What it’s like to be a St. Paul snowplow driver

Every winter, a plow comes by and pushes snow back into Jeremy Bates’ driveway.

Perhaps fair, given how he has often been on the opposite side.

“It was probably 17 years ago, there was a gentleman who was so mad that he threw his shovel at the truck,” said Bates, a snowplow driver for St. Paul’s Public Works Department. “Obviously, it didn’t do anything. But he was so mad that we were plowing by and plowed him back in, and he was just like, ‘I give up!‘”

Bates is (hopefully) wrapping up his 21st winter of plowing the capital city’s streets. His shifts last between eight and 12 hours. And he prefers an older truck — the one with a 12-foot front plow and a side-wing plow that adds several more feet to the area he can clear.

One key to plowing, Bates learned, is to clear the street to the curb and roll the snow up onto it. That creates a ridgeline where he’ll continue to push snow from subsequent storms, which helps keep streets open to normal traffic and first responders.

Bates has missed or postponed holidays and other gatherings because of weather — not because he couldn’t brave the roads, but because he had to.

The rest of the year, Bates’ work includes driving a cab lawn mower for the city and calibrating all of the plow trucks to make sure the amount of salt they spread matches the settings on their controllers. In an interview edited for clarity and length, he shares what it’s like to be in his shoes.

I’ve always been a guy that wanted to work outside. Previously, I was a sales guy at a sportswear company. I was sitting behind a desk, where I made sales calls, and I’m like, I don’t know, this isn’t necessarily for me. I don’t necessarily like being in an office. Ever since I was 20, 21 years old, I had a commercial driver’s license, so I’d always kind of been out and about, driving around. So, I applied at the city, and it took about a year to get a response back. I thought it could be kind of a cool job to work outside every day. You get to plow in the winter. That was interesting to me.

My normal shift would start at 7:30 in the morning, and we would normally work an eight-hour shift, 7:30 to 4 o’clock. I do a precheck on my truck, and my supervisor will hand me a route. When it snows, we have a pre-emergency plow before the city declares a snow emergency, and we start plowing primary streets. On a normal basis, I plow in downtown. Once that snow emergency is declared, my route is out in Highland Park.

When you’re plowing, it’s that instant satisfaction of seeing that street that has 10 inches of snow on it and, you know, I cleared it. It’s clean now. It’s drivable. I take pride in doing a good job and making sure that it’s done correctly.

Compliance [with parking rules] and traffic. Getting around and dealing with traffic. Doing plowing, it’s not a physical job. It’s mentally taxing. There’s a lot you have to focus on. You can’t let your focus lapse because that’s when accidents happen. When I’m done, I get to shut my brain off and not have to think about it.

Yes, I’ve been stuck in a plow truck. When we get ice, I don’t think there’s a vehicle on the planet that is immune to getting stuck. It can happen when you’re pushing snow, and there’s ice under it. When you have to stop at a stoplight or stop sign, and your momentum gets stopped. Or plowing up hills. There are times where I strategically change how I plow, when I realize there’s no way I’m going to be able to plow going up this hill. So I go around and just plow down that entire street going downhill.

I’ll throw salt under the tires and usually that helps, that gives me some traction. But I’ve been stuck so bad up against a curb where no matter what I do, I can’t get out. I end up having to call a supervisor, and they end up calling a loader to drive all the way to where I am, grab a tow chain and pull me out.

I have one where I was plowing and it was very cold, below zero. There was a tiny dog on a side street, and you could tell he didn’t know where he was. He was very afraid to come up to me. I found something in my truck, like a treat or some chips that I gave to him. I scooped him up and put him in my passenger seat, and he rode with me the rest of the day. He snuggled in and laid down in the passenger seat. I made a few phone calls to PetSmart, the local Humane Society and a pet clinic. At 5 o’clock that evening, I got a phone call saying, “Do you have my dog?” I said, “Yeah, can you describe what it looks like?“ They ended up coming to pick him up. And I was like, thank gosh.

Todd Nelson is a freelance writer in Lake Elmo. His e-mail is todd_nelson@mac.com.