each person in their division accountable for for how our company does. So I would say in the next five years, that's the main goal. It's not necessarily top line and or bottom line. It's it's making sure that we we submit the foundation that we have so the company can move on beyond us. you know My wife and I are still actively involved in the business day to day.
01:12:48
Tim Schrage
We've got a 20-year-old son who's in college here. We've got a 20-year-old that works full-time for us. um We want to lay the foundation that if they so choose to stay in this business that they can. If there's a third party that wants to buy it, then we'll entertain that. um But generally, I'd like to make sure our employees, um our key employees have a place here to work for the rest of their career.
01:13:11
The SnowJobs Podcast
That's awesome.
01:13:11
RICK JAMES
That's great.
01:13:12
The SnowJobs Podcast
Good for you, dude. That's really good. ah So you said you started in 2008. So you were already around for a while, but in the last five years, what would you say has been your best decision to get to where you are now?
01:13:18
Tim Schrage
yeah
01:13:28
Tim Schrage
I think our best decision was was to seriously look at what are what we do best. We really boiled it down to a lot of things. Like if you take the snow side of business, you know I remember sitting in our in our conference room, drawing circles on the whiteboards and my guys are like, oh my gosh, what is Tim doing now? He's on one of his like rabbit holes, we call it, right?
01:13:52
Tim Schrage
And I drew all these circles and where they concentrically combine together. I'm like, look, we do six or eight services. If we don't have four of those services in that group, of sort in group then there were just it doesn't fit for us. We've got to be able to do snow plowing, shoveling, sanding, hauling, de-icing. We've got to have four out of the five or six of those to be a client that would make sense for us.
01:14:18
Tim Schrage
Um, and in, in the honest with the people that call in even our guys, property managers work for long-term and say, Hey, we're just not your best choice for that.
01:14:19
The SnowJobs Podcast
Mm hmm.
01:14:28
Tim Schrage
But we got a couple of young up and covers that, that that would be a great start for them and, or do a great job for you.
01:14:30
The SnowJobs Podcast
Yeah.
01:14:35
Tim Schrage
It's just not us. So I think limiting what we do in the winter as far as a client base was was super smart.
01:14:39
The SnowJobs Podcast
Love that.
01:14:44
Tim Schrage
And as a result, we've replicated our great clients over the last five years. so
01:14:51
The SnowJobs Podcast
I love that. I love that. That's awesome. And I like that you're not afraid to tell, you know, clients that you do work for the, Hey, listen, this one is not us, but we can give you, we can give you names of quality people that will give you that that are either in your price range or, you know, are specialized in that kind of site. Cause we do the same thing. We've helped place guys before. So I love that. I love hearing that. That's awesome. Good for you guys.
Alaskan Stories and Local Life Humor
01:15:18
The SnowJobs Podcast
Uh, Jay, you want to do anything else? You want to do funny stories?
01:15:21
RICK JAMES
yeah
01:15:21
RICK JAMES
yeah That's great. stories from up there in alaska
01:15:21
The SnowJobs Podcast
There's gotta be some funny Alaskan plowing stories, right?
01:15:27
Tim Schrage
who, you know, my wife probably shoot me for telling me this one.
01:15:29
RICK JAMES
here
01:15:31
Tim Schrage
So, you know, we like a lot of places in ah in the US, right? We we we have have a homeless population that that's challenging. A lot of mental illness out there, right?
01:15:43
Tim Schrage
But it still makes for funny stories. like I can remember coming out of our, but we have a shop down by the port, which would be
01:15:47
RICK JAMES
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Tim, I was going to ask you, you got any good stories from up there in Alaska?
01:15:51
Tim Schrage
for lack of better term, the armpit of Anchorage, right? It's the old industrial areas from like the 40s and 50s.
01:15:55
The SnowJobs Podcast
OK.
01:15:55
RICK JAMES
mr
01:15:58
Tim Schrage
And so but there's big, there's up until a few years ago, there was a big homeless shelter there. And and so I pull out up at the stoplight, I'm going up the hill and, and you know, because we don't really do sidewalks up here for the municipality.
01:16:12
Tim Schrage
So everybody walks in the street, right? So imagine a three wide street, you know, all one way. And I see in the headlights, and you know what pile lights are like, they suck.
01:16:24
Tim Schrage
And so you see some something in the middle of the road, and I'm driving up there.
01:16:26
The SnowJobs Podcast
you
01:16:28
Tim Schrage
And and I realize, I'm like, that is a person walking straight down the middle of the street. And, and as I get closer, I realize that person's naked. it's like 20 degrees and ice on the road barefoot naked I mean I say naked naked and I pull up next to her and it's a lady and she just waves at me and I just kept on trucking up the street and you know yeah called call the community service patrol and say hey you might want to pick the naked lady up on the in the middle of third avenue she's on her way downtown so but yeah
01:16:45
RICK JAMES
ah Mm hmm.
