Help pricing a parish council footpath contract!

[Big T]

Hi,

 

I have been invited to submit a tender to maintain our local parish council footpaths and bridleways. I have to give them a price per KM to carry out maintenance work, mostly hedge cutting and brushcutting. I know that everyone has differant circumstances that will dictate a price and people work for differant rates, speed etc,etc but as I have not done this kind of work before I need an idea of how much to charge, even a ballpark figure! Obviously once I have done this kind of work then I will have a better idea but as im new to it then I really have no idea at all what to charge, I dont want to overcharge but on the other hand I dont want to sell myself short! I understand how to work it out by using my day rate, overheads ete,etc but as I dont know how long it will take to do the jobs then I will have difficulty working out a price based on this. So if anyone could give me an idea of how much to charge mer KM I would be very greatfull!

[gibbon]

I guess that sort of work would be worth 120 a man day down here if its fences repairs hedges and brush cutting. Walk some of the paths and get a feel for how much work there is on an average km.

[Big Bolt]

hard one on that, have they asked anyone else to tender ? what gear have you .someone else may convince them to to let them qoute with a ride on , as gibbon said take a look at the path's and pretend to brush cut them see how long it takes to do

10m and multiply to what you want add a bit more for harder section's or subtract for easy bit's same with hedge cutting .

[Daniel Jiggins]

I cut 42 kilometres of public footpaths and bridleways for our local parish council, i dont cut hedges just the grass. I use a Kubota and flail with a FS400 for the areas the tractor cant get.

 

I have to do 3 cuts per year, as a rough guide to cut all 42 kilometres takes me 5 days approx @ £250.00 per day (£250 x 5 = £1,250.00) - £1,250.00 divided by 42 = £29.76 Per Kilometer

 

Like i say thats for grass not hedges, hope that helps

[Big T]

Cheers for the advice! Alot of the areas that need cutting are only accessable by foot so it will be mostly manual labour, this will obviously make the job more expensive as it will take me much longer as theres no way I could do it for £30 a kilometer!

[Mozza]

I'd just price it like a normal tree work day, Coz that's what it would be taking me away from

[doobin]

Down here in Sussex I subbed with my lads for the bloke with the winning tender- it was approx 13p/m soft soft clearance (strimming) and the same again for hard clearance (polesawing and hedgecutting). I subbed for him on a day rate of £120 a lad pus fuel.

 

By year three he made some serious profit, as we knew the paths and landowners well so could really fly through. I know he made good money because I knew the path lengths from the spec sheet.

 

If you ring me on 07765 776454 I'll tell you what gear you need to really be efficient. Serious offer. We don't do it any more since it became a national park.

[doobin]

And don't forget a bridleway needs to the three times as wide as a footpath- 3m across AND the same in height!

[Jocky]

from my experience they will ask a number of companies for a quote and the cheapest one will get it.

[farmer]

ground vegetation including overhanging brambles

footpath 1.2m 16 pence per linear metre

bridleway 2.4m 32 pence per linear metre

Done on quad with flail hope of some help.