Aron Rodman, the owner and president of Extra Mile Snow Plowing in West Bend, Wis., joins me this week to answer a bunch of questions that people often have regarding snow removal. Aron also tells us a really cool story about a surprise he once found while out plowing in West Bend.
I am geeking out! I promise that even though the topic of this week’s episode is a “chore” for some people, it is a really fun and interesting show. In fact, we went about 5 minutes long!
[00:00:00] Fuzz Martin: Thanks for tuning into Fifteen Minutes with Fuzz. I have to admit something to you when it comes to two things in life, snow removal and lawn care. I completely geek out. Like a lot. I promise you this episode is going to be interesting to you. Even if you aren’t a snow and grass nerd like me, even if you hate snow removal and lawn mowing like some do.
And I understand, um, you will like this episode. I promise. Aron Rodman, the owner and president of Extra Mile Snow Plowing in West Bend joins me this week to talk snow plowing. We tackle questions like, Why did I get plowed in? And, Why is there so much salt on the ground? And, Can you come plow my driveway?
Uh, it was a lot of fun. I went over by like five minutes, but I won’t charge you for it. Without any more introduction. Here’s Aron Rodman of Extra Mile Snowplowing on 20, on 15 Minutes with Fuzz.
All right. So Aron, let’s talk a little bit about the background on you and Extra Mile. How long has Extra Mile Snowplowing been in business?
[00:01:29] Aron Rodman: Uh, so Extra Mile Snowplowing has been in business about Ten years prior to that, it was extra mile landscaping. Okay. And we did a little mix of both, but for the last 10 years, the focus has been getting to pretty much snow only.
And we’ve been there for about five years.
[00:01:42] Fuzz Martin: So during the summer time and all that stuff you’re working on getting ready for the winter.
[00:01:47] Aron Rodman: Yeah. It’s very much like a farmer. You got, um, you know, the farmers are not sitting around doing nothing all winter. They got all their broken stuff from the summer to fix up lots of planning, planning, getting their seeds together.
No sitting around. They’ve still got 40 plus hours a week. West Bend, Kewaskum,
[00:02:03] Fuzz Martin: Slinger, West Bend, Kewaskum,
[00:02:06] Aron Rodman: Slinger, West
[00:02:07] Fuzz Martin: Bend, Kewaskum, Slinger, Kewaskum,
[00:02:11] Aron Rodman: Uh, we’ve got one of the greatest service areas in the industry. We only cover West Bend. Oh, really? Okay. Yeah, probably about a five mile radius of downtown West Bend.
[00:02:19] Fuzz Martin: Oh, excellent. Okay, so real tight. You can control, uh, travel distance and all that stuff, so.
[00:02:24] Aron Rodman: Yeah, we, we don’t even trailer our machines. Everything’s just driven from site to site. We use very few trucks because everything’s close enough that we can get loaders and skid loaders just right next door to the place they’re already doing.
Oh,
[00:02:35] Fuzz Martin: sure. Yeah, that makes sense. And then, so do you, uh, Only do commercial lots or do you also do residential stuff?
[00:02:40] Aron Rodman: Uh, we do some residential, uh, as far as like single family houses. We got a couple routes that are pretty much from about 18th Avenue West, kind of around the lakes and some of those we’ve had for almost 20 years.
Okay. And we really enjoy doing those, but the majority of our work, probably about 98 percent of it is commercial with a couple of condo associations and homeowner associations mixed in there.
[00:03:01] Fuzz Martin: Um, a lot of times, if you’re in the West Bend area, you’ll see a big, uh, plow laying in a parking lot during the winter with X TRIAL logo on the side.
Um, for the listeners, why do you leave those plows there?
[00:03:14] Aron Rodman: Oh, yeah, it’s, it’s, uh, honestly, it’s strictly for convenience sake, um, rather than have all of them start at our shop on the south end of town, then have to drive all the way to the north end of town, operator shows up right there, he’s ready to start plowing within about five minutes after the engine warms up.
And, uh, just store it right on site.
[00:03:32] Fuzz Martin: How did you get started doing this?
