# How much is this worth per day?



## Phillies93 (Dec 13, 2011)

I have a friend who is a landscaper and asked me how much i would charge him for a day rate to chip up brush and whatever else he need done ( probably nothing else to tough) and my equipment is a 10 yard chip truck and a 150 bandit with cylinder lift and winch.I have already told him my price and of course he thinks that i am high on price. I just want so other opinions to see if i am in the ballpark. Thanks


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## mattfr12 (Dec 13, 2011)

Phillies93 said:


> I have a friend who is a landscaper and asked me how much i would charge him for a day rate to chip up brush and whatever else he need done ( probably nothing else to tough) and my equipment is a 10 yard chip truck and a 150 bandit with cylinder lift and winch.I have already told him my price and of course he thinks that i am high on price. I just want so other opinions to see if i am in the ballpark. Thanks




Around here its like 280.00$ to rent a bandit 250 for a day from the rental shop
Call your truck like 500.00$ gotta be able to replace it someday

if you just had one guy feeding the chipper then just your equipment 800.00 

You will only clear 600 by the time everything else is factored in. fuel, labor even if its you you gotta pay yourself, money that goes into the fix machinery pot.


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## Kottonwood (Dec 13, 2011)

Back in my subcontracting days (last year) I would show up with me and my saws for 250-500 depending on the job. Me, my saws and my chipper/chip truck 1000, provided they had a place for me to dump at the end of the day. Though I was usually doing some hairy ass removal so maybe that's worth a bit more. I say 500-750 is reasonable depending on what you are doing.


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## Iustinian (Dec 14, 2011)

We sub to other tree services/landscapers at these rates:

$90/hr climber, +$65/hr if I have to bring my groundguy for complex rigging
$200/hr bucket truck w/ operator
$150/hr chipper (Bandit 250 XP) w/ operator

we always figure/add 1/2 hour of travel time up front. 

I have people call in for our rates, and then gripe about it like its outrageous on the phone, and those are usually the guys that can't get anyone to climb for them at $15/hr lol, but at the same time, I have people I sub for that have no problem paying it time after time after time after time. They usually don't complain about the bill after the tree is on the ground and nothing is damaged and no one is injured, and we have no problem doing a little extra here and there, or giving a guy a break if he's having us work for him the whole day, plus repeat business. Although I'll give my repeat guys and all day subs a really good deal, I NEVER back off my price by more than 10% in a negotiation for 1st timers though, because if you give any more than that, people just think you're greedy or desperate.


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## imagineero (Dec 14, 2011)

In aus, a 3 man crew with one climber and two groundies plus a medium chipper and truck come in at around $1700/day.

A top level climber sub contracts to other companies at around $500, average climbers $350~$400. Climbers wont generally sub to the public, public pays full rate for tree removal. These rates are for insured qualified climbers.

Kerbside chipping is $250/hour for time spent at site with a 15"+ chipper and truck, this is only for other tree companies and minimum 1 hour charge. $350/hr for the public because people dont know how to cut, stack and organise for a chip truck and often try to put crap in there that doesnt belong (metal, lumber, palms etc). Some guys will do half days for $600/full days for $1200 but not many guys will go at that rate because they can do much better just doing their own tree work. If I had an 18" chipper and truck I wouldnt be running it for less than $1200/day. You'd be lucky to put $800 of that in your pocket (if you dont count your own time as wages) after paying insurance, fuel, registration, maintenance and repayments on your loan or if you dont have a loan, then depreciation on your equipment. A new bandit 18" and a new 25m3 chip truck will set you back around $400,000 here. You'd want a good return on an investment like that.

Shaun


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## Bobby Lee Wayne (Dec 14, 2011)

id say about 150 hour and you would be good, depends on your cost


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## treemandan (Dec 15, 2011)

I would do this: Tell him you need to look at every job, go over specifics and price each one accordingly.


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## DanW63 (Dec 30, 2011)

*do the math....*

Go in cheap and lose a little. Then you can get repeat work and make it up in volume.

First job - undercut by 25% (that means you are only out gas money).

So let's say you do 10 jobs a month and work all year.

10 jobs/month x 12 months x negative 25% = 30 free jobs per year

Depending on how much you want to work you can go bankrupt faster or slower. 

All too often first jobs set the standard. Get what you and your equipment and skills are worth. If he doesn't want to hire you, no hard feelings. 

My neighbor hired some errr I think redneck might be too generous - to remove 3 oaks - one 60 ft and the other 2 about 80ft tall. The 60 footer was leaning about 30 degrees. The other two were rotten enough that I wouldn't climb them. For $1200 he'd get them all down, flush cut the stumps and cut everything to firewood length. After seeing his throw line - some bailing twine from Home Depot tied to a few big washers - I thought I should keep my mouth shut and stay away. He started the job on Thanksgiving weekend and is not yet done. It turns out his saw was some worn out homeowners saw. You know, the kind they tell the size by the length of the bar only. I did feel it was necessary at one point to come over when the ring leader was taking a break and his partner in crime was gnawing at a limb on the one tree they managed to get down. The helper almost had one 10 " limb cut in the time it took me to section the main trunk (30" diameter) into 5 pieces with my old Stihl 066. There is a saying - don't bring a knife to a gun fight...


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## Yellowdog (Dec 31, 2011)

Iustinian said:


> We sub to other tree services/landscapers at these rates:
> 
> $90/hr climber, +$65/hr if I have to bring my groundguy for complex rigging
> $200/hr bucket truck w/ operator
> ...



I think $90/hr would be high down in Texas for climbers.. I see it go for about $36-38/hr per man but there are guys climbing for $12-15/hr. Wages for tree work are pretty low down here but we do okay on the disposal end. We get about $150/hr for 20 chipper with loader and $90/hr for a bobcat or excavator to move trees. Mulching is $150/hr and all that includes hauling charges.


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