Whether you have lived here your entire life or if this is your first winter in Truckee, operating a shovel to clear small parts of your driveway is just a reality of living up here. We remain dedicated to clearing your driveway, but we have to ask that you clear a small area in front of your garage and around your vehicle so that our tractors do not harm or damage your property.
It is impossible for our operators to perfectly gauge the distance that their blower is from anything in your driveway while they are dealing with record breaking snowfall, people playing in the middle of the streets, and roads with heavy traffic.
We asked some of our longest standing customers who are accustomed to our services and they advise that you shovel anywhere from 3 to 5 feet of clearance between your property and where you can expect to see our blowers clear. The process takes 15 to 30 minutes each day and doing so ensures that your property remains unharmed. It also keeps berms from solidifying and causing hard packed blockades on your driveway.
“But that isn’t snow removal?” We clearly state your role in our partnership on the snow removal contract that you sign upon agreeing to have Elements manage your snow clearing for the winter. We invite you to review the specific bullet points where we mention your duty in our partnership below:
- The snow removal area is your paved driveway from street level to a safe and reasonable distance from any vehicles, garage doors, stairs, snow stakes, etc.; this distance will vary based upon snow conditions. If vehicles or other items obstruct snow removal operations, Elements will not be required to use more than reasonable efforts to remove the snow around them. Elements will return to clear residual snow on the next day that the Required Snow Depth is reached by 9:00 a.m. or such later time as Elements shall determine. Please note that Elements does not intend to damage your property, so some snow may be left behind, adjacent to or in front of doors, vehicles, stairs, snow stakes, etc.
- Town of Truckee berms will be cleared during regular snow removal routes. However, Elements is not responsible for berms created after your driveway has been cleared.
- Elements’ contract covers natural snowfall. Elements is not responsible for driveways in windy areas that are subject to and fill with drifting snow after Elements’ snow removal equipment has departed. Special clearing requests that cannot be performed during normal operations, including moved vehicles, roof offload, snow shoveled onto driveway from decks, walkways, or roofs, are subject to a minimum charge of $100. In extreme circumstances, such as road closures, downed trees or cornices and/or snow drifts larger than our tractors, Elements may not be able to clear your driveway on its daily route and, therefore, other services and additional fees may be required and charged to maintain access to your driveway.
We wish you a safe and warm New Year!
All The Best,
Elements Mountain Co.