[00:03:33] Aron Rodman: I got started with a, uh, 21 inch Murray lawnmower that I had bought from Fleet Farm for doing my own house with. I had another job and I was mowing some lawns on the side. People would say, Hey, do you know how to do this kind of landscaping?
And I’d say, I think I can figure it out. And this was before Google. So I would go to the library, get a book, read how to do it. Or go to Home Depot, buy a how to book, read it, and yeah, I can figure that out. And it’s just, people kept asking, can you do this, can you do that, but I always liked the snow plowing.
Sure. Um, initially we couldn’t even afford a truck with a snow plow. So for the first several years, actually my wife and I initially, would uh, snowblow some small parking lots and a bunch of houses. We had a couple larger parking lots that we would subcontract someone else to plow and then we would do all the handwork and use a push salter to get it cleared up and eventually we were able to buy.
A truck and it kind of just kept growing from there.
[00:04:27] Fuzz Martin: How many people now work for you? It
[00:04:30] Aron Rodman: varies pretty substantially throughout the year. Okay. Year round, we have five full time and two part time guys. Okay. But in season, for us, which would be winter, we run 50 guys every storm. Oh, really? Okay. Guys and gals.
[00:04:42] Fuzz Martin: Yeah, yeah. Uh, runnin trucks and skid loaders and wheel loaders and
[00:04:46] Aron Rodman: stuff. Yeah, those big loaders you see in the parking lots, the skid loaders. We got some mid sized ones. We just picked up one that has a 24 foot plow. That’s, we can’t wait to try that thing out. Sure. We’re still kids in that way. Are you
[00:04:58] Fuzz Martin: doing the airport or?
No, no, the
[00:05:00] Aron Rodman: parks department does the airport. We used to do the National Guard. It would have been nice out there. But parks department does that too, I believe. Um, but then, then we have a lot of half ton pickup trucks running around, some red and white ones you might see throughout town. Uh, usually I have two or three people in there to do all the shoveling and snow blowing around the, around the buildings and get it so that people can walk in without slipping.
[00:05:19] Fuzz Martin: Yeah, very good. And then, uh, what is it that you love about your career?
[00:05:24] Aron Rodman: I like the difference. Um, even when I was, uh, how it’s different so often, even when I was landscaping, right around the time I’d be starting to get bored, it was time to move on to another project. Uh, with this, every storm is different.
Um, it’s my job ends up being very much like a coach or like a, uh, I have a small background in some incident command training, just very little, but this is very similar in a lot of ways. Um, we have, uh, foremen who oversee different, different guys on the routes and different sections of town. And, uh, everyone needs to communicate with the kind of right, uh, chain of command, or it just ends up being a big mess.
Uh, one of the things that draws people to our company as, as an employee, I think, is that we are a little more organized and things aren’t as scattershot as with some other companies. And, and for that reason, we kind of use an incident command system. I, and I, I, I enjoy that. And I, I enjoy the challenge.
Um. Other companies dread having a one foot or 18 inch snowfall. Sure. I dream about it. I can’t wait. I mean, just about anyone can plow an inch and a half of snow and get it done for you on seven in the morning. Uh, but when we get six, eight, ten foot of wet, heavy snow, that’s where we really stand head and shoulders above the competition.
And I, I love driving through town and saying, look at those lots. They look awesome. Those are ours. Ooh, those ones over there, they must’ve hired
[00:06:43] Fuzz Martin: somebody else. Sure. Yeah, that definitely. And, um, I think those big ones. So I plowed when I was a kid, but I still tell the story of some of those events. And I think, I think it’s partially that, um, I mean, even though it’s, it’s challenging and there’s stuff to overcome, you still make those stories during those events.
Like I remember New Year’s Eve of the year 2000, when we got hit with like 30 inches of snow, I remember that was crazy and it was fun and it was awesome. And, uh, that’s great. So what would be. Your craziest behind the plow story that you could tell.
[00:07:14] Aron Rodman: Um, crazy is a pretty relative term. We’ve got some where I’ve gotten injured and smacked my face in the windshield.
