World Sweeper Logo

Bidding

Bidding The Job of Parking Area Sweeping

From Fundamentals of the Power Sweeping Business
 by Ranger Kidwell-Ross

The following information is excerpted from Fundamentals of the Power Sweeping Business, a 200-page+ operations manual written by the editor of WorldSweeper.com, Ranger Kidwell-Ross. Here is where you will find more information about purchase of the entire book. All of the following links are on this same page, so you can get to the information by either clicking on the links or scrolling down the page.

Developing bid prices is one of the first aspects of the trade every new contractor has to learn. Although you'll find it relatively easy once you've been in the business awhile, when you're starting out it can prove more difficult.

The most important criteria in figuring bids is in gauging the difficulty of the area you'll be cleaning, i.e., how much time it will take on average, and recommending the proper amount of sweeps per week or month. Once you have that information, it is an easy process to compute your cost, add your profit margin and then submit an accurate Proposal Of Services.

When figuring your bids, keep in mind that you are trying to make a given number of dollars per hour of machine operation. An analogy can be taken from the game of golf: golfers are told that they should swing their club exactly the same each time they hit the ball. The key to winning golf is to have that one swing be a good one, and at the same time recognize which club should be used in the different situations one finds oneself in. Finally, the objective must be kept in mind - getting the ball into the hole as efficiently as possible.

To complete the analogy, your sweeper should perform over all necessary terrain. Depending upon the differing situations, however, your speed will need to be changed to get the litter picked up. In this section we will show you how to recognize and evaluate what might be called the 'difficulty factors' in cleaning. You will learn to determine, on a per-hour basis, your cost and profit.

When you bid, what you are estimating is the amount of time, on average, it will take to clean a given area. Keeping in mind your objective - getting the job at a given price per hour - you will learn how to bid so that you can take into consideration a wide variety of potential factors.You will thus be able to estimate accurately the time an average sweeping job at a given site will take.

Although you will base your evaluation upon the average time it will take, never bid a lot by the hour! If you do this, you are asking for trouble every time Always bid per sweep; that way you will forestall any trouble you might otherwise get each time you do a sweep that takes less than the average time you estimate.

For example, suppose that you bid a lot on an average sweep time of one hour, knowing that it will sometimes take just half an hour, while others, because of a different amount of trash build-up, weather conditions, etc., may take as much as an hour and a half. If you bid by the hour, the manager may well want an adjustment on his bill any time he sees that it takes you less than the hour you originally estimated in your bid.

Figuring Out How to Bid

Most start-up contractors initially find bidding to be the most difficult aspect of the business. Not only do they often not have a good handle on their costs, let alone their expected or needed mark-up, but there is a natural lack of knowledge about how long it will take to sweep a given client's property.

Also, average mark-up in this business depends strongly upon regional factors, competitiveness of your area, etc. When you first start out, we recommend that you spend extra time developing your acuity for estimating bids. Watch other industry contractors as they sweep lots, and compare your estimate of time needed to sweep with the actual time they take.

When you first start out, especially, don't hesitate to ask prospects how much they are paying currently. Often they will tell you (although remember that you have no way to verify the truth of their answer), and this can be a big help to you in constructing your own bids.

By learning to do a good job estimating your average time per sweep, and by closely figuring your costs, you will be able to avoid the initial cycle encountered by many who enter the business.

Generally speaking, many start-ups think it will take longer to sweep a given lot than it actually does. As a result, their initial bids tend to be too high. Because of this, the tendency is that they will have trouble getting bids initially. Then, facing payments and other expenses, they drastically cut their prices in order to get some bids. Next they have plenty of business, but are making relatively little money because they are saddled with contracts which will only pay their expenses, if that.

By using the information provided for you in this section of the manual, you will be much better able to develop reasonable cost and mark-up amounts, and so elude the above cycle. Keep in mind that experience is really the only way for you to become truly astute in either cost computation or bidding. Don't be satisfied with your initial estimates of either, but rather continue to hone your skills and your understanding of how to figure this information.

Because there is so much variation in pricing, based upon equipment, region of the country and other factors, there is no way for us to provide actual numerical specifics for you. The following will be certain to help, however.

How to Estimate Average Sweeping Time

When you're first starting out, always give each potential jobsite a thorough look over. Anticipate that for light litter pick-up in the middle of the lot, you'll be able to travel at about 15 mph. This speed must be reduced in various places such as around curbing, edges, traffic islands, for heavy litter, and for any areas which must be hand-picked.

