December 11, 2017
Thom Carroll, File/PhillyVoice
Snow clogs the streets on North Bucknell Street in the Fairmount section of Philadelphia in this file photo.
An app recently expanded to Philadelphia may prove valuable during winter storms in this city.
Described as “Uber for plows,” SnoHub, which originated in Connecticut, has expanded to Philadelphia, as well as Boston and New York, Technically reported.
Philly homeowners and contractors can use SnoHub very similarly to how a ride-share app is used. In this case, there are a reported 34 contractors in the Philadelphia area that SnoHub users can access to request snow removal. Contractors can be tracked by users in the app to help estimate arrival.
Pricing starts at $59 for three inches of snow. After that, SnoHub customers are charged an additional $10 by the inch.
Below is SnoHub founder James Albis’ pitch about the app, in which he urges users to help “make snow clearing great again.”
SnoHub first launched in 2016 out of Albis’ frustrations with snow removal as a homeowner and not wanting to have to sign into a contract to get his driveway cleared. It initially was available only in Connecticut’s Fairfield and Westchester counties, but Albis has made good on his goal to expand to larger metropolitan areas.
“It’s very much the same way as Uber has updated the antiquated way of hailing a taxi cab,” Albis told the News Times earlier this year.
“It uses technology to connect homeowners with service providers. Landscapers and snow plow businesses get so jammed up during a storm, you can’t even get a hold of them. There’s no rhyme or reason of when or if they will show up. We’ve created a reliable platform that’s mobile, accessible, easy and transparent.”
This is not the first time mobile snow removal has come to Philly. Last year Toronto-based Eden, which covers general lawn care, selected Philadelphia as one of several U.S. markets for expansion, signing a reported 100 contractors, and New Jersey’s own unSnow.me, which allows users to field bids for plowing, shoveling, or snow blowing, both came to the city last year.