01:16:59
RICK JAMES
ah
01:17:00
The SnowJobs Podcast
ah yeah yeah Ah, she's friendly. She waved.
01:17:03
RICK JAMES
ah
01:17:03
Tim Schrage
yeah but but like But like everybody else, you you you just drive by and you're like, it's an unfortunate you know fortunate comment on society.
01:17:04
RICK JAMES
ah
01:17:11
Tim Schrage
But it's scale how can you see a naked person in the middle of winter? Not often.
01:17:16
RICK JAMES
oh
01:17:17
The SnowJobs Podcast
Ah, you never know.
01:17:17
RICK JAMES
That sounds cold.
01:17:19
The SnowJobs Podcast
These nudists are everywhere.
01:17:20
RICK JAMES
Sounds a bit nippy.
01:17:21
Tim Schrage
ah but
01:17:22
The SnowJobs Podcast
Oh,
Snow Management Challenges and Strategies
01:17:24
Tim Schrage
so
01:17:24
The SnowJobs Podcast
that's great.
01:17:25
The SnowJobs Podcast
Do you have any, you have any plowing and bears combined like bear stories with plowing?
01:17:31
Tim Schrage
No, but I have hit a bear with my pickup truck before. And let me tell you what.
01:17:34
The SnowJobs Podcast
You have the bear one.
01:17:35
Tim Schrage
Yeah, no, that's that's ah thats sort that's a real showstopper.
01:17:40
RICK JAMES
ah
01:17:40
The SnowJobs Podcast
ah be I bet.
01:17:40
Tim Schrage
When you hit ah hit a bear, it's it's a little more than a dog.
01:17:41
The SnowJobs Podcast
I bet.
01:17:44
Tim Schrage
so
01:17:45
RICK JAMES
Oh boy.
01:17:47
The SnowJobs Podcast
Is it worse than a deer?
01:17:49
Tim Schrage
Yeah, because it's ah all weighted at the bottom. So it it all goes from the bumper down.
01:17:52
The SnowJobs Podcast
Yeah.
01:17:54
Tim Schrage
you know It doesn't come up in the windshield.
01:17:55
The SnowJobs Podcast
Yeah.
01:17:56
Tim Schrage
It plays havoc on your pickup truck, that is for sure. So.
01:18:01
The SnowJobs Podcast
Oh man.
01:18:02
Tim Schrage
the
01:18:03
The SnowJobs Podcast
Oh God, that's funny. Oh, what else you got from Jay? Got anything else?
01:18:08
RICK JAMES
I don't think so. It's another good one. It was good to hear from somebody up in Alaska for a change and it's pretty cool.
01:18:12
The SnowJobs Podcast
Absolutely. I'm glad we were able to finally get to Alaska.
01:18:14
RICK JAMES
I mean, yeah They got some cool stuff up there obviously it's a different area, but we're all the same in a way Yeah Right
01:18:18
The SnowJobs Podcast
That's awesome.
01:18:22
The SnowJobs Podcast
Absolutely. Yeah. It's cool to hear what, what is okay in certain regions. And that isn't, that wouldn't be here, like unheard of here to put gravel down, you know, like, Oh my God, you're not doing that.
01:18:35
The SnowJobs Podcast
It's just not happening. I don't even think the, the municipalities don't even do it. They used to do like a sand salt mix and they don't even do that anymore. It's just straight salt. They just, they don't like vegetation.
01:18:45
The SnowJobs Podcast
Kill it all. Kill, kill it all.
01:18:47
Tim Schrage
Yeah.
01:18:48
RICK JAMES
but give with
01:18:48
Tim Schrage
Yeah, sand is the lifeblood here, man.
01:18:49
The SnowJobs Podcast
Oh man.
01:18:51
Tim Schrage
it's so we had a We had a rain event um last Thursday, and almost every account we had got sanded three times that day.
01:19:01
RICK JAMES
Oh, well.
01:19:02
The SnowJobs Podcast
Wow.
01:19:03
Tim Schrage
Yeah, is it just the rain?
01:19:03
RICK JAMES
So is it Sam Miles-Rozeman or how do you?
01:19:06
Tim Schrage
No, yeah you know, we we salt them up. But the parking lots, you know, as as the freezing rain is hitting, it's freezing right over the top of it, you know, so it's you go through and 30 minutes later, you get a call into the office and it goes out for a dispatch for a sand truck. You're like, we were just there, but we'll be back.
