How many driveways can you plow in a storm? Plan the route by the clock

With six hours to plow, you could finish 27 driveways at 13 minutes each, or 14 at 25 minutes each. To work out how many driveways you can plow in a storm, time your own stops and the drives between them. Then check when you’ve promised to finish each address. A route average won’t tell you whether you’ll reach an early customer on time.

Don’t borrow another truck’s count

Four operators in a 2014 PlowSite thread gave enough detail to compare their routes:

Drives	Time per storm	What that operator reported
12	2.5 to 4.5 hours	Four small towns and about 35 miles of driving
15	1 hour 10 minutes	Within roughly a quarter mile, no shoveling
About 60	About 8 hours	Tight route, long drives, V-plow, no walks
29	4.5 hours with a shoveler, 5.5 without	Walks at some of the stops

The first route took roughly 12 to 23 minutes per drive. The quarter-mile route took less than five minutes per drive. Neither tells you how long your own driveways will take if you also clear walks and steps.

Set a finish time before taking more work

Decide when the last driveway must be done. If you start clearing while it’s still snowing, write down when your service window starts and what a return visit covers. Don’t promise everyone the same early departure time if one truck cannot reach them all.

Some customers leave before the rest. Put those stops at the beginning, then check the promised time at each one as well as at the end of the route. Leave room for refueling, a blocked drive or a slower pass, and set a limit you can work safely.

Log the drive and the work separately

At each stop, note when you arrive and leave. Record the drive from the previous stop and whether you cleared walks or had to make another pass. Time the whole route, from your starting point through the last stop. If you count only the minutes you spend plowing, you’ll miss the travel time.

If you have no route logs yet, time the travel between planned addresses and use cautious on-site times from drives you’ve cleared. After your first run, replace estimates with your own clocked minutes. Keep separate totals for runs that needed another pass, and don’t set your ceiling from one easy run.

Calculate a cap, then test the order

Start with the time from leaving your yard until the last stop must be done. Set aside time for delays, then divide the minutes left by your average time per driveway, including travel. Round down. For example, suppose you have six hours left after setting aside time for delays. Each driveway takes ten minutes to clear:

	Close together	Spread out
Minutes on site	10	10
Minutes driving from previous stop	3	15
Total minutes per stop	13	25
Drives in six hours, rounded down	27	14

The table counts travel to the first drive as one trip. If that trip takes longer than the others, take the extra minutes off your six hours before dividing. Leave some time open even if the math says you can fit another drive.

Now check when each customer needs the driveway cleared. Suppose you leave the yard at 2 a.m. Customer 14 needs to leave at 5 a.m. If the drive between each stop takes three minutes and clearing each driveway takes ten, you’ll finish customer 14 around 5:02. The whole route still fits in six hours, but you missed that customer’s deadline. Move the stop earlier and recalculate the travel time. Leave room for delays, then check each deadline using your own route times.

Time a slower run too, including any second pass. Your route limit is the smaller number: what fits in the full work window or what lets you meet each customer’s deadline. If your run times vary a lot, use the slower run when you set the service terms.

See the snow plowing pricing guide before agreeing to extra visits; it shows what to put in the service terms and how to charge for truck time.

Fit a new drive into the actual route

Time the route with and without the new address. A driveway next door may add mostly plowing time. One outside your area adds travel both ways. If the new route misses a deadline, turn down the work or offer a later time you can meet. At renewal, consider replacing a faraway stop with one closer to the route.

Copy your stop list and place the new driveway where you’d actually serve it. Count the time to reach it and the drive from there to the next stop. Compare the new finish time with the old one. The trip from the nearest driveway alone misses the next leg. If you’d have to make a separate trip to that street, include the drive back to your main route.

RouteLeads shows driveway shape and size on the streets you choose. Use it to pick which drives to walk before adding them to your stop list. The snow plowing customers guide covers what to say at the door. The route density guide covers the cost of repeated detours.

Decide what is slowing the truck down

If you routinely miss your window, find out where the minutes go before adding a truck. Walks may need a shoveler; one operator’s account above shows why it’s worth timing that labor. A spread-out route may need to be split into separate areas.

Price a helper against the walk time you’ve logged. For a second truck, divide the stops by streets and run the timing again for each driver. Keep backup equipment or a sub available; a broken truck can hold up the entire route regardless of how tidy it looks on a map.

Before assigning a second truck, draw two routes. Give each driver the stops on one side of the split, and count the drive from each starting point. If both trucks still cross town to reach their last stops, a second truck won’t solve the travel problem. Before the first storm, ask another operator which of your stops they could cover if your equipment fails.