In operating a manual mill, I am running into cases where people want me to bring my skidloader to custom saw. I want to be fair to the customers, but at the same time I have to be compensated fairly for fuel and equipment. I know what I would charge per hour for doing skidsteer work, but I know this is a little different. Do any of you run into this and how do you charge. I operate a case 90XT skidsteer. In asking this question I am really thinking about those people that want framing materials sawn. In some cases they might be further ahead to go buy the material, rather than paying to have it sawn.
Why would you operate your skid steer for LESS when you are doing more work?(dragging it and a mill to them...) Thats a LOT of service!
I dont believe they would be better off buying beams.....you are also moving them around on site for them...who is gonna do that after they buy beams , whick are not cheap from retailers.
If you are charging 30-50 an hour normally maybe you could make a break on the TOTAL cost and show em on the bill that you did...That way everyone is happy.
I charge $25/hour for my tractor with forklift attachment, this is every time I take my mill out, if they don't to pay for the tractor then I don't mill.
I love hydrulics, it makes the work easy and saves the customer money.
Mark
$50 per hour with a $200 minimum gets me and any machine I own working on a job site.
I really try not to take the Bobcat out, usually for smaller jobs yanking the logs around with the truck is sufficient, but when the Bobcat is an absolute must, I charge a $50 delivery fee plus mileage, then bill $50 per hour registered on the hour meter after that. Meanwhile, the sawmill is being billed out at $50 per hour waiting for the logs, so if I'm using the Bobcat to load the sawmill deck, $100 per hour is being billed.
I don't always charge extra for bringing the Bobcat because I use it to load the mill. The customer could get a guy with an hydraulic loader on his mill for the same price.
After reading comments above, I think I might start charging extra because with my equipment I can move the logs and lumber. Often they don't have the logs stacked all in one pile so you would need some way of moving them no matter what type of mill was used for sawing.
I have a CA-NT (hook) which I use on all jobs, it's reall cheap as it doesn't use much fuel other than a few steaks ;)
Seriously though, I desperately need to work some kind of machinery as I spend more time moving logs than cutting logs
I've taken suport equipment to the job site on occasion what I charge depends on the job and requirements. If I am doing a small job less than a thousand feet then there will be a definitive surcharge. I don't double charge the owner though we are charging by the job or by the board foot on the sawmill the support equipment would be part of the job cost. On a larger say 10,000 foot job it is a boon to have extra help with hydraulics so the charge would be minimal unless we had to recover timber from off the immediate sawing deck or do auxilliary work such as grading the work area.
Eric
Eric, any update on how the Logosol Molder is doing?? Gonna look at one soon and would appreciate any feedback. Thanks .