If you have to clear snow from a large site then choosing a box plow is a no brainer. After all it can make you 5 times faster than a guy with a straight blade. Perhaps a slightly more difficult decision is what type of cutting edge to choose; rubber or steel? Here are some points to consider:

Rubber Blade Pro's
One advantage of a rubber blade is that it naturally hugs the contours of the ground and so gives a squeegee-like cleaning effect. When the snow is fresh or slushy, the rubber blade will clean very well. It is also gentle on delicate surfaces like interlocking brick. You should make sure that the rubber is of a high grade. (For example, Avalanche box plows use rubber with an 85 durometer rating, the highest in the industry. A rating lower than that means the rubber is not as dense and will wear more quickly.)

Rubber Blade Con's
You've finally reached the end of a big parking lot. However, you still can't leave. Why not? Because there are patches of hard-packed snow where cars have driven and your rubber blade has not cleared them. Now you have to unhook the plow and go back to scrape those areas with your bucket edge. A rubber or poly blade is simply not stiff enough or sharp enough to cut through hard-packed or frozen snow all the way to the pavement. In these conditions a steel trip edge would make your life much easier.

Steel Blade Pro's
The biggest advantage to using a steel blade comes when you're plowing in tough conditions as mentioned. If the snow is hard-packed or if it has frozen overnight, a pusher with a steel trip edge will make you a lot faster, assuming of course that your trip mechanism gives sufficient stiffness. The Avalanche STE utilizes 7/8" torsion springs to give a lot of attack which allows the blade to cut to the pavement on the first pass. (Some other brands use a steel blade bolted to a rubber edge. That gives you neither the stiffness nor the durability to make it a worthwhile investment.) A steel blade is also much less likely to break if you hit something and therefore, on average, you should get more service life out of it. Again, this is only true if it is a well built system based on a rugged spring mechanism.

Steel Blade Con's
A pusher with a proper steel trip edge system is more complex to manufacture than one with a rubber edge and therefore it is generally more expensive up front. However, this can be balanced against the fact that it will make you much faster when clearing icy or hard-packed snow.

Whatever cutting edge you decide on you can rest assured that your Avalanche box plow will give you many years of highly productive service.