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Jessica Schwartz
Vaccine Priority For Essential Snow & Ice Workers?
COVID-19 vaccines are now being rolled out and areas are determining their timelines of priority for vaccination scheduling. Deeming it’s members as providing “essential critical infrastructure work,” the Snow & Ice Management Association (SIMA) is distributing a request to all state and provincial health departments in charge of vaccine distribution to prioritize snow and ice removal workers as “essential workers.” SIMA has drafted a statement to be used as needed to send to local health department. According to SIMA CEO Martin Tirado, “Getting the COVID-19 is optional, and snow and ice professionals should have this option in Phase 1 of distribution.” Vaccination of snow and ice employees may also aid in any labor shortfalls. Tirado said in an earlier statement, “This season there is an increased risk of a shortage of a healthy workforce ready and willing to participate in this tough work. COVID-19 and standard Influenza may cause a larger-than-normal loss of labor hours and people during certain periods of the winter season, and may impact the ability of professional snow and ice management companies to conduct the work they are tasked with during strong and often severe winter storms.” Here is the letter SIMA drafted: January 8, 2021 To: All State or Provincial Health Departments in the USA and Canada Please consider this correspondence a request to have snow and ice removal service providers be recognized as essential workers and to be offered Phase 1 priority in COVID-19 vaccine priority. Essential workers recommended for vaccination in Phase 1 ...
Vaccine Priority For Essential Snow & Ice Workers?
COVID-19 vaccines are now being rolled out and areas are determining their timelines of priority for vaccination scheduling. Deeming it’s members as providing “essential critical infrastructure work,” the Snow & Ice Management Association (SIMA) is distributing a request to all state and provincial health departments in charge of vaccine distribution to prioritize snow and ice removal workers as “essential workers.” SIMA has drafted a statement to be used as needed to send to local health department. According to SIMA CEO Martin Tirado, “Getting the COVID-19 is optional, and snow and ice professionals should have this option in Phase 1 of distribution.” Vaccination of snow and ice employees may also aid in any labor shortfalls. Tirado said in an earlier statement, “This season there is an increased risk of a shortage of a healthy workforce ready and willing to participate in this tough work. COVID-19 and standard Influenza may cause a larger-than-normal loss of labor hours and people during certain periods of the winter season, and may impact the ability of professional snow and ice management companies to conduct the work they are tasked with during strong and often severe winter storms.” Here is the letter SIMA drafted: January 8, 2021 To: All State or Provincial Health Departments in the USA and Canada Please consider this correspondence a request to have snow and ice removal service providers be recognized as essential workers and to be offered Phase 1 priority in COVID-19 vaccine priority. Essential workers recommended for vaccination in Phase 1 ...
Snow And Ice Services Standards
Early this year, the Snow & Ice Management Association (SIMA) released SIMA-10-2020 Standard Practice for Procuring and Planning Snow & Ice Management Services—the American National Standard for the commercial snow and ice management industry approved by ANSI (American National Standards Institute). This was the result of an industry-wide effort, and snow contractors can gain information on contracts, scope of work, and monitoring and documentation of their work. Leading up to publication of the SIMA-10-2020 Standard document, SIMA recognized the industry’s lack of resources for those seeking to hire quality commercial snow and ice management services, and so convened a diverse Stakeholder Advisory Group. This group included snow contractors and facility management professionals, and its Standards Development Committee to help craft and approve an initial standard. As an ANSI-Accredited Standards Developer, SIMA then went through a rigorous process to publicly announce this standard, including a public review period, consensus body vote, and finalization following standards policies. The Standard Practice for Procuring and Planning Snow and Ice Management Services covers the following: General Procurement: Includes recommended minimum snow services contract term lengths, optimal contract award dates, and general information related to the use of subcontractors. Level of Service (LOS) and Scope of Work (SOW): Identifies descriptions of desired outcomes, service time frames, and service priorities related to LOS. It also emphasizes guidelines for SOW, including site assessment and inspection recommendations, as well as information related to environmental, architectural, and equipment considerations. Monitoring Procedures and Documentation: Establishes minimum guidelines for snow service documentation/reporting, ...