Or, uh, I had a, as we’re driving down the road with a, with a payloader, it, it caught a little manhole cover and ended up twisting the entire machine and all the, every piece of glass on the machine imploded onto me. But my favorite one, it’s really not that crazy, it was on, uh, Second Avenue, right behind the Amity Apartments, we used to plow those, and the, uh, the city had not plowed the road behind it yet, and there was a car stuck in about a foot of snow, and I went back there just to give them some help.
I kind of pulled around the car. Plowed Elaine so they could get out and then went behind them, gave a little push, they got onto the cleared area and just went up to the window to say hi. Have a nice day. Yeah. And uh, there’s, there’s a husband, real young husband and wife, and a brand new baby, like, uh, two days old.
Okay. In, in the back. And the lady looks up at me, she says, I swear you’re an angel. I mean, obviously not an angel, but she, she’s just, she’s like, we were on our way home from the hospital. We just, we haven’t even made it home yet. And we’re stuck in the street, brand new baby, didn’t know what to do. And then all of a sudden we look up and this guy in a truck’s, Clearing us out, gives us a push, and that, in the 20 years I’ve been doing it, that’s, that’s probably, it’s not crazy, but it’s my favorite,
[00:08:39] Fuzz Martin: I haven’t forgotten it.
No, that’s a great story. That’s a great story. That, uh, I, I was holding my breath thinking that you were going to say she was in labor. No, no,
[00:08:47] Aron Rodman: no, no, no, but actually now that I think of it, you know, this is probably at least 15, maybe 17 years ago, um, you know, that kid might be listening, or maybe the mom is?
I don’t
[00:08:55] Fuzz Martin: know. Yeah, totally, totally. I have no clue who it was. It’s crazy. Um, they named the baby Aron. I don’t think we got that far in the conversation. They named that baby Extra Mile. Um, so, talking about plowing and stuff, um, a lot of people have questions and maybe those who haven’t had the experience of plowing or sitting behind the wheel and knowing kind of the stress and the strategy of snow plowing.
I wanted to talk about a few of the questions that listeners might have, or maybe even some tips that might help them out. So like if you live in an apartment or condo or work at a company with a big parking lot, Where’s the best place to park during a snow event?
[00:09:37] Aron Rodman: Probably even more important than knowing where the best place to park is, is knowing where the worst place to park is.
Yes, yes. But uh, um, the best place to park would be if there’s a bank of parking stalls that’s already plowed out, go park in there. Um, some of the really bad places to park are right in front of the machine as it’s moving. We see that all the time. Uh, right in front of the big snow pile where it’s obvious that that’s where we push the snow.
Um, you know, if you have the ability, most apartment complexes don’t. If you’re able, if the city street has already been plowed and you can park over there, uh, that opens up the lot and we’re able to get your spot quite a bit better. We have times where. It’s a little confusing because we’re there plowing, some cars pull out, and before we can even get there to plow those spots, people just pull right back onto those unplowed spots instead of the 30 plowed spots that are 20 feet over, so, you know, that helps us out too if you’re able to keep the unplowed areas open.
[00:10:35] Fuzz Martin: Sure, yeah, and I think, uh, parking as close to the other cars too as possible so you can make a clean pass instead of having to
[00:10:42] Aron Rodman: plow between. Yep, that’d be a good one as well if people can kind of park in tight groups and then as soon as we plow, as soon as we, uh, You know, usually what ends up happening is there’s two cars that are making it so I can’t decently plow half of a parking lot.
And so I spend an extra half hour plowing around them, and then I finish, and they’re like, Oh, hey, we’re going to come help you, and they’ll move their cars to the other side. But it’s kind of too late, you know, so. But in their defense, you know, I’m guessing they were probably waiting until we were done and wanted to be safe around the equipment and whatnot.
So, it It goes with the territory. It’s rare we’re going to get a wide open, clear parking lot and I’m always going to have to work around something. Yeah,
[00:11:18] Fuzz Martin: it’s always kind of a bit of a, uh, it’s art while you’re working in that. It’s an extra challenge. Keeps it from getting boring. Exactly. Commercial companies typically don’t plow municipal roads and things like that, but for those who do get plowed in, why do people get plowed in?
