Hire or buy?

[dig dug dan]

refuse to use them if they won't let me put my own fuel in.They're all charging a fortune for the diesel.

too true, and some charge 20% vat on red diesel, which is illegal as its only 5%!

[mickg]

just re read my post, what I meant to say was it cost 10 pence for the phone call to the hire company to hire a machine, no maintenance, no storage issues, no worries and no beak down costs plus as time goes on you end up sat in a 10 year old plus machine where as hire companies change the machines every 3 - 4 years

that's what i was trying to say

[Nigel Walker]

I own all smallish plant and tools eg mixer, wacker, hydraulic breaker, saws etc. we also own a micro digger and a skip loader dumper.
Anything larger we hire in.
In fact I am considering getting shot of digger and dumper. They only get used rarely and sit in workshop taking up space.
I can hire a self drive digger from 1 ton to 10 ton for 60 quid a day plus delivery. This means that I get the size of machine suitable for the particular job. Back when I owned a 801 I used it for digging off jobs more suitable for a 3 or 5 ton. It took longer and was more awkward.
Likewise, ,because I own a small dumper I have used this for jobs where a bigger dumper would have been quicker and better.
With hiring, you don't have the cost of upkeep and repairs. If anything goes wrong on the job, a quick phone call and fitter comes out to fix without cost to me.
Small stuff better to own, larger plant better to hire

[DNgroundworks]

Like everyone else has said, if you are going to use it regularly then maybe.

I hire an late model 8 tonne kubota in regularly, £80.00 per day for the machine £50.00 each way haulage plus fuel, at that sort of money its pointless buying one.

We hired in a brand new 13t hitachi last year, came straight from HM plant for 2 months, £70.00 per day!!! Lots of plant hire companies all over the place up here and not enough work for them all :p

[GB_Groundworks]

I'm 70% on the way to persuading the old man to upgrade our 7 ton fixed boom sumitomo to a kx080, gonna play my trump card and get him to speak to eddy Warner, then the plan will be a tilt rotator if work stays good

For us it's good to have the machines available so we can make work easier, job wouldn't justify 3 machines on hire but makes it so much easier if you have them and not paying rent on them, or for us on a new build machine might be there for a year adds up. On the last big house we spent over £20k on hire of a js220

With hindsight we should have bought one then sold it on when done with it

[KLS]

Like everyone else has said, if you are going to use it regularly then maybe.

I hire an late model 8 tonne kubota in regularly, £80.00 per day for the machine £50.00 each way haulage plus fuel, at that sort of money its pointless buying one.

We hired in a brand new 13t hitachi last year, came straight from HM plant for 2 months, £70.00 per day!!! Lots of plant hire companies all over the place up here and not enough work for them all :p

How do you manage that, around here a cheap 2-3t is £80 a day.

[dig dug dan]

good point. Chepest round here is helpful hirings. Got a 3 tonner coming from them for a job, £75. But its £40 each way transport!

[DNgroundworks]

Id never pay that for a 3 tonner Dan, just seems to be the going rate.

I live in a small town and i reckon there is 20 plant hire companies/groundworks outfits within a couple of miles radius.

On a friday night all the local trade lads meet up for a pint, the pub is rammed full with local plant hire men!