Snow And Ice Services On The Horizon
By Phill Sexton Who in their right mind thinks of planning for winter in July? In my own career, I’ve learned by experience and from other professionals to consider July 5th the start of the winter planning season. For some “snow only” firms throughout North America, July might be considered a late start preparing for the next winter season. But, whether you are a “snow only” operator or a landscape or turf management company providing snow and ice services to a subset of your clientele, the standards for resource procurement, training, and preparation are the same. The Snow & Ice Management Association (SIMA) has developed a timeline for winter operations, and their clients—typically facility managers and property managers. Utilizing this timeline (see opposite page) as an industry standard will help you to organize your sales and operational responsibilities into categories of focus. Setting Up Sales Renewals of existing contracts are best to initiate at the tail end of the existing snow season. Yes, a common reason for not doing this is: “My clients don’t want to talk about snow until later in the summer or in the fall.” This then gets pushed till the beginning of the next season. My experience has been when you initiate the renewal process at the end of the current season and give clients an incentive for renewing during that time period, more often than not it’s what the client wants. You simply need to have the confidence to do this. RFPs (requests for proposals) ...
Breaking The Cycle
Courtesy of the Snow & Ice Management Association (SIMA) Winter can be vicious to snow and ice removal teams. Long hours, tough climate conditions and the perceived snow warrior mentality to power through can literally be a danger to your health. It is tough to consider attention to health and wellness when snow is flying, customers are complaining and there is no end in sight. But if you don’t, your crews can get locked into a cycle of poor nutrition, sleep deprivation and fatigue — all of which have been scientifically proven to have negative physical and cognitive consequences. Not only are there physical ramifications, but damages and injuries related to fatigued driving and poor self-care can be costly. Identify the major risks and seek better ways to mitigate them — break the cycle before it breaks you. Nutrition and hydration Stopping for meals may not be an option during a snowstorm, so many rely on fast food and energy drinks to keep going. Poor nutrition can lead to increased risk of heart disease, diabetes, obesity and other long-term health issues. Plan in advance some time for your team to stop for short breaks to refresh, grab a healthy snack and stretch. Require your teams to drink plenty of fluids to help sustain energy and stave off fatigue. Mild dehydration can drain energy and fatigue you. Your body depends on water to flush toxins out of your vital organs, carry nutrients to your cells and provide a moist environment for ...
Chemistry 101: Rock Salt And Liquids
By Wilf Nixon Rock salt is everywhere in winter maintenance, which makes it important to understand how it works when we use it, and what it can (and cannot) do. Let’s start by dispelling the myth that “liquids don’t work.” The first thing to know about rock salt is it is soluble in water. It can’t work effectively until it forms a liquid solution! Rock salt + water = Brine. That solution will have a lower freezing point than pure water. How much lower that freezing point depends on how much rock salt is added to the water. 2.2 pounds of rock salt + 1 gallon of water = Solution that is 23 percent salt by weight. 6.02°F = The lowest freezing point we can get from mixing salt with water under ideal situations (e.g., in a laboratory). In practice, out on the road or on a parking lot, don’t expect to see brine effectively melting ice at those low temperatures. It’s not designed to melt ice Rock salt does not melt much ice — but it does not need to in order to be effective. What if we have a one-acre lot with a pavement temperature of 23°F? If we spread 200 pounds of rock salt over that parking lot, it will melt about one-hundredth of an inch of ice — not much, but plenty to stop the snow or ice from freezing to the surface. Even with that low of an application rate, rock salt will achieve its ...
Bagged To Bulk
By Erich Oelschlegel, ASM Our company, Suburban Snow Plow, has always been a snow-only family company. My father bought a used Jeep in 1973 that came with a plow. He began plowing on the side; and apparently, the apple hasn’t fallen far from the tree. When we’re not plowing, my siblings and I are telecom project managers, school teachers, web designers, students and stay-at-home moms. As seasonal workers, we relied on bagged salt, which is the usual starting point for most snow removal companies. As a product upsell, bagged salt is fairly profitable and initial costs are low, especially for servicing residential properties. Tailgate-mounted spreaders are reasonably inexpensive and also provide sufficient capacity to service larger lots, although refilling may be required midway. Bag counting provides an easy way to calculate and monitor salt usage. Storing and handling is a breeze, requiring only a forklift to load, unload and move materials around. However, there have been growing pains. When we started using brine, the mixer took up half of the garage. When we outgrew the other half, bagged salt pallets had to get stacked against the fence line. In the 2017-2018 season, our property count grew by 50 percent without much growth in available equipment. Routes got noticeably longer and trucks started coming back mid-shift for a second pallet of salt. Nationwide shortages threatened availability, not to mention long lead times from order to delivery. Clearly, bagged salt could only scale so much and would not be able ...