[00:11:33] Aron Rodman: Well, we don’t do much municipal plowing again. So, um, but just thinking
[00:11:37] Fuzz Martin: from a,
[00:11:38] Aron Rodman: as I drive down the streets in West Bend and see cars plowed in, it’s probably cause you didn’t move to the correct side of the street that evening. Yeah. Um, that, that’s usually, there, there’s a couple areas where there’s just no, sometimes you have your choice in the machine.
If you’re going to plow to the left or to the right. Sometimes you don’t have an option or someone’s going to get plowed in on either side. Sure. Some of it really is just living in Wisconsin. But I mean, if you’re able to pull your car up into a driveway or, you know, follow this, follow the times. Um, I, as a company, we don’t plow anyone in.
We’ve had some customers tell us in like apartment complexes, if these cars don’t move, I’ve got this fear that someday I’m going to plow someone in and it’s going to be the night they went into labor to have a baby or there’s an emergency and they couldn’t get out. So I, we just work around them. It is what it is.
[00:12:28] Fuzz Martin: Yeah. Yeah. So speaking of municipal again, uh, and you might do this too. I don’t know if you’re, you’re using liquids, but there you sometimes you’ll see the city or the County. Spring stuff down on the road ahead of the snow. What is that and why do they do that? Sure.
[00:12:41] Aron Rodman: I’m glad you asked that actually. We, uh, we’re actually just finishing up about a five year implementation plan that we had.
So we are using liquids now and we’ve got about 100, 000 invested into it. We make our own brine. Uh, formulate it chemically and whatnot. And, uh, kind of what that is, is to some extent the way of the future for snow removal. The best thing I could equate it to is, uh, spraying your, spraying your cast iron pan with a little cooking spray before you fry some eggs in it.
[00:13:09] Fuzz Martin: Sure.
[00:13:09] Aron Rodman: You can cook those eggs and it’s going to be a whole lot easier to clean that pan up afterwards. The brine itself, it will melt a little bit of snow. But, not to the extent where if you dumped a whole lot of rock salt on there, what it really does is it keeps the ice inside the snow, those ice crystals, from bonding with the pavement.
So, it might still be pretty slushy for the beginning of the snow. But what’s going to happen is when that plow comes through, it’s going to get a very clean scrape. There’s going to be very little residual snow and ice left on the ground, even where high traffic areas where the tires have been pressing it down into the pavement, most of that’s going to scrape off.
And then once the storm is done, just a real light coat of salt or even brine again at that point. And it melts down to clear pavement. But with that technology, you’re able to cut your salt usage down 30, sometimes even 40%.
[00:13:58] Fuzz Martin: Yup. And then, uh, that means there’s that much less salt going on the ground as well, too.
I’m not only just from a work standpoint, but from a. Is that something you’re targeting?
[00:14:08] Aron Rodman: In parts of the state, you can kind of put salt in the environment quite a bit more than you can cut it down? For clarity here, bit um, um, You And, you know, traditionally, it’s been the thought with SALT, if a little’s good, a lot is better, and people would over apply, you know, you get some parking lots where it pretty much crunches as you walk in.
Sure. A lot of that also has to do with frivolous lawsuits, everyone wanting to protect theirself, their company, their business, their employees from that. But you really don’t need that much salt to get that same effect. And with the salt brine, we’ve found we’ve been able to cut our salt usage down by 30 to 40 percent over the last five years with using the brine as well.
[00:14:53] Fuzz Martin: Yeah, that’s excellent. Uh, that led to another question of why do you put so much salt down on, on, uh, driveways and sidewalks?
[00:15:00] Aron Rodman: Yeah. Yeah. Well, and the real answer on that is because we don’t want anyone to slip and fall. Yep. Our customer especially doesn’t want anyone to And when you see a really heavy coding, it’s because they don’t want someone to slip and fall immediately.
