Driving a plow/salt truck during winter in northern states?

It’s a dangerous job numerous plow drivers die each winter from head on crashes or being run off the road… years ago we respected the plow truck (salt shakers) now it seems everyone gets aggressive around them.. if you got strong nerves it’s good work .

 

In Northern MN most dump truck drivers that work for a private company get laid off in the winter and don't return until road restrictions go off in May. A few of them do plow snow, but the majority don't. If you're talking State or County employees...they just switch gears and sometimes do hire additional temporary people for both winter and summer work. During a snow event they work countless hours both day and night in miserable conditions. As far as pay goes...hourly pay is nothing special. The county where I live a newly hired equipment operator starts at around $23 an hour and top pay is in the low $30s range, but during a snow event they get plenty of OT.

 

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I know Montana was having a very hard time getting plow drivers. They use offset plows behind their trucks pretty often. I've heard a lot of them are working many 20 hour days during storms as they're supposedly DOT HOS exempt. I've seen them at times sleeping in the truck on a ramp or in the median turn arounds.

To be honest though I liked it more when the coverage was really sparse during covid. 6-12" of powder on -10 degree ground means you can run 60 mph all day long if nobody else is on the road. You get 2 offset plows Infront of you clearing the whole road in one go and you're stuck running 15 mph for 100 miles. They're stretched thin so they won't pull over even with a mile of cars behind them. Then once they do turn around 3 hours later all the cars go to racing each other and you end up with a massive pile up a fatality or two and the interstate gets shut down for a day. Then you get angry customers and dispatch to deal with because you're late because a blizzard happened in Montana. Whodathunkit? Not to mention all the passes in the winter in Montana get blocked because immigrant truck drivers don't know what tire chains are. Or even speak English. It really turns into a cluster#### when a Canadian driver (Also foreigner) in a white Volvo makes an attempt at Lookout pass at 9am in the morning from 50k silver dollars. Then he gets out of the jack knifed truck and shouts "talk to boss" while holding a phone in the DOTs face.

I do not envy plow drivers one bit. Boring, tedious work, angry people behind you 24/7, endless hours when a storm hits, and #### take home pay. Lot of them have to do paving in the summer as well. Probably wouldn't be too bad in the flat lander states. Out here in the mountains with the "No English" crowd and all the ####ing Canadian immigrant drivers wrecking all the time, there's no way.

Hell I saw one plow driver last winter trying to hold one drivers brains in his head when he rolled his truck with no seatbelt, fell head first into the passenger window and had half his head and body ground away on the asphalt while he slid down the highway. I know some states require entry level EMT training for public works employees. I had to do it when I worked for the state road crews. I don't do the body juice stuff, but they had a requirement that if you were a .gov worker, you had to help out in case of accidents or emergencies. Might be something else to consider because you'll see a lot of wrecks working winter storms.

 

I’ve talked to some plow guys in Vermont. They work for the state and plow in the winter. He told me after a big snow storm it’s sometimes 16 hours on 4 off and another 16 hours. They have my full respect. Of course it’s not like your plowing those hours nearly all the time. I wouldn’t mind doing it if it wasn’t for the crazy hours. Just plan on being on call day and night all the time basically.

 

In the Midwest here when it's snow time you'd be on call 24/7. My nephew drives a truck for the state. He likes the job but hates the hours.