You should also look for any places where you will need to use a backpack blower, and gauge how much time it will take to do so.

When you are first starting out you may need to not only look at, but to actually drive the lot the way you would if you were sweeping. This will provide the most detailed method for determining the amount of time an average sweeping of the lot will take. In this way you can estimate approximate bids even before you actually have your Supervac.

Here are the primary factors you will be considering when you figure how much time, trouble and difficulty is required for a given job. Keep in mind that the best way to know how much time it will take to clean a lot is to actually clean it. If you do this, be sure to get permission from the property manager first, and then sweep it on a day that it isn't normally swept (this differs from most contractors' preference when doing a demo; if your Schwarze equipment is in good shape you will typically be able to amaze the property manager with the amount of litter you can pick up even right after their contracted sweeper has swept). By sweeping when the lot has litter on it, you will be able to get a better determination of how much time an average sweep will take.

Bids-A-Lot Information

Here are the primary factors which contribute to determining how much time it takes to sweep a given location:

Levelness of Area

It may surprise you to learn that a level lot actually takes longer to clean than a lot on a slope. The reason: on a sloped lot, paper, cans, bottles and other debris tend to move toward the lowest edge. This means that litter will often be collected at the most downhill point, which is easier to pick up than trash scattered evenly throughout the area.

Another kind of 'levelness' to consider is the condition of the asphalt itself. Because the suction is better, a smooth, even lot with no broken areas will be easier and quicker to clean. A lot with potholes and rough patchy asphalt, on the other hand, not only will take more time, but the chance of damaging your sweeping head also increases.

Vehicle speed must be reduced due to the reduction in vacuum caused by broken terrain. There will also be more gravel and pieces of paving continually being broken up on the lot. This type of litter not only adds up quickly in terms of weight in the hopper, but average speed must be cut to 2 - 3 mph to pick it up.

Increase your time estimate if there is tall grass growing through cracks in the pavement. These catch all manner of windblown litter, and this type of area is more difficult to sweep because the vacuum power will be reduced while going through the grass. In some instances, in fact, the operator may even have to clean up some of these areas by hand. This, of course, will further increase the time you should allow.

Number of Obstacles

The number of obstacles in your way has a large impact on the amount of time it will take to clean a given area. Curbing, as an example, whether around the outside perimeter of the parking area or in strips throughout the lot, requires a much slower sweeping speed.

Although the center of the average parking area can be swept at upwards of 15 mph, maximum speed along a curb is, for safety reasons, more like 5 mph. The time needed is further increased if there are car parking bumpers (wheel chocks) in the lot which must be cleaned around. Not only do these tend to have debris trapped in and around them but, depending on their location and layout, they may need to be cleaned either by hand or with a backpack blower.

Landscaping islands are other potential trash traps; not only does debris get blown along the edges, but it is often scattered throughout the bushes, etc. Another item which will impact your time needed to clean is a parking stall island, or other raised border which has lots of corners. When it comes to cleaning along raised areas, corners are much more time-consuming than straightaways.

Time Since Lot Has Been Swept

Especially when you are bidding on an area which has not had a sweeping service before, the initial sweep will be much more time-consuming than the follow-ups. Most contractors have a special price for this first clean-up, and then another for continuing the sweeping on a regular basis.

You may want to consider waiving the initial higher cost for the first time through, on the condition of their signing a contract for a continuation of your services. This can be an excellent incentive for a new client to go ahead and sign up for regular services after you finish the initial clean-up.

Number of Sweeps Per Month

Cleaning contracts generally stipulate sweeping services to be done once a month, twice a month, once a week, three times a week or daily. The actual amount of your services is something which you will come to an agreement on with the manager. The frequency of service will have a large impact on the time it will take, because of the amount of trash build-up between cleanings.

A lot which is swept once a month will often have a large amount of packed trash which has been wind-blown into corners, landscaping and other hard-to-reach places. You will also usually find that an enormous quantity of sand, dirt and gravel has been brought in on car tires in that amount of time. Typically consider that a once-a-month lot will be, on average, in the worst possible condition.

On the other end of the spectrum, a lot you sweep on a seven-day-a-week basis will have very little chance to get a heavy build-up of any kind, so each sweep (after the initial clean-up) will probably be just a light trash pick up.

Another factor to consider is that a client who's having you sweep often - from daily to three times per week - will expect and deserve a better price per sweep than someone whose lot you sweep only once per week or less. One reason is because of the smaller build-up of trash per sweep. In addition, you will often find that it is better to provide a discount per sweeping to your steadiest customers. Although you will make a little less per time you sweep for them, it is more than made up for by the volume of business, and referrals, they can provide.

