About Us
Richard Ingram started plowing snow commercially in 1974. He started small, but after much hard work and perseverance, in November of 1978, Richard signed his first major commercial contract for a Fortune 500 company. He proudly maintained that contract for over 30 years.
Many winters have come and gone since then, in which time the business world as we know it has changed dramatically; however, one area that has remained consistent throughout this time is Richard's dedication and loyalty to his clients and their safety. Since our humble beginnings, we have continued to grow and flourish in the business community. Now Richard’s daughters, Laura and Michelle, represent the second generation of the business. With their shared vision of pride, loyalty, and ethics in business, it is truly a family affair. Ingram has consistently upgraded and expanded its fleet of equipment to meet the changing needs of its clients and to stay at the forefront of snow and ice management operational capabilities.
Ingram doesn’t operate with the same mindset that most companies do. Money isn’t our driving force. Sure, it’s clearly a very important part of staying in business, but it’s not what drives our vision. Our reputation, service level, and dreams of what could be is what drives us. We’re not afraid to deviate from the norm; to go out on a limb and try something. In a blue-collar industry that most of society sees as being very basic, we push the envelope. We see something we think makes sense, and we try it — even when it’s expensive and we’re the only ones doing it — which it seems we often are. We put liquid tanks on our salt trucks 20 years ago, when liquids were a brand new idea. We invested in a fleet of salt trucks that’s so beautiful and well maintained that they’re known throughout the country. We were one of the first contractors in the country to utilize Metal Pless snow pushers — an expensive but far superior implement that reduces salt consumption. We own several TrucBrushes for clearing trailer tops. We heavily invested in snow melters in a market that didn’t utilize them. Why? Because we saw the potential for long-term value in being able to do things others can’t. So when most other contractors see what we do and the equipment we invest in and say, “Wow that’s really cool, but are you crazy?”, we smile because we know we don’t have short-sightedness or private equity pulling back on the reins of our investment in ourselves and our future.
You see, Richard was a visionary long before it was trendy, and he could teach a master class in leadership having only attended the “School of Hard Knocks”. He is known for his tough love, wearing his emotions on his sleeve, and having an undying passion for making things work. He also is known for all of his “catch phrases” he uses over an over. “It’s time to feed the chickens” (that means go out salting), “The only person you can’t BS is yourself”, and “The sun will rise tomorrow, and they can’t eat you” (he used to have to tell Laura that a lot when she’d worry about things) are just a few of them. But above all of them, “Refuse to Fail” is ultimately the phrase that has guided Richard’s approach to business and operations and now guides his daughters’ decision making processes to carry the business forward into the future. It’s a simple, but stunningly effective mindset. It simply means that when things get hard, there are no excuses. Failure is not an option. Find a way to make it work. So when equipment breaks, employees get sick or the weather takes a hard left turn and throw plans A,B, and C out the window right during morning rush hour, you find a way to make it work no matter what it takes. It’s just that simple. And that’s the Ingram way.
Our Original Fleet