01:19:24
The SnowJobs Podcast
Yep.
01:19:24
RICK JAMES
<unk>
01:19:25
Tim Schrage
yeah
01:19:25
The SnowJobs Podcast
We'll put it down and then guess what? We'll be back in the spring to sweep it up.
01:19:29
Tim Schrage
You know, we We built the business around all of that, right? So, yeah, we feel like a better time, you know, we the parking lots, we put sand down, and then we, in the spring, we sweep it up, then you know, as part of winter and the sand, we scrape all the stripes off the parking lots, so then we come back, re-striped the parking lots.
01:19:34
The SnowJobs Podcast
Dude, I love it.
01:19:34
RICK JAMES
That's great.
01:19:49
RICK JAMES
Oh, he's draping too.
01:19:50
Tim Schrage
And we just, oh, yeah, so, yeah, when I told you, we if you can walk on it, we can do it, yeah, no wait that's,
01:19:51
RICK JAMES
yeah
01:19:51
The SnowJobs Podcast
Restripe, resteal.
01:19:57
Tim Schrage
crack ceiling and striking. It's a big part of it, man. It's my brother owns a paving company and in Oregon.
01:20:01
The SnowJobs Podcast
Dude, I love it.
01:20:03
Tim Schrage
And when he comes up here, he's like, this is a paver's paradise, right? Because, you know, we're on a glacial moraine. And, you know, life expectancy in asphalt is 10 years here. So, you know, even the, even the national, national
01:20:14
The SnowJobs Podcast
Oh wow.
Business Integration and Market Adaptation
01:20:17
Tim Schrage
stores that we work for use a 12 year life cycle with maintenance.
01:20:21
Tim Schrage
They shoot the squeeze 20 out of it.
01:20:23
The SnowJobs Podcast
Wow.
01:20:23
Tim Schrage
But rarely do they get there. Yeah.
01:20:27
The SnowJobs Podcast
That's I love, I love the vertical integration though, that you got it all covered.
01:20:27
RICK JAMES
oh
01:20:31
The SnowJobs Podcast
Like, all right, you're going to pay me to do the snow. We're going to put down sand. You're going to pay me to do that spring. You're going to pay me to pick it up. Then by the way, our plows, you know, damaged blacktop.
01:20:42
The SnowJobs Podcast
We do blacktop too. That's it's outstanding, man. Good for you.
01:20:44
RICK JAMES
Wow That's great.
01:20:45
The SnowJobs Podcast
That's how you make money.
01:20:47
RICK JAMES
Yeah, it's good customers.
01:20:48
The SnowJobs Podcast
That's how you make money.
01:20:48
Tim Schrage
Well, it's the only way to. so Yeah, you got a good customers, yeah you know, we have a saying in our company, man, it's you do the right thing, and you do the right thing every time.
01:20:48
RICK JAMES
You gotta have good customers for that.
01:20:53
RICK JAMES
Oh
01:20:58
Tim Schrage
Because, you know, that lifetime value and that client, you just, you know, you build a reputation of just doing the right thing.
01:20:59
The SnowJobs Podcast
Yep. Absolutely.
01:21:09
The SnowJobs Podcast
100%. And honestly, I mean, it builds loyalty too, because if you're doing this right, you're not cheap and they could, they could take cheaper options.
01:21:16
Tim Schrage
So
01:21:19
The SnowJobs Podcast
You know, so there you, you've done right by them for so long. They usually have the mind, at least in my, in my experience, they're like, well, yeah, they're more expensive by 20%.
01:21:29
The SnowJobs Podcast
We could get this done cheaper, but they've never failed. Like they're here, they're out every night there. You know, we see their trucks. one flake is falling and the truck is already through the complex, like checking things that can't put a price on that, that that builds loyalty.
01:21:44
The SnowJobs Podcast
So I agree completely.
01:21:45
RICK JAMES
Oh, I had another question before.
01:21:48
The SnowJobs Podcast
Go ahead.
01:21:48
RICK JAMES
I remember finally when you said that. Are there many many national companies up there?
01:21:54
The SnowJobs Podcast
Oh yeah.
01:21:54
Tim Schrage
so they're Yeah, so you know one of one of the the folks that I would say is like yeah on a similar similar size, or maybe equipment size or smaller, but footprint-wise they're larger, you know does basically national grocery chains and targets and and the like.
01:22:11
Tim Schrage
and so
01:22:12
The SnowJobs Podcast
Mm-hmm.
01:22:12
Tim Schrage
um There are a number of of nationals that come and go out of here, of course, the post offices and stuff like that.
01:22:22
RICK JAMES
Yeah.
