There’s no business like snow business, and now there’s an app for that.
It’s called SnowJob, and it will provide Sudburians with the best prices to have their driveway cleared without having to sign a contract for an entire winter.
With the SnowJob app, you will be able to request snow clearing services when and where you want, said James Caicco, SnowJob partner. Enter the address of the driveway to be cleaned and select your driveway surface and size. This will allow providers to bid on your driveway and you will have the option to select or reject any bid. If you accept a bid, a provider will arrive and clear the snow from the driveway.
“It’s very similar to an Uber-style app, where you’re connecting someone who wants the service with someone who wants to provide that service,” Caicco said.
When you want your driveway done, you put in your request, and there’s a pool of service providers who have 20 minutes to bid on the job, he said. The app will give the best price for three different methods, “because some people prefer having their driveways cleared in different ways, while some are indifferent.”
Customers are provided the best prices and ratings for a plow, a snowblower and a shovel,” Caicco said.
“We tested it in Sault Ste. Marie last winter, and we got a great response,” he said. “We facilitated about 300 driveways. To me, it was a success.”
Caicco said he used the app to have his mother-in-law’s driveway cleared. She lives across town. The service providers send a photo of the cleared driveway after they are done.
“It’s convenient for your own driveway, or if you’re out of town, or if you’re responsible for someone else’s driveway,” he said. “There are a lot of applications for it.”
His team has tweaked the app since then, and now they are launching it throughout the rest of Northern Ontario including Sudbury, North Bay, Timmins and Elliot Lake.
“We want to get it down to a really reliable, efficient app before we launch it even further,” he said.
Right now, Caicco said his team is focusing on getting a good supply of providers before the snow flies, so it’s ready when the requests start coming in.
In the Soo, they had about 45 providers ranging from students trying to make extra money to professional snow contractors looking for more work.
“We had a great cross section of providers, and at the end of the day, it’s the consumer who benefits, because this process gets them the best price to get the driveway done when they want it done,” he said.
Once the customer agrees on a quote, the service provider has three hours to get the job done.
“We might customize that per market,” Caicco said. “If we find that’s too long of a wait, we can tighten it, and if we find the providers are having too difficult a time getting it done in that time, then we could lengthen it. We will feel it out in each market.”
The app has only launched in Sudbury this week, and already SnowJob is starting to get providers, Caicco said. They plan to advertise the service for the winter, and are expecting a lot of interest from providers.
“We’re really happy with it and we’re excited to be coming to Sudbury,” he said.
The app is a free download on the Apple App store and on Google Play. You can sign up using your Facebook account or your Gmail account, or by creating an email and your own password.
“We’re really anxious to get feedback from customers and providers so that we can continue to evolve the app,” Caicco said.
