Snow Removal in Ajax: Gold and Platinum Plow the Driveway Before the Morning Drive, Silver Clears the Windrow

Snow is sold inside a membership that covers lawn season and snow season together, billed in twelve equal payments on the last day of the month. Three tiers. Gold at $189 a month plus HST and Platinum at $279 a month plus HST plow the driveway. Silver at $129 a month plus HST does not plow the driveway. Silver gets a separate daytime pass that clears the windrow across the foot of the drive by 5 PM, plus four banked full clears a season on request, and no salting. Every driveway claim on this page names the tier it belongs to, because that is exactly the detail most winter contracts keep vague.

Ajax is a commuter town, and that changes what snow removal has to do

Most of Ajax leaves early. The GO train, the 401, the 412, Highway 2 heading west: the peak out of this town is built around people who need the car moving before seven. A driveway that gets cleared at eleven in the morning is a driveway that has already cost somebody a fare, a meeting or a sick day.

That is the whole reason the morning targets exist and the reason we publish them as numbers rather than as adjectives.

Here is the order after the snow stops. Commercial and medical access properties first, overnight. Then Platinum members, sequenced first on the residential route, with a 6:30 AM target. Then Gold members, with a 7:00 AM target. Then Silver members on a separate daytime windrow pass by 5 PM.

Hold that against what is already published in this market. The largest operator serving Ajax publishes that during a heavy storm it may be up to twenty four hours after the snow stops before it reaches a property, and that in a storm lasting more than one day it clears once a day. For a commuter that is not a service level, it is a day off. Our targets are 6:30 AM and 7:00 AM.

They are targets, not guarantees, and we will not pretend otherwise. Trucks break down and storms do what they like. What we will do is publish the trigger, publish the order, and tell you where you sit in it before you sign anything.

The 3 cm trigger, and why the number is on the page

We go out at 3 cm. Automatic. You do not phone to start it.

Most companies serving Ajax publish no trigger depth at all, and that omission is doing work for them. An unpublished trigger is decided on the morning by whoever is looking at a full route and a marginal snowfall. Three centimetres, written down, removes the argument. It is roughly the depth at which a car starts pushing snow instead of driving over it, and it is well under the depth at which a packed driveway becomes an ice rink for a fortnight.

The three memberships, and exactly what each one does in winter

Silver, $129 a month plus HST

Silver does not plow the driveway and carries no 7 AM target. What Silver buys in winter is a separate daytime pass by 5 PM that takes out the windrow, the packed ridge the city plow leaves across the bottom of the drive, plus four banked full driveway clears a season that you call on when you want them. No salting on Silver, ever. Silver fits the household that shovels its own drive and wants the heavy part at the end of it done by a machine.

Gold, $189 a month plus HST

Gold plows the driveway and carries the 7:00 AM target after overnight snow. For a commuting household in Ajax this is the tier that matches the actual problem. Salt on Gold is available as a salt only trip at $25 when you want it.

Platinum, $279 a month plus HST

Platinum is sequenced first, with a 6:30 AM target, unlimited automatic salting, and first choice of service day in lawn season. If your train is the 6:52 out of Ajax GO, Platinum is the tier written for you. The salting is worth a second read: across this market salt is usually billed per application or left to the homeowner and a bag in the garage. On Platinum it goes down when conditions call for it, with no call and no separate charge.

The windrow at the end of your driveway

When the plow runs your street in Ajax it leaves a ridge of compacted snow across every driveway on the block, and that ridge is the homeowner's problem to move. It is the densest snow on the property, it has been packed by a blade, and it tends to arrive shortly after you have finished shovelling the rest.

On Gold and Platinum it is cleared as part of the morning driveway clear. If the plow returns later the same day and blocks you in again after we have been through, a windrow return trip is $45. On Silver the windrow pass is the service: a daytime run by 5 PM, timed to come after the street has been plowed rather than before.

Snow removal in Pickering Village, Pickering Beach, Westney Heights, Applecroft, Salem Heights, Discovery Bay, Clover Ridge and Audley

Ajax has three quite different snow jobs inside one town.

North of Taunton, Audley and Salem Heights are the newest streets, with wide driveways and open ground still on the windward side of many of them. Wind across open land moves snow and stacks it against the first thing in its way, which is your drive and your garage door. A wide double driveway after a drifting night is most of an hour with a shovel and a few minutes with a machine.

Westney Heights, Applecroft and Clover Ridge are established Ajax: full size driveways, mature trees to break some of the wind, long enough drives that clearing one by hand before a 6:40 departure is not realistic.

