Minimum Day Rates

Establish a Minimum Day Rate

To establish a minimum day rate, add up all your minimum costs involved in installing a single bollard. If you really study these numbers, you will look at the minimum from a different perspective and be able to say your minimum day rate with confidence. And remember, you are only in the position to be capable of doing the work because you have invested a lot of money and time.

Minimum Costs

Let’s say you can install 5 bollards a day, but you have a job for a single bollard. Here are some things that are about the same for each job in terms of time.

Minimum Time Costs

• Preparation, a day-before site visit, marking for utility locate, correspondence
• Opening the utility Locate ticket and waiting
• Loading up truck(s) and trailers
• Lining up concrete truck
• Drive time to and from (3 times for the boss).
• A day-after visit for clean up and/or bollard painting and covering
• Paperwork. Chasing down a check

Minimum Dollar Costs

• Concrete Truck: Ordering a truck with 1 yard of concrete can cost $500 because of short-load fees. You may only need 1/3 yard, but their is a minimum. If you want, and you’re slow at the time, you could mix yourself…fun.
• Equipment and Machines: All of the Equipment and Machines you have onsite, both owned or rented, are dedicated whether used for 5 minutes or the whole day.
• Labor: Your crew costs the same whether they work for half a day or all day.
• Overhead Costs: Shop, Liability Insurance, Health Insurance, Worker’s Comp, vehicles, equipment…
• Unforeseen Costs: It seems everytime you turn around, there’s some cost you didn’t expect.
• Taxes: You’ll have to pay taxes on the income.

Contractor Minimum Day Rate

Before steel prices started skyrocketing, our day minimum was $3K for me and one other guy. Depending on the size of the crew you have to keep busy, this might be $4K or $10K. It’s up to the contractor, and you aren’t required to please everyone. You definitely have to bid high on jobs that seem too small to waste your time on or just say, “Sorry, this job is too small for our company.”

When You’re Busy

Being at this tiny job takes your resources from other jobs, so it has to pay to be there.

If You’re Small, Slow and Need the Work

Sure, the $3K minumum works when you are busy, but when they don’t take it and you are slow, it’s a different story. Late in the fall, we were slow so I’d pick up some jobs alone, did more manual labor and was able to charge less.

When you are desperate for work and have plenty of time and only have to keep yourself employed. You might:

• Dig holes by hand if you normally rent bobcat or hire a bobcat operator.
• Mix your own concrete with a drum mixer or even, in a wheel barrow.

The Bottom Line

The bottom line is:

• If you’re busy and you don’t want the tiny jobs to drive you nuts, you need to establish a minimum day-rate and be armed with an explanation.
• If you’re a small company and slow, it’s a gamble because you need the work, but might not get the job at your minimum day-rate. If you offer a lower rate, explain that you can give them a deal (because you are) because you can do it alone and not have to pay the guys.