Snow/Ice Removal - How do you do it?

I'm sure your insurance company could provide you that information. I don't think there is a perfect solution out there but lawsuits could get costly quick. There's really nothing good about snow IMO when you're talking about the transportation industry.

 

If all you are running are 6 wheelers w/20 foot beds why don't you just build pouch roof over the docks wide enough to keep the snow off of the van section and high enough for tall trailers.

If the Reed System doesn't work for you then at the gate or in an area where you can build a metal rack with a cat walk put that up and then add a pressure washer with hot water and just get on the cat walk and blow the snow off BUT use a safety harness and 1 rule: 2 people to do snow removal. You can also charge other companies to do their roofs and pull back some of the cost.

 

It's not really that high of a catwalk, I'm sure if you had someone with a harness on clean it off before hand you could make it permanent, I would hate to see it roll away with someone on top of it, if the brakes failed. And I would like to mention that OSHA states if you have a hand rail, middle rail, and toe bar along the bottom of a catwalk that harness's are'nt required, so if you built it correctly your employees would'nt need a harness.

 

We have a snow scrapper that a truck or trailer drives under and you lower the blade, the edge of the blade is rubber, to the top of the trailer and then the driver pulls forward and scraps all of the snow to the rear and onto the ground. This only takes about 2 mins with no one climbing on the roofs or cat walks. We have one at every one of our DC's and they work great. Don't know the price or name of manufacture but I will check if need be.

 

Saw one of these in a Lowes distribution in New York in summer time. Wondered about it, now it makes perfect sense.

 

I'm originally from New Brunswick in Atlantic Canada and we had this as law for several years. Our carrier had a raised catwalk at one side of the yard that you pulled up beside and pushed the snow off on the opposite side. The resulting pile got plowed away once or twice a day. Even the provincial highway scales have this setup at the back of the yard.

The why is that snow is amazingly heavy, especially if it's wet snow or packed as in a drift. As it falls/ blows it compacts and gets denser and heavier. Plus the bottom couple of inches tend to form ice which is heavier still. In snow country it's not uncommon to see big buildings with a flat or low-pitched roof have it collapse in with just the weight of built-up snow.

Fiberglass roofs suck. Look up through one (they're mostly translucent) on one with a few miles on it and you will see dozens of little cracks. Sounds like yours didn't have near enough interior bracing. It can be patched by a PROFESSIONAL but it won't be strong.

 

I pull in front of a Swift, or JB Hunt and drive real fast and leave him in a snow storm so he can call his dispatch and tell them that he can't drive because of weather conditions.

OK, I don't, but it is an Idea. LOL