Pickering Village is older and tighter, with shorter drives, street parking and plow banks that build along the road edge all season. Down by the lake, Pickering Beach and Discovery Bay take wind off the water, which means the snow that fell neatly overnight is not always where it fell by the time you open the door.

We book by geography, one truck, one route. The tighter the members sit on an Ajax street, the earlier everybody on that stretch gets cleared, which is a genuine reason to mention us next door.

What it costs, and how you actually pay for it

The membership is billed in twelve equal payments on the last day of each month, by card on file. It covers lawn season and snow season together, so there is no separate snow contract in November and no seasonal lump sum in the middle of December.

Silver is $129 a month plus HST. Gold is $189 a month plus HST. Platinum is $279 a month plus HST.

Paying the year up front saves 5 percent: $1,470.60 Silver, $2,154.60 Gold, $3,180.60 Platinum.

Two extras exist and no others. A salt only trip is $25. A windrow return trip, for when the city reblocks you after we have already cleared, is $45.

Send us a neighbour and you both take 30 percent off one month, with a floor of $50 each, so neither side ends up with a token discount.

Season dates, and the day the Ajax snow route closes

Snow season runs mid November to mid April. The snow route closes 15 November and that date does not move.

One truck carries a fixed number of driveways and still makes a 6:30 AM and a 7:00 AM target. When the route is full, it is full. Telling you that in October is worth more to you than taking your money in January and missing the morning.

Who you are actually calling

Andrew, the owner, runs the truck. One truck, one operator, fully insured and HST registered.

Office hours are Monday to Friday 7 AM to 7 PM and Saturday 7 AM to 5 PM. Closed Sunday. We reply the same day, Monday to Saturday, not seven days a week. During a snow event somebody watches messages through the overnight and the early run, which is a different thing from office hours and is the part that matters at 4 AM.

Phone 905-244-5779. Email andrew@northlinepropertycare.ca. Green in summer. Clear in winter.

Questions Ajax homeowners ask

Will my driveway be clear before I leave for work?

Gold and Platinum memberships plow the driveway. Platinum is sequenced first with a 6:30 AM target and Gold follows with a 7:00 AM target after overnight snow. Both are targets, not guarantees, and no snowfall guarantee is made. Silver does not plow the driveway and is cleared on a separate daytime windrow pass by 5 PM.

At what depth of snow do you come out in Ajax?

Northline clears at a 3 cm trigger. Once 3 cm has fallen the route runs automatically and you do not need to call. The order after a storm is commercial and medical access first overnight, then Platinum members by a 6:30 AM target, then Gold members by a 7:00 AM target, then Silver members on a separate daytime windrow pass by 5 PM.

Does the $129 Silver membership plow my driveway?

No. Silver does not plow the driveway and has no 7 AM target. Silver includes a separate daytime pass by 5 PM that clears the windrow at the end of the driveway, four banked full driveway clears a season on request, and no salting. Driveway plowing is on Gold at $189 a month plus HST and Platinum at $279 a month plus HST.

Which parts of Ajax do you cover?

The Ajax snow route covers Pickering Village, Pickering Beach, Westney Heights, Applecroft, Salem Heights, Discovery Bay, Clover Ridge and Audley. Northline also serves Pickering, Whitby, Oshawa, Courtice, Bowmanville and Clarington.

How am I billed, and is snow a separate contract?

Snow and lawn are one membership billed in twelve equal payments on the last day of each month. There is no separate winter contract and no seasonal lump sum. Paying the year up front saves 5 percent: $1,470.60 Silver, $2,154.60 Gold, $3,180.60 Platinum. A salt only trip is $25 and a windrow return trip is $45.

Book snow removal in Ajax before 15 November

Call 905-244-5779 or email andrew@northlinepropertycare.ca and tell us your street and what time you need to be out of the driveway. We will tell you where you land on the route and whether the morning target is realistic for your address before you commit to anything.

Everything we do in Ajax

• Lawn care and snow removal in Ajax: the combined membership, month by month.
• All three memberships and what each one clears, with the arithmetic shown.
• What snow removal costs in Durham Region, seasonal, per visit and per month side by side.
• Commercial snow removal in Ajax and Durham Region, on a 5 cm trigger and a photographed site log.
• Our hours and service area, and what happens on a storm morning.
• Snow removal in Whitby, the next town over on the same route.
• Snow removal in Pickering, the next town over on the same route.
• Frequently asked questions about billing, triggers and cancellation.