Amount to charge?

[Pinewood Acres]

How much should I charge to "rent" me, my tractor, and my rock picker? The other guy will provide the fuel and will mark his land. I originally thought I'd rent out my rock picker, but I'd honestly rather be the one using it to clear the field. I got it used, but it still cost a pretty penny and I don't want it run into the ground. Should I charge by the acre or by the hour? His field is pretty rough. It will take time to go over it. I like the guy though and he's always dealt fairly with me. It's a Kongskilde Stonebear rock picker. I can't find any rental numbers online that I could use as a starting point for this one.

 

[Thyme Flies By]

I always hate this sort of situation because I never know what price to give. I think whoever is doing the asking should offer an amount upfront, then you can bargain from there.

 

[jjp8182]

Well, there is the (potential) method of figuring out what operating costs for the tractor and rock picker are ......which would basically be looking at the scheduled maintenance intervals, the costs associated with each and then spreading the cost across the hour interval to get an hourly average. Then add in the costs for your time and some margin.....

Then if you want to change by the acre use that hourly rate and the estimated time/acre.....

Granted that's not the simplest approach, but from what I understand it's basically what's done to arrive at mileage reimbursement rates ..and suspect it'd also serve as a baseline threshold for rental rates (which likely also add in the monthly payment averaged across the number of hours in a month of work weeks for equipment that's not paid off ...and maybe a bit less for equipment that is? -- just as a method of starting to fund the replacement costs).

Just some ideas.... though I suspect as long as whatever method you used can be explained most people won't care .... some may not even care if it's not explained (or if it's even explainable). Really it's probably more important to know what your operating costs are so you don't shortchange yourself......

...but that's just my thinking

 

[BIGRED]

This is a tough one. I'm assuming you don't do this often. I would figure out an hourly cost for your equipment. Wear and tear, insurance cost, maintenance, etc. divided by hours you use it each year. That would at least be a start.

 

[Pinewood Acres]

@jjp8182, I like the way you think, but I'm not that smart. Someone should make an app that calculates all that stuff. In the meantime, I told him to pay whatever he thinks is fair. The man has bought a Christmas tree and other goodies from me every year since I opened up shop. He has sent business my way too. He won't cheat me now.

 

[jjp8182]

@jjp8182, I like the way you think, but I'm not that smart. Someone should make an app that calculates all that stuff. In the meantime, I told him to pay whatever he thinks is fair. The man has bought a Christmas tree and other goodies from me since every year since I opened up shop. He has sent business my way too. He won't cheat me now.

yeah, I wouldn't be surprised if there are some... but I also suspect that simple spreadsheets are also used quite a bit since they can be easily customized/updated without needing to know any real programming languages....