OCEAN COUNTY – When snow blankets the area, residents hope and trust that their towns will be able to plow the roads quickly and safely, but plow companies are getting harder to find these days.
Most towns have public works or similar employees who are trained in plowing roads. When a big snowstorm is approaching, they are on call, ready to go out, paid extra for the work. The town’s vehicles are equipped with plows. Salt and sand are ready to go.
The larger the town, the more help they need. They have miles and miles of roads. They have developments that were built decades ago that weren’t designed with snow in mind. For example, there are tons of culs-de-sac in senior communities that take more time to plow.
That’s why a municipality has contracts in place with private plowing companies to do the extra work. Just like the municipal employees, the staff and equipment are on standby for the call from the town.
However, town officials are finding that there are fewer plowing companies are signing up for the work.
Part of it is that there have been fewer big snowfalls in the past several years. Whole winters have gone by without any significant snow accumulation. When there’s less work, it could stand to reason that the number of businesses able to do it would shrink. This winter might seem like an anomaly, but everyone can remember when there were multiple snowstorms a year.
“Over the last few years contractors have also been reporting financial losses as they’ve been seeing increased insurance and labor costs,” said Berkeley Township Business Administrator Jay Delaney. “They pay for insurance but with so little plowing activity they’ve been losing money.”
Lacey Township Business Administrator Veronica Laureigh said she has seen similar issues.
“It is difficult to get 3rd party contractors,” she said. “One of the reasons is the insurance costs.”
“Also the contractors can make better money plowing privately and it isn’t as intense and demanding,” she noted.
The process is that the governing body requests bids from third party contractors. They review the bids and choose which contractor(s) get the job. Recently, though, some towns have had to go out to bid several times because they are not getting the responses that they need.
“Fewer companies are doing it because their workforce isn’t as interested in plowing,” said Brick Business Administrator Joanne Bergin.
“When we out to bid the first time in 2025, it was the end of a three-year contract and we did not modify the rates from three years ago. Only one bid was received. That is nowhere near enough to cover our town when snow is four inches or more,” she explained. “So, we’re proposing to reject and re-advertise with higher rates. We developed the new rates after researching the rates paid by our neighboring municipalities and those of similar size.”
