Muscovites Earn Cash by Digging Out Snowbound Cars

A heavy snowfall in Moscow means not only traffic jams and crowds at bus stops, but also tens of thousands of cars hopelessly stuck in yard snowdrifts. While some look with longing at their car trapped in snow, others see an opportunity to earn money in this situation.

On classifieds websites and Telegram channels in recent weeks, dozens of ads have appeared offering to dig out cars. MSK1.RU examined this spontaneous market and spoke with those who provide such services and those who use them.

‘Yesterday We Earned 8 Thousand’

Pavel is no novice in this business. Last year, he already did snow removal while working in an office. This season, he decided to do it again, but approached it more systematically.

“This year, I knew it would be the same, so I made a similar ad. But I improved it and added reviews from last year,” he explains.

Now, Pavel, just like then, does “excavations” in his free time from the office. Pavel swings a shovel with a friend. He and his partner operate in three districts near home. Going farther is pointless because the service is usually needed urgently by clients.

“You need to define the area where you work. Because if one [client] is in Medvedkovo and the next in Biryulyovo, it«s a useless waste of time. You»ll spend an hour just driving, when you could dig out in the neighboring yard and earn money,” Pavel believes.

Therefore, the partners choose their geography practically. Pavel«s price is not high: for digging out, he charges from 1,000 to 1,500 rubles ($10–$15). Over three active days of work, yesterday was the most profitable for them.

“Yesterday we earned 8 thousand rubles ($80),” says Pavel.

The partners split the money in half. The secret to success turned out to be simple: people see them working and ask for help themselves. The entrepreneurs name the price and agree — hence many orders in one day.

Not all orders are simple. Once, Pavel arrived at the location, and the photo from the client, it turns out, did not reflect the actual volume of future work.

“We get there, and we need to clear about 6 square meters of snow. For the car to get out of that spot, we had to ‘roll out’ roughly two parking spaces. We decided to increase the price, but that was an exception,” Pavel recounts.

That day, they did the largest volume of work: the resulting snowdrifts next to the car themselves resembled two powerful SUVs.

Pavel is aware of the competition: on classifieds sites, prices can be much higher than his — 4,000–5,000 rubles ($40–$50) for digging out one car. He thinks no one will pay such money, although he understands why others value their labor more highly.

Here are a couple of ads as an example — scroll through the gallery.

‘Just Felt Like Helping’

Sergei represents another type of “digger.” Recently, he bought an SUV, and now the man can help those stuck in snow by pulling them out with his vehicle. For this work, he charges, as he says, a symbolic sum — 1,000–2,000 rubles ($10–$20) depending on the case«s complexity.

“Just felt like helping people. That«s all. I just got a four-wheel-drive car, I thought I»d help people and everyone would be happy,” Sergei shares.

He posted an ad offering his services, but the flow of orders isn«t bustling.

“Yesterday there were two cars, the day before — one. This isn«t a business, no one calls from morning to evening. Some dug themselves out, some called. It»s situational,” the man recounts.

For Sergei, this isn«t his main activity either. Over all the days of the January snowfall, he earned 15 thousand rubles ($150).

‘I Paid 5 Thousand Rubles’

Muscovite Inna woke up in the morning after the snowfall and barely found her car. But the problem wasn«t only hers — the entire yard was buried. There was no point waiting for the situation to resolve itself.

“Getting help from the management company now is unrealistic. The utilities barely clear the roads. Although, fortunately, the driveway to the entrance is kept clean,” she shares.

Seeing that the yard and parking lots were snowed in, and neighbors weren«t taking initiative, Inna decided to take matters into her own hands. She found on a classifieds site a small company that provides workers for snow removal.

“I paid 5 thousand rubles for 8 hours ($50 for 8 hours). That is, one person digs and clears snow for 8 hours. Maybe someone would have managed faster, but it«s not an easy task — to clear the whole yard, he spent the entire day,” the responsible resident recounts.

During this time, the hired specialist managed to clear the space around the cars in the parking lot, completely dig out three cars, and free up two additional parking spaces.

She first invested her own money, then wrote to the neighbors in a chat.

“I wrote that I wasn«t planning to earn money from this or engage in charity. So I asked: if this helped anyone, compensate me at least part of the costs,” Inna recounts.

The neighbors responded and chipped in. Inna also tried official channels: she left requests at the dispatch service and in the “Our City” app asking to clean the area in front of the parking lot.

Earlier, we told why sell fancy license plates for cars on “Gosuslugi” and how much you can earn from it.