Chelmsford offering bonuses, other incentives to recruit snowplow drivers

CHELMSFORD, Mass. — When Nathaniel Hunter started his snow removal company in 2008, he paid $900 a year for insurance coverage. This year, Hunter said insurance for his company cost around $100,000.

“I could not start my company today with this insurance environment. It’s just not feasible,” Hunter said.

Seasoned plow drivers say there are a lot of reasons fewer people want to plow snow nowadays. The high cost of insurance, fuel and equipment is a major investment, winters are naturally unpredictable so there is no guarantee of a profit, and, as Hunter pointed out, the hours are terrible.

“Oh, it’s miserable work. It really is,” Hunter said.

The statewide shortage of plow drivers is forcing towns and cities to raise their hourly rates and think outside the box to recruit drivers. The Town of Chelmsford not only raised its hourly rate to $125, it is also offering new drivers a $250 signing bonus and $250 performance bonus if they respond to 90% of the calls.

“It’s at the point now where we’ll even take an operator who doesn’t have a vehicle and even put him into our fleet of vehicles just to have extra manpower. That’s how critical it’s become at this point,” Chelmsford Town Manager Paul Cohen said. “It’s exacerbated by the lack of qualified [commercial driver’s license] operators. You’re asking somebody to commit for a season and you don’t know if it’s going to be a dry or a stormy winter.”

Hunter believes local communities need to offer more cash if they really want to entice quality drivers.

“For the towns to attract good sub-contractors, there has to be more money in it. There has to be either more money or guarantees of minimums so people can make their payments and know they’re going to be making a profit because who wants to be up all night plowing snow if you’re not making money?” Hunter said.

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