Research: SnowSheet 0.1.0 beta
Fictional-customer pain, existing alternatives, and the wedge for a solo snow-removal operator's storm-day sheet. Checked 2026-10-03 (America/New_York).
Customer
Solo and two-person snow-removal operators in US snow-belt states who run residential routes from a pickup truck. They sell per-visit or seasonal plans and lose billable time to paper route lists, forgotten salt runs, and end-of-season invoice disputes.
Demand evidence (hypothesis, not proof)
- Residential snow removal is priced per visit: homeguide.com's 2026 price guide lists driveway plowing at $30–$70 per visit (steep/gravel driveways $50–$100+); seasonal contracts run $200–$600 per winter.
- latestcost.com: one-time plow $25–$150, seasonal $250–$800, salt application $10–$100 per visit.
- Job-tracking is a known operator pain: landscapemanagement.net reports snow contractors using time sheets, mobile time clocks, and GPS because customers contest bills ("saying the contractor never hit the property that day") — field notes resolve disputes.
Existing alternatives
- CrewTracker (snow-industry field software, free tier listed): route sheets, dispatch, photos, invoicing — built for crews/fleets.
- Yeti (snow/landscape service management): clients, routes, materials, invoicing — crew-scale SaaS.
- Generic field-service tools (Plannit from $59/mo, ReachOut $12/user/mo).
- Free printable route templates and spreadsheets.
Gap: crew-scale tools assume dispatch staff and subscriptions; free templates are static paper. Nothing hands a solo operator a working route card + service log + invoice CSV with economics, acquisition, and operator material in one free, no-account package.
Wedge
Browser-local storm-day sheet: enter the route once, get a printable route card with per-stop time windows, a service-log CSV with blank done columns, a day invoice CSV, and a close note. No upload, no account, no subscription.
Kill tests
- Three free storm days: the operator must build a real route and keep the service-log CSV for a second storm — if they only load the sample, the wedge is wrong.
- No turnkey/automation claims: the tool does not dispatch, track GPS, or send invoices; it produces the records.
Sources
- https://homeguide.com/costs/snow-removal-cost ($30–$70/visit; steep/gravel $50–$100+; seasonal $200–$600)
- https://latestcost.com/cost-plow-driveway-snow-removal-price/ (one-time/seasonal/salt ranges)
- https://www.landscapemanagement.net/snow-and-ice-guide-user-and-profit-friendly/ (job-tracking pain)
- https://sourceforge.net/software/snow-removal/integrates-with-quickbooks-online/ (CrewTracker, Yeti, ReachOut)