What is a good price to charge for plowing snow with a backhoe?

[blakes]

County pays the contractor ~250 /hr for heavy equipment snow removal.

In the past I've been paid $150 /hr to run my hoe.

Is that fair?

I only do it when we get ~3' of snow or more, so a couple of times each season.

 

[Hydromaster]

Are you covered under their insurance and do you have proof of this in writing?
what do your numbers tell you?
are you making a profit operating at that rate?

Each area & individual needs differs

 

[JD Mark]

RMO might be able to give a better opinion on this.

Does the county set the rate?

You get way more snow than I do, so technically your overhead is spread out more. But not if you're only helping out at 3'+.

It's not bad for where I'm at, but I am higher. And to make life much simpler, all my plow rigs (truck with plow, loader with plow, tractor with blower) are all figured at the same rate.

 

[blakes]

I'm still trying to figure out who got the county contract. All I know is they are based out of Estes Park CO (20 miles from here). So I don't know how the insurance will work yet.

About half of the reason I even get involved in plowing the heavy snows is the fact that no contractor in recent years has any sort of heavy equipment and believe me when I say that a late model 1 ton dually with 4 chains (front and rear that cover both duallys) can't plow when there is more than a couple of feet of snow. The mountain dirt roads are just too steep.

So I try and get involved mostly from my own self-interest. I end up plowing the roads anyway, so I may as well get paid.

I'm running an old 555c hoe that I've had for years and works well. Has plowed ~5-6 feet MANY times.

Of course I have 4 chains for it. This pic was taken last year before I put the chains on. They usually go on in November and stay until June.

 

[Steve300xcw]

How much road are you plowing?

 

[blakes]

How much road are you plowing?

I only plow the upper part of this mountain. It's all 100% offgrid.

I'd guess about 10 miles. In years past it would take ~12 hours to plow most of the roads up here with ~5' of snow with my buddy in a similar hoe.