Bid OK then not

[jbderkach]

Got a referral to a trucking firm. The CEO was coming for a visit and the place needed spiffing up. I was contacted on Thursday and the boss was to show on the following Wednesday. I scouted the job and came up with the following: 17000 sq.ft of heavily oil spotted pavement , 880 linear ft. of sprinkler pipe that had soot caked on the top and 64 mercury vapor lights with soot, 3 sets of steel stairways, 17 trailers sooted on front and back, 2 dumpsters. I used $.08 a ft. for the flat work and calculated $3120 total cost of the job. The manager OK'd the estimate on the phone. I showed up on Friday morning ready to work in the cold & rain but sought out the manager for his signature on the work order. At this point he balked at the numbers which I had itemized. He trimmed the tasks considerably by eliminating much of the flat work and all of the overhead pipe work. He said that he could have a man wipe the pipe with rags for $12 an hour and have them clean the oily pavement with soap and brush. While the wiping the pipes may work, brushing and soaping the oil spots would be like a fart in the wind.
What do you think? $.08 is a good price for oily pavement, isn't it? How would you have handeled it?

 

[Dan S]

He probably gave your price to his boss and then he shot him down. They look for cheap prices at first then, when they find out what you can do they dont mind paying for a good service.
.08 is not a bad price BUT if they called you chances are they dont have a vendor to wash . I would of gave them an hourly rate , so as to "get in the door" .

3 stairs= appox. ( depending how far they are apart ) should only take you one hour

sprinkler pipes = appox. ( depending if no soot comes off the doors,and or walls while you are spraying the pipes ) two hours
but , chances are that if there is soot on the pipes then there is soot everywhere else and you will have to take a lil more time to get the streaks off of whatever the fresh soot lands on .

Flat work = appox. ( is it concrete or black-top ?)
If it is in front of the garage doors Im assuming that it is concrete
Not sure on the hours but lets say based on your price it takes 5 hours . That is $ 262.00 an hour for flat work . If it only takes you 3 hours then your price per hour just jumped to $ 452.00 an hour ( based on your .08 )

Lets pretend that it takes you 8 hours $ 170.00 per hour
This $ 170.00 per hour is a great price IF it only took you 3 hours you made $ 510.00 for your flat work ( give or take )

Trailers depending on what type of equipment you have it should take on a average of 20 mins per trailer , If you do them all the time less then that . Thats 5.5 hours x your average rate of $ 50.00 is $ 275.00 or x $ 20.00 per unit is $340.00 .

Basically what Im trying to say is the more work they have the better price you can give them

Mercury lights that will take you maybe an hour yes all 64 of them all you do is rinse them down , no soap or nothing just go around a circle untill all soot comes off ( carefull not to get them swinging to hard or they will fall from the ceiling and smash on the concrete.)

So as you can tell you probably could of bidded this out for much less and maybe landed a account with it .

hope that helped !

 

[Larry L.]

It may be the reason the place is so dirty and the trailers too b/c he is not trust worthy in keeping his word.If you had did the work before getting the work order signed more then likely he would have not paid you.

If one of the 12 dallor guys falls while wiping the pipes and breakes a leg,arm he may wish he had hired a pro to do the cleaning.I don't do business with had type place,to wishy washy for me to even do any work for them.

 

[jbderkach]

Here's how it worked out so far. I did $900 worth of work on Saturday and am returning for the trailers on Sunday along with some added work at the loading docks (which I bid at $75 per hour). He was appreciative of the work done and we are talking about quarterly maintenance. He has 180 trailers on an extensive property. I will need a recovery system in order to get the trailer work, however they have an oil seperator in the storm drains by the shop. If I can wash in that area and divert the runoff to that drain then a recovery system may not be needed. What do you think?

 

[Mark]

I don't know about Oklahoma, but in California you can not let any wash water go down the storm drain regardless of oil seperator in drain or not.

Check the local laws before you let your wash water go down storm drains.

 

[Larry L.]

He may have found what he has been looking for,a trustworthly powerwasher,it works both ways.
You can make a home made recap,wash the trailers where the water will run over a large area,the sun will take care of most of it.Did you talk him into washing the trailers more offen than quarterly?

 

[jbderkach]

The quarterly work is the flat work. They have a trailer wash but it only does the sides. We will talk more after the big boss visits on Wednesday. The PIG company shows a drain insert that absorbs oil but allows water to pass through. Has anyone used this product? It's pretty expensive. It fits storm drains up to 30x40. Helps to comply with 40 CFR 122.26. Cost is $94 plus shipping -- 2lbs.
The trailer washing will be on an as needed basis, just front and backs. What would you charge for front and back -- some are filthy?

 

[Bill B]

If it works the price of the pig may be a good deal. I'd want to be sure that the pass through rate is high enough to allow me to keep running without stopping to allow draining.

 

[Larry L.]

I think I would want ten dallors for the front and ten dallors for the back,nomatter if they where setting in a row.

 

[jbderkach]

I think you are right on with that price. I did some at $10 for both and feel like I was underpaid for the time it took. That won't happen again.

 

[Larry L.]

I knew when you said they were filthy I didn't want no part of cleaning them for ten dallors each .If they didn't let them get so filthy you could do them for 10 each if setting in a row where you could do the ends and front without having to go from front to back on each trailer.If having to go from front to back on each trailer I would want 15/20 each nomatter how offen they did them,depends on the wash area.