What Is a Tree Service Day Rate?
Summary
A day rate is what a tree company charges for a full day of work from its crew and equipment. We base a day rate on an 8.5 hour day with 3 staff, so the figures can be compared company to company. The 8.5 hour day is measured from the moment employees arrive in the morning at company headquarters to the time that they leave it.
How companies calculate a day rate
A day rate is the simplest and perhaps the best way to calculate the costs and profitability for the company.
Let’s say a small company pays $1,000 a month in insurance to run one crew. Let’s also say that there are roughly 20 work days in a month. This means it costs the company $50 per day for insurance.
Likewise, let’s say a company pays $4,000 per month in equipment payments (or the cost of replacement, spread over several years). Based on a 20 day work month, this means a cost of $200/day.
Then there are the crew’s wages, fuel and vehicle costs. Add it all up and that is the daily cost to run a crew for the day. Once that is figured out, crews then figure out the profit margin they are shooting for.
Daily costs + Profit margins = Day rate
Why not an hourly rate?
It is quite common for a single crew to complete 3-5 small to medium sized jobs in a day. This may translate to only 4-5 hours of actual work at a job site. This is because of all the extra time that goes into a work day. Morning briefings, cleaning/fixing/organizing equipment, lunch/water breaks, fueling equipment, and perhaps most notably, drive time. It isn’t uncommon for a tree service crew to spend 2 hours “on the clock” driving to job sites in a single day.
A day rate factors in all these extra costs.
Let’s say a crew has a day rate of $2,000 per day, even though the job may only take 1 hour to complete, it is possible that the final invoice will be for $500.
How ArborProof shows day rates
We don’t presume to know the day rates, or any prices for that matter, for any company on ArborProof.
Whatever prices you see associated with a company are there because a company has posted those numbers.
We have intentionally not included items such as stump grinding, fertilizing, cabling, etc. That is because these items rarely rack up to a full day for any given customer. We believe a day rate would give the public an inaccurate understanding of the potential cost of their project.
How long does tree work take?
No one likes the word, it depends, so we will avoid using it.
This is helpful to know. Most residential clients have work that can be completed under 1 day. In rare cases, it will take 2 days. If it takes more than 2 days then the client likely lives on a big estate or just has a really, really big tree or two.
That is, assuming that the crew doing the work is competent at what they do.
We recommend that you scan through our list of companies to find the appropriate company to tackle your tree challenges.