Type of Use Lot Receives

The amount of use a given area receives is not as important as the type of use it gets. As an example, at fast food restaurants you will often pick up much more litter than at other places, because people tend to throw packaging out the window when they eat in fast food parking lots. For this reason, you will often have to go slower when cleaning this kind of area.

Volume of business also makes a difference, of course, and you will find that grocery, discount and department stores, which have a large number of shoppers, generally collect more litter per day than a hardware store or a business complex, for example.

Also often in this category are:

  • Drug Stores: Because of the nature of the products they sell, people tend to throw away the wrappings before getting into their cars. The same is true for 24-hour grocery stores.
  • Liquor Stores and bars: These can generate lots of 12-pack cartons, broken glass and ice bags.
Fundamentals Info

On average, office complexes are almost always less time-consuming than shopping centers. This is because the litter that collects tends to be smaller in size and less in volume, and thus is easier to pick up, and you can do so at a faster pace. Plus, people seldom go into office complexes and buy products, so there aren't as many wrappers, bags, etc. which find their way into the parking lot.

An area which is used as a 'kid's hangout' is one which can collect a much larger amount of trash than normal. Not only will there be more to pick up, but it will be more difficult to do so if there are cars there while you sweep. For that reason, stores which are open 24 hours are more time-consuming, too.

Areas of Responsibility

A factor which will certainly impact the time you'll need for cleaning is whether or not you have overall responsibility for the client's entire outside area, not just that devoted to parking. Prior to bidding, be sure to discuss whether not your bid includes an obligation for keeping sidewalks and landscaping cleaned, as well as planter boxes, islands, outside perimeter areas and the backs of the buildings.

The back of a store can contain an especially large build-up of trash, since this is where all the deliveries and pick ups are made. If your services will include this area, pay especially close attention to your estimate of the time needed to clean this area initially, as well as what will be necessary to keep it clean on an ongoing basis.

Planter boxes and other landscaping areas can also take a significant amount of time, since their cleaning is often accomplished only by hand or with the help of a backpack blower.

Don't be shy about making certain that you and the center manager are in complete agreement as to your area of responsibility. It's in everyone's best interest for you to come to an understanding about the scope of your services prior to your bid, rather than at some point after you've started your services.

Fenced Areas

Whether or not an area is fenced can have quite an impact on sweeping time, especially if it's a chain link or other type which can be seen through. Any fence area will act as a trash collector when the wind blows and, since many types of fences must be cleaned by hand, this means extra time. The reason that 'see through' fences can be even more time consuming is that it will make your client's area look trashy even if the debris is on the other side of the fence. As a result, this is a topic which should be discussed with a client when bidding on an area with a see through-type fence.

Something else with which you should be concerned is whether there are 'trash generating' sources nearby. If the client does want you to keep both sides of the fence clean, the time it will take you will be dependent upon several factors. The two primary of these are the type of business that is located on the adjoining property, and whether or not they are having it cleaned by a sweeping contractor or by some other method.

Fencing is an area of clean-up which can make a big difference in the amount of time needed to clean an area. Be sure that you come to a clear agreement about whether or not you will be cleaning one or both sides of any fence line.

Bidding Special Situations

Spring Clean-Up

In the snow belt, an important regional problem when bidding is sand and cinder removal. Over the past few years, there has been more and more public outcry over the use of salt to melt snow and ice, since salt causes such a rust problem on automobiles. As a result, sand and cinders are now more often the traction aid of choice among many malls and shopping centers.

Most contractors in the snow belt charge a special one-time cleanup charge for removal of the winter build up of this type of material. This often consists of doubling their regular rate per hour. Our suggestion is that you make arrangements with the center manager, in advance, concerning the removal of this debris. One way to bid the spring clean-up would be to simply remove the winter residue on an hourly basis.

Event Sweeping

Some of your clients will need services at the conclusion of particular events. Examples of such include concert arenas, sporting event locations, fairgrounds and civic club affairs. In these situations, the client often will have an extreme amount of litter to clean up, and many times will need it done within a tight time constraint.

Because there is so much variation in these events, it will help you to consider the following:

  1. Do the hours required conflict with your normal clients' service schedule? If so, you will be disrupting your usual work to handle the add-on situation, so will generally need to charge more. If, on the other hand, the job requirements could have services performed during a time when your truck(s) are normally not as busy, such as during the day, then you can usually bid more competitively.
  2. Does the client know how much trash is typically generated at this event? Often, especially with annual-type events, the customer knows the amount of trash that accumulated on previous occasions. This can be very helpful information. If you bid on this basis, however, include an 'out' clause which will allow you to charge more once a certain volume of trash has been swept.

