Snow clearing app expanding to Winnipeg
Yardly's goal is 'to make people’s lives much easier' through flexible, app-based on-demand or recurring snow-clearing services.

MetroNews.ca
Oct. 31, 2017
Braeden Jones

Winnipeg is still awaiting its ride-hailing revolution, but the "Uber of snow-clearing" is about to arrive in the city just in time for winter.

When the Edmonton-based founders of Yardly—an on-demand snow removal and lawn care platform—planned to expand outside of Alberta, Winnipeg was the most attractive candidate “because of the similarity (with) Edmonton,” according to co-founder and CEO Terry Song.

“Snowfall most of the time doesn’t melt, so you have to clear the snow, not like Eastern Canada where if it’s a couple of centimetres it’ll melt,” Song said. “Another thing is also in terms of population, and the city’s layout, it’s a very good population size for us.”

Yardly, founded by Song and Sheldon Zhang in November 2015, already operates in Edmonton and Calgary, where it’s collected more than 100 service providers—part time contractors like Uber drivers—and has served more than 2,000 homeowners.

It essentially connects homeowners with reliable independent contractors who sign up for one-time or recurring service without any contracts.

Song explained the company’s focus is flexible, convenient snow removal for anyone accustomed to ordering services with a tap through an app.

“Our goal is to make people’s lives much easier by providing them the easiest way to order,” he said, adding that’s why the service is available “both on-demand and recurring.”

Recurring visits ordered in advance are $29 each regardless of driveway size or snow volume, and on-demand or last-minute service is $39. A monthly subscription is also available for $149 monthly, which covers unlimited snow-clearing.

Yardly will officially launch in Winnipeg on Dec. 1, but has already vetted and brought 20 service providers aboard.

Each contractor has liability insurance, and if they’re owner-operators they are also required to have Worker’s Compensation Board coverage. Yardly also requires each contractor to go through criminal record checks before joining, and, like Uber drivers, is held accountable for the quality of their work.

“We have a service guarantee that service providers on our platform are reliable, and if they’re not, we kick them out,” Song said.

Christopher Dyck, who started C&P Mow and Snow with his brother in August, is one of the first Winnipeg contractors to join Yardly.

“We just started our company, and one of the challenges we face as new business owners is a lack of customer base,” Dyck said. “With Yardly coming out to Winnipeg it helps with that, by signing up with them they have money for marketing, gaining customers.”

Dyck added that C&P Mow and Snow will still do its own regular business, but the app-based Yardly side-gig is “an extra income source” that is like the icing on the cake.

Yardly will have competition in Winnipeg—as dozens of local businesses and contractors operate independently already, and another on-demand snow clearing app, Touch Plow, already launched here in 2015. Touch Plow did not respond to request for comment.

After the snow melts, Yardly will offer lawn mowing and spring clean-up services through the same platform.

The company intends to expand countrywide in 2018.