What is everyone charging for these size units? $130 for 550 and $150 for 700? Thank you
I don't charge by the hour, I only bid jobs. My effective hourly rates are a lot higher than those however, but you have to have the quality of work to back it up. $130/hr for any dozer are rates from 10 yrs ago IMO....
Here in central PA smaller dozers are about $125/hr, bigger dozers up to $225/hr. Depends on the job
I would imagine a lot has to do with the operators skill level too..??
Operator skill is something you learn about only from repeated use of the same operator. Most people hire heavy machinery probably once or twice in their lives. All they are looking for is hourly rate and schedule availability. If it’s a backyard sewage pipe problem, all they care about is having the machine show up quickly. The owner could send his kid with limited skill and experience, and the property owner would hardly know or care.
I find almost none of that to be true, your reputation will proceed you, good or bad. My business is 100% word of mouth, and a large majority of customers become a repeat customer in one way or another (I offer more services than just grading/excavating.) If someone is just looking for the cheapest price I probably don’t want them as a customer anyways. There are plenty of guys on FB or c-list working for ‘beer money’ that would probably suit them better. I do high quality work, regardless of the size of the project, and charge accordingly. Which brings me to my next point, a lot of customers don’t really know what they need or want. Before every job I do a site visit and give an estimate. In addition to establishing a fixed price, it allows me to see exactly what equipment, materials and time are needed. For the customer it gives them a plan in their mind of what needs to be done and what it will take. I’ve found giving a turn key price works out better for all parties involved. The customer knows exactly what they are going to get and the cost and I usually make more than any of the guys charging hourly.
Well, MG84, your experience and mine are probably both true, and that is a result of each serving different clients in different markets. Probably in different geographic areas. If you have a great reputation and there are clients willing and able to wait for your schedule to open up to get their dirt moved, then you are golden. In a lifetime of working around and with heavy machinery i have rarely seen that. Usually the client’s schedule is so tight because of permit windows that they take who they can get. My dad was loyal to one excavation company and one quarry, and that was because they each always found a way to meet his schedule with a machine and material. My own experience is everyone is scrambling. Take what you can get, unless it’s a guy you’ve had real issues with.
As a rule we do try to charge by the job. We definitely do better that way. But there are some cases where that isn't an option. Especially here in upper Michigan when work season is slow I have the opportunity to pick up some extra work. But it is by the hour. Sometimes when building logging roads there is no real way to know what you're getting into at times. So therefore almost impossible to bid by the job in cases
We certainly try not to charge by the hour in most cases anymore, like I said above. But to fill in the blanks during the winter, this is the norm in this area. To charge by the hour. When summer resumes we go back to normal dirt moving, by the job.