[Lawn Lad]

I'm remiss in saying that I have not accumulated production data overtime to assist in my bidding process. I do have some general guidelines I can use based on how long it takes us to service various properties. I'm looking for some feedback on a condo assoc I'm considering placing a bid on for next season.

The overall site is a little over 5 acres total. Grass areas are broken up throughout the property and measure in under 60,000 sq ft. We will most likely have to use a push mower a good portion of the time due to the layout of the lawn areas and the written specs. There is about 1200 lf of bed edging to do. I have not measured or counted for yards of mulch yet. Today's project.

What are your thoughts on production rates for doing the following:

Mowing with 21" push mower
Bed edging with power bed edger and clean up
Mowing with a 36" walk behind

I'm estimating about 10,000 sq ft/hour with a 21" mower. I think I'll go more conservatively at around 8,000 sq ft/hour due to walking distances and potential for having to bag more material. What do you think? We can't use a ZTR with bagger (Exmark) due to rutting/drainage concerns, tearing up shady lawn areas and general access issues.

As for bed edging... I'm at a bit of a loss since I don't own one of the fancy dancy bed edgers, but plan on purchasing one for this next season. I'd like to come up with a linear foot charge for bed edging to make the bidding process alittle more simplified, understanding that some general site conditions may require some adjustment in pricing (e.g. access to collect debris from site).

[Dale Wiley]

My production rates don't mean a damn thing to you. Your rates do. You need to time your own production and set your rates from that.

The process would involve using a known amount of area, and perfroming all those production tasks and timing them on that known area. And I mean starting from driving up, spotting the truck unloading, mowing / edging/ dumping the grass. That will give you YOUR production numbers for that given area and a base to bid off of. And its best to have an employee or some one besides yourself do the timing, because they will do it slower than you will.

There are also activities that support your production time in the field, such as drive time, dump time, repair time and others that need to be charged back to the account / accounts on a regular basis.

Most companys run somewhere from 10 % ( good) to 25% ( bad) of the on site proiduciton time in support time.. If you do not charge for this time, YOU will be paying for it out of your net profits and soon you will not have any net profits. You need to track and make sure you bill somebody for every minute you or employees work.

Good luck..

[Nebraska]

Lawn Lad.... I have found the rates that Exmark posts on their website to be very beneficial and a place to start from. In fact when in doubt I have referred to their chart and have come out ahead each time.

http://www.exmark.com/productivity.htm

I'll see what I can dig up as far as our times on a bed edger...


John

[jwholden]

You may want to call a company called Nilsson Associates. I bought a book from him many years ago that had production rates based on different equipment and work methods. PM me if you need more info.

[Will Pacala]

Can you tell us where you bought the book and what the exact title was??? The book sounds very interesting.

I'm always looking for things to read wether it's for people starting out or big time CEO's and major companies. All share a very common thing that helps even the smallest company. It's that they are still a company that needs to be managed and run. Big or small the principle of it is the same.

[Dale Wiley]

I have that book and in my opinion it is useless. The only time data that really matters is your own. Depending upon some one else's time data in your operation and putting your money on the line with some one else's time is asking for trouble.

Mininmum charge of 1 or 1.2 man hours on any service.
Add support time of at least 10% to 15% on all site production times.

Add 10% to 15% above what you think it will take on leaf removal jobs.

Take your own yard or a clients or a family's and run your own time data.

Get one of the nice digital sport stop watchs and wear it around your neck all day and continulally time EVERYTHING you and your employees do, and carrry a small notebook and write it all down.

The reason there is not a lot of accurate time data or low cost estimating softwares, is that some people depended on that, lost their ass on a job / jobs and sued whoever provided the time data and software.