For Northeast Pennsylvania residents, having snow cleared from outside their homes is now as easy as ordering a sandwich or calling a ride to the bar.
A mobile app and website created by Nashville, Tennessee-based GreenPal allows homeowners to list their properties along with the requested date of service and their snow removal needs — snow plowing, shoveling, or salting driveways, sidewalks, steps, or porches.
Prescreened vendors receive an alert, see a Google Street View of the property, and place bids for the job, said Gene Caballero, co-founder of GreenPal.
Customers then pick which contractor they would like to perform the job based on the vendor’s ratings, reviews and price, Caballero said.
Caballero noted that once vendors send a time-stamped photo of the completed work, homeowners pay through the GreenPal app.
Originally started as an app to help homeowners hire vendors for lawn care services, GreenPal expanded to offer snow removal, including in the Scranton, Wilkes-Barre, Hazleton and Pottsville areas. To book snow removal services through GreenPal, visit yourgreenpal.com/snow-removal-services.
There are more than 20 vendors offering snow removal services in the greater Scranton area, Caballero said.
“We attempted to be the default way that homeowners get their lawn mowed, and then … decided to add the snow removal piece of it,” he said. “A lot of the natural progression for vendors in the north is mow in the spring, summer and fall, and then in the winter do snow removal. We keep a close ear on when homeowners and vendors are asking for a service, and just try to make it happen.”
The timing of the launch in Scranton coincided with a storm Sunday that dumped more than 10 inches of snow in Scranton, 15 inches in Schuylkill County and as much as 17 inches in parts of Luzerne County.
“Mother Nature kind of helped us,” Caballero said.
Caballero feels it was important to offer snow-removal assistance to older adults.
“Of all the people that don’t need to be out there, they are the ones that are most vulnerable for any sort of fall, and anything like that can almost be deadly,” he said. “There’s just no need for that to happen when it’s a few touches of buttons away.”
Additionally, Caballero believes customers enjoy the same convenience on the GreenPal app that they’ve grown to appreciate with services like DoorDash and Uber.
“I think the timing has kind of been perfect,” he said. “It seems like the consumer mindset has kind of shifted. We don’t want to have to call anybody — everybody just wants to hit a button and your food shows up or a car shows up. I think it’s the same way with home services now.”