Snow Plowing in West Bend with Aron Rodman of Extra Mile
Aron Rodman, the owner and president of Extra Mile Snow Plowing in West Bend, Wis., joins me this week to answer a bunch of questions that people often have regarding snow removal. Aron also tells us a really cool story about a surprise he once found while out plowing in West Bend.
I am geeking out! I promise that even though the topic of this week's episode is a "chore" for some people, it is a really fun and interesting show. In fact, we went about 5 minutes long!
Learn more about Extra Mile here: https://www.extramilesnow.com/
Transcript
And I understand, um, you will like this episode. I promise. Aron Rodman, the owner and president of Extra Mile Snow Plowing in West Bend joins me this week to talk snow plowing. We tackle questions like, Why did I get plowed in? And, Why is there so much salt on the ground? And, Can you come plow my driveway?
Uh, it was a lot of fun. I went over by like five minutes, but I won't charge you for it. Without any more introduction. Here's Aron Rodman of Extra Mile Snowplowing on 20, on 15 Minutes with Fuzz.
All right. So Aron, let's talk a little bit about the background on you and Extra Mile. How long has Extra Mile Snowplowing been in business?
[:And we've been there for about five years.
[: [:No sitting around. They've still got 40 plus hours a week. West Bend, Kewaskum,
[: [: [: [: [: [:Oh,
[: [:Okay. And we really enjoy doing those, but the majority of our work, probably about 98 percent of it is commercial with a couple of condo associations and homeowner associations mixed in there.
[:Um, for the listeners, why do you leave those plows there?
[:And, uh, just store it right on site.
[: [:And I'd say, I think I can figure it out. And this was before Google. So I would go to the library, get a book, read how to do it. Or go to Home Depot, buy a how to book, read it, and yeah, I can figure that out. And it's just, people kept asking, can you do this, can you do that, but I always liked the snow plowing.
Sure. Um, initially we couldn't even afford a truck with a snow plow. So for the first several years, actually my wife and I initially, would uh, snowblow some small parking lots and a bunch of houses. We had a couple larger parking lots that we would subcontract someone else to plow and then we would do all the handwork and use a push salter to get it cleared up and eventually we were able to buy.
A truck and it kind of just kept growing from there.
[: [: [: [: [:No, no, the
[: [: [:Um, it's my job ends up being very much like a coach or like a, uh, I have a small background in some incident command training, just very little, but this is very similar in a lot of ways. Um, we have, uh, foremen who oversee different, different guys on the routes and different sections of town. And, uh, everyone needs to communicate with the kind of right, uh, chain of command, or it just ends up being a big mess.
Uh, one of the things that draws people to our company as, as an employee, I think, is that we are a little more organized and things aren't as scattershot as with some other companies. And, and for that reason, we kind of use an incident command system. I, and I, I, I enjoy that. And I, I enjoy the challenge.
Um. Other companies dread having a one foot or 18 inch snowfall. Sure. I dream about it. I can't wait. I mean, just about anyone can plow an inch and a half of snow and get it done for you on seven in the morning. Uh, but when we get six, eight, ten foot of wet, heavy snow, that's where we really stand head and shoulders above the competition.
And I, I love driving through town and saying, look at those lots. They look awesome. Those are ours. Ooh, those ones over there, they must've hired
[: er New Year's Eve of the year: [:Or, uh, I had a, as we're driving down the road with a, with a payloader, it, it caught a little manhole cover and ended up twisting the entire machine and all the, every piece of glass on the machine imploded onto me. But my favorite one, it's really not that crazy, it was on, uh, Second Avenue, right behind the Amity Apartments, we used to plow those, and the, uh, the city had not plowed the road behind it yet, and there was a car stuck in about a foot of snow, and I went back there just to give them some help.
I kind of pulled around the car. Plowed Elaine so they could get out and then went behind them, gave a little push, they got onto the cleared area and just went up to the window to say hi. Have a nice day. Yeah. And uh, there's, there's a husband, real young husband and wife, and a brand new baby, like, uh, two days old.