In addition, for situations where you'll be picking up several hoppers of trash, make certain to find out where you'll be going to dump it. Your travel and off-loading time will need to be taken into account.

Another factor that can give you a clue as to how much to bid on this type of job is finding out whether there's a budget allotted for the work. Often, an amount based upon the cost of previous year has been allocated, and some managers will tell you what it is, or what they have been paying. It's a good idea to take this type of information with a grain of salt, though.

You may already expect that event cleaning is required at arenas, but in addition it is usually needed several times a year at many shopping malls when they sponsor promotions which draw crowds to their parking areas to get people into their stores. Generally speaking, you will want to leave open the possibility of negotiating special one-time arrangements for cleaning when these events take place with a regular client.

When it is being done for someone who is not already a client, however, and especially when the event is being put on by an out of town business entity such as a travelling circus, you should ideally arrange for payment up front. There is a certain percentage of such outfits that rely on moving on before paying all their bills. They know that it is almost impossible for a small contractor to take all the necessary steps to track them down once they have left town.

Holiday and tourist seasons also mean more traffic volume, therefore more litter which will collect. In Florida, as an example, the tourist season lasts all winter, and the amount of litter in the parking lots is much larger that time of year than in the off-season summer months.

This is also true for the Christmas season throughout virtually all of the country. An increased charge per sweep and/or more frequent sweeping are usually options to consider and recommend at these times of year.

Keeping the above factors in mind, you should be able to closely estimate the amount of time it will take to perform by far the majority of lot cleaning that you encounter. As you get more accomplished, you will become efficient at estimating the time needed for different lot layouts and size configurations.

You will find it to be of extreme value to establish an honest, straightforward relationship with each of your clients. If a problem surfaces, make sure to let them know about it right away - and ask them to do the same for you. If you are conscientious about the quality of your work and keep good lines of communication open, your clients will remain faithful to you for many years to come.

Computing Your Costs

There are many factors you should consider when coming up with a cost per hour for your services. One of the most frequent, and perhaps also the most fatal, mistakes that start-up contractors make is to price their services at too low a rate. Often this stems from an over-eagerness to gain new accounts, but many times it is also due to an inaccurate assessment of actual cost per hour to run the business.

Always remember that you are in this business to make money. Money to live on, money to replace your equipment when it needs it, money to enjoy a comfortable retirement, money to cover your cost of capital equipment, etc., etc.

Unless you plan ahead so that you can make enough money to stay in the business in the long term, there is no sense in going through all the hassle of getting started.

Sweeper Cost

You are probably making payments of some kind on your sweeper - this is not its cost! It is, rather, a single component of its actual cost to you. Added to that is the cost of normal maintenance, such as oil and filter changes.

Add to that a factor for any repairs which will be necessary as a result of wear and tear. This needs to be an amount which will cover both normal wear items and the more unexpected repairs that sooner or later are necessary on even newer units. Unless you add a portion of cost into your bids to account for this repair factor, you will be unable to afford to keep your sweeper looking and sweeping great.

Cost of Fuel

Fuel is one of the more significant daily costs you will face in running your sweeper. Figure your cost per mile for the chassis, and cost per hour for operation of your auxiliary, or sweeper, engine. Are you aware of the federal fuel tax rebate you are eligible for on your auxiliary engine fuel?

Driver's Wage Cost

Another item you need to add in is an hourly wage rate for the driver, even if the driver is you. Consider that you could probably make $10 to $12 an hour driving a truck for someone else, and at the same time not have any of the headaches associated with being owner of the business! This needs to be factored in as your wage component.

If you have drivers working for you, don't just tally up their cost per hour as your final cost, either. You are also paying taxes on their wages to the government, such as Workmen's Compensation, and this must be added on.

Insurance

Insurance is another component, and your estimation of it needs to include both your vehicle and your liability insurance premium costs.

Accessory Equipment Cost

In your work you will be using other tools, such as a rake, shovel, etc. Occasionally these need to be replaced. More critical, however, is the cost of using your backpack blower. This item will get a lot of use, and thus wear out fairly quickly. It also has a cost for fuel per hour of use.

You may also have other items, such as trash can liners, which will contribute to your variable costs.

Cost of Maintaining Your Office

You will need to add an amount sufficient to cover the monthly costs incurred in operating your office. This includes the rent, of course, but also will take in your phone costs, depreciation on furniture, computers, typewriter, etc.

