# Loading/Unloading Fee



## sqkcrk (Dec 10, 2005)

What do you charge a fellow beekeeper who needs a semi unloaded or loaded? I'm not talking about tit for tat, I'll unload one for you if you will return the favor down the road. I'm talking about loading/unloading for someone else who doesn't have a loader.

What do you charge for gathering pallets of hives into the loading yard? By the mile and by the hour? By the hour for use of your truck, trailer, and skidsteer?

I never know what the right amount is.


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## swarm_trapper (Jun 19, 2003)

In almonds most guys are at 15-20$ a hive to unload scatter and gather and reload.


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## Steve10 (Nov 19, 2008)

Mark, when I've helped folks out with my skid steer I charge $75 per hour. The clock starts when I leave my place and ends after I get back home. I just find it easier than keeping track of mileage because I frequently forget to log my time out. Hope that helps.


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## snl (Nov 20, 2009)

Steve10 said:


> The clock starts when I leave my place and ends after I get back home.


OK, but how long _*AFTER*_ you get back home does the clock keep on ticking? :lookout:


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## BMAC (Jun 23, 2009)

Mark how much did you charge to unload?


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## LSPender (Nov 16, 2004)

to off load 1 semi load, $ 600.00, if in local area, within 60 miles & in one yard no moving out.
In almond pollination, $ 5.00 per hive to unload and place in orchard, $ 5.00 per hive to gather up & reload truck. this does not include any contract fees.


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## sqkcrk (Dec 10, 2005)

swarm_trapper said:


> In almonds most guys are at 15-20$ a hive to unload scatter and gather and reload.


Into the groves and out? Just off the semi into the staging yard?


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## sqkcrk (Dec 10, 2005)

BMAC said:


> Mark how much did you charge to unload?


The most recent load is still open to negotiation, I hope. I have done such things for $25.00 per hour. Which seems really cheap. Especially considering that if one had ordered a Bobcat from Myrtle Beach Bobcat, delivered to the site, used for a cpl hours, and retrieved, that would have cost as much as $300.00. Plus, someone would have had to have been there to drive the thing, unstrap the load and fold up the nets.


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## sqkcrk (Dec 10, 2005)

LSPender said:


> to off load 1 semi load, $ 600.00, if in local area, within 60 miles & in one yard no moving out.
> In almond pollination, $ 5.00 per hive to unload and place in orchard, $ 5.00 per hive to gather up & reload truck. this does not include any contract fees.


I have heard of similar numbers for ME blueberry pollination hives. about half that much, I think.


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## BMAC (Jun 23, 2009)

I paid a beekeeper in Ga last year to unload a semi for me $200.00 cash. 

$25.00 an hour seems aweful cheap to me. I was quoted $100.00 an hour from another beekeeper down there which started the clock when he left his house with truck and bobcat.


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## Saltybee (Feb 9, 2012)

I'd be happy to pay a cleaner $25 an hour on a one time quick job. You have a little more invested.


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## sqkcrk (Dec 10, 2005)

Paid more than that to have my van detailed, my chiropractor adjust me, and my Licensed Massage Therapist give me a massage. You can't find a Deisel Mechanic worth having for less than $75.00 per hour. What any of that has to do w/ the subject at hand.


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## Adrian Quiney WI (Sep 14, 2007)

I had the misery of having to study accounting for a year or two (that seemed like 10) relevant concepts that may be useful in calculating the charge may be relevant here. Opportunity cost and absorption costing - fixed and variable costs. 
Opportunity cost, if the bee work you are charging for is taking you away from other opportunities, then the profit should be more than that derived from the opportunities you are missing. 
Absorption costing: An earlier thread was discussing vehicles, and vehicles have fixed costs that they incur whether they are being used or not. The variable costs vary with their usage - gasoline, tire wear, and whether you pay a driver. So from a pure economic point of view anything that comes into the business and thus reduces the fixed cost side of the business benefits the bottom line. 
Imagine that you calculate the variable costs for your Bobcat, trailer, and truck are $20/hr to operate, and you charge $25/hr, and that if you weren't doing this work you would be just posting on Beesource. :lookout: then (without a $ opportunity lost) your business will have a healthier bottom line.
But look at it a different way, suppose your variable costs to operate your Bobcat, trailer, and truck are $30/hr and, not having calculated them, you charge $25/hr for the work. Then you are paying your friend $5/hr to work for him.
Knowing that you are a better business man than I you may have worked this out already.
As I recall you charge whatever the market will bear for Squeak Creek Honey, so I suppose as this is a beekeeping friend you probably won't be doing that to him.
I think how much you charge should be enough to cover your variable cost, make a contribution to fixed costs, not be so low that your labor is charged at naught, and not so high that you are kept away from Beesource.