Okay. In, in the back. And the lady looks up at me, she says, I swear you're an angel. I mean, obviously not an angel, but she, she's just, she's like, we were on our way home from the hospital. We just, we haven't even made it home yet. And we're stuck in the street, brand new baby, didn't know what to do. And then all of a sudden we look up and this guy in a truck's, Clearing us out, gives us a push, and that, in the 20 years I've been doing it, that's, that's probably, it's not crazy, but it's my favorite,
[:No, that's a great story. That's a great story. That, uh, I, I was holding my breath thinking that you were going to say she was in labor. No, no,
[:I don't
[:I wanted to talk about a few of the questions that listeners might have, or maybe even some tips that might help them out. So like if you live in an apartment or condo or work at a company with a big parking lot, Where's the best place to park during a snow event?
[:Yes, yes. But uh, um, the best place to park would be if there's a bank of parking stalls that's already plowed out, go park in there. Um, some of the really bad places to park are right in front of the machine as it's moving. We see that all the time. Uh, right in front of the big snow pile where it's obvious that that's where we push the snow.
Um, you know, if you have the ability, most apartment complexes don't. If you're able, if the city street has already been plowed and you can park over there, uh, that opens up the lot and we're able to get your spot quite a bit better. We have times where. It's a little confusing because we're there plowing, some cars pull out, and before we can even get there to plow those spots, people just pull right back onto those unplowed spots instead of the 30 plowed spots that are 20 feet over, so, you know, that helps us out too if you're able to keep the unplowed areas open.
[: [:And so I spend an extra half hour plowing around them, and then I finish, and they're like, Oh, hey, we're going to come help you, and they'll move their cars to the other side. But it's kind of too late, you know, so. But in their defense, you know, I'm guessing they were probably waiting until we were done and wanted to be safe around the equipment and whatnot.
So, it It goes with the territory. It's rare we're going to get a wide open, clear parking lot and I'm always going to have to work around something. Yeah,
[: [: [: [:If you're going to plow to the left or to the right. Sometimes you don't have an option or someone's going to get plowed in on either side. Sure. Some of it really is just living in Wisconsin. But I mean, if you're able to pull your car up into a driveway or, you know, follow this, follow the times. Um, I, as a company, we don't plow anyone in.
We've had some customers tell us in like apartment complexes, if these cars don't move, I've got this fear that someday I'm going to plow someone in and it's going to be the night they went into labor to have a baby or there's an emergency and they couldn't get out. So I, we just work around them. It is what it is.
[: [:So we are using liquids now and we've got about 100, 000 invested into it. We make our own brine. Uh, formulate it chemically and whatnot. And, uh, kind of what that is, is to some extent the way of the future for snow removal. The best thing I could equate it to is, uh, spraying your, spraying your cast iron pan with a little cooking spray before you fry some eggs in it.
[: [:So, it might still be pretty slushy for the beginning of the snow. But what's going to happen is when that plow comes through, it's going to get a very clean scrape. There's going to be very little residual snow and ice left on the ground, even where high traffic areas where the tires have been pressing it down into the pavement, most of that's going to scrape off.
And then once the storm is done, just a real light coat of salt or even brine again at that point. And it melts down to clear pavement. But with that technology, you're able to cut your salt usage down 30, sometimes even 40%.
[:I'm not only just from a work standpoint, but from a. Is that something you're targeting?
[:Sure. A lot of that also has to do with frivolous lawsuits, everyone wanting to protect theirself, their company, their business, their employees from that. But you really don't need that much salt to get that same effect. And with the salt brine, we've found we've been able to cut our salt usage down by 30 to 40 percent over the last five years with using the brine as well.
[: [:They're not willing to wait another 45 minutes for it to, for it to melt. Picture, uh, uh, especially these weekends going into Christmas, the busiest shopping weekends of the year. Uh, the department stores through town that we take care of. We need to, we call it like a zero, zero tolerance policy on those entryways where we want no, no ice, no snow sitting at any minute that it's a working, that the building is open so that customers can come in and out without slipping.
