How to Dispatch Snow Crews During a Storm

Quick answer

1. Pick the call-out time so priority sites are done before they open.
2. One route per crew, priority sites first, with a backup crew named.
3. Track progress by site, not by phone calls.
4. Rebalance when a crew falls behind or a machine goes down.
5. Keep clients informed with short, regular updates.
6. Close out: every site has a record, refreeze checks are planned, and invoices are drafted from the visits.

1. Decide when to call crews out

Work back from your deadlines. If your priority sites must be clear before they open, the call-out time is the opening time minus the route time, minus travel, minus a margin for snow that comes earlier or heavier than forecast.

Your contracts set the floor. Know each site’s trigger depth and whether de-icing has its own trigger, because a cold night with no snow may need a salting run and no plowing. Snow and de-icing are separate visits. The contract clauses guide covers triggers.

2. Give each crew one route

• Sort sites into priority tiers before the season: entrances, fire lanes and accessible parking first, then everything that must be open by business hours, then the rest.
• Cluster each route so crews don’t drive across town between sites.
• Name a backup crew for each route, and who covers when someone can’t come in.
• Give walk and shovel crews their own routes. They move at a different speed from the plows.

3. Track progress, then rebalance

During the storm, the dispatcher’s job is to know which sites are done, which are next and which crew is behind. A phone call to each crew every hour tells you less than a live picture of the routes, and it interrupts the people doing the work.

When a crew falls behind, move its lower-priority sites to a crew that is ahead, or hold them for the cleanup pass. When a machine breaks down, move the priority sites first. Keep priority sites passable with repeated passes while snow is still falling, rather than finishing one site perfectly.

4. Keep clients and crews informed

• Tell property managers when you are starting, and tell them early if you are running late. The storm communication templates have the wording.
• Set shift limits and rest before the season. Long storms run past the point where people drive safely, so plan who relieves whom.
• Keep one place where everyone sees the current plan, so nobody works from an old printout.

5. Close out the storm

1. Check that every site on every route has a completed visit with times and photos.
2. Schedule refreeze checks and follow-up de-icing for the sites that need them.
3. Note anything left undone and why: a blocked lot, a site you couldn’t reach.
4. Draft the invoices from the visits while the storm is fresh.

How Icey Software runs a storm

We make Icey Software. Weather Center shows the next 48 hours where you work, with a salting window when it is going to freeze, and a “Notify me” alert you can switch on for when the forecast crosses your snowfall trigger.

Start the storm, put a crew on each route with a click, and follow every route’s progress on the storm board. Priority sites go first, and you can optimize the stop order for traffic. The live map shows where every crew is and which stops are done.

Crews work from Field Mode on their phones. One tap opens directions in the phone’s maps app, and each visit is recorded as they work, even with no signal. Close the storm and Icey drafts invoices for the per-visit work your crews finished. Nothing goes to a client until you send it. Free forever up to 10 sites and 5 crew. Every feature.