MINNEAPOLIS — This worker shortage is affecting snow removal companies of all sizes, from the big companies with dozens and hundreds of workers, to the ma and pop shops.
Or in this case, pop and son-in-law.
"Just me and my father-in-law,” Duane Hollins laughs.
“That’s who we’re rolling into Winter with this year.”
Hollins snow removal crew is about as bare bones as you can get.
After working for other snow removal companies a few years, Hollins decided to start his own company, Wayne Lawn Care Snow Removal.
"We had about five to ten people last year,” Hollins says.
“I had 30 or 40 contracts last year in my first year. That was a good experience. We made quite a bit of money that year."
Fast forward to this year and many of those contracts came back, plus a few new ones, but without any workers, Hollins had to turn most of them away.
"We can’t find anyone who wants to work. They just want to go make money elsewhere. They want the consistent money,” Hollins says.
"People are like, you don't get paid if it don't snow.”
We called nearly a dozen other snow removal companies and it was mostly the same story.
One or two said they were fully staffed, but everyone else needed workers.
From the small companies with a dozen, who could use a dozen more, to companies with nearly 200 employees who now have 10% to 15% fewer workers compared to last year.
Some owners said that this worker shortage has been a problem for a few years now, because the winters have been so mild, a lot of workers have backed out.
Leaving business owners like Hollins with a lot of extra work.
“I’ll probably be out working for 10 to 15 hours straight before we come back in and sleep and then go back out again,” Hollins says.
"Give us a break. We're going to get to your house as fast as possible."
This shortage of workers will likely affect homeowners the most.
The snowplow owners say they typically handle the bigger clients first, the apartment buildings and businesses, and then they move into the neighborhoods.
Hollins expects some homeowners might not get their driveways plowed until 10:00 a.m. or even 11:00 a.m.