How much to charge for a tractor?

[LeeB]

I have a potential customer that has some pretty large logs and no way to handle them. One of them is not so bad, 24" small end and 27" large end x 12'. The other is also about 12' and 24" at one end but the other end is forked. Even with trimming the forks it will still be a real chore to load on the mill. I've told her that I may need to bring a tractor but did not quote a price for it. I'll be working by myself so the tractor will be a body saver for me anyway. There a couple more logs also about 12' x 16". All logs are red oak so the boards will be heavy. The lady is a repeat customer and paid me far above my regular fee last time. I don't want to get outrageous but I also want to get fair compensation for my equipment.

[jmouton]

i would probably say somewhere around 85-100 per hr,,  plus you have to transport it ,, i get 100 hr plus 250 for delivery, dont really like to do it,takes more people to drive  2 vehicles ,  but those logs are big and heavy,,,   we regularly cut oak that big and use our bobcat to offload the slabs

[charles mann]

Depending distance to/from the location, i start at $100 for up to 1hr each way, then adjust from there. 

[SawyerTed]

+1 on transportation fee plus an hourly rate.  I used the hour meter on the tractor and charged in half hour increments.  

[Southside]

Your 5410?  So 80 ish HP tractor doing light field work, tedding or raking hay, would bring $95 to the power unit, plus something for the implement.  Add on a loader and $100 / hour is more than fair.  Completely agree on a transport fee, remember you need to bring it home later too.  

[barbender]

In this case I'd probably just figure out a set price. Figure what you need to haul it there and back, and how long it will take you to do the work. Say with my skid steer, if I had to haul it to a job within 20 miles,  I'd probably figure $75 each way and and a couple of hours of operating time, so $300 total.

[WV Sawmiller]

I like Ted's idea about the transport fee plus using the hour meter on the tractor because it sounds like it will be sitting idle while you are sawing.

Barbender's suggestion for a fixed rate is also a good way to handle the situation.

[TimW]

I won't haul my tractor or even my excavator for less than $500.  For a 8 hour day it is $800.
How were the logs moved before?  Maybe she can borrow one from a neighbor and barter some lumber for it's use.
hugs,  Brandi

[caveman]

I loaded and hauled my tractor a couple of weekends ago and made three round trips of about 14 miles each to load the logs we sawed last Saturday morning.  I charged $150 for the three hours and my miles and time.  This was for a friend/many times repeat customer.  Most likely I would not have done this for someone else for that rate.  This is lower than our hourly sawing rate but I did not have much going on that particular day (John was with his son on the baseball field that daY).

[taylorsmissbeehaven]

Im with Bindian. No equipment leaves my yard for less than $300. Thats the minimum, it goes up from there. Loading and hauling equipment is a job in itself. Once on site, you start the actual job. Brian

[YellowHammer]

I'd take it totally out of the equation.  

What would be the best piece of equipment for you to complete the job in an efficient and timely manner? Then call a rental place and have it delivered and removed when done.  She pays that bill.  

If you think the best thing to do is to use your equipment, I would charge her the rental fee, plus transport, for that equipment.  

Or just offer to have her arrange to have the equipment rented and delivered.

I've done that on several farm related jobs here, and I liked the rental equipment technique, since I rented the equipment for the contractors use, I had control of the key and in the afternoon when they were done it, I would use it on the farm for stuff I'd been wanting to get done.  Also if they needed a hand, I could climb in the cab and help, and I didn't feel worried about tearing up their equipment, because it was my rental.



    

[WV Sawmiller]

   You know, for a Pink Pachyderm fam, that Robert can be pretty smart at times. I like the rental suggestion. 

[Resonator]

To find out the going rate is talk to your local rental place (hourly, daily) for machinery. In my experience that will be the "high end" price as they charge 8 hours for one day, and for every hour over 8. And they will charge to haul to drop off and pick up on their schedule. And they will charge if the fuel tank isn't full, (I always fill up). And they will charge if you don't have THEIR insurance. Last summer I drove my tractor to a sawing job nearby and billed as a  package deal price with the sawing, (which was less than what a rental would be), but I still made money. When I was done sawing, they paid extra for me to use my tractor to clean up slabs, cutoffs, and sawdust.

[Patrick NC]

I offer my tractor as a package deal with the mill rental.  I add $25 per hour to the sawmill rate plus mileage to haul it. I know the hourly rate sounds low, but in the course of the day it only really runs for an hour or 2 so it all works out in the end.  

