Tenders/Quotes

[treequip]

Prices are going down to some tune

 

Priced a site clearance

 

Top bid 10K

 

Next bid 7K

 

Winning bid 3.5K

[Big Bolt]

this is going to be the survival time those that can trime themselves down to the bone and do the job with the minimale cheapest kit are going through to the next round

but no way does this mean that the cheapest will be the worst or the most expensive is the best . it is a sign of the times . my opinion

[PhilBeech]

My experience is that tenders (arb, building and GM) have weightings covering things like sustainability, staff training and development, H&S, quality control but of course the biggest weighted item is price (65% is the lowest I've seen). They do dress it up as 'value for money' and 'best value over the life of the contract' but it generally comes down to the cheapest quote. That said the few percent gained from the lesser categories could be what wins it if you tie or come close on price.

 

As has been mentioned though some companies, even well established & experienced ones can lose the run of themselves and come in ridiculously low just to win it. I am aware of a large LA tree contract that was won and then the term contractors had to novate after 12 months as it was pretty much going to bankrupt them. Even the most efficient teams never running into an problems or delays couldn't do it and cover costs. Was never going to happen, I think the bosses were blinded by the £4m over 4 years.

 

My overwhelming experience of LA tenders is they tend to be fairly exclusive of small operators regardless of how good you are. I think this is a real shame as the quality of the work and the reliability of the service often surpass larger companies.

 

Spot on, most big tenders will have the weightings written into the PQQ and that will dictate your approach. If its 90% price then there is no point spending days on the tender. If it's 40% or less which is common with The Forestry Commission for example then you'd spend more time on method statements etc.

 

What fun

[Mark Bolam]

Some of the bigger companies will price just to cover wages of employed guys, or even less. It happens in every trade in tight market.

 

Thankfully I'm not one of them.

 

Eddie is speaking a lot of sense here. Keep your prices and standards high, otherwise we're all in the shite.

 

Also remember it is possible to lose out to companies who might approach the job more smartly and efficiently than you did, and they still make a tidy profit. I'm not often one of them!

 

I won a £2k job once because everyone else opted to dismantle some Oaks because of an LV line. I spent a bit more time on the quote and discovered it was obsolete. Straight fell-tastic! Some of those blokes probably still wonder how I managed to undercut them by £k and leave the site in 4 days.

 

Play the long game, fellas.

[eddiegts]

this is going to be the survival time those that can trime themselves down to the bone and do the job with the minimale cheapest kit are going through to the next round

but no way does this mean that the cheapest will be the worst or the most expensive is the best . it is a sign of the times . my opinion

 

I do agree with you on this.

Man power is so expensive now so I am trying to think out of the box a bit more with quotes and use bigger bits of kit.

Eg

a year ago I quoted to clear a large site a new bus lane the other two company's who quoted decided to do by hand brush cutters etc.. And would take them 15 days with 4 men I quoted to carry out the works in 2 days with 2 men and two bob cats with flails on them I think I won by about 10k and I still came out of it with a very good mark up ( bought my mog with it)

 

But like I have said my overheads are what they are so that is reflected in my rates also our trade is a technical job and skilled job so why should we work for peanuts. I believe that we should charge a reasonable rate for what we do and if people keep dropping there prices this industry will full flat on its face! Eg If we all charged around £500 a day for 2 men a chipper etc we would not win the job on price it would be down to how you sell yourself your reputation service etc..

[Big Bolt]

the trouble is eddie the people whom are dropping there prices are somtimes not in the trade but see somthing and have a go just to keep things ticking over

[Crazy Cutter]

the trouble is eddie the people whom are dropping there prices are somtimes not in the trade but see somthing and have a go just to keep things ticking over

 

The trouble with tree work is there's cheap and very cheap! We will end up with a lot of two faced tree officers who will have to turn a blind eye to rubbish work?

 

Personally i feel the small one/two man bands will survive this depression as the larger ones are bound by too much red tape. We all need more than one string to our bows don't specialise in one area?