Minnesota had a snow plow contest and the top fifty are in the link. A lot of fun names. Which are your favorites?
Ok, I’ll be the first. As a Minnesota taxpayer. This was a silly distraction by unserious people. The poor guy/gal working 12 hour shifts in a $300,000 rig, cares little about a silly name. This is as silly as naming your car in the thread that has been going for probably ten years. Step inside the cab sometime at two in the morning to get an idea. They have cameras now.
1 Like
Name a snowplow ? Sounds like the same people who think putting dumb stuff on those over the road signs that are used to warn of road contruction or accidents.
Minnesotan here. There’s plenty of serious attention paid to winter here and we do a pretty good job of handling it. For me, the name-a-snowplow contest provides a welcome dose of levity.
Have I told you how much I enjoy my new red made-in-Canada snow shovel?
3 Likes
It’s not my cup of tea either but I can see a potential upside. Most people treat snowplows as an impediment to their travel progress, don’t give them the distance or clearance they need to do a safe and effective job and generally disrespect the job they do. Getting people involved in this sort of activity helps to raise awareness and personal investing in the operation. There’s no modifying behavior of the type A crowd but the other quadrants may develop more awareness, respect and understanding through this process. In the end, how much did this really cost the taxpayers?
3 Likes
No but I enjoy my red toro blower made in Mexico with an engine made in China. Yeah I already complained to my classmate at toro saying I wanted to buy a Minnesota product. He just said they have to compete and hope I liked it.
1 Like
I’ll just add that I spent some time with the folks in the oakdale district office discussing equipment maintenance. They are responsible for many of the metro road clearing. The goal is dry roads. It was amazing to hear all that had to be done after an event to make sure the equipment was ready to go again for the safety of the driver and public. Painting a name on the plow was far down on the list. These were serious winter road warriors, not seat warmers.
Some of you guys just don’t have a sense of humor. It shows appreciation to a group of people who provide a valuable service under adverse conditions.
5 Likes
So, ur saying blizzo and lizzo are both overweight? I might agree. Lizzo probably outweighs the truck.
Had to drive a garbage truck with a plow, sow with a plow was the nickname!
I first saw this on the national news last night. They showed St Paul snow plows with the silly names on them. The drivers seemed to have a good time with the names. I found the link from a web search.
In Washington State, 4 of our snowplows have names.
Plowie McPlow Plow
Sir Plows-A-Lot
The Big Leplowski
Betty Whiteout
4 Likes
I like “Blizzo”, b/c it is among the most simple phrasing & easy to pronounce. Cleopathra is very clever, but doesn’t as easily roll off the tongue. Naming the equipment seems like a good idea, less confusing so less likely a driver would take the wrong equipment if manager says"Joe, you’ll take Blizzo tonight" rather than “Joe, you’ll take unit 46 tonight”. Folks who design nuclear power plant control rooms make use of this idea, they’ll label the control handles with the names of beers. Pull on the “Budweiser” handle, reactor number 2 control rods go higher … etc.
It is not unusual to have 150 plows out at night during a weather event. Gonna run out of beer names pretty fast. I just prefer unit 2251 instead of bud light myself. But yeah a little ocd and like things simple and organized. If you’ve only got five trucks, or use garbage trucks, do what you want. But hey, I’ve got an idea, why not just leave the drivers alone and let them do what they want. And don’t get all upset if one of them puts a balloon decal on their truck. For folks with no sense of humor.
1 Like
I have always appreciated plow jpckeys, they work horrible hour in horrible conditions although one of them almost killed me one night back in 72 on I-81 on the way to Warertown. There is an underpass on the Northbound lanes with a sign saying, next exit, Tinker Tavern Rd.
I as driving a cabovver Kenworth and was almost at the underpass doing about 72 when a plow going over that overpass at full speed put a wall of ice and rubble over the rail.
I did not know what had happened . Suddenly I was in pain, my face was cut and bleeding, I thought * had hit the underpass. Then I realized I was still going down the road without both windshields and it was 30 below zero.
I got my winter coat on and wrapped my blanket I carried around me, shoveled the ice,sand and snow out the window with my clipboard and limpid it to Watertown.
No CB radios or cell phones back then, you were on your own
I don’t get “Yet a blizzard, Harry” must be a Minnesota thing.
“Cleopathra” was my favorite but there were some pretty good names down the list.
I never named a truck even though I called a lot of them names.
If numbers confuse him maybe he shouldn’t be driving, anything, especially a plow. You know with all the route numbers, highway numbers, road numbers, speeds, gears and such. Way too much for your hypothetical driver.
I did not read all the names, was Plowwy McPlowface among them?
Remember the VW Bug advertisement, how does the snowplow driver get to the snowplow?
My best job category, full time snow removal service in Florida.
Yer a blizzard Harryis a play on You’re a wizard, Harry from the Harry Potter books and movies.
I agree and have sympathy but yeah, what was he thinking? Maybe a month ago we were heading down I 35 maybe going to Sioux Falls don’t remember the occasion. The road was intermittent slippery so the plows were out and driving caution. So plow parked on the right shoulder with flashing lights, I move over to the left lane as we are supposed to do. Another car crowding me on the right lane if I remember correctly. So then all of a sudden the plow makes a bee line across two lanes to the turn around directly in front of us. I was only going about 50 by then and would have hit him broad side and wrecked the car. The guy never looked. I suspect the car closing in illegally on the right lane might have tricked him. Orange.
That explains it, I have never read the books or seen the movies.