What to charge for skid steer and excavation work
Price it by the hour of you and the machine together. That hour is two costs added up: what an hour of the person in the seat costs, and what an hour of the machine costs to own and run. Getting the machine to the job is a third cost, and it does not shrink when the job does.
By TailGateBid. .
Two hours in one
An hour on a skid steer or a mini excavator is two things sold at once: you, and the machine. Each has a cost of its own, and each has a free calculator here that works it out.
Your hour is your pay, what is paid on top of pay, and overhead: what an hour costs you. The machine's hour is what it costs to own, spread over the hours it really works, plus fuel and repairs: what an hour of your machine costs you. Bring both figures back to the boxes below.
Count the machine once. If its payment and its insurance are already in the overhead your own hour carries, leave the machine's box empty. If the machine is rented for this job, leave it empty too, and put the rental in the box for anything else.
Work out what a job costs you
Start with the hours on the machine
These boxes build an hour of you and the machine from two figures, and put that hour, the hours of the job and the haul in the calculator below.
The hours you would bill. On this page they are the size of the job.
Owning it and running it, fuel included. Leave it empty for a rented machine, or one your overhead already carries.
Type the hours, and what an hour of you costs you. The working shows here.
Two people for a day of 8 hours is 16.
A rental, dump fees, a sub.
If you want it checked. Leave it empty if not.
Type your hours and what an hour costs you, or your materials. The answer shows here.
One day with the machine
An example with made-up numbers, not a going rate
Say a job is 6 hours on the machine. Say an hour of you costs $57.05 and an hour of the machine costs $26.60, both made up: $83.65 for an hour of the two, and $501.90 for the job. Say hauling the machine there and back costs you $150. The job costs you $651.90. Charge $932 and you keep $280.10, which is $30 of every $100. Spread over the 6 hours, that is $155.34 an hour with the haul inside it.
The same day at five prices
An example with made-up numbers, not a going rate
| Price | You keep | Of every $100 |
|---|---|---|
| $725 | $73.10 | $10 |
| $815 | $163.10 | $20 |
| $932 | $280.10 | $30 |
| $1,087 | $435.10 | $40 |
| $1,304 | $652.10 | $50 |
The haul does not shrink with the job
A two hour job and an eight hour job are the same truck, the same trailer and the same drive. Put the example through the boxes at 2 hours, then at 8, and watch the price for an hour: the haul is a far bigger part of it on the short job.
That is the sum under a minimum, and under a line on the quote for bringing the machine. What a trip costs you works out the drive, the loading and the miles, and shows what your smallest job costs with the trip in it. Put the haul inside the hourly price or on a line of its own. Not both.
It is easy to leave out. Iowa State University's guide to compact power equipment works a contractor's hourly rate out the way these pages do, from what the machine costs to own and operate, and notes under it that the rate does not include ancillary business equipment or towing vehicles. The truck and the trailer are a cost of their own.
Before the bucket goes in
- 811. It is the free national before-you-dig service, and it says every digging project, whatever its depth, needs a request a few days ahead, and then a wait of a few days for the utilities to answer: Common Ground Alliance, 811 Before You Dig. Those days go in the date you promise.
- Whose request it is. If you are the one digging, ask your state's 811 center whether the request has to be yours and not the customer's. This page does not say what your state asks.
- A license. If you are not sure whether the work you are quoting needs a contractor's license where you are, ask your state before you quote it.
By the hour, the load or the yard
An hour grows with the job, which is why it is an honest thing to charge by. If your customer wants a price by the load hauled or by the cubic yard moved, the sum does not change: work out the hours the job takes, cost them at an hour of you and the machine, and divide the price by the loads or the yards.
The same Iowa State guide says as much for earthmoving: work out the cost for each unit as well as the cost for each hour. The job price calculator takes a load or a cubic yard as the size of a job.
On a quote
A line on a TailGateBid quote has a quantity, what it is counted in and a price, and it can be counted in hours. Bringing the machine can be a line of its own beside it. Each line can carry what it costs you, and your customer never sees that part.
Other work done from a seat is priced from the same hour: brush hogging by the acre, and stump grinding by the inch.
Where each number comes from
- When this page works out a price for you, it never aims to leave you more than $90 of every $100. TailGateBid's own price suggestions stop at the same place. A price you type yourself can leave more.
- The ladder shows the prices that leave about $10, $20, $30, $40, $50 of every $100. The steps are our choice: a ladder to read across, not advice.
A calculator works from the numbers you type. Check the answer against your own books.
This page is about one kind of job. TailGateBid works for any trade, and Bid Partner is built to price a job in any of them: how it works for your trade.
Sources
Related
- What a machine costs an hourIn the example, a machine that works 500 hours a year costs $26.60 for each of them, before anyone is paid to run it.
- Trip and minimum chargeIn the example, a job 25 minutes away costs $93.92 before any work is done. See what your smallest job costs with the trip in it.
- What an hour costs youIn the example, $25 an hour of pay turns into $57.05 for every hour you can bill.
- Brush hoggingA 5 acre field worked through, from the width of the cutter to a price for each acre.
- Stump grindingAdd up the inches across each stump, then see what the job costs you and what a price for each inch leaves.
Machine work can sit in your TailGateBid price book as its own line, charged by the hour, with your price and what that hour costs you.
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