[WV Sawmiller]

   The big hassle I see with hauling your tractor is the extra trips to and from. I typically take everything I need in one trip. That is one reason on the rare occasion I offer to/agree to saw on shares I tell the customer he has to bring the logs to me or I end up with too much excess mileage and double handling if I saw at is site. I can avoid that at my home site. 

[kantuckid]

typical rental fee for machine plus cost to move, plus fuel, plus operator hourly fee...

[Southside]

A buddy called me yesterday and asked about using my gooseneck to move a dock he was given. Tells me the rental place has a tilt trailer but it's about 4ft too short. Then tells me he needs to back the trailer all the way into the water to load the dock on as nobody has a piece of equipment they can use. 

My answer was instantly, get the rental, and get a red flag. Don't need my truck and gooseneck on a "Boat Ramp Disasters" YouTube channel. 

[Dave Shepard]

Do you mill by the hour, or board foot?

[LeeB]

Do you mill by the hour, or board foot?

I do both but will be milling hourly on this one as there will only be me and no one to tail/help. There will also be some chainsaw work involved.

[YellowHammer]

If hauling a piece of equipment on your trailer for a fee, then is the trailer plated commercial?  Is both the truck and trailer insured commercial?  I assume the sawmill and truck are insured.

Remember that farm coverage will not cover farm equipment on the road or job site if used commercially, which means money changing hands for something not directly farm related that you can explain to a judge with out committing a felony for perjury.  

If bringing your own equipment, do you charge for the time it takes to load the tractor into the trailer, chain up, as well as unload?

What about having to make the trip 4 times?

The reason I say this is I have people call me frequently wanting me to come get logs off their property and I always ask if they have a way to load them onto my trailers.  They generally say no, it's too expensive to rent something, so why can't I just bring my stuff and save them some money?  I always respond in kind, "Because it's too expensive for me to bring something, and if it's not worth them paying a rental company, then it's not worth me being not being paid to be one either."  

[SawyerTed]

Not only is insurance an important fact of life for a portable sawmill operation, so is compliance with DOT requirements once you go commercial with a truck and trailer and hauling equipment etc.  

[Southside]

Oh come on @YellowHammer those are some really nice yard pine logs.  The limbs came all the way to the ground and kept the kids from putting nails too high up in the tree when they built the tree fort.  I mean these are "old growth" pine, must be 40 to 50 years old and at least 100 feet tall.  I would think you should feel obligated to pay the homeowner for them too.  Geesh.   :D

It's not every day that you can get a Black Walnut that sheds Hickory nuts you know.   :D

[YellowHammer]

Yep, don't even get me started.  I get these calls literally every couple days.  The best one recently, not to derail the topic, was a guy who called and said he had some "very expensive walnut logs" in his backyard and was trying to get a "fair price" for them because he'd been doing "research" and knew how much the lumber was worth.  Also, he didn't want drag marks or tire tracks in his lawn, they were a hundred yards away in his backyard and the only way to get them was with a crane.  Yep, a crane. So he wanted me to bring a big enough crane that magically extended a couple hundred yards from the road and would reach over his house, into his backyard, pick up the logs and put them in my trailer.  Then, of course, he wanted me to then pay him full price for the logs.  I did laugh at that one.  

So I told him if he would go ahead and rent there crane himself, park it in the street, block traffic lift the logs over his house without dropping them, then place them on my trailer, I would pay him market price, but no more than I would pay a profesisonal logger, for his logs.  Assuming they didn't have metal.  

Of course his canned predictable reaction was to smart off to me: "Are you kidding? Do you now hw expensive that will be??  I just want to sell the logs and not go through all that trouble."  Yeah, no kidding Sherlock. Keep yer logs, I hear walnut makes great firewood...

Anyway, I have found that using a rental strategy is a great problem solver and a kind of litmus test.  If it's too expensive or too much trouble for them to rent equipment or otherwise figure out to do a task to do business with me, then it's not worth my trouble or expense, either.  School of hard knocks.       

[firefighter ontheside]

I love the people who have done "research" on the value of walnut logs and lumber and then want more for the logs than the eventual lumber that might come out of the logs would be worth.

[WV Sawmiller]

   Yeah I get those offers all the time and tell them I am a sawyer, not a logger or arborist so when they get the tree down and cut into logs and staged in a convenient place to saw, call me and I'll schedule a time to come saw it into lumber for them.