Tender pricing

[Mark Bolam]

1 hour ago, Mick Dempsey said:

No real experience to offer of the pricing, but I saw an multiple ADB roadside removal  job being done on FB near my old village and they were using big 360s with grabs, pto chippers with silage trailers for the chip, in other words big boys with big toys.
 

You can’t compete with these firms without serious investment.

That’s spot on Mick.

 

I reckon even if on some jobs I could compete financially with 3 of us pissing about with a Transit and a TW160 for 10 days, some of these lads could rinse the job for the same money in 1.

 

Any sane client will avoid the extra 9 days of agg.

[oldwoodcutter]

I’ve tended for work in the past, and priced to make good profits.

On those works where my tender was not chosen, I went to great pains to discover what the winning bid was, as I saw similar set ups to mine, and taking roughly the same time as I estimated, and in those cases it was always way way higher .

I draw my own conclusions to what was going on ,rightly or wrongly.

 

[Joe Newton]

1 hour ago, Mark Bolam said:

That’s spot on Mick.

 

I reckon even if on some jobs I could compete financially with 3 of us pissing about with a Transit and a TW160 for 10 days, some of these lads could rinse the job for the same money in 1.

 

Any sane client will avoid the extra 9 days of agg.

Yeah but all of these big boy firms are available to hire. Sometimes the most profitable thing is to be a middleman.

 

Let the small firms price it for their kit. Get a quote from a bigger firm for the job and stick whatever you want on. Easiest money you'll ever make

[Mark Bolam]

Absolutely mate.

 

A few years ago I wanted to be a tree surgeon and work with trees.

 

A few kids and a mortgage later and I’m obsessed with hp and l/m.

 

 

[Thesnarlingbadger]

Thanks for all the reply’s on this one. To be honest I’ll put in the quote for the feedback. A lot of work for something I doubt I’ll get but always good to see where your going wrong. I have plenty of other work on/coming in but as always looking to get more and larger contracts. Then I can start to look at other kit that gives me a boner. I’ve always said I’ll get a tractor and timber trailer and call it quits but to be honest I’m looking at some lovely diggers and other bits of kit so I don’t know where it will end.

I am happy doing what I do 50/50 commercial and domestic and would be more than happy to keep it that way but want to expand a little as I have enough headache and stress at the moment apparently.

Some tenders I look at and go for are close o the expected mark and I would say I get 20/30% of the ones I go for but this one has thrown me as I’m thinking they have missed a 0 off the expected price.

[joshuatree]

Best of luck Eric.

 

I've had loads of dieback jobs this year. Definitely more noticeable around here now. 

 

Out of curiosity where do you put a tender to. Is there a site or did they contact you to see if you're interested in the job?

[Thesnarlingbadger]

Best of luck Eric.
 
I've had loads of dieback jobs this year. Definitely more noticeable around here now. 
 
Out of curiosity where do you put a tender to. Is there a site or did they contact you to see if you're interested in the job?

Thanks mate, like I said I’m not to bothered if I don’t get it, part of it is 2/3 days with a crane and not a lot of space for cock ups. So I could do with out the added stress at the moment.

With tenders I generally get an invite to go and look at them from the company supplying the tender or from being passed on by other companies/LA’s. I think there are places you can go and sign up but I’m not 100%. In this case we have done work for a sub part of the company previously which is why I got an email or I’m guessing why I got the email.

Yeah there has been loads of it recently. We are probably taking 1 or 2 out a week for domestic customers and have blocks of ash fells for the commercial clients at the moment. It’s a bloody shame.

[Spruce Pirate]

They're sometimes way, way, WAY out with their estimates.  I looked at one a while back which was being re-tendered as they didn't like the original bid (only one contractor submitted a bid the first time, it was about £90k).  In the end I didn't go for it as the job was too much of a ball ache and we were busy enough anyway, but I reckon the £90k was about right but also I think over twice what their estimate of the value of the work was.  I seem to remember it went to negotiation after the re-tender with the amount of work being reduced.

 

Point is, you can only put a price in for what you think the work is worth, not what someone else does.

[IronMike]

I have recently gone through a real pain the neck process for what would've been my biggest job ever, and by a very large margin. I didn't even want it, but was kinda told it was happening! But once if worked out my pricing, walked the site multiple times and really tried to cover all bases, the original plan was scrapped and replaced with a different option. I was not prepared to do this option, as the methodology was ridiculous and unworkable. Someone else will likely do it, but I feel like I've dodged a bullet slightly. As much as the payday would have been lovely, the hassle and work involved would've been hellish. 

 

The most important point raised here I think, is don't buy the work. It's just a race to the bottom.

[Thesnarlingbadger]

This is very true, I’ve looked at several of the sites now and really think that they is no way in hell that anyone is going to come in even close the the planned price. The logistics of the work and the hassle involved in the job mean that the only way to actually carry out the work safely is with MEWPs and road closures. If the LA aren’t prepared to close the roads while the work is going on then I’m not taking the job as the risk is way too high and I’m just going to be stressing about the amount of traffic coming through and the time it will eat into the work.
I’m starting to pick up with work again and back to my normal amount of enquirers a day now so not too worried if I get it or not. Plus there are some other contracts on the horizon that I would rather go in for.
As I mentioned I’ll put in for the tender and see what comes back at least I’ll have a bit of feed back. I’ll be interested to see who gets the work and what price they went in at but doubt I will.