They’re not willing to wait another 45 minutes for it to, for it to melt. Picture, uh, uh, especially these weekends going into Christmas, the busiest shopping weekends of the year. Uh, the department stores through town that we take care of. We need to, we call it like a zero, zero tolerance policy on those entryways where we want no, no ice, no snow sitting at any minute that it’s a working, that the building is open so that customers can come in and out without slipping.
So there we will, I guess, technically over apply in those areas, kind of through, uh, putting extra down, knowing that there’s a little more snow that’s going to come to keep it bare throughout the afternoon.
[00:15:53] Fuzz Martin: Sure. Yeah. And, uh, is it true also that that’s why some salt is blue?
[00:15:57] Aron Rodman: Oh, uh, no. So all that, that blue does not do anything for the melting.
It’s, it’s, it’s simply an indicator. It’s, it’s a, it’s a colorant. Um, and we, we’ve actually some years with the sidewalk salt, we’ve switched to white. And we’ve had customers tell us, we want the blue stuff back because it’s more visible. People feel a little bit more safe because they can see that it’s salted.
Where especially in the evening, if it’s white salt, you can’t see it as well. Sure. But there’s blue, there’s purple, there’s red. You could make any color under the sun. Um, but that’s all it is. It’s an indicator.
[00:16:28] Fuzz Martin: Gotcha. Okay, great. Last couple questions. What are some of the biggest things people can do to be safe around snow plows during a snowstorm?
Thank you.
[00:16:35] Aron Rodman: Well, if I had to pick my top three, it would be distance, distance, and more distance. You know, most of our, most of our equipment and trucks, they’re, they’re big, yellow, red, flashing lights, loud backup alarms. Yet every storm we have people sneaking by with less than a foot of clearance around us.
Those things are big. We could drive over a vehicle with them. Sure. There are no second chances. Um, our operators are very cautious. We put backup cameras on everything. But we’ve had people sneak behind us faster than we’re able to stop, and especially when you’re on icy pavement, um, especially if you’re walking, um, if you’re walking by a truck or a piece of equipment, People have been killed because they slip and fall, and in their mind, there was plenty of time for them to walk, even though the operator may not have been able to see them, they had plenty of time to get by, but they didn’t account for the extra 30 seconds or even a minute if they broke something, if they slipped and fell, that now the person backing up will have never seen you because you’re laying on the ground.
Sure. So, so keeping your distance for sure, and just general patience, you know, courtesy, um, We’re at work. You know, usually when people see us, they’re either coming to work, leaving work, or going to a shopping store, we’re at work. And it’s already been a stressful day. I like to do what I can to make other people’s jobs easier, you know, some of that reciprocated would be great.
[00:17:56] Fuzz Martin: Yeah, absolutely. Uh, and a lot of times, if it’s been snowing all day, that can be a, you know, a big deal. You guys have been behind the wheel for a long time and it’s hard work.
[00:18:05] Aron Rodman: Yeah, we have a lot of great backups and even retired guys that’ll help us out. So we try and limit our time to around 14 hours.
So at that point, we’ll start to get some guys coming in for even three, four hours. So, hey, you go, go home, take a nap, take a shower, come on back in. Yeah. If it’s like a two day long storm or something like that. So that kind of helps limit the hours, and people make mistakes when they’re tired, so we try and get people home before they get to that tired, uh, mistake laden point.
[00:18:32] Fuzz Martin: Uh, speaking of working late, another question I’d often hear is, why are you guys plowing the driveway in the middle of the night?
[00:18:40] Aron Rodman: Yeah, that’s a good one. We’ve had more times than I can count, we’ve had people call the police on us because a snowblower is waking them up in their condo, or a backup alarm.
Mm hmm. But then at the same time, I get fired if I don’t have it cleared out by seven in the morning when everyone wants to go to work. Um, so, we, as a whole, we go out when the storm is done. Uh, there’s a couple larger parking lots that we have to wait till later for the cars to clear out. But in general, if it’s done at 5 p.
m., we’ll head out at 5 p. m. If it’s done at 2 a. m., We’ll head out at 2 a. m. and, and get a start, but nighttime is just so much easier. There, there’s no cars to work around. It’s safer. It can get done faster. It can get done better. And my customers are paying us to have their lots cleared by the time they’re open.
