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Sales for the new on-demand snow plow app TouchPlow was brisk over the past 24 hours as Ottawa received its first major snowfall of the season.

The snow started to accumulate just after midnight Monday night and by dawn Tuesday the newly launched service app had already generated hundreds of new users.

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“It’s gone nuts. Everyone’s calling,” says TouchPlow’s owner Ken Dale, who was handing out coffees to about 30 of his drivers who were busy clearing driveways and walkways around the region. “We’ve signed up about 600 new Ottawa people overnight and I think we’ll have over 2,000 users at least by the end of the storm.”

Tuesday’s storm dumped more than 20 centimetres of snow on the city by nightfall.

TouchPlow is Ottawa-based but has launched across the country. On Tuesday, most users were concentrated across Ontario and in Winnipeg, where snow was accumulating through the day.

Dale says the draw of the service is that it is pay-per-use — typically between $20 and $40, depending on the size of the driveway and when the plow comes — and there’s no pressure to sign a seasonal snow removal contract.