Pricing for Rigging Work

[Outlaw333]

36 minutes ago, Rich Rule said:

I used to charge for a standard day's climbing, me, Loler'd climbing kit, ms200t and 150t and a 441.

 

If they wanted me to bring 700+ quids worth of rigging kit for no extra cost then I wouldnt be doing it.  If rigging was required I charged extra.  I wasn't cheap in the first place.  When I say riggin kit I don't mean an old climbing rope.  

 

I used to provide 16mm polydine, slings, krabs, impact blocks, redirect pulleys and other bits and pieces.  They all cost and needed to be Loler'd so I charged for it.  Look at the specs for that kit and it can handle some fairly substantial heavy rigging.  Any more than that and it was a crane job.

 

I also used to charge extra if they wanted me to bring a 660.  

 

I always found as long as you explain all this before hand and don't spring it on them at invoice time.  I never had a problem.

 

It worked for me.

 

Also I would suggest dropping the term subbie.  It implies you are a bonafide sub contractor and therefore require your own PL insurance.  I used the term freelance or contract climber.  

My thoughts entirely, so you recon £20 a day for specialist kit is fair to ask on your normal subby rate?

 

Because I run my own jobs aswell as just subbing I am fully insured so I can act as a bonafide subcontractor if need be, I work a lot with forestry contractors so this is quite often the case. Like you said, if the odd branch needs rigging down, it is just done but if it is a job based on the use of more exotic kit I think personally that it's fair to charge for it's use, as you also said the skills/training to effectively use specialist kit deserve being paid a bit more for too. I'm not talking about ripping anyone off but a few quid to help cover the overall costs rather than those costs being taken out of what is already a tightrope walk of an income. This is why a consultant with years of training and £30,000's worth of Picus charges more for a consultation involving a tomogram than you or I do to fell the tree once it has been established that it has reached the end of it's safe lifespan.

[Rich Rule]

I used to charge 20 extra for rigging kit but often it turned out to be more if it was a pretty technical dismantle...  ie a bonus from the company.

 

crane jobs usually more if it was particulrly difficult or tricky.

 

30 quid on top of all that for the 660 and 30 inch bar.

[Mike Hill]

Perhaps you could calculate it thus:

 

Cost of Rigging kit  / by how many days in expected life span + running costs (ie Loler) = how much to charge per day.

 

If you wanted to,you could sell it on Ebay after a year and use that realized value to subtract from your running cost or just use it to buy more kit for groundies to steal? 

[arbogrunt]

The answer is, you pay for what you get with good freelance climbers. If you can't/won't rig and don't have your own kit, you pay the going rate. Option two is do it yourself with your own kit.

[Outlaw333]

To get a reliable enough figure as to the life expectancy of kit to work out a price is going to be tricky. I guess you would have to find out how many heavy shock loads each item would take before it needs to be retired, then work out an average number of branches to be rigged on a busy day of rigging, treat every branch as a potential high impact load and times that by your annual/monthly expectation of days of use. I guess that would be the fairest and most business minded way to do it, although I can't see finding out the accumulated Impact capacity(or whatever the term would be!) of all pieces of equipment is going to be an easy task..

Edited January 1, 2018 by Outlaw333

[Mike Hill]

8 hours ago, Outlaw333 said:

To get a reliable enough figure as to the life expectancy of kit to work out a price is going to be tricky. I guess you would have to find out how many heavy shock loads each item would take before it needs to be retired, then work out an average number of branches to be rigged on a busy day of rigging, treat every branch as a potential high impact load and times that by your annual/monthly expectation of days of use. I guess that would be the fairest and most business minded way to do it, although I can't see finding out the accumulated Impact capacity(or whatever the term would be!) of all pieces of equipment is going to be an easy task..

You are over complicating this.

 

You can forecast  the predicted life span of kit,because you can determine when you will sell/replace it.

 

Tree work involves alot of educated guess work and gut feeling.

 

 

 

[Stephen Blair]

I spent £300 on a big rope, pulley and a friction device 13 years ago. I used the device a few times and chucked it under the bench.
These days I zip line everything, took still going strong.
It will cost you less than a saw to put a kit together. Add it to your kit you take to the job and put £20 onto your day, tell the boss if any of his staff damage your kit, he replaces it or it stays in the van. Give them the option.

[Rupe]

Ideally rigging kit should belong to a groundie, as a climber with the kit is pretty useless, its the experience of a groundie(s) that makes rigging work well or not. 

 

As for pricing jobs, rigging well makes it more efficient so the job should be cheaper. I quote against companies that dont have £3K of rigging kit (inc GRCS) so they are going to charge more. Plus I have groundies that have used the GRCS for 10+years and who can also communicate using telepathy. We win every big rigging job and turn it into the easiest work we do. 

 

Only bad rigging is difficult. 

 

 

. 

 

[silky fox]

Great post Rupe and so true!

[RRD]

I seem to sub differently to the way you think going more for a flat rate win some lose some but get  continuations work.

And price jobs on a time , technical skill required and what equipment needed which seems to work out getting 90% of the quotes . maybe I should put 10% on