Um, they’re not, they don’t want to wait until three in the afternoon to have it done.
[00:19:26] Fuzz Martin: Yeah, absolutely. And then, uh, final question is, uh, Hey, can you come plow my driveway? ?
[00:19:31] Aron Rodman: Where do you live? Are you anywhere near one of me or our guys? We can, uh, we can swing through, do something for you,
[00:19:36] Fuzz Martin: but from, but from that perspective, um, when your guys are out plowing, I know a lot of times they probably get hit up to come, uh, can you come do my driveway?
Yeah,
[00:19:44] Aron Rodman: we’ll pay you . Uh, and occasionally we can. Okay. Um, some, some of our equipment is just way too big to even fit on a, on a, on a driveway or to not destroy it because of the weight of it. Um, but, in all honesty, one of the hardest things with snow plowing when we get these really heavy storms. is knowing we have this whole list of places that have to get done in X amount of time.
And all day long, I’m driving by people shoveling out five feet of snowbanks from their, from their driveway. And sometimes I’ll have a couple minutes free and I’ll just clear that for them. Just to make sure. Sure. I mean, no charge, nothing, just, just because I feel bad that it’s going to take them forever.
Um, um, but then other times it’s, I, boy, we are already two hours behind. Yeah, if I do one, I got to do a hundred of these. Right. And so I’d have to, it, it, it, that’s not the way I work. I’m wired to help people out. So it’s, it’s really difficult to not do that. But, but when we have time, we do.
[00:20:38] Fuzz Martin: No, that’s great.
Last question is, are you guys hiring now? I know it’s, uh, we’re. You’re kind of at the start of the season. And, uh, are you guys always looking for more drivers and such?
[00:20:49] Aron Rodman: Yeah, I would say we are always hiring. If you came to us as a very qualified individual and we were booked up and didn’t need anybody, We wouldn’t make a spot for you, whether it’s adding a new vehicle or, uh, or promoting someone else for you to get their spot.
We typically look at it as we don’t want to lose the possibility of a good partner to be working with us over not having a spot for them.
[00:21:13] Fuzz Martin: Sure.
[00:21:14] Aron Rodman: People are so much harder to come by than equipment. I mean this year alone, we bought 10 or 12 new Caterpillar loaders. That’s easy. We call them, we get a loan from the bank, we sign some paperwork, To find 10 or 12 real, energetic, dedicated, and safe individuals, uh, that’s, that’s a whole lot harder.
So when we find one of those, we will actually start to structure the business around them.
[00:21:37] Fuzz Martin: Excellent. And if somebody wanted to get in touch with you for that, what’s the best way to do so? Oh,
[00:21:40] Aron Rodman: yeah. Um, well, if you go to our website, it’s extramilesnow. com. Uh, on the, on the top, uh, I think top left, there’s a button you can click.
Click that says, join our team. And there’s a real short application you can fill out there. A real simple, we kind of shorten it down to like half a page and you can do that. Uh, you call us at 262 334 3011, but, uh, that’s eventually going to get you back to having to fill out that application anyway. Sure.
[00:22:05] Fuzz Martin: Certainly. Uh, excellent. Well, Aron, I appreciate you coming on and I hope you have a safe and profitable season and, uh, Have a happy holidays. Well,
[00:22:13] Aron Rodman: thank you. Thank you much.
[00:22:16] Fuzz Martin: So could he tell I could do a whole nother podcast? Ooh, that’s a good idea. It’s about snow plowing, mowing lawns, killing weeds. All right.
I’m going to go talk to Shanna right now and see if she’s cool with me. Starting a Fuzz Plows the Driveway podcast. Thanks again to Aron Rodman of Extra Mile Snow Plowing in West Bend. And thank you for listening. You can find the show on all the socials, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, at Fifteen with Fuzz, or visit FifteenWithFuzz.
com. Subscribe on Spotify, Apple podcasts. Google podcasts, but pretty much everywhere that you listen to podcasts, iHeartMedia, Spreaker, GoodPods. We’ll talk to you next Monday, right here on Fifteen Minutes with Fuzz.
