# Bidding by Hourly Rate



## CLPS (Oct 10, 2008)

I know, this is kind of a fishy question but a large Townhome / Apartment complex is insisting that I bid hourly for different services. I usually just stick to residentual accounts which i bid per job, so have never really pinpointed an exact hourly rate for... say plowing with a truck... or snowblowing / shoveling. Here is what I am thinking, how does it compare?

Plowing (truck) -$125 / hr / truck
Snow Blowing / Shoveling - $75 / hr / man
Salt / Sand - $ 95 / hr 
Snow Relocation - $ 25 / yard (that would be $375 a load with my 15 Yard dump, loading with skid steer)

Way off anywhere?


----------



## Stud Bro (Oct 24, 2007)

Plowing (truck) -$125 / hr / truck
Snow Blowing / Shoveling - $75 / hr / man
Salt / Sand - $ 95 / hr 
Snow Relocation - $ 25 / yard (that would be $375 a load with my 15 Yard dump, loading with skid steer

first off what kind of truck and plow


----------



## cretebaby (Aug 23, 2008)

CLPS;602179 said:


> I know, this is kind of a fishy question but a large Townhome / Apartment complex is insisting that I bid hourly for different services. I usually just stick to residentual accounts which i bid per job, so have never really pinpointed an exact hourly rate for... say plowing with a truck... or snowblowing / shoveling. Here is what I am thinking, how does it compare?
> 
> Plowing (truck) -$125 / hr / truck
> Snow Blowing / Shoveling - $75 / hr / man
> ...


Youll never get that here

the snow relocation price was just a joke right


----------



## hydro_37 (Sep 10, 2006)

Sounds high to me too. Especially the shoveling price.
Have you got salt and know what it will cost you?


----------



## plowtime1 (Nov 1, 2007)

if your competing with larry lowballer...you too high JMO
something to consider whats your area fetching?


----------



## dirtmandan2 (Nov 2, 2007)

All of youre prices are extremely high, at least for my area... Your salt pricing means nothing... on an average lot that i plow I spread aprox. 500 pounds of salt and that takes me maybe 10 minutes to do. Your snow relocating, if you can get even close to that amount of money I will bring a tri axle and come work for you!!!


----------



## CLPS (Oct 10, 2008)

Stud Bro;602189 said:


> first off what kind of truck and plow


Pickups, two 3/4 tons and a half.

Dirtman - I wasn't sure on the hourly rate for salting but I usually base it around 75% of cost to plow same lot. How do you price salting? By material wieght?

Cretebaby- what would you charge to relocate say.. 30 yds of snow already piled? Keep in mind it would probably need to be done once or twice per season. I'm probably a little high but I don't think $500-600 is unreasonable, using a dump truck and skid steer.

These aren't huge lots but the are many of them. They are also really high end housing so I think they don't have a problem with spending a little more to get it done right, i.e. larry lowballer's bid with probably be thrown out first.

Also where I am we get large storms frequently, and there is a ton of demand, probably more than most areas in the midwest.

Everyone seems to say I high, but i didn't see any other numbers in this thread.

Thanks for the imput though, more is welcome.


----------



## Jay brown (Dec 26, 2005)

CLPS;602179 said:


> I know, this is kind of a fishy question but a large Townhome / Apartment complex is insisting that I bid hourly for different services. I usually just stick to residentual accounts which i bid per job, so have never really pinpointed an exact hourly rate for... say plowing with a truck... or snowblowing / shoveling. Here is what I am thinking, how does it compare?
> 
> Plowing (truck) -$125 / hr / truck
> Snow Blowing / Shoveling - $75 / hr / man
> ...


plowing sounds fair
snow shoveling would be about $35/hr here (usually pays about $100/hr if you bid it by the job)
salting(if you provide the salt with the hourly rate) would be about $1300/hr for treated and a 5 yard v box
and Snow relocation (snow removal) would probably go for $80/hr for the truck (2-3 loads per hour) and $125/hr for the loader (4-6 loads per hour) so that's about $50 a load


----------



## dirtmandan2 (Nov 2, 2007)

I agree on the relocating, somewhere in the 50 to 60$ a load. Salting im around 500$ / ton spread, but like I said my accounts are in the 500 # range.


----------



## JDiepstra (Sep 15, 2008)

make sure you explain the the customer that even if they are paying you $125 per hour, you may be a better deal than the low ball guy at $80 an hour if he does a crappy job.


----------



## big acres (Nov 8, 2007)

Depends on where in the midwest you are. I assume they want hourly rates for the aftercare, extras, etc...

We're in a major metro area with strong pricing... but if I published $125 hour for a truck it would be way out of line. You should definetly make at least that much during prime time plowing, but that should be covered under you monthly or per-push. $75-90 per hour is about all you can put in writing without pricing yourself out. 

Sanding at $95 per hour, plus materials is fine... just have a 1 hour min.

Relocation is a bit high imo...mainly because you are pricing per yard and it looks big. we just bill out each pice of equipment at hourly rates. This way the numbers look smaller, and no one can judge how many true yards you are hauling. It does add up though, and I don't think you are too far off.


----------



## plowtime1 (Nov 1, 2007)

AHHH,
choices,choices,choices


----------



## ALLABOUTSNOW (Sep 26, 2008)

Rates do see high but every reagion is differant. with the jags in our area it doesn't suprise me if they are bidding in the 70per/her range to plow with there 82 F150 with liability ins paying his driver 8 bucks an hour. It's rediculas. I bid a lot @1200 per push on 2-5in plus salt and the customer actually called and told me they had a bid for 700 with salt and asked me if I could do anything to adjust my price so they could go with is WTF


----------

