Equipment rental quotation that guards your fleet

What to include on an equipment hire quote template

An equipment rental quotation needs more than a day rate. It has to fix the hire period, delivery, the damage waiver, fuel, and the condition the gear must come back in. This template puts machines, transport and fees on separate lines with attachments as options, and works equally well as a plant hire quotation for contractors. Toolyard’s excavator booking is the sample in the quote maker if you want to start from filled lines.

Hire disputes usually start at return: the machine came back late, dirty, low on fuel or bent. So the quote should fix the hire period, what a day means, delivery and collection times, fuel and cleaning rules, the damage waiver and its limits, and what the customer is responsible for while the gear sits on their site.

1. Equipment and specsClass, size and key specs: a 1.7 tonne mini excavator with a 300 mm bucket, a reversible plate compactor, a 10 kVA generator. Put fleet or serial numbers on the hire agreement.
2. Hire periodStart and end dates and times, and how you count a day: 24 hours, an 8 hour shift with an hour meter limit, or calendar days. State how weekends are charged.
3. Rate basisDay, week and month rates, and which one applies to this booking, so the customer sees the saving from booking longer.
4. Delivery and collectionTransport to and from site, priced per trip or per job, with access notes such as gate width, soft ground or overhead lines.
5. Damage waiverWhat the waiver covers, the amount the customer still pays per incident, and what it leaves out, such as misuse, tire damage or theft without a police report.
6. Fuel, cleaning and wearReturned full or refueled at a set price per gallon or liter, a cleaning fee for mud or concrete, and the line between normal wear and damage.
7. Attachments and consumablesExtra buckets, breakers, augers, blades and cutting discs, usually as optional lines the customer can add.
8. Operator or self driveDry hire, where the customer operates, or wet hire with your operator. Say who must hold any ticket or training the machine requires.

Sample plant hire quotation with example prices

Toolyard Equipment Hire quotes Summit Landscapes for a one week job: a 1.7 tonne mini excavator for 5 days at $220 a day, a plate compactor for 5 days at $45, delivery and collection at $160, and a $75 damage waiver for the week. The subtotal is $1,560. An extra 600 mm bucket at $20 a day is optional and left out of the total. No deposit is shown, though a refundable security deposit could be added. Example prices only.

Edit the Toolyard Equipment Hire quote

5 lines are filled in, from mini excavator, 1.7 tonne to extra bucket, 600 mm. Put in your own equipment hire rates, then download the PDF.

Open the equipment hire sample

How to price equipment rental

Rental pricing starts from what the machine must earn over its working life, then sets day, week and month rates that keep it out on hire. Transport, the damage waiver, fuel and cleaning are charged on top, because they change with each job rather than with the machine.

1. Day, week and month ratesA day rate for short hires, a week rate that rewards longer bookings, and a month rate for project work. For example, a week priced at four day rates and a month at three weeks.
2. Hour meter limitsRates based on a standard shift, such as 8 meter hours a day, with extra hours charged per hour. Protects you when a machine runs double shifts.
3. Transport per tripDelivery and collection priced by distance or zone, higher for a truck and trailer or tilt deck than for a van.
4. Waiver and feesDamage waiver as a percentage of the hire charges or a flat weekly fee, plus fuel, cleaning and disposal fees as listed lines.

Work out each day rate from the machine’s cost, how often it is out on hire and its servicing, then test your margin with the markup calculator. If the customer wants the digging done for them, the excavation quotation fits the job better than a hire quote.

Worked example: a 10 day generator and light tower hire

Hires that run past a full week are where pricing errors creep in. These example rates show how to combine week and day rates and add the waiver.

1. Choose the rateA 20 kVA generator hires at an example $140 a day or $560 a week. Ten days is one week plus three days.
2. Generator$560 for the week plus 3 x $140 = $420, so $980. Ten single days would be $1,400, so the week rate saves the customer $420.
3. Light towerAt $95 a day or $380 a week: $380 plus 3 x $95 = $285, so $665.
4. Transport and waiverDelivery and collection of both on one trailer: $180. Damage waiver at 10% of the hire charges of $1,645 is $164.50.
5. Total$980 plus $665 plus $180 plus $164.50 is $1,989.50 before tax. Diesel used is charged on return at the posted price per gallon.

If the extra days would cost more than a second week, charge the week instead. Fuel burned, meter hours, site access and travel distance all change the final bill.

Equipment hire inclusions and exclusions

Equipment rental quote mistakes

Hire firms rarely lose money on the rate card. They lose it on terms that were never written down before the machine left the yard.

• Not defining a hire day, so a 24 hour hire turns into an argument about whether Saturday counted.
• Leaving out hour meter limits, then getting a machine back after a double shift week at the single shift rate.
• Quoting delivery without checking access, and the truck cannot fit through a narrow gate.
• Selling a damage waiver without stating the amount the customer still pays per incident.
• Forgetting fuel and cleaning terms, which are hard to charge after the fact.
• Skipping the condition record at delivery, when photos and a meter reading protect both sides.