CHICAGO – Mayor Lori E. Lightfoot and the Department of Streets and Sanitation (DSS) today announced the City’s inaugural “You Name A Snowplow” contest, which encourages residents to use their ingenuity and imagination to create snowplow names and submit them to www.chicagoshovels.org by January 6, 2023. The City will pick the top six names, and those names will represent one snowplow in each of the City’s six snow districts. 

“Chicago knows snow, and we count on our snowplows and their drivers to be here for us every winter making sure the roads are safe and passable for motorists, emergency vehicles, and public transportation,” said Mayor Lightfoot. “I’m thrilled to begin this fun and exciting naming process for our vitally important fleet of snow vehicles.” 

The contest has two phases. First, the City will gather names from the submissions, which are limited to one per person and 50 characters in length. When the submission period closes on January 6, 2023, or when the City receives 20,000 submissions, whichever comes first, DSS staff will choose 50 finalists. In the second phase, which will begin on January 15, 2023, residents may vote for up to six names of their choice by January 31, 2023. The top six vote-getting names will be featured on one snowplow in each of the city’s six snow districts. 

Once the names are chosen, residents will be able to view the named snowplows, along with the city’s full snow fleet, in real-time during winter storms via the City’s newly updated plow tracker.  

DSS manages more than 9,400 lane miles of roadway with a fleet of over 300 salt spreaders that are fully prepared to respond when needed, along with more than 400,000 tons of salt stationed at salt piles throughout the city.  

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