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## Shouse (Jul 1, 2010)

swarm_trapper said:


> in almonds most guys are at 15-20$ a hive to unload scatter and gather and reload.


dito


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## jim lyon (Feb 19, 2006)

I wouldnt make a very good business of it. I have done it quite a few times but each time as a favor and each time I refused payment. Kind of a brotherhood of beekeeper thing with me I guess. One time it was for one of the larger beekeepers in the country whose trailer had broken down about an hour away from me and was pretty desperate needing someone to reload it onto another truck that was in the area. Took me about 4 hours, he insisted on paying me, I told him no way, I would rather be a favor up on you than a favor down. But dont be surprised if your phone rings some night....It did get me a nice Christmas gift in the mail that year. 
Dont get me wrong, there is certainly a business in doing this nowadays. So for those in the business what are the actual costs involved in unloading a semi? It takes roughly one machine (and man) hour to set a load off, perhaps as much as another hour (singles or doubles) if you are setting them down to 1 high. Add in your mileage, decide what your time is worth and any ancillaries like yard/pasture rent. Seems like a minimum of a couple hundred bucks per load on up.


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## Saltybee (Feb 9, 2012)

sqkcrk said:


> What any of that has to do w/ the subject at hand.


Everything. 
What are you worth? I'm guessing you can detail your own car. I'm guessing he could get his own bees unloaded or find someone else to do it.
You paid those professionals more because you knew their training and experience would get it done right the first time, on schedule and without damage. What is that worth to the other keeper?


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## sqkcrk (Dec 10, 2005)

I'm all for doing favors and going to someone's aid in an emergency. If a semi rolls over just about anywhere w/in reasonable driving distance from me and my machines I will be there. That being said we are all in business here, being commercial beekeepers. So I expect no one to do my bee work for me unpaid for. That's one reason I have a truck, trailer, and Bobcat.

I got asked what I would charge. So someone else had the same idea as me. And I got asked by another beekeeper, someone who I have unloaded for and been paid by, what I thought he should charge. Thus my asking here to see what others do.

$15.00 to $20.00 per hives in almonds? Not per pallet?

Seems like someone w/ a 20 ft bed and a light skidsteer trailer could maybe make some money in the almond groves and the blueberry barrons unloading and spreading pallets of hives, couldn't one? Or someone could supplement their income, since they are already on site.


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## jim lyon (Feb 19, 2006)

sqkcrk said:


> I'm all for doing favors and going to someone's aid in an emergency. If a semi rolls over just about anywhere w/in reasonable driving distance from me and my machines I will be there. That being said we are all in business here, being commercial beekeepers. So I expect no one to do my bee work for me unpaid for. That's one reason I have a truck, trailer, and Bobcat.
> 
> I got asked what I would charge. So someone else had the same idea as me. And I got asked by another beekeeper, someone who I have unloaded for and been paid by, what I thought he should charge. Thus my asking here to see what others do.
> 
> ...


Sorry I strayed Mark. I think perhaps we are talking about two different scenarios here. A simple load/unload is a far cry from a pollination agreement in which someone is unloading, distributing, contracting, collecting, regathering, pooling and reshipping. My agreements have been in the $20 per hive range for such a service. I would most likely unload a truck for a couple hundred bucks if it wasnt too far to drive, perhaps another $100+ if it was a load and net. If a lot of driving were involved and the situation was less than ideal then perhaps as high as 5 to $600.


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## BMAC (Jun 23, 2009)

I believe you certainly could make extra money doing it for hire. You just have to make sure its enough to pay for your time and all other seen and unseen expenses. If you want to meet me in Ga in a couple of weeks I will be glad to pay you to unload my bees.


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## sqkcrk (Dec 10, 2005)

jim lyon said:


> Sorry I strayed Mark. I think perhaps we are talking about two different scenarios here. A simple load/unload is a far cry from a pollination agreement in which someone is unloading, distributing, contracting, collecting, regathering, pooling and reshipping. My agreements have been in the $20 per hive range for such a service. I would most likely unload a truck for a couple hundred bucks if it wasnt too far to drive, perhaps another $100+ if it was a load and net. If a lot of driving were involved and the situation was less than ideal then perhaps as high as 5 to $600.


That's a good and confirming answer.


