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If you manage commercial property in DuPage County, your snow vendor is one of the three line items that decides whether the year ends well. Bad vendor in February costs you a slip-and-fall claim, a tenant defection, and a budget overrun. Good vendor costs you 8–15% more upfront and is invisible the rest of the year.
These are the seven things we look for when we audit incumbent contracts for new clients — and the language we recommend for the next contract you sign.
They name a foreman, not a crew
A 60-employee snow operator runs five trucks. Across an event, the truck that services your lot might be three different drivers. A foreman-named contract puts a single point of contact on your lot — somebody who walks the property in October before the season starts, knows where the storm drains are, and is in the truck at 5 a.m. on the storm.
The cost difference: about 8% on the per-event price. The risk difference: a foreman-named lot has 1/4 the slip-claim rate of a crew-routed lot, in our 15-year claim history.
They run the trigger off the site, not the office
The trigger depth in the contract — 1 inch, 2 inches, whatever — has to be measured at the property, not at the dispatch office or the regional NWS station. Aurora can be at 0.7 inches when Naperville is at 1.3.
We measure with a permanent depth marker installed October 1 each year at the lot's center. Crew photographs the marker on arrival; the photo is the trigger documentation.
[!warning] If your contract reads "trigger at 1 inch accumulation" without naming where it's measured, the vendor controls the trigger. Verbal "we use the airport" or "we use NWS" doesn't bind the vendor in court.
They pre-treat for forecast events, not just plow during them
Pre-treating with brine 6–12 hours before a forecast event prevents bonding between snow and pavement. A pre-treated lot plows in 1/3 the time and 1/2 the salt. A non-pre-treated lot at the same depth requires twice the salt to break the ice bond — which costs you more in the salt line item that gets passed through.
The ROI: pre-treatment runs $0.06–$0.10 per square foot, saves $0.18–$0.30 per square foot in salt over the event. Net: 2–3× return on the pre-treat dollar.
They photo-document every pass, every time
Slip-and-fall claims surface 7–21 days after the storm. The defense is the documentation. A vendor who photo-documents each pass with a timestamp creates a record that the lot was treated to spec on the day of the incident. A vendor who doesn't is asking your insurance carrier to take their word for it.
We push our photo log to a shared Google Drive folder within 30 minutes of each pass. The PM has access from the start of the season.
They write the salt volume in pounds per acre
"Apply salt as needed" is not a contract clause — it's a billing strategy. Every legitimate vendor specifies salt volume in pounds per acre per application. Industry standard is 100 lb/acre per pass with full re-application after the storm.
If your bid says "salt included" without naming a volume, you're being upsold on every event. Pin the volume in the contract; pin the bag pickup audit twice per season; pin the price per ton at $145–$175 if the bid passes through.
They include slip-and-fall response in writing
The single most important clause: "On notification of slip incident, vendor returns to property within 24 hours to inspect, photograph, and re-treat affected area." This is the clause that holds the vendor in the loop after the event — most vendors will never come back unless they've signed it.
We've responded to 11 slip notifications in our 15-year commercial book. Eight resolved without claim because the documentation showed the lot was treated to spec at the time of the incident. The other three settled small. Without the response clause, all 11 would have ended differently.
They cap the season cost or define unlimited explicitly
Per-event pricing protects you in light winters and exposes you in heavy ones. The 2010-11 winter ran 36 events in DuPage; the 2017-18 winter ran 22. A per-event contract with a cap at 28 events transfers some of the heavy-winter risk to the vendor.
Alternative: a flat seasonal that includes "all events of all sizes" — typically 1.4× the average per-event cost × 25 events. Costs more in light winters, less in heavy.
We offer both structures and let the PM decide. Most pick the cap; a few with stable budgets pick the flat.
What to do this October
If your current snow contract is a year-to-year auto-renewal, October is the time to audit it. Walk the seven items above through your current contract. If three or more are missing or vague, you have time to RFP before the season starts.
We do free contract audits for DuPage commercial properties — a 30-minute call with the PM, a 1-page report on what's protected and what's not, and a sample contract you can use to RFP whoever you'd like (including us).
If you want our crew on the lot, request a free site walk and we'll measure the lot, sketch the priority paths, and propose a seasonal contract before October 15.
