Four in the morning, minus two
The forecast said a ground frost was possible. The duty supervisor wakes at three, checks the weather app, and starts ringing crews. Some contracts are gritted pre-emptively whenever the road surface forecast drops below a set point, some only on request, and one supermarket car park has to be done before the staff arrive at six. The contract terms are in a folder at the office.
By mid-morning the crews have gritted most of the sites. Two were missed. One site manager rings to say their car park was not done. The crew say it was. The paper log is in a van.
Why winter work is so hard to run
Gritting is urgent, happens at night, and is triggered by forecasts rather than a calendar. Each contract has its own rules, and the evidence that a site was treated matters a lot if someone slips. Running that from a phone and a folder puts a great deal on one tired person.
- Trigger rules per site are in contract documents, not in front of the supervisor.
- Forecasts are checked by hand, often on a general weather app.
- Routes are decided at night by memory.
- Treatment times and salt used are written on paper, later or not at all.
- Invoicing depends on piecing together who went where.
What your contracts require and what records you need for any claim are matters for your contracts, your insurer and your adviser. The system records what you do.
What the chaos costs
Missed sites damage the client relationship and may leave you exposed if someone falls. Weak records make it hard to show what was done. Treatments that happened but were not recorded never reach an invoice. And the supervisor's nights, several a week in a cold spell, are not sustainable for long.
The gritting system we build
- Each gritting site is recorded with its trigger rule, such as treat when road surface temperature is forecast below a set point, or on client request, plus areas to treat and any deadline, like before 6am.
- Each evening the system reads forecast data for every site from a weather service and lists the sites that meet their triggers. The duty supervisor gets an alert with the proposed call-out.
- The supervisor confirms, and routes go to each gritting crew's phone in order, with deadlines first.
- At each site the crew records arrival, areas treated, salt used and a timestamped photo, in the app, even without signal.
- The office and the client can see the treatment log. Clients can receive a notification when their site is done.
- Treatments feed invoicing, per visit or per season as your contract says, and salt use is tracked against stock.
| Contract type | Trigger | Recorded |
|---|---|---|
| Pre-emptive | Forecast below your set point | Time, areas, salt, photo |
| On request | Client call or message | Request time and treatment |
| Deadline site | Forecast, done before a set time | Completion time vs deadline |
| Snow clearance | Snowfall, as contracted | Areas cleared, photos |
A winter with fewer 3am phone calls
The supervisor wakes to a proposed call-out rather than a blank screen. Crews know where to go and in what order. Every treatment is recorded as it happens with time and photo, so questions from a site manager are answered with evidence. And every treatment reaches an invoice.
Does your winter work look like this?
- Call-outs are decided by one person checking an app at night.
- Trigger rules are in a contract folder.
- Treatment records are on paper or missing.
- Clients have queried whether a site was gritted.
- Some treatments never get invoiced.