Storm Checklist
iceysoftware.com/tools/storm-checklistEvent / date:
Forecast total:
Dispatcher:
Before the storm (24–48 hours out)
- Check the forecast twice a day — totals, start time, temperature curve, and whether it ends in rain or a flash freeze
- Fuel every truck; check plow hydraulics, cutting edges, lights, and strobes
- Load and test spreaders; confirm salt/brine stock covers the event plus one more
- Walk your route list — new sites, cancelled sites, changed priorities, seasonal obstacles
- Confirm every driver and shoveler by name, with report times (a silent group text is not a confirmation)
- Stage stakes, shovels, ice melt for hand crews, and spare parts (hoses, pins, a spare cutting edge)
- Send clients a heads-up: expected timing, what to move (cars, bins), and how to reach dispatch
- Charge phones and mount them; confirm everyone can see their route and log visits
During the storm (trigger to end of snowfall)
- Dispatch in priority order — emergency access and 24/7 sites first, then commercial by opening time, then residential
- Log every visit as it happens: time in/out, services done, salt down and roughly how much
- Photo-proof the tricky sites (before/after) — the ones that dispute invoices or have slip-and-fall exposure
- Re-service on the agreed cycle during long events; do not let priority sites age past their window
- Rotate drivers before fatigue does it for you — a stuck truck costs more than a rest break
- Track refreeze as temperatures drop; treated surfaces that melt and refreeze are your biggest liability window
- Keep dispatch answering — a client who reaches you does not call the next contractor on the list
After the storm (within 24 hours)
- Final pass: entrances drifted back in, plow windrows across walks, missed hand-work
- Note property damage now (turf, curbs, mailboxes) and tell the client before they find it
- Close out every visit record; chase any site with no log entry — an undocumented visit is an unbillable one
- Invoice while the storm is fresh — per-push work billed same-week gets paid
- Restock salt and fuel immediately; the next event does not wait for your supplier
- Wash equipment (salt eats trucks), and list repairs while drivers still remember the noise
- Ten-minute debrief: what ran late, which route is too long, what to fix before the next one
Tip: laminate one copy per truck and keep the master with dispatch. Anything checked off twice per storm belongs in software — that is what Icey’s storm board does.