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So if other people are charging $35/hr for their ss for 4 hrs totaling $140, does this cover all the costs of running/owning the equipment, gas, depreciation, insurance, labor, etc?
$35/hr is what I charge for labor alone. I could not add a ss to that rate even if I did own it.
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The $35 was just an example but no it does not include labor. An operated ss here would bill in the $65-$75 range on average. I figure an average price per labor hour is 35 or 40 so 35 is a pretty good estimate to add for a skid. In the example I gave we are talking about a small job between one company billing going rates for ss and another that has to charge more because it is a short term rental. Thier labor rates are probably similar but thier equipment charges are very different.
tjl- I have heard a lot of people say they use the same method as you and I guess that if you really do have to fire out tons of estimates and your work consists of lots of smaller jobs and the type of work you do is fairly consistent then I can see some value in simplying things that way. There is defintely value in a system that forces you to get a really good handle on your costs but there is no getting around the fact that using that system you are putting out estimates that are less accurate, in terms of reflecting the actual cost of doing a job, then a system that treats each job differently. The more varied your work the less accurate your estimating will be. We do include a lot of smaller equipment as well as allowances for purchase of small equipment and small rentals in our labor rate so we do use the same system as you to a point. But for the bigger ticket items I always want to cost them to individual jobs. Besides...how could you possibly know in January when you're doing your annual estimates that you are going to get a big job in september that will require renting a backhoe or a 30k# excavator for a month?