charge customer for day with petrol log splitter?

[Hodge]

Well for all the crap we have to put up with then we want at least 25k

[Logan]

At £200 a day for a man and machine it's not a decent wage after tax etc.

 

Hodge is quite right there. With the way things add up when owning and running kit, you'd be doing well to end up with £100 a day, that's after you've billed for maybe 30 days etc, must be quite near the point where you could be better off doing something else...

 

Then again if it's a small, low output cheap machine, maybe £200 covers it plus a man, fuel and transport.

 

How many m3 can those smaller petrol splitters do on a average day? 3 - 4m3?

 

Splitting rings and throwing them somewhere, seems like 6-8m3 is a daily average for a ~20t tractor powered machine and one person.

 

After 30 days of it, you'll be wanting to do something else.

[oldwoodcutter]

Well for all the crap we have to put up with then we want at least 25k

 

Bravo!!

[Matthew Storrs]

how much you want/need to make in a day depends on what sort of outfit your running. Someone who has minimal equipment- few saws and hand tools etc with barely any business costs- high insurance/finance/yard rental etc would be doing quite well if they earnt say £130 a day for some relatively basic chainsaw/hedge work (for example).

On the other side of the spectrum- well established tree surgery outfits with plenty of machines/yard high insurance could easily be needing £130 a day just in running costs before they,ve even begun to earn themselves a wage, a personal wage of £24k a year is roughly £100 per working day, add the above running costs of £130 and that's £230 a day before the business has actually even earnt a profit. So in short in response to OPs question- could be anywhere between £150-350 .... Just work out your own costs and don't worry too much about others- as long as you can get the work and you are happy with what you are making- all is good:thumbup1:

[cornish wood burner]

Only problem I can see is for £200 a day you are charging a fair chunk of the cost of an electric splitter so a lot would do it themselves.

[davetaz]

I have a Thor 13T road tow splitter with 4way knife and hire it with me as operator for £30 per hour with a minimum charge of 4 hours, providing i can drive right up to the timber. Thats all inclusive within 10 miles of my yard, further than that mileage of £1/mile

[Mark Bolam]

I'd be happy with £200 a day for me, for a couple of reasons.

 

I already have the splitter, which most days is idle, and is cheap to run when it's working.

 

I could fill in days in any weather conditions, Saturdays if groundies want time off etc.

 

As a core business I'd be looking at £250 minimum.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Arbtalk

[King92]

You tree men are all so greedy, i go log splitting for £180 a day and am more than happy with that. Any more and i would feel like a con man

[Logan]

Fair enough. What machine do you run, and roughly what output would you say average ( including slow days, tougher wood, raining, you know...)

 

Trouble I find as a contractor is accounting for those days when you're servicing plant and kit, or doing the vat, or out buying a new splitter, or welding up a new/broken blankedy blank, it's endless...

 

So those days still need billing, or you doing it for nowt.

[Mountain man]

My advice, find someone else like an old guy with a splitter and just give the work to him.