In this category are also the various business license costs you may have to pay to operate your company.

Return on Investment

You have money invested in this business, right? As a result, you deserve to earn a rate of return on it. After all, if you simply put it into the bank you would be collecting interest on it, and that would be less risky than using it for business purposes.

If you borrowed the money that you have invested, it is relatively easy to compute the cost to you. If you are using money which had previously been in savings, etc., however, a rule of thumb is to consider that you should be getting the same rate of return as if you had borrowed it.

Finally, you need to get what might be called your 'entrepreneurial share', or 'risk and hassle factor return.' This is the portion which should accrue to you because you are in business for yourself. After all, you are going to have to provide for your retirement. You will be the one who will get up at 3 am to go rescue your driver when he has a flat. You are entitled to a rate of return on your company which takes this into consideration.

Computing Your Total Costs

After you have collected all the cost factors which pertain to your business, you should be able to establish a cost per year, per week, per day, per hour, etc. To do this, add up all your fixed expenses, i.e., those which do not change depending upon how much work you perform. These include insurance, sweeper payments, office expenses, etc. When you total all of your fixed costs, the resulting dollar amount should equal your expenses if you didn't have any clients in the year or perform any actual sweeping.

Equally important to your expense computation is developing the added costs you face by doing work. These are your variable costs. The most obvious example of a variable cost is the fuel expense for your truck and sweeper. The amount of this is completely dependent upon the time that your sweepers are operated.

Another good example is your Workmen's Compensation payments; they increase with the number of hours which are worked. When you bid, these latter expenses need to be considered for each hour that you will be doing actual work, including driving your sweeper back and forth to your jobsite(s). You will actually have more than one variable cost schedule, in fact. Because commuting to the job location doesn't use the auxiliary engine, as an example, your cost per hour will be slightly less than when sweeping.

There are also a set of variable costs which are created by your marketing effort, and another to cover the time it takes you to bid on jobs (your wages per hour and transportation expenses in your company car, etc.).

You will need to develop an average for the number of hours/dollars you spend on these non-sweeping functions per week, and this amount will need to be taken into consideration in your bidding.

When you compute in all the factors, you will be able to determine your overall cost for any situation, from running the sweeper to handing out brochures. Ideally you would be able to figure out in advance exactly how many hours of each of these you would do per year, so you could then develop an exact cost figure for any situation.

Then, by dividing the total of these by 365, you would have an average of the daily cost of your fixed expenses. To be more accurate, you would then figure this as based upon a reasonable number of hours for you to work each week. For example, if you actually operate your sweeper on a five-day-per-week basis, eight hours each day, that is 2,080 hours per year (not the 8,760 hours you would get by multiplying 365 days times 24 hours per day). Remember that it is only by sweeping that you will actually be earning revenue. That is why the better you can make your estimates, and the closer you are to reaching your target number of hours in your work schedule, the better your expense and revenue calculations will be to the real thing.

After doing all your necessary calculations, let's say as an example that you determine that your actual hourly expense, (assuming that you are actually sweeping a 40 hour week) per 8 hour day is $40/hour, or $320 per day, five days a week. The figure of $1600 would then be your breakeven point per week. When you do your cost analysis, remember that the above figure should include a competitive wage rate for you as driver.

This is strictly the amount you would need to bid per lot (average hours or fraction of hours to sweep the lot times $40) in order to just break even in the long run. The point is to bid where you can (1) make a profit, while (2) reaching or exceeding your target number of accounts.

Very generally speaking, using 2005 prices, it is not uncommon for a contractor with a smaller parking area sweeper, such as a three-yard capacity sweeper on a 1-ton chassis, to be able to charge between $55 and $65 per hour, for a gross earnings of between $9,000 and $11,000 per month.

For a larger sweeper, one that is suitable for performing a variety of duties other than parking lot cleanup, the same rule of thumb is a charge of between $65 and $75 per hour when doing construction cleanup. This should net you a gross of between $11,000 and $14,000 per month. Street sweeping pricing should be about $90, since it is harder on your equipment and the sweepers cost substantially more.

Again, these are simply generalizations, and actual earnings are quite dependent upon work performed, charges in your area, etc. They are definitely, however, numbers which have been attained by many in the industry who have worked hard at developing their businesses.
World Sweeper Logo

© 2005 - 2012
World Sweeper
All rights reserved.
Parking Area Sweeping Contents

Parking/BiddingContents

Site Map / Table of Contents