01:22:22
The SnowJobs Podcast
Yeah.
01:22:23
Tim Schrage
I usually email them back and say, hey, I i saw your request for for a number and your proposed number looks like it's missing a zero.
01:22:30
The SnowJobs Podcast
Yep, absolutely.
01:22:30
Tim Schrage
So you know and it's not it's not it's not after the decimal point.
01:22:31
RICK JAMES
yeah yeah
01:22:34
Tim Schrage
It's but before the decimal point. um
01:22:37
The SnowJobs Podcast
ah ah
01:22:38
Tim Schrage
so um a They struggle up here because they don't understand our market, and most of the time um they have. Alaska has been a requirement to lump in with their Northwest stores, and and they they just they just know they're going to lose money coming into it. so you know it's It's a tough deal, and and you know we used to work for nationals like a lot of people.
01:23:03
Tim Schrage
have, you know, some of them are better than others. And, but at the end of the day, the, the master service agreement and indemnity requirements just aren't worth it. It's a, it's a short term play because, you know, they're, they don't, they don't, they don't care about scenario.
01:23:13
The SnowJobs Podcast
I agree.
01:23:18
Tim Schrage
They care about risk transfer.
01:23:19
RICK JAMES
No.
01:23:20
Tim Schrage
Yeah.
01:23:21
The SnowJobs Podcast
Yeah.
01:23:21
RICK JAMES
no
01:23:21
The SnowJobs Podcast
A hundred percent getting it off of them onto you.
01:23:23
Tim Schrage
Yep.
01:23:24
The SnowJobs Podcast
Absolutely.
01:23:25
Tim Schrage
Yep. So, and that's been a big push in our company in the last few years is, is, you know,
01:23:26
The SnowJobs Podcast
Man.
01:23:31
Tim Schrage
We're not shy, you know, if if it's not on r it's not on our contract form and they and they want to provide their own contract form, them they should be ready for for the red pen because I'm not shy about redlining it out and explaining to them that there's a difference between arises and cost and I'll accept
01:23:39
RICK JAMES
good
01:23:51
The SnowJobs Podcast
Absolutely.
01:23:52
Tim Schrage
the responsibility for cause, but I'm not going to accept the responsibility for anything that arises out of our services because that just puts me on the hook for the entire winter and contractors should be scared to death of terms like any and all and arise.
01:24:06
RICK JAMES
Yep, exactly.
01:24:07
The SnowJobs Podcast
Absolutely. Amen.
01:24:08
Tim Schrage
yeah
01:24:09
The SnowJobs Podcast
Any of the lawyers speak shit? Yep. Absolutely. Oh, that's awesome.
01:24:12
RICK JAMES
That's great.
01:24:13
The SnowJobs Podcast
You just said that. It's freaking great. Yeah, I can't even imagine what the low ball prices of nationals because they're low here and your costs are so much higher.
01:24:24
The SnowJobs Podcast
Your costs for I probably everything across the border are probably a lot higher than us.
01:24:29
RICK JAMES
Oh, yeah.
01:24:29
Tim Schrage
You know, the cost of delivering the services higher, I would venture to say, if we talked offline, you'd find that you guys are charging more than we are um as a whole.
01:24:41
Tim Schrage
Partly because,
01:24:42
The SnowJobs Podcast
I bet we are.
01:24:44
Tim Schrage
partly because you know, we've been out, I just looked at it, you guys were talking about, we've been out, the counts that we do bear pavement on, we've salted 25 times already this season. um we yeah We've had precipitation days.
01:24:55
The SnowJobs Podcast
Wow.
01:24:58
Tim Schrage
We've had seven seven full plow events. And so you know we're literally, I don't want to say treated, but where the expectation is like the janitor who's just going to show up every night to to make sure the office is clean.
01:25:02
The SnowJobs Podcast
Yeah.
01:25:12
The SnowJobs Podcast
Yeah.
01:25:13
Tim Schrage
And they don't put a lot of, the the market hasn't put a lot of value on that. And because of the number, of the frequency of our services, it seems to work out in the end.
01:25:24
Tim Schrage
You know?
01:25:26
The SnowJobs Podcast
Yeah, killing them with volume. up I mean, that's kind of what you do too, Jay, right?
01:25:28
Tim Schrage
Yeah.
01:25:29
RICK JAMES
Yeah, because you guys' prices are way more in ours.
01:25:29
Tim Schrage
Yeah.
01:25:32
The SnowJobs Podcast
It's, I mean, you make up for it with volume.
