How much snow before a plow comes?
The trigger depth is the most important number in your contract, and the one most companies keep deliberately vague.
What the trigger actually does
A trigger depth converts snow removal from a service you request into a service that happens. Past the stated accumulation, your property enters the route automatically. You do not call at 5am, you do not text a photo of your driveway, and you do not negotiate.
That automation is the entire product. A contractor without a stated trigger is selling you a phone call, and during a serious event the phone call is what fails.
The standard numbers
| Property type | Typical trigger | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Residential driveway | 2 inches | Only the household uses it; 2 inches is where clearing genuinely becomes worth a truck |
| Commercial lot | 1 inch | Public invitation raises the duty of care under Michigan premises liability law |
| Medical, senior, childcare | 1 inch or zero-tolerance | Population at higher risk from a fall |
| Municipal and fire access | Zero-tolerance | Access cannot be interrupted at any depth |
Zero-tolerance means the surface is kept clear continuously through an event rather than cleared after it. It is a different operation and a different price.
Who benefits from where the trigger sits
This is the part nobody volunteers. On a per-visit contract, a lower trigger produces more billable visits. In a winter of frequent light snow, a 1-inch trigger can generate half again as many invoices as a 2-inch trigger on the same property.
On a seasonal contract the incentive reverses. The contractor is paid a fixed amount regardless, so a higher trigger means fewer trips for the same money. That is why you will occasionally see seasonal agreements quietly written at three inches.
Neither structure is dishonest. What is dishonest is not stating the number. Ask any contractor two questions together: what is your trigger, and how do you bill against it. The answers only make sense as a pair.
What a vague answer tells you
"We come when it needs it" is not a policy. It means the decision is made by whoever is dispatching, on the morning, with their own route economics in mind. That might work out fine for you. It is not something you can hold anyone to.
The multi-day storm question
Macomb County gets events that run fourteen hours or more. On those, one pass at the end leaves you snowed in all day, and two passes is the correct service. The question is whether the second pass bills as a second visit.
Get that in writing before the season. It is the single most common source of a disputed invoice in this trade, and it is entirely avoidable with one sentence in an agreement.
What we do
Over 2 inches residential, 1 inch commercial, automatic dispatch, November 15 to April 15, the same in every one of the 26 communities we serve. We do not run a deeper trigger in outlying communities to save a trip, which is a thing that happens.
Detail on both is on residential plowing and commercial snow and ice.
Questions people actually ask
What is a snow removal trigger depth?
The accumulation at which your contractor dispatches automatically. Past it you should not need to call, text or confirm. It is the single most important number in a snow agreement and the one most often left vague.
Why is the commercial trigger lower?
Because a commercial property invites the public, and that invitation carries a duty of reasonable care under Michigan premises liability law. One inch costs more across a season than two and materially reduces exposure, which is usually a trade worth making.
Is a 1-inch residential trigger better?
Not necessarily, and it is worth understanding why a company offers it. On a per-visit contract a lower trigger means more billable visits in a season of frequent light snow. The company setting the trigger benefits from where it lands.
What if it snows 1.5 inches and stops?
On a 2-inch trigger, nothing happens automatically. You can request a visit and it bills as a normal visit. We would usually tell you a 1.5-inch dusting on a flat driveway is not worth $75 unless ice is forecast behind it.
Does the trigger reset during a long storm?
This is the question that causes disputes, so get it in writing. A 14-hour event may reasonably need two passes. Some contracts count that as two billable visits even under a seasonal agreement. Ask specifically how a multi-day storm is counted.
Do you measure the snow at my property?
Dispatch decisions are made from observed conditions across the route, not a ruler on each driveway. Accumulation across Macomb County varies by several inches in a single event, particularly between the lakeshore and the north of the county, and routes are built around that.
Related guides
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Why you are not first, how contractors sequence a storm, and what determines when your driveway gets cleared. The part of snow service nobody explains.
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4 min readA trigger you can hold us to
Stated on the website, stated on the agreement, and the same in every community we serve.