Just asking.... you guys charge extra for weekends, or after hours? I have not really settled on a policy yet, well I guess I have, I do it at the same rate I charge during the week. I'm going out in a couple hours to do a grain mill repair, so I'll be using the man basket, the jib, all on a Saturday. This is the second time for this outfit I've worked on a Saturday, I didn't mention anything the first time, but now i think I'll nick them a little bit extra, while telling them the first time was a favor, but if they are going to make a habit out of weekend work it will cost a bit extra. I'm only thinking 30 to 50 bucks extra, on a 800 dollar job, shouldn't be a problem, more of anything I just want to know my willingness to work weekends is appreciated!
I don't charge overtime during the week- monday thru friday, no matter how long the day is, unless its a prevailing wage job which has different rules. Some outfits by me, are overtime outside of their "standard" 8 hour day. I add $25/ hr on saturday, $35/ hr on sunday, to the regular rate.
I don't charge overtime or a weekend charge for me it's like a holiday because I don't have to think about what is happening on my building jobs. I just lay back in the seat and hope it takes them twice as long as it should.
The company I retired from used the same rate 24/7. It was felt that the paid rental hours gained on the machine per day or week was a great tradeoff for the overtime portion of the operators wages. Clients often commented favorably when they found out we did not charge extra. It was good for repeat business.
My rates are same charge for 7 days out of the week . Some customers may only be able to schedule a job over the weekend due to other life events & help available . Try to accommodate everyone & charge same pay to keep everyone happy .
Wow! You guys are cheap. Anything after 8 hrs is time and a half. Saturday, time and a half or double. Sunday, double.
qball- we're all talking rental rates for the crane to our customers, not wages to a employee. I pay my guys overtime after 40. My customers don't get charged extra on thursday at 2:00, just because my employee might be into his overtime at that point. Most of our jobs are 3-5 hour rental projects, not week long/ or month long events. I can't change my rental rates from 160/ hr for the crane to 240 because the customer wants to start at 7 instead of 8, or if it goes to 4 or 5 in the afternoon, because I was at a different job in the morning. The crane doesn't cost me twice as much to operate on a Sunday, instead of monday, the labor costs me more, hence my added charge for labor, but you can't double your rental rates. I eat some overtime for my employees, if we're trying to get something ready for the next day, or we're busy. It usually all kind of works out.
I'm an owner operator as well,I wake up every morning glad to go to work, never seen how my time magically doubles in vallue after some arbitrary number is hit.
I'm with Qball . I do septic ,sewer service and excavating and its always the same idiots that leave their problems until the weekend or are trying to schedule their work on a weekend when they wouldn't work for regular time after hours. You will get tired at some point and you will understand this. Yes , I've got 37 years in on this game , enjoy getting up to go to work every week day. I stopped doing run of the mill residential and commercial work on weekends a couple of years ago and only do it for a select short list of costumers who know before hand that as they pick up the phone they will pay premium to have me on site. And yes, somedays the premium money does not do it for me anymore.
Good to get some other viewpoints. I ended up doing my last Saturday job at my regular rate, but didn't "stop the meter" until the man basket was unloaded and I was driving away from the crane yard, all in all nicked them for maybe an extra half hour at most, I can live with that. It was a crappy day anyway, no good for flying or up at the local ski area near my place, I was happy to be working. Some days I have bocat1's attitude, or worse! What he says makes a lot of sense. But mostly I'm still happy to be staying busy and as long as I know my weekend work is appreciated AND NOT TAKEN FOR GRANTED, or expected. I won't charge extra, and if I do it will be marginal. Making them buy lunch or something minor, not even that if it's a true emergency and it's a good customer. For me, it's not like I'm working 40 hours a week anyway, I get plenty of no crane work days to play, so working on a weekend isn't that bad, if I don't have to work Monday and Tuesday!
Our operators always got their due overtime rate of pay. At $200 to $500 (250 ton Manitowoc) an hour for the cranes extra work hours, it was still a good profit center and well worth eating the operators overtime difference. Bottom line, 50 hours in a week and get the crane to the next job pays better than 40 hours a week.
To those of you who would charge no weekend differential, what about night differential? Night weekend? I really hate working nights, seems like it messes up everything about sleep, and the next days, and family time, etc.
Must just a different mentality I've never tried to take advantage of people. Keep in mind I rarely work for anyone but owner operators just like me. If schedules aren't working out I quite often offer to work Saturday or after hours, it's not like I'm setting concrete forms or framing a house I'm sitting on my *** watching other people work. Two years ago on Christmas Day I did the digging for a broken water main, before we were done there was a second one. I was 14 hours, it never occurred to me to charge overtime in fact I knocked an hour off for all the down time I had with the engine turned off.
I'm curious if qball is talking operator pay or crane rental rate. I don't know of anyone around here that charges full overtime or double time on the crane rental. Most guys do the same as crane op. Charge enough extra to cover the operators overtime. Seems like it would be a little bit of a hard sell to charge 250-280 and hour on a 30 ton because the operator is into double time on his hours. But if that works for some companies I'd like to talk to their sales guy.