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## sqkcrk (Dec 10, 2005)

BMAC said:


> I believe you certainly could make extra money doing it for hire. You just have to make sure its enough to pay for your time and all other seen and unseen expenses. If you want to meet me in Ga in a couple of weeks I will be glad to pay you to unload my bees.


 U can't afford me.  Not after this Thread.


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## BMAC (Jun 23, 2009)

dang it! :lpf: I recon I will just pay someone to follow me down with my other truck and skidsteer.

So you thinking of following the trucks to Maine for BB unloading and loading for some extra easy cash?


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## sqkcrk (Dec 10, 2005)

Extra, maybe. Easy? No. All nighters there are not uncommon. The growers don't allow any movement of hives from semi to barrens during the day if they have to travel any paved roads. Maybe if it's raining.

I enjoyed going to ME to help take bees out, but I don't think I would do it regularly. I went for the experience, as a vacation. Didn't expect to be paid, but I was. Which was nice. Spent it on the wheel bearing that went out in my van on the way home.


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## Honey-4-All (Dec 19, 2008)

Not against this as I have done so in the past. Any liability issues here? When people and machines move stuff happens. When the help wants $2 an hour and swingers sell for 10K the price might be a few hundred. With expenses today I think 3-600 would be appropriate depending on the travel!


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## jean-marc (Jan 13, 2005)

We charge $100/hr. That would get you a swinger, truck, trailer and a couple of hired guys. Meter starts when we leave our home yard and stops when the guys have returned. I do not like doing it. Employees get tired and then do not have energy to go when we have to do our own. It is sorta ok in slow season otherwise I find it to be a bother. We are not insured to move other peoples hives so I kinda shy away from it.

Jean-Marc


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## JWChesnut (Jul 31, 2013)

In southern San Joaquin this is invariably all-night piecework. Fee is 10-11-12/unit to unload and scatter. Mud increases the rate (and time required) dramatically. Some of the equipment is repurposed skid-steers from the big Dairies. 

In the gather and load phase, I know several young folks that have worked in exchange for unshippable colonies and built up their own business. The inevitable broken pallets or catty-wampus hives get left behind, and part of the piecework is trading out the cull. Like any trade, no one is talking about the deal -- its a poker hand (and part gentleman's tip).


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## Ian (Jan 16, 2003)

I could see why a beekeeper would want to pay by the hive to unload and such rather than paying by the hour. Nothing worse than a slow dilly dally operator working on an hourly rate, unless your Jean-Marc in which case the hourly rate would be a deal ! Lol


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## sqkcrk (Dec 10, 2005)

Ian, I take my time when unloading. I'm not in a race w/ anyone. Guys who I have unloaded for appreciate me taking my time, being careful. Once I am in the cab I stay there until the load is on the ground or on the truck. Dilly dallying might go on somewhere, but I don't know what that would look like.

That being said, I know that there are other guys who can load a load twice as fast as I do and unload faster than I do. Those guys have things set up well for loading and have a 5th wheel and mast. They can pick up a whole stack. Whereas I have to set a pallet on the deck and stack two pallets on top of that. That's where the speed is lost.

I guess if you have many trucks to deal w/ speed comes in handy. W/ speed comes accidents and breakage. I tend to take my time and try to keep breakage to a minimum. Not that you were singling me out.

But, if a beekeeper wants to pay me $1.00 per hive to unload a semi I'd do it for that. $1.00 per box would be even nicer.


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## Ian (Jan 16, 2003)

I hear you Mark. I'll relate this to combining. When we offer our services to the neighbours we give them a choice. By the hour or by the acre, it works out to the same thing as we know the performance of our machines. But for our neighbours some fret over idleing machines, some want to play the chances that working the hourly rate might be cheaper. 
That is if we charge our neighbours more than the operating costs anyway. 

I take my time loading and unloading my hives as well. Nothing worst than a dumped pallet of bee hives


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## Bradley_Bee (May 21, 2008)

I paid $3 bucks a hive in close proximately to where they were placed last year (including placement) and 5$ on ones that were a ways away. It wasn't bad, but came out to be a few thousand bucks. This year I'm trucking my skid steer up there. Probably will regret it , but I'd rather have the money  .


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## odfrank (May 13, 2002)

>I was quoted $100.00 an hour from another beekeeper down there which started the clock when he left his house with truck and bobcat.

That is about what a "legal payroll/insurances, licenses" bobcat operator charges on construction jobs in the San Francisco bay area. Craigslist "Black market" is about $45 an hour.


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