Price help for national contract

[John Harding]

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Did I not explain myself well or is it a secret how you big boys do this?

Also should I aim to do in house or sub out fitting (or even whole job to local signies ??) if the latter what ball park figure would you want to install such a sign, as I guess there are regional variations (pm me if shy)

John

[Gary Birch]

John
Here is a starter mate.

Sorry if this sounds obvious but when we do any distant work we do a RAC or AA Route finder route and use that for the mileage and also the time to travel. We then charge 40p a mile + our hourly rate for the time spent in the van. The rest of the job we price as normal + a tad more to cover any site visits needed etc.

If we need to stay out overnight I look for £100 -£150 each per night surcharge depending on where we are staying as accomodation costs varying alot depending where you are working.

With regards to subbing, we try and do it all ourselves.

I hope that this helps mate. Alot of it depends on the relationship you have with your client.

Cheers

Gary

[David Rogers]

I quite often get subbed to fit stuff from ‘down souf’ to what they think might be ‘local’ to me…no, not touting for the fitting job!

But rather than waste several days driving round in your van, call a local sign outfit, agree terms and ship the goods either direct to them* or to the end client.

You pay £20 to ship it and pre-agree a COMPLETED price for fitting. From what it sounds like – you already know what you’d charge for one near to you – offer that as the going payment rate to the fitter.

*better if there’s been any loss / damage.

Be VERY specific about how you want it installed (depth / pitch) and demand photos of each stage and get client to sign off.

Simples 😉

[Robert Lambie]

ive done the subbing work some years back, only to be stung by bad workmanship. so i do everything by myself with a couple of lads with me.

we did a couple of national contracts… there is allot of scenarios come into play, too many to type up. but on both contracts.
we work out each job individually. that’s signage, travel, accommodation, food, fuel etc

so that’s if we leave Glasgow and do a job to portsmouth and back. (thats one job)

we leave glasgow and go to falkirk "only a few miles away" and return. (thats another job)

and so on and so on….

all signage on one of the contracts was the same, bit like yours, so thats why im explaining this way…

now you have every job/destinantion taken into account and priced "individually".
add the lot together and divide by the amount of depots.
so if the totatl is lets say £10,000 devided 14 sites each site/depot owe you £714.29 for their signage from their budget.

now here is were you can maximise your profit…
do as many sites as you can per day and do them on a loop system using something like RAC route estimator. so you get further away as you work but start coming back on yourself from a different location… so you end up back at your depot for a re-load of signage.

i also set out around 11pm the night before because there is no traffic and you can have several depots done by 9am next morning… whilst you sit having breakfast waiting on rush hour dying down, then hit the road again to catch more depots.

digging and erect free standing signs was actually part of one of the contracts we done so i do realise what your up against. ill try adding to this thread later…

[John Harding]

Thanks Guys – Bit of a relief answers along the lines I hoped, and your all on similar track.

Thanks for the insight into how you did it Rob that makes good sense I look forward to expantion of the thread if you can.

Many thanks one and all

John 😀

[Robert Lambie]

making up the following as an example….

you may think looking at your sign, "that’s not worth" £500, how can i charge that per sign?

but your not…

you are breaking head offices overall costs down by spreading the costs evenly amongst all their depots costs/budgets.
Head office know fine they can locate a sign firm at each location to carry out work. but they also know of the vast inconstancy in the "branding their company", same applies for manufacturing quality, the materials quality used and how well the work is carried out/installed. getting one reputable company to do the lot saves allot of time and hassles for them.

but think about it like this also… can head office insist the depot use a certain company for a sign. when it will cost one of them nearer the sign firm £200 for the sign and install, but the next depot £1000 for the "same sign" just because they are further away from the sign maker?

John, hire or buy yourself a cat scan mate… (cost around £500)
something you must take seriously when erecting freestanding signage is what you are digging into.
You will probably be sent a bunch of aerial views or artists impressions of where the signage should be erected. however, you must raise the question, "has the ground been surveyed properly for digging?"

You may drive for 5 hours to a site, only to wave your cat scan over the area and its riddled with electrical or radio wires… or even shallow pipes… damage any of them and it may result in death or heavy fines.
so what do you do, find a good spot near b? well yeh, but this will result in getting the depot manager if hes there, walking around testing the ground and getting views and opinions. you could be messing around for 2 hours of "your time" doing this… who will pay for that?
if the signage has to be left at the site, this should NOT alter your fee, the costs are still the same. it is not your fault the ground wasn’t surveyed properly…..UNLESS… they have left that side of things up to you initially.

i drove to Leeds to errect two pillion type signs… "in the middle of nowhere"… outside a large industrial estate… dug 2ft down and hit tarmac and concrete… just could not get through it. turned out we were digging ontop of an airport runway!

which leads me to my next point… as well as cat scan… make sure you have a generator and jack hammer. good pinch bars and the like… they are a must… spades and shovels come next down the line of importance when doing this sorta thing. 😕
Priority goes to the cat scan though… these days you will get screwed by H&S for failing to have one should "anything" go wrong… even if no injuries. if you black out a street… it will fall back on your customer, they wont have to pay, but they will know all about it and will have to contribute to the paper work. they will also find out you weret doing things by the book.

also make sure your wearing proper footwear, but also rubber palmed gloves…

i know you will be aware of most, if not all this john, im just thinking out loud in case it helps.

[John Harding]

Hey Rob

Thanks mate really appreciate your taking the time to write this up. I am aware of the need for a cat scan device but to be honest have never used one myself is it something that is easy to use and by that I suppose I mean understanding the readings it gives? Obviously I could buy one within the budget for the work but would i be better hiring if they need regular testing maintenance?

What sort of generator/size jack hammer do you suggest can I run a small one of a standard petrol generator that I run my heat gun off or do I need one of the larger ones like edf tow around.

Finally are there any specific training or certificates needed of this type of work, or indeed any council permissions to dig holes athough the signs will be on private ground.

Thanks again

John 😀