Here's a twist to my original question: what about the situation I have at this very moment? I went out this morning to the collapsing spud cellar, looked it over and decided to take it on. By 11:30 we had it stabilized, or at least it seemed so to us, and between me and the 3 old boys doing the shoring we have about 120 years of construction experience. Yeah, we eyeballed it and called it good, no engineers involved. So, I walked away from the National, with 5500 lbs of pull on the hook. It will stay like that all night and into tomorrow morning. These big farm operations insure the potatoes stored in the cellars, I have to think they have insurance on the building. Whether I have the nerve to charge my full rate during all the time the load is on the hook remains to be seen! Right now I am thinking for sure at least 50% of my usual hourly rate.
The shortcut here is to ask if you are billing the insurance company. If so the insurance company knows the customary rates in you area. They often have to pay huge premiums to usual and customary rates for emergency services to "prevent further damage and protect contents".
For sure, it has all the hallmarks of an insurance job. The carpenters on site ain't sweating my hours.
I try not to work nights, I only have decent lights on one crane for night work, I had a week long night project at a walmart remodel, so I added a bunch of led spot/flood (they're great). Fortunately it was only a couple hours each night, just after midnight. I went and did it myself, I won't send the guys to do it, I figure if I was willing to take the job, I better be ready to work at night. I'm not in a big metro area, so rarely have things that need to happen at night, it seems like that is a more large metro area thing. I think I just charged the overtime rate. There are times i wish I had better lights on all the cranes, but its a good excuse to go home and start again the next day. I find my depth perception is not nearly as good at night, trying to set something down 80' away from yourself at night is no fun. Yes there are signal guys, but the depth perception still matters. I don't care how many lights are up, its not as safe as day work. I kind of figured that you were using a larger crane if you weren't charging overtime. It's a little easier to make overtime for the operator at $500/ hr. vs $140/ hr on a smaller crane. Natman- I wouldn't have walked away from the crane with a load on. Just me. I always figure if I'm hooked to it, I'm liable. Not saying it won't be fine in the morning, but I have had jobs/ projects where they wanted me to stay hooked overnight, and I won't. Find a way to brace it up, tie it off, whatever, if there's a load on the hook, me or one of my operators is going to be there, I'm cutting loose before I go home. I think if a guy had a crawler with dogs in it for both winches, it's not such a big deal, but I wouldn't leave a hydro. I rarely even shut my cranes off with a load on, I guess I've shucked too many starters in my life . I also wouldn't charge if I'm not there.
I fully agree to not leave a load on a hydro overnight. A latice boom crane with all dogs engaged could be an exception depending on the load being held. I also believe you have to charge for the time the crane is on the job if there is an operator in the cab. I would have a hard time paying for a crane setting there with the crew gone home. If it was not secure enough to unhook, it was not secure enough to walk away from. None the less in the morning the rate would start again. As long as there was still hook work to do, I would be charging the hourly rate. If not there it could be somewhere else earning dollars.
Working night & early morning hours messes up my sleep time as well . Run in to this at times when a customer takes a turnoff to short, tractor makes it but trailer completely misses the road resting in the ditch after dark . Took crane and wrecker to the last episode . Got home at 2:00 AM . Trucker was banging on my door at 7:00AM to settle up on the bill *** ! It's good to be loved
Never turn down $
That sounds a lot better than chasing him down. I could sleep good after getting paid.
Well.....let me just say that I was NOT real comfortable leaving my rig on the job site and hooked up, and didn't do it casually without any thought, and am fully aware of the risks. But the contractor made it clear enough that it was required (sure, I could have turned down the entire 2 or 3 thousand dollar job, no one was twisting my arm, but I figured the minimal risk was worth the reward) and then I made the mental leap that they were willing to pay for this somewhat hazardous situation. I'm charging them half time for the entire time the load is on the hook, probably about 24 hours (but only at $57.50 per hour, half my usual rate of $115.00 per), whether I'm asleep or snowboarding. Yeah that's right, I made $460.00 while sleeping! I just woke up and am going up to the ski area (3 miles away) until I get the call from them to go back to work. Screw being Mr. Nice Guy in this situation! Anyone gives me any static over my charging this, some insurance puke for instance, I'll explain how my equipment stays in a heated and secure building usually, not on a job site during a windy (but the right direction wind, we lucked out there, and I am more tuned into the wind then most being a small plane pilot in this area for 40 years, this wind direction will remain stable for days, and yes I am betting on it) NOT at risk in a pretty unusual situation. Anything can happen, I get that, but no people would be at risk if it settled, so I went for it, what can I say? The fact I dropped 6 K yesterday on a new 5 ton dump bed trailer may have influenced my decision somewhat, but not really. This project has already interfered with other work, another reason to stick to my guns, if this multi million dollar farming operation's insurance company can't afford $1380.00 (projected $ for all this standing by time) for me putting my equipment at risk while I'm missing other work, I'll find another line of work. And, let's not forget that I am NOT billing them extra for working on a holiday! Working on President's Day, I'm sure you guys all took the day off, right?!
I understand why you did it. Sometimes things dictate certain actions. As long as no one was at risk of injury If it evey comes up again it would be prudent to have the renters sign off on a dated document stating that no one would be in the area, and telling you to leave it suspended, stating they were taking all risk for damage to both their property and your machine.
Excellent idea OIH, I will keep it in mind if the occasion ever arises again, thanks for the input. The job is wrapped up, no surprises, it all went well. I am billing them for 27 (TWENTY SEVEN) hours of standby time, about $1500.00, chump change in the big scheme of things, along with 6 hours of regular time. I told the contractor that he is welcome to have the insurance company call me if anyone there has any questions, I am willing and ready to stand by my bill. I seriously doubt anyone will squawk.