Contracting charges plus fuel, or contractor charges including fuel

Lofty1984

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
South wales
I don't like the idea of filling up at farms (from both the farmer and contractors points of view) but at the same time how do you put in an accurate value for the amount of fuel you used on a job, unless you tow a bowser round and fill before you leave, recording litres used?
Doing the job, then adding what you think its used could cause issues.

Its a tricky one because some will eat the extra cost and use it as a way to undercut for work, while others might raise rates when fuels high and not want to lower them when it drops.
There would only be a handful of our customers that would have the capacity on their yard to replace fuel used by the silage team when the forager will take 1200l off the top of my head plus rake buckrake and never less than 2 trailers
 

box

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
NZ
Charging for fuel sounds like an absolute nightmare, too complicated, a waste of everyones time. No doubt you'd end up with some toss pot telling you that you've used too much fuel or you've charged too much for it.

I'd rather p|ss in the fuel tank than use "diesel" out of some random manky farm tank.

Just add a fuel surcharge onto each invoice and adjust it as fuel prices fluctuate? My local contractor is currently charging 14% (invoiced in April). My local bulk carrier is charging 22%. Base it roughly off the difference in fuel costs between now and a year ago.

Invoice per hour (or per bale, per acre, per hectare, whatever), adjust your rate to suit your running costs (repairs, maintenance, replacement machine, profit etc), add the surcharge on top of that again.
 
Last edited:

kiwi pom

Member
Location
canterbury NZ
There would only be a handful of our customers that would have the capacity on their yard to replace fuel used by the silage team when the forager will take 1200l off the top of my head plus rake buckrake and never less than 2 trailers
Plus you have to run everything back to the farm yard to fill, mower, rake and forager could be miles away and coming back on themselves for the next job.
Used to do it slurry pumping and even that was a pain, half way through fueling from the gravity fed tank and it runs empty. Then what?
 

bravheart

Member
Location
scottish borders
As a user of contractors its always a difficult one. If he turns up with a well matched unit then it shouldn’t be a problem the rate per hour should match the work done the problems arise when that 300+ hp tractor arrives to do a boys job because its either the only tractor available or its the drivers aye bin job.
Contractors usually draw from my tank the other problem I see is when the last job was 50+ miles away and a whole squad arrive in with 200 hp tractors having driven for a couple of hours just to get here especially when their yard is next door. In this case perhaps a metered bowser system might be fairer to all.
I have a meter on the tank but would any contractor fill up before the start and bill the last customer?
To be fair to the contractor I ran out once and although the tank was filled that day they were away before they could get any juice but the bill + fuel was at the exact same price as I had just paid. That wouldn't be so easy at the moment with the yoyo prices.
 

Al R

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
West Wales
As a user of contractors its always a difficult one. If he turns up with a well matched unit then it shouldn’t be a problem the rate per hour should match the work done the problems arise when that 300+ hp tractor arrives to do a boys job because its either the only tractor available or its the drivers aye bin job.
Contractors usually draw from my tank the other problem I see is when the last job was 50+ miles away and a whole squad arrive in with 200 hp tractors having driven for a couple of hours just to get here especially when their yard is next door. In this case perhaps a metered bowser system might be fairer to all.
I have a meter on the tank but would any contractor fill up before the start and bill the last customer?
To be fair to the contractor I ran out once and although the tank was filled that day they were away before they could get any juice but the bill + fuel was at the exact same price as I had just paid. That wouldn't be so easy at the moment with the yoyo prices.
I’ve had contractors turn up on silage from 40 mile away with 2 harvesters and 12 trailers plus 2 shovels and they filled up from their own bowser after they’d done the first load when they arrived at the pit. Didn’t expect it but he said why should we pay for his travelling fuel.
Had other contractors then which were nearby and they’d driven 30 miles and didn’t fill off their own backs. As the one with the bowser filling up the road miles said what is a few hundred pound when the bill was going to be £25k+.
 
the simplist
I was £30 an acre for ploughing last year and £34 this year take it or leave it. Most of the stuff I'm in is pretty stoney and ploughing 1 acre an hour would be average. Debating whether or not this will be my last year doing it
sounds a realistic charge and sustainable. trouble is many farmers arent great business men and dont know the true costs involved involved in running their business/tractors etc until it too late - esp true when acting as a part time contractor
 

mtx.jag

Member
Location
pembs
I’ve had contractors turn up on silage from 40 mile away with 2 harvesters and 12 trailers plus 2 shovels and they filled up from their own bowser after they’d done the first load when they arrived at the pit. Didn’t expect it but he said why should we pay for his travelling fuel.
Had other contractors then which were nearby and they’d driven 30 miles and didn’t fill off their own backs. As the one with the bowser filling up the road miles said what is a few hundred pound when the bill was going to be £25k+.
So how do they make that money back? They paid staff to drive for an hour not earning plus the fuel,we’re they more expensive per ac than the local lot?
 

SFI - What % were you taking out of production?

  • 0 %

    Votes: 79 42.5%
  • Up to 25%

    Votes: 65 34.9%
  • 25-50%

    Votes: 30 16.1%
  • 50-75%

    Votes: 3 1.6%
  • 75-100%

    Votes: 3 1.6%
  • 100% I’ve had enough of farming!

    Votes: 6 3.2%

Red Tractor drops launch of green farming scheme amid anger from farmers

  • 1,287
  • 1
As reported in Independent


quote: “Red Tractor has confirmed it is dropping plans to launch its green farming assurance standard in April“

read the TFF thread here: https://thefarmingforum.co.uk/index.php?threads/gfc-was-to-go-ahead-now-not-going-ahead.405234/
Top