So there we will, I guess, technically over apply in those areas, kind of through, uh, putting extra down, knowing that there's a little more snow that's going to come to keep it bare throughout the afternoon.
[: [:It's, it's, it's simply an indicator. It's, it's a, it's a colorant. Um, and we, we've actually some years with the sidewalk salt, we've switched to white. And we've had customers tell us, we want the blue stuff back because it's more visible. People feel a little bit more safe because they can see that it's salted.
Where especially in the evening, if it's white salt, you can't see it as well. Sure. But there's blue, there's purple, there's red. You could make any color under the sun. Um, but that's all it is. It's an indicator.
[:Thank you.
[:Those things are big. We could drive over a vehicle with them. Sure. There are no second chances. Um, our operators are very cautious. We put backup cameras on everything. But we've had people sneak behind us faster than we're able to stop, and especially when you're on icy pavement, um, especially if you're walking, um, if you're walking by a truck or a piece of equipment, People have been killed because they slip and fall, and in their mind, there was plenty of time for them to walk, even though the operator may not have been able to see them, they had plenty of time to get by, but they didn't account for the extra 30 seconds or even a minute if they broke something, if they slipped and fell, that now the person backing up will have never seen you because you're laying on the ground.
Sure. So, so keeping your distance for sure, and just general patience, you know, courtesy, um, We're at work. You know, usually when people see us, they're either coming to work, leaving work, or going to a shopping store, we're at work. And it's already been a stressful day. I like to do what I can to make other people's jobs easier, you know, some of that reciprocated would be great.
[: [:So at that point, we'll start to get some guys coming in for even three, four hours. So, hey, you go, go home, take a nap, take a shower, come on back in. Yeah. If it's like a two day long storm or something like that. So that kind of helps limit the hours, and people make mistakes when they're tired, so we try and get people home before they get to that tired, uh, mistake laden point.
[: [:Mm hmm. But then at the same time, I get fired if I don't have it cleared out by seven in the morning when everyone wants to go to work. Um, so, we, as a whole, we go out when the storm is done. Uh, there's a couple larger parking lots that we have to wait till later for the cars to clear out. But in general, if it's done at 5 p.
m., we'll head out at 5 p. m. If it's done at 2 a. m., We'll head out at 2 a. m. and, and get a start, but nighttime is just so much easier. There, there's no cars to work around. It's safer. It can get done faster. It can get done better. And my customers are paying us to have their lots cleared by the time they're open.
Um, they're not, they don't want to wait until three in the afternoon to have it done.
[: [: [:Yeah,
[:And all day long, I'm driving by people shoveling out five feet of snowbanks from their, from their driveway. And sometimes I'll have a couple minutes free and I'll just clear that for them. Just to make sure. Sure. I mean, no charge, nothing, just, just because I feel bad that it's going to take them forever.
Um, um, but then other times it's, I, boy, we are already two hours behind. Yeah, if I do one, I got to do a hundred of these. Right. And so I'd have to, it, it, it, that's not the way I work. I'm wired to help people out. So it's, it's really difficult to not do that. But, but when we have time, we do.
[:Last question is, are you guys hiring now? I know it's, uh, we're. You're kind of at the start of the season. And, uh, are you guys always looking for more drivers and such?
[:We typically look at it as we don't want to lose the possibility of a good partner to be working with us over not having a spot for them.
[: [:So when we find one of those, we will actually start to structure the business around them.
[: [: : [: [: [:I'm going to go talk to Shanna right now and see if she's cool with me. Starting a Fuzz Plows the Driveway podcast. Thanks again to Aron Rodman of Extra Mile Snow Plowing in West Bend. And thank you for listening. You can find the show on all the socials, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, at Fifteen with Fuzz, or visit FifteenWithFuzz.
com. Subscribe on Spotify, Apple podcasts. Google podcasts, but pretty much everywhere that you listen to podcasts, iHeartMedia, Spreaker, GoodPods. We'll talk to you next Monday, right here on Fifteen Minutes with Fuzz.
