heading home from work this evening I saw a dozen trucks in seperate crews of 3-4 trucks each on both sides of the road plowing nothing. Not sanding but plowing more sparks than flakes.
Reminded me of the D&D comercial last year.
My neighbor shoveled 1" of accumulation early this am only to have the plow guy come by and make the pass.
I can't believe the over reaction over a dusting of snow.

In Big Dig form here in Mass the waste is pathetic.

 

Must be a newly elected governor living in the area. I bet a lot of your roads get fixed in the summer.

 

our snow plow guys went on strike and wouldn't salt the streets downtown.. liquor store people are on strike too.. they always pick christmas to make a fuss

 

seen that around here too, they drop the blade way too early, and out cruising when it isn't even snowing...

 

I operate a combination Plow,Salter and calcium cloride unit in Central Ont. for a contract company that plows the highways for the MTO.

The MTO Patrolman is the man who determines when the plows etc. are called and they are certainly not blowing their budget calling us out to plow nothing here.

I am sometimes out laying down a C.C. spray on the pavement when the weather conditions and temperature are right before it snows but never dragging any iron when on this mission .

The biggest complaint we hear from the public around here is that they are not calling us out soon enough .

The second is from the idiots that can not get past us when we are trying to clean the roads at 50 kmh when our longest runs on the 4 lanes is 9 Km before we pull off and turn around .

We have already had 2 plows hit this season so far on our beat as if these people think we will relish taking the memory of their brains splattered on our
trucks home with us at night .

Most drivers are very patient and accomodating to these big clumsy pieces of machinery on the highway with enough lights on them to leave little doubt what is going on , it is only the few meatheads out there that cause the problems and do not realize we have a set routine that is not altered if they want past .

I guess they do not also realize that the only way one can hit a snow plow and be in the right is if it pulls out in front of them at a stop sign . In all other circumstance the plow has the right of way .

Have a great Christmas everyone and drive alive . I'll try to keep the roads open till the fat lady sings .

 

not easy running one of them things. have friends that do it for a living. must be a tough nite on the wheel after an 8 or 10 hour shift,getting thrown all over the road fighting snow banks, let alone stupid drivers. a big thanks to jerry, and all the guys out there trying to make the roads better for us all.

 

I'll add a second on that thank you!!

You guys all realize there are one heck of a lot of unsung heros out there, who work the strangest hours and do some pretty heavy duty jobs in the public service. In my opinion, the good workers among them never get the thanks and appreciation they deserve. Now's a good time to start ..... when you see or hear of a public servant doing a good job ... say thanks and smile.

 

> In all other circumstance the plow has the right of way .

Anything 15x bigger then you with a 1000 pound blade/bumper always has the right of way

See the latest thing now, plow trucks now have these 10 foot shock absorber things on the back so idiots that rear end them do not kill themselves.

 

Hey Jerry! You guys are my HEROES! I picked my property on a provincial highway specifically so I could hear you guys going by my bedroom window at 4am on a snowy morning and knowing I could sleep in and still make it to work on time.

I remember growing up just to the west of TO and seeing the four or five plows staggered-abreast on the 401 -- I still tell my friends in BC how cool the plow crews in S.Ontario are. There are lots of people who really appreciate what you guys do and wouldn't think of trying to tell you how to do your job better/earlier/faster, etc.

Merry Christmas to all the plow crews/sand trucks and guys who make our winters safer!

 

Although I feel the locals are out too much and drop their blade for times they shouldn't I certainly appreciate the fact they are out there. It isn't an easy job, and I know all too well the number of idiots that are out there, and snow seems to make it worse. Around in this neck of the woods, they don't pretreat the roads, and I have seen them out when the sky was clear. I got home at around 2 AM after popping a tire on my trailer, and they were out that night, had snow well to the north, but our area had clear skies. Out in South Dakota, the plow operators had to pay for excessive blade wear out of their own check, so of course they didn't drop anymore than they had to. I've seen them locally plowing when the road was melting clear, and the road was already passable. Just different ways for different area I suppose, but just seems they are a little overzealous here, to me.

 

It rained here in Omaha Nebraska for 3 hours today and it froze into ice. All the roads are ice rinks. I was driving home and the ice was every where the plows where out speading the salt and sand to help out. Im glad that the plows do what they do. The only complaint is the salt on my truck but its nothing a good car wash cant fix.

 

i plow for the State of Mass. didn't hear hide nor hair of being called out to plow yesterdays flurry.

 

anyone have any idea how to stop the plow on my truck from jumpng up,, f 250 I put a new blade on this yeat and it is diging right in.. if i raise my snow skies more with moe spacers will this help. I mad my own blade this year it near 1/2 inch thick and maybe a bit wider.. what will help

 

fellro86 : I do not know why your locals would be out dragging the iron on bare roads and they do not pre-wet . We are required to plow on pavement when the salt has exhausted itself before completely melting any hard pack . We strip the slush and re salt to strip again but never on bone bare .


The plows on contract to the Gov. make the same money for the contractor if they are sitting in the yard plugged in untill they go over a set amount of hours then there is an hourly rate added to the day rate .

If the contractor had his way they would never be out as there is no fuel and wages to pay when they sit just stand by pay . The MTO Patrolmen are the ones who decide when we get called and what we are doing .

They have such a stringent set of regulations as to what we can and can not do most people do not understand what we do half the time and some of the regulations are a mystery even to me .

When plowing the secondary highways I always liked to push the banks back far enough that the Mailman can pull up to the boxes and deliver without getting out of the wagon . In this part of the province this is now a no, no as
we have to drop the toe of our slusher on the center line and the wing is set at the legal shoulder length . This is where they want the banks to keep anyone that loses control out of the bush or rock cuts .

I still lift my wing at the newley cleaned drive ways and the ones I know are seniors so as not to refill them when they have cleaned them out between my passes . So far I have not heard any flack on this practise but I'll bet it is coming sooner or later .

The $500.00 days on the holidays are certainly nice but the satisfaction of knowing that many people made it home for Christmas without incident or having to fight the highway conditions is a Christmas gift in itself .

I know when I lived and worked 250 Mi from home in the snow belt of this province I sure appreciated the highways being clear enough to get home to visit no matter what hit us over the Holidays . Not much ever was a threat for the ole' 78 F150 4X4 with 12.5X36 mudders and a 4" lift any way but it was still a much nicer drive on the cleared roads .

 

You are right, it may be more of an administration thing than the operators, I would sooner say that is the most likely. Unfortunately, the guys who have to actually do the work get the bad rap when it may be those that get to stay home and sleep that make the decisions.