Ramairfreak98ss
05-24-2010, 09:28 AM
More and more bids/contracts are asking too much information from us.
We've found out this season that several bids we had bid extensive information on, for a larger company, didnt even have the contract for the work. :hammerhead::confused:
It wasnt easy finding this out either.
Now bidding on snow and landscape for multiple companies. Theyre now combining a lot of extra work into the scope of something much smaller.
Lawn mowing maintenance is now encompassing, feritlization, bed maintenance, pest control, weed control in parking lots, parking lot sweeping, maintenance of ivy along chain link fences, trash cleanup around dumpsters etc.
Its taking our normal $150 per lawn cut service and blowing it up into a $300+ job each week or more, and then the companies are asking us why its so much? Id make more at $150 for just the lawn mowing than $300 for all said above. What would normally take a crew of 3 guys an hour to do for $150 is taking 3hrs to do for $300 then.
Not only that, but just the variety of tasks to do on each site causes you to almost place those sites on their own route and not a standard mowing route.
A few sites include "bed maintenance" for weeds, but then never gave us the approval for mulching this year. :confused: . I flat out notified them up front and explained that the weeds will grow rampant if there is no mulch put down, and most places dont have much at all to begin with, no responses or well we have to wait for approval from the client :/
We're bidding now for a company that asks..
Estimated area of mulch or planting beds. I asked them if we could just specify cu. yardage.. they said no. Now im not going to measure out 10 sites and then give THEM the info so they know for themselves and yet didnt do any of the work themselves.
They also ask estimated are of turf, for lawn mowing... Well above i give them a weekly maintenance lawn mowing price, maybe this is how they justify what or why your charging what you charge?
One company asks how many tons or cu. yds. of leaves will be removed offsite for the fall cleanup. wtf? Is there even a formula for that? 1 oak tree, 40 years old, 55ft tall drops .2984 tons of leaves per end of year?
Some ask how many trees on site for injection treatment... first we dont even do that or get into it and second im not going to count every goddam tree on the lot on 10 locations and then not even hear from this company again about the bid because some illegal jacko bid $5 per tree when it costs $30 per tree for the supplies
Is it just because of the economy?
We've found out this season that several bids we had bid extensive information on, for a larger company, didnt even have the contract for the work. :hammerhead::confused:
It wasnt easy finding this out either.
Now bidding on snow and landscape for multiple companies. Theyre now combining a lot of extra work into the scope of something much smaller.
Lawn mowing maintenance is now encompassing, feritlization, bed maintenance, pest control, weed control in parking lots, parking lot sweeping, maintenance of ivy along chain link fences, trash cleanup around dumpsters etc.
Its taking our normal $150 per lawn cut service and blowing it up into a $300+ job each week or more, and then the companies are asking us why its so much? Id make more at $150 for just the lawn mowing than $300 for all said above. What would normally take a crew of 3 guys an hour to do for $150 is taking 3hrs to do for $300 then.
Not only that, but just the variety of tasks to do on each site causes you to almost place those sites on their own route and not a standard mowing route.
A few sites include "bed maintenance" for weeds, but then never gave us the approval for mulching this year. :confused: . I flat out notified them up front and explained that the weeds will grow rampant if there is no mulch put down, and most places dont have much at all to begin with, no responses or well we have to wait for approval from the client :/
We're bidding now for a company that asks..
Estimated area of mulch or planting beds. I asked them if we could just specify cu. yardage.. they said no. Now im not going to measure out 10 sites and then give THEM the info so they know for themselves and yet didnt do any of the work themselves.
They also ask estimated are of turf, for lawn mowing... Well above i give them a weekly maintenance lawn mowing price, maybe this is how they justify what or why your charging what you charge?
One company asks how many tons or cu. yds. of leaves will be removed offsite for the fall cleanup. wtf? Is there even a formula for that? 1 oak tree, 40 years old, 55ft tall drops .2984 tons of leaves per end of year?
Some ask how many trees on site for injection treatment... first we dont even do that or get into it and second im not going to count every goddam tree on the lot on 10 locations and then not even hear from this company again about the bid because some illegal jacko bid $5 per tree when it costs $30 per tree for the supplies
Is it just because of the economy?