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The phones were ringing off the hook and customers were lined up outside the door at John Bare's store this week.

Bare, owner of HB Duvall in Frederick, which sells winter storm equipment such as salt spreaders, tire chains, snow blowers and snowplow repair parts, said he's been doing brisk business for the past week.

And with more than a foot of snow this week on top of 2-plus feet last weekend, Bare and others in the snow-removal business have had no let-up.

Bare said he is running low on inventory, especially snow blowers.

"It's been crazy," Bare said.

Mountain View Lawn Services in Thurmont had to turn away some of its residential consumers because they are "swamped" with commercial jobs, according to office manager Lori Long.

Mountain View uses four trucks and other snow-removal equipment and employs 15 people, including subcontractors, Long said. The company was "holding steady" with its business before the winter began; Long said this winter's major storms have "helped a lot."

Employees have felt the biggest brunt of working long hours, according to Long.

"No one is getting any rest," she said.

A Columbia company is working to alleviate the stress on snowplow drivers while helping governments deploy resources more effectively and reduce plowing and road-treatment times.

Enterprise Information Solutions developed its eRoadTrack system in response to a 1996 snowstorm that buried the region and "caused Howard County to be shut down for a week," according to company president Andrew Shaw.

The system, installed in trucks, uses a modem equipped with a GPS device and sensors that indicate whether a truck's plow is up or down and if its chemical spreader is on or off, according to Shaw.

"The GPS shows the location of the truck and when that information is sent to the server; another application calculates which street the truck is on," Shaw said. "We know the condition of the treatment and the condition of that road."

The data can be accessed by Howard County residents, he said.

The system, now used in Howard and Harford counties, plus Washington, D.C., is being implemented in Prince George's County, Shaw said.

Revenues at CHS Landscaping in Frederick were "down a little" before the winter, but now — even before this week's latest bout of winter fury — its eight employees were working many hours with "a lot" of overtime, said administrator Chris Rodriguez. CHS uses seven trucks and other equipment to remove snow for Frederick County Public Schools and the Stonebridge subdivision in Frederick.

Last weekend's record-breaking storm prompted Ruppert Landscape of Laytonsville to shift its employees and subcontractors in and out 24 hours a day, according to branch manager Edward O'Brien.

The company, with other locations in Frederick, Baltimore and Forestville, plus national locations, has about 30 plows in Laytonsville and 115 employees and subcontractors combined, O'Brien said.

Ruppert provides snow-removal services for commercial buildings, including offices and hospitals, plus complexes, charging $125 an hour per truck. This is the company's second major money-maker of the winter, O'Brien said, with December's storm also generating substantial revenue.

Employees at Kline Landscaping Inc. in Woodsboro worked "straight through" the first 30 hours of the weekend snowstorm before reducing their shifts to 6 a.m. to 8 p.m., according to president Kevin Kline.

The company, which provides snow-removal services in the winter to supplement its landscaping, lawn maintenance and masonry services in the warmer months, has 16 employees and uses five snowplows.

Kline Landscaping provides snow-removal services in Frederick, Carroll and Washington counties, with its biggest service areas in Walkersville and Frederick.

The stormy weather has put other company projects on hold, he said, including the construction of patios and retaining walls for homes.

"We have work to do but can't do it," he said, citing the company's current focus: snow.