Part 2 of four
The Months That Decide a Covered Price
Open ground and covered ground cost about the same to run for most of the year. The difference is concentrated into about fourteen weeks, and it is concentrated on open ground.
The four questions
| What this part buys | On open ground, the plowing and salting that keep it usable. Under cover, none of that, and instead a building that has to be maintained all year. |
|---|---|
| What makes it move | How hard a winter it was. Plowing is billed by the event in this trade, not by the season, so a year with eleven events costs what eleven events cost. |
| What to ask when you call | Whether the lot is plowed before a shuttle runs or after, because that decides whether your car is reachable at six in the morning. |
| What cannot be promised about it | A guess about next winter. Nobody has one, and an operator quoting a winter rate is quoting an average rather than a forecast. |
Why the cost lands in fourteen weeks
Plowing is billed per event. A contractor comes out when the accumulation crosses a threshold, clears it, salts it, and invoices for that visit.
So a lot's winter cost is not a season, it is a count. Eleven events is roughly twice five events, and the operator finds out which kind of winter it was at the same time everybody else does.
That is why open ground quotes move between years while covered ground does not move much: the covered building costs the same in January as in July, and the open lot does not.
Plowed before or after the first run
This is the question that decides your morning and almost nobody asks it.
A lot that plows the driving lanes before the first shuttle leaves is a lot you can get out of. A lot that plows after the morning rush has cleared is a lot where your car sits in a windrow until nine.
Neither is wrong and both are legitimate operating choices. One of them matters a great deal if your flight is at seven.
Salt, and what it does
Whatever keeps a lot usable also gets into everything. A car parked on open ground through a salted week comes back with salt in the wheel wells and on the underside.
This is the strongest practical argument for cover in this region and it has nothing to do with looking after your paintwork on the day. It is about what nine days of standing in a salted lot does over years of doing it.
We are not going to tell you it will damage your car. We will tell you the salt is there, which is a fact, and let you weigh it.
The rest of the year
From roughly April to November the difference between covered and open ground is sun, tree debris and the occasional hailstorm, and it is small.
If you are traveling in that half of the year and cover is being quoted at a significant premium, the honest thing to say is that you are paying winter money in summer, and it is worth asking the desk to quote both.
Practical
- Ask when the lot is plowed relative to the first shuttle.
- In a salted month, expect the underside of the car to need attention afterwards.
- Between April and November, ask for both quotes and compare them yourself.