01:25:33
RICK JAMES
yeah yeah cause you guys this price are way more our
01:25:36
Tim Schrage
The
Conclusion and Invitation to Alaska
01:25:37
The SnowJobs Podcast
Wait, I mean, especially if you're doing per event, you know, if you're doing per push per event and you're getting 75 pushes, I mean, you can't charge what I would charge for 15 pushes because I have to make the same money that you guys are making on 75, you know?
01:25:38
Tim Schrage
only thing.
01:25:40
Tim Schrage
Yeah.
01:25:50
RICK JAMES
Right.
01:25:52
Tim Schrage
Right. You know, the, uh, you know, the old say, yeah you can't make up for losses with volume though. You know, you still gotta know your numbers going into the game.
01:26:00
The SnowJobs Podcast
Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely.
01:26:02
Tim Schrage
Yeah.
01:26:02
The SnowJobs Podcast
Yeah.
01:26:02
Tim Schrage
Yeah.
01:26:03
The SnowJobs Podcast
You got to have it locked in. Oh, what else? Anything else?
01:26:06
RICK JAMES
Ah, I got nothing.
01:26:06
The SnowJobs Podcast
Jay, where we let him go.
01:26:08
RICK JAMES
I'm good.
01:26:09
The SnowJobs Podcast
Tim, you got anything for us before we let you go. Thanks. This was awesome, man.
01:26:13
Tim Schrage
No, I really appreciate what you guys are doing. And when i when i I stumbled onto the podcast right off the get-go, and it's awesome for us to hear. um I love listening to the contractors that you interview across the US.
01:26:23
Tim Schrage
you know Our market is so different. And the to just hear about what people are using for equipment and how they're approaching their purchases and and in purchasing decisions is awesome.
01:26:37
Tim Schrage
The episode you did with Randy Straight, unbelievable. What a guy.
01:26:41
The SnowJobs Podcast
Oh yeah. Oh yeah. We could do that every day. ah He's got to have volumes and volumes.
01:26:45
RICK JAMES
Yeah.
01:26:45
Tim Schrage
yeah
01:26:47
The SnowJobs Podcast
We haven't even tapped yet.
01:26:49
RICK JAMES
Yeah, definitely.
01:26:49
Tim Schrage
yeah
01:26:50
The SnowJobs Podcast
Yeah, that was great. Well, we appreciate that. Thanks so much. Thanks for listening. And, you know, we, uh, we loved having you, man. There was a lot of stuff I was curious about and it's some interesting shit up there.
01:27:01
The SnowJobs Podcast
I don't know how you do it. I'd i'd love to actually get up there. My wife loves Alaska. So we might, we might swing by and say hi at some point and see how it's done.
01:27:10
Tim Schrage
You know, yeah i'm um'm ah I'm a flying, fishing, hunting machine in a lot of spaces. So when when you get up here, come see me. We'll make sure you get treated with that with respect and the right deal.
01:27:19
The SnowJobs Podcast
Sounds good.
01:27:20
RICK JAMES
Be great.
01:27:20
The SnowJobs Podcast
Sounds good.
01:27:22
Tim Schrage
Yeah.
01:27:22
The SnowJobs Podcast
Absolutely. Awesome. Well, yeah, we got to, uh, we got to do it, Jay. We got to get up there. We'll maybe do storm chasing up in Alaska.
01:27:29
RICK JAMES
Why not? There you go.
01:27:32
Tim Schrage
Well, the good news, if you do that, you're going to have to wait long for snow.
01:27:32
The SnowJobs Podcast
That'd be good, right?
01:27:34
RICK JAMES
Yeah, let me.
01:27:37
The SnowJobs Podcast
Yeah. Oh, well, yeah.
01:27:37
RICK JAMES
Yeah.
01:27:38
The SnowJobs Podcast
I mean, yeah that would probably.
01:27:40
RICK JAMES
You can go there in October.
01:27:42
The SnowJobs Podcast
but Uh, ah
01:27:45
Tim Schrage
Yeah.
01:27:45
RICK JAMES
whether
01:27:46
The SnowJobs Podcast
ah All right, we're going to let them go, Jay.
01:27:50
RICK JAMES
I think so
01:27:51
The SnowJobs Podcast
All right, Tim, thanks so much, buddy. This was awesome. Great hearing about signature. I mean, all the best to you guys in the future. And ah keep us posted on how you're doing, all right? Because, ah I mean, anything in Alaska, it's they say it's always better in Alaska.
01:28:05
The SnowJobs Podcast
I don't know why. My wife loves it there. She's been there like three times. I've never been but she loves it. So keep us posted all the best to you ah Just keep crushing it out there, but that's gonna do it guys. We're gonna wrap it there Everybody be safe out there. Have a great week and keep pushing