Key takeaways
- The clear-by time is the first shift or the first delivery truck, whichever comes first.
- Drive-thru lanes have curbs on both sides and equipment at blade height. Stake every post.
- Plow the main lot when it is empty, then send touch-up visits during service in long storms.
- Back doors, dumpsters and grease bins are workplaces: OSHA requires employers to keep walking surfaces free of snow and ice hazards.
On this page
What makes a restaurant lot different?
Restaurants run on two clocks. A breakfast place opens before most businesses, and food deliveries may arrive before the doors open. A dinner place is busiest after dark, when the morning's treatment has worn off and the day's meltwater has started to refreeze. Many do both, plus a drive-thru that runs from open to close.
The lot is also full of cars while snow keeps falling during service, so one overnight push is rarely enough in a long storm. And restaurants have features no office has: a drive-thru lane with a tight turn and posts at blade height, a patio, and dumpsters and grease bins a hauler must reach on schedule. A restaurant in a strip center shares the lot with its neighbors; see retail plazas for that side of it.
What gets cleared first?
- Accessible spaces, access aisles, curb ramps and the route to the door.
- The entrance walk and door landing, treated. Mats inside the door catch what gets tracked in. See salt stains on floors.
- The drive-thru lane from entry to exit, including the stacking lane at the menu board and the pickup window.
- The entrance from the road and the main drive aisle.
- Takeout and delivery-driver spaces near the door, where drivers make short, fast trips.
- The back door, delivery route, dumpster enclosure and grease bin, timed to the delivery and hauler schedules.
- Parking rows, then the patio if it is used in winter.
How do you plow a drive-thru lane?
Snow in a drive-thru lane has nowhere to go. Curbs line both sides, the building is on one of them, and the lane bends tightly around a corner. The snow has to be pushed out the ends or carried out, with hand work at the window and the menu board.
Stake everything a blade can hit before the first storm:
| Hazard | Why it gets hit |
|---|---|
| Inside curb of the turn | The tightest point of the lane, invisible under snow |
| Menu board and preview board bases | Set right at the lane edge |
| Order speaker post | Sits where the blade swings on the turn |
| Clearance bar posts | Mark the lane entrance; a truck carrying a spreader may stand taller than the bar |
| Bollards at the window and building corners | Short, solid and buried by the first windrow |
| Parking blocks in pickup spaces | Flat, low and easy to catch |
Keep lane snow away from the merge point where drive-thru traffic rejoins the lot. A pile there hides cars and pedestrians from drivers pulling out.
What about patios, deliveries, dumpsters and grease bins?
Patios. A closed patio is not a stacking zone. Piles crush furniture and fencing and melt toward the door. If the patio stays open with tents or domes, follow the maker's snow-load instructions, keep exits from the structures clear, and treat the walking path.
Deliveries. Food trucks need a route in from the road, room to park near the back door and a way out. Clear the delivery door landing and the path a driver walks with a hand truck.
Dumpsters and grease bins. A hauler who cannot reach a container may not empty it. Clear the approach and the swing room for lids and doors, and keep the path from the back door clear for staff carrying trash. OSHA's walking-working surface rule (29 CFR 1910.22) requires employers to keep walking surfaces free of hazards, and it names snow and ice.
No-stack zones, marked on the site map: accessible spaces and aisles, the entrance, the drive-thru lane and its merge point, the patio, the delivery door, the dumpster and grease-bin approaches, and the sight lines at the driveways. See where to put snow in a parking lot.
How should plowing work around service hours?
Plow the main lot when it is empty, after close or well before opening. During service, a long storm needs touch-up visits: drive aisles, the entrance, accessible spaces and the drive-thru lane, worked around parked cars with smaller passes and spot treatment. A touch-up pass should never leave a windrow across accessible spaces or the drive-thru exit.
Agree on touch-up triggers before the season. For example: a return visit when another inch falls during business hours, and a walk-and-entrance check before the dinner rush whenever snow or refreeze has happened since the morning visit.
Accessible spaces and the records
Federal rules at 28 CFR 36.211 require businesses open to the public to keep accessible features in operable working condition, allowing isolated or temporary interruptions for maintenance. Snow piled in accessible spaces, or left frozen on a curb ramp for days, is not temporary. See ADA and snow.
Keep timestamped records of every plow visit and treatment, plus the manager's own checks of the entrance and walks. If a guest slips at the door, the first questions will be when it was last treated and who looked at it. See snow logs.
Questions for the contract
- Is the clear-by time set by the first shift or the first delivery?
- Is the drive-thru lane plowed or hand-cleared, and where does its snow go?
- How many touch-up visits during service, and what triggers them?
- Are the back door, dumpster and grease-bin approaches in the scope?
- Where are the stacking zones, and is the patio excluded?
- Are posts, boards, clearance bars and bollards staked, and how is damage reported?
Sources
- 28 CFR 36.211, maintenance of accessible features (eCFR)
- OSHA 29 CFR 1910.22, walking-working surfaces: general requirements — surfaces kept free of hazards, including snow and ice
Written by the Macomb Lawn & Snow Solutions team in Macomb Township, Michigan. We plow and salt homes and businesses across all 26 Macomb County communities, November 15 to April 15. Published October 5, 2026. About us · How we research these guides · How our dispatch works