Snow removal | Communauto’s Waltz of the Snows

If moving your car to let the snowplow pass gives you a headache, imagine what it would be like if you were responsible for over 1,000 vehicles strewn across the streets of Montreal.

Philippe Teisceira-Lessard
The Press

This is the case of Communauto, which offers cars that Montrealers can pick up and leave in the central boroughs of the metropolis. For the company, each storm takes on the appearance of a logistical puzzle and a relay race.

The mission: to clear the way for the snow removal teams. And minimize fine and towing costs.

At 2:58 p.m., two days after a storm, Simon Rouleau-Mailloux and Jérémie Brulon had their eyes riveted on a large screen in the company’s offices in Rosemont. In a few seconds, an electronic map of Montreal will be colored according to the roads entrusted to the snow removal teams for the night.

It’s 3 p.m. The map is updated. “Let’s go,” says Simon Rouleau-Mailloux, Communauto’s fleet manager. More than 500 cars need to be checked because they have not been used recently and may have been left on a snow removal road.

“If it’s green, there is snow removal planned within 4-24 hours, blue within 4 hours, orange snow removal is in progress. If it’s red, it’s too late, the snowplow is on it. Normally, we got towed,” he explains. “You see, that one […] we missed it. Clearly, she got towed. It’s still rare. »

“Yes, it’s heavy,” continues the 30-year-old. Fortunately, “we don’t have that many storms”.

The two young men click at lightning speed on the map to determine which cars should be the subject of an intervention by the Communauto teams. The service triggers a free offer to encourage customers to take charge of the cars – and therefore their parking – themselves in exchange for free use.

Attacking the snow bank

The free service offered allows Communauto to save a lot of work. But nothing can move paralyzed cars in the path of a snowplow.

This is the case of a Prius stuck in a snow bank on rue de La Roche, near the intersection of rue Bélanger, still in Rosemont. The car was quickly located by Simon Rouleau-Mailloux and Jérémie Brulon on the map: a user reported to Communauto that it was in an unfortunate position. If no one intervenes, she will be towed away in a few hours.

Bib on his back, Jérémie Brulon jumps into a company vehicle and hits the gas. Other colleagues head for other cars that are sinking, stuck or simply abandoned in a sector not very popular with users.

On the spot, Jérémie Brulon notices that the small gray car is really stuck. The young man is from the east of France: pulling a car out of a snow bank is a skill he has acquired since arriving in Quebec four years ago. “It’s here that I learned that,” he laughs.

With a few well-placed shovel strokes, the help of grip plates (traction aids) and a lot of patience, the work eventually succeeds in creating a back and forth movement with the car in order to get it out of the snowdrift where it is. “Now we move on to the hard part: finding a location” for the car, while orange signs are multiplying in the neighborhood.

Discussions with the City

But if Communauto wants to continue to grow as it plans to do, simpler solutions will have to be found, explained in an interview Marco Viviani, vice-president of strategic development for the company. Currently, it owns 2,300 cars in Montreal, including approximately 1,000 self-service on the streets and 1,300 in private parking lots.

“Car-sharing is growing very quickly, which means that we have to deploy more vehicles”, indicates Mr. Viviani, who evokes a scenario where Communauto would operate “5,000, 10,000 vehicles”.

Communauto is therefore in discussion with the City to allow it to lighten its load during snowstorms. Mr. Viviani mentions the possibility that loading convoys bypass Communauto vehicles on their way or that snow removal employees have an electronic key to move these cars themselves “in exceptional cases”.

“I must say that the City of Montreal is very open to finding solutions,” notes Mr. Viviani. If we want car-sharing to really make a difference in the city, we need to have by-laws that are compatible with car-sharing. »