Tractor work

[livingthelife]

Just a few random questions and something I seen advertised. I was browsing Facebook and some guy was advertising breaking gardens for people. He was charging $75 to break and till a 40ft by 60ft garden. That is within a 15 mile radius of our small town. That seems like an outrageous price to just work a garden. What do people in your area charge to work a garden? Do they charge by the job or by the hour?

 

[RNeumann]

So this guy takes 10' make a deal via phone or email, 10' to load his tiller, 15' to drive to your house, 60' to till the garden, 5' to collect the money, 15' to drive home, 10' to unload machine, 10' to inspect, sharpen and refuel machine. Throw in the cost of a truck, trailer and tiller.
I see something like this as a way to help a young person or someone down on their luck make a few bucks. At least they are out hustling!

Seems like a reasonable cost to me.

 

[rdinatal]

Seems like a reasonable cost to me.

Same here. Breaking a new garden takes a lot more effort than mowing a lawn.

-R

 

[PJSprog]

There are several threads here that address tractor work and pricing. Some of them are linked at the bottom of this page. After browsing some, you'll find that his advertised pricing is not at all out of line. As RNeumann notes, there's a bit more to it than just "breaking the ground." If you don't consider all costs, including time, your business is almost certainly destined to fail.

 

[motownbrowne]

If I had a spade fork and a garden to break,$75 to watch someone else do it while I drank lemonade would sound like a bargain.

As others have mentioned, tally up the associated costs including insurance and then see what you think of the price. Honestly, I wouldn't hitch up my trailer, load my tractor, secure it, drive 15 miles, till a garden, load my tractor, secure it, drive home, unload, unhitch my trailer for $75. No chance.

 

[Gary Fowler]

That is at least an hours job with his $20K tractor and $2000 tiller which should get $60 per hour for that alone not to mention his labor time for operating the tractor, loading unloading, loading again and up to 15 miles travel each way @30 MPH (city) so 1 hour travel with a $3000 trailer pulled by a $50K (or more) truck. I don't think any one can properly load and secure a tractor in less than 20 minutes and unload in less than 10minutes so lets say 30 minutes for each load and unload (1 hour total time used).
So let's tally up
1 hour load and unload
1 hour tilling time
travel in city limits @ 30 MPH so up to 1 hour travel in city to and from.
TOTAL TIME= 3 hours no including any maintenance on his tractor and equipment so he is doing the job for $25 per hour.

He is basically using his equipment for next to nothing and charging for only his labor. $20 per hour for a good operator of the tractor is about the minimum I would charge someone to go drive their equipment, so he may be getting $5 per hour for his $70,000 worth of equipment. I sure don't see him making enough for insurance payment much less equipment cost.

$75 to till up a garden is about the minimum I would charge (if I were to charge ) to drive across the street to my neighbors and till up his garden. Anything less and you may as well make brownie points and do it for free.

 

[coobie]

Just a few random questions and something I seen advertised. I was browsing Facebook and some guy was advertising breaking gardens for people. He was charging $75 to break and till a 40ft by 60ft garden. That is within a 15 mile radius of our small town. That seems like an outrageous price to just work a garden. What do people in your area charge to work a garden? Do they charge by the job or by the hour?

Thats CHEAP..

 

[4570Man]

Just a few random questions and something I seen advertised. I was browsing Facebook and some guy was advertising breaking gardens for people. He was charging $75 to break and till a 40ft by 60ft garden. That is within a 15 mile radius of our small town. That seems like an outrageous price to just work a garden. What do people in your area charge to work a garden? Do they charge by the job or by the hour?

Not bad at all. I'd probably only do it for that if its within a mile and I could drive the tractor.

 

[sea2summit]

So this guy takes 10' make a deal via phone or email, 10' to load his tiller, 15' to drive to your house, 60' to till the garden, 5' to collect the money, 15' to drive home, 10' to unload machine, 10' to inspect, sharpen and refuel machine. Throw in the cost of a truck, trailer and tiller.
I see something like this as a way to help a young person or someone down on their luck make a few bucks. At least they are out hustling!

Seems like a reasonable cost to me.

This^

My 10yo son got "hired" by our church to mow the grass parking lot which is about 4 acres. It usually takes an hour of prep to put on the mower, greese, load up/chain down, drive over then about 30 minutes to load up/chain down and drive back so that's an hour and a half just to get there and back.

 

[RNeumann]

This^

My 10yo son got "hired" by our church to mow the grass parking lot which is about 4 acres. It usually takes an hour of prep to put on the mower, greese, load up/chain down, drive over then about 30 minutes to load up/chain down and drive back so that's an hour and a half just to get there and back.

Raising a leader right in so many ways! NICE