Seven Steps To Reducing Your Salt Use
Not ready or can’t make a big investment in equipment that can help you reduce your company’s salt usage? It’s OK to start small and to grow and invest as you’re able – even the most basic steps can result in big gains. 1. YOU HAVE TO START SOMEWHERE Examine your current operations to identify areas of weakness or opportunities for improvement in material inventory and tracking, product types, application rates, calibration processes, etc. This could take awhile to identify and correct, so be patient! A hastily implemented plan can result in failure or unrealistic and unrealized expectations. 2. BABY STEPS They say: “Go big or go home!” But that may not be the best rallying cry when it comes to wholesale changes in your salt management program. Consider clients who might be receptive to experimentation with application rates, alternative products, etc. Once you have success on one site, expand your horizons. 3. EXPAND YOUR PRODUCT TOOLBOX Consider treated products that can be used in colder temperatures and when dealing with longer-duration storms can generally allow you to use less. If treated salt is cost prohibitive, consider purchasing a liquid product to prewet your salt stockpile. Take it a step further by adding a system to your spreaders to prewet salt at the spinner. 4. GET YOUR FEET WET Research anti-icing as a prestorm tool to reduce bonding of snow and ice. Do your homework and test and train before starting with liquids. Again, start small. Sidewalks are a great ...
Salt Accounting 101
By Douglas Freer, CSP Management consultant Peter Drucker once said, “If you can’t measure something, you can’t manage it.” This is relevant to managing your assets, and in particular, ice control chemicals. In today’s increasingly competitive marketplace, finding efficiencies and room for improvement can provide an advantage in your business space. Next to labor, your ice control chemicals may represent the largest variable expense. How do you manage your inventory to ensure you get the best return? Are you using too much product, or could you use less and get the same results? How much shrinkage (theft) or spoilage (waste) do you have? Do you know? If you don’t have a system for managing your inventory and product, you can’t determine “normal” usage and benchmark to determine if you’re ahead or behind expectations. What is salt accounting? Salt accounting is the process of measuring and tracking ice control chemicals purchased and used during a season. The salt accounting system produces data that informs your decision-making related to operations, sales and expenses. More simply, salt accounting is a check register for your ice control chemicals. You make deposits (credits) when you take a delivery of material and withdrawals (debits) when you use material to service your sites. At a minimum, your salt accounting system should tell you how much material you purchased and when you used it. This system can be improved if you record where the salt is used by having drivers collect data for each site serviced. One size ...
Ready To Go Commercial?
Courtesy of Buyers Products & SIMA Consider these points to help you decide where to upgrade your fleet. What’s your next step? Grow my commercial (lot) business. More area in less time is the key to success when clearing lots. TIP: A plow with expandable wings allows you to efficiently plow large areas and still move between jobs quickly. Become a dependable subcontractor. You need equipment that’s reliable push after push. TIP: If you need a new plow but you’re using a lighter truck, check out some straight blades that are optimized for lighter trucks. Many commercial-use plows have been released with weight strategically removed to accommodate lighter trucks. Grow my driveway business. If driveways are still your bread and butter, think about a V-plow. A V can work well in tight spaces and also clear large swaths quickly when fully extended. TIP: Make sure the V-plow you choose has double-acting angle cylinders. They’re essential for back dragging up against garages in straight driveways. What’s your biggest pain point? Constantly having to reload material. Time is critical during a storm. Stopping to refill your spreader just gives the snow and ice more time to take hold. TIP: A spreader with a double-walled poly hopper is lightweight but spacious. You can have up to 2 cubic yards of material capacity in the back of a pickup. Salt freezing overnight in my hopper. Any auger spreader needs dry, free-flowing material to work smoothly. It’s critical that you unload your spreader at the ...
