Snow Removal in Whitby and Brooklin: Gold and Platinum Plow the Driveway, 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. There are 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 the thing most winter contracts leave vague on purpose.

What happens at your house in Whitby after it snows

The route runs in one fixed order after the snow stops, and it does not rearrange itself for whoever phoned last.

Commercial and medical access properties go first, overnight. Platinum members are sequenced first on the residential route with a 6:30 AM target. Gold members follow with a 7:00 AM target. Silver members get a separate daytime windrow pass by 5 PM.

Compare that with what is already published in this market. The biggest operator serving Whitby states that in a heavy storm it can be up to twenty four hours after the snow stops before it reaches you, and that in a multi day storm it clears once a day. That is a fair thing for a large multi crew company to publish, and it is exactly the number to hold ours against. Our targets are 6:30 AM and 7:00 AM, which is before the drive down to the 401, not the following afternoon.

None of that is a guarantee and we will not dress it up as one. 6:30 AM and 7:00 AM are targets. Trucks break, storms land sideways, and nobody in Ontario can promise snowfall will cooperate. What we can do is publish the trigger, publish the order of service, and tell you where you sit in it before you sign.

The 3 cm trigger, and why we publish a number at all

We go out at 3 cm. It is automatic and you do not have to phone to start it.

Most snow companies serving Whitby publish no trigger depth anywhere. That is worth noticing. A trigger nobody has written down is a trigger that gets decided on the morning, by a dispatcher looking at a full route and a marginal snowfall, and the decision rarely goes in the homeowner's favour.

Three centimetres is deliberately low. It is about the point where a car starts pushing snow instead of driving over it, and it is well below the depth where a packed driveway turns into an ice sheet that stays until the thaw. Four centimetres overnight in February is a run. You do not have to judge whether it counted.

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. In winter Silver buys a separate daytime pass by 5 PM that takes out the windrow, the packed ridge the town plow leaves across the bottom of the drive, plus four banked full driveway clears a season that you call on whenever you want them. There is no salting on Silver, ever. It suits a household that is happy to shovel its own drive and wants the heavy plug at the end of it handled by a machine.

Gold, $189 a month plus HST

Gold plows the driveway and carries the 7:00 AM target after overnight snow. For most Whitby households this is the tier that matches the actual problem: the drive is open before the morning run out, cleared by a machine rather than by you in the dark. Salting 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, includes unlimited automatic salting, and gets first choice of service day in lawn season. The salting line is the one to read twice. Across this market salt is usually an extra charge per application, or the homeowner is expected to keep a bag by the garage door. On Platinum it goes down when the conditions call for it, without a phone call and without a separate bill.

The windrow at the end of your driveway

When the plow runs your street in Whitby, it leaves a ridge of compacted snow across every driveway on the block. Clearing that ridge is the homeowner's responsibility, not the town's. It is also the hardest snow on the property: bladed, packed, and usually deposited about ten minutes after you finished shovelling.

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

Snow removal in Brooklin, Pringle Creek, Lynde Creek, Port Whitby, Williamsburg, Rolling Acres, Blue Grass Meadows and Taunton North

Brooklin is its own job and anyone who has cleared a driveway up there knows it. The lots are wide, the driveways are frequently double or triple, and north of the village there is open farmland on the windward side of a lot of streets. Wind across an open field moves snow and drops it against the first obstruction, which is your driveway and your garage door. A wide double drive after a drifting night is the better part of an hour with a shovel and a few minutes with a machine. That gap is the whole argument.

Rolling Acres and Taunton North have the same shape of problem: newer subdivisions, generous driveways, not much yet in the way of mature trees to break the wind. Williamsburg and Blue Grass Meadows sit in the middle, established enough to have some shelter, big enough that shovelling is a real evening.

Pringle Creek and Lynde Creek are mature Whitby: tighter lots, shorter drives, street parking, and plow banks that grow along the road edge all season until there is nowhere left to put anything. Down in Port Whitby the wind comes off the lake, which means the snow that fell neatly overnight is not necessarily where it fell by morning.

We book by geography, one truck, one route. The closer members sit to each other on a Whitby street, the earlier everybody on that stretch gets cleared, which is a real reason to mention us to the neighbour.

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 second contract to sign in November and no seasonal lump sum landing in 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 on Silver, $2,154.60 on Gold, $3,180.60 on Platinum.

There are exactly two extras. A salt only trip is $25. A windrow return trip, for when the plow reblocks you after we have already cleared, is $45.

Refer a neighbour and you both take 30 percent off one month, with a floor of $50 each, so no one ends up with a token discount.

Season dates, and the day the Whitby snow route closes

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

One truck holds a fixed number of driveways and still hits a 6:30 AM and a 7:00 AM target. Once the route is full it is full. Saying so in October is more use 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, because a promise that breaks every Sunday is worse than no promise. During a snow event somebody is watching messages through the overnight and the early run, which is a separate 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 Whitby and Brooklin homeowners ask

Do you cover Brooklin as well as Whitby?

Yes. Brooklin is on the same Whitby snow route as Pringle Creek, Lynde Creek, Port Whitby, Williamsburg, Rolling Acres, Blue Grass Meadows and Taunton North. Wide double driveways in Brooklin and Rolling Acres are the clearest case for a machine over a shovel, particularly on streets that back onto open ground where snow drifts.

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

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.

Is salt included, or is it extra?

Unlimited automatic salting is included on Platinum at $279 a month plus HST and is applied without being asked for. On Gold, salt is available as a salt only trip at $25. There is no salting on Silver at any time.

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.

Book snow removal in Whitby or Brooklin before 15 November

Call 905-244-5779 or email andrew@northlinepropertycare.ca and tell us your street. We will say 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 Whitby

• Lawn care and snow removal in Whitby: 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 Whitby 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 Oshawa, the next town over on the same route.
• Snow removal in Ajax, the next town over on the same route.
• Frequently asked questions about billing, triggers and cancellation.