Most clearing contracts are lost twice: once at tender, to a competitor who priced a hectare of scattered regrowth as if it were the whole job, and again on site, when the same competitor discovers what the back half of the block looks like. A tender rate for vegetation work has to do two things at once. It has to be low enough to win and structured well enough that the contractor is still solvent when the rock, the retained trees and the wet fortnight arrive. This guide sets out a method that works across tree shear, mulcher, grapple saw and stump grinder work, whether the client wants a per-hectare, per-kilometre, per-tree or hourly price.
Pricing rule
Never price a hectare as a hectare. Price the stems, the diameters, the handling and the disposal that the hectare contains, then convert to whatever unit the client asked for. One hectare of scattered regrowth may be a fraction of the work of one hectare of dense hardwood.Separate the cost lines before you combine them
The single most useful habit in vegetation tendering is to keep five cost streams apart until the final page. They behave differently, they carry different risks and they are the lines a client’s estimator will want to see if the scope changes.
Mobilisation covers getting the carrier, the attachments, the support plant and the crew to site and back, including any attachment changeover on arrival. Machine hours cover the productive cutting, mulching, grinding or handling time, priced at the true hourly cost of the carrier and attachment together. Material handling covers everything that happens to a stem after it is severed: windrowing, sorting, chipper feeding, loading and any second machine that does it. Stump treatment is its own line because it is often a separate attachment, a separate pass and, on a civil site, a separate client expectation about the finished ground. Disposal covers chipping, haulage, tipping, burning where permitted, or the cost of leaving mulch in place. Each of these can be a fixed sum, an hourly figure or a per-unit figure, and mixing them too early hides which one is carrying the margin.
Choose the pricing unit the work actually behaves like
Clients ask for rates in the unit that suits their contract, and the contractor’s job is to price in the unit that suits the work, then translate. Per-hectare pricing suits broad-area mulching, fuel reduction and site preparation where vegetation is reasonably uniform and the client wants a predictable total. Per-kilometre pricing suits linear corridor work such as road corridors, rail corridor vegetation and powerline easements, where width is fixed by the specification and the main variable is density along the run. Per-tree pricing suits selective removal, storm damage and dangerous trees and arboricultural work, but only if trees are categorised by size and complexity rather than quoted flat. Hourly or day rates suit work where the scope cannot be measured in advance, and they shift most of the productivity risk to the client, which is why clients resist them.
Per-tree pricing deserves a specific warning. A 200 mm regrowth stem and a 600 mm hardwood beside a fence line are not the same tree, and a grapple saw job that must lower sections over a roof is not the same tree again. Use at least four categories (small, medium, large, and complex or controlled) with a diameter band and a handling description against each, and let the client see them. A flat per-tree rate is an invitation to be sent only the large ones.
Measure a sample block before you price anything
A tender written from the site walk and a drone photograph is a guess. A tender written from a sample block is an estimate. Choose one or more plots that honestly represent the range of vegetation on the site, including the dense corner and the rocky edge, and record stem count, species, the diameter distribution (median, 90th percentile and maximum), tree height, slope, ground condition and access. If a machine can be put on the block for a paid trial, record stems per productive hour, fuel per hour, placement cycles, the share of stems needing a second cut and the share needing chainsaw assistance. Those figures become the productivity assumption that the whole rate rests on.
The diameter distribution matters more than the maximum because production is set by the dominant stem size, not the rare large one. A site where three-quarters of stems are under 200 mm should be priced, and the attachment chosen, around that majority, with the occasional oversize tree costed separately as a chainsaw or grapple-saw task. The guide on maximum diameter versus production diameter explains how to sample properly, and Australian hardwood explains why a cycle time measured in pine will not survive a eucalypt block.
First pass and second pass are different jobs
Almost every clearing site involves more than one pass, and the passes should be priced separately even when they use the same carrier. A first pass with a shear or mulcher removes the standing vegetation; a second pass with a forestry grapple windrows or loads it; a third pass with a stump grinder or stump cutter deals with what is left in the ground; a final pass with an auger, ripper or compactor from the tillage range prepares the surface. Each pass has its own productivity, its own attachment wear and often its own changeover time, and the full sequence is described in the clearing workflow. A single blended rate across all passes is fine for the client’s summary page, but the estimate underneath should show each one.
Traffic control and possession windows are real costs
On a road corridor the traffic management plan, the crew, the signage and the lane closure can cost more per day than the excavator does, and they run for the full shift whether or not the machine is productive. On rail, a possession window is a fixed block of time in which the whole job must be done, with penalties for overrun and no way to buy a second window at short notice. Both push the contractor toward the attachment with the fastest cycle for the material in question and toward carrying spare wear parts on site, because an hour lost to a blade change inside a possession costs the whole possession. Price traffic control and possession costs as their own line, and check what the client supplies and what the contractor must supply before assuming either.
Contingency for rock, weather, access and approvals
A contingency percentage is not a fudge if it is built from named risks. Rock contact changes wear cost on stump grinders and mulchers dramatically and can stop an auger; wet weather stops tracked plant on soft ground and delays haulage; poor access can add a second float, a smaller carrier or a walk-in at travel speed; a retained tree list or a sediment control condition can turn a mulching pass into selective work. Native vegetation approvals sit alongside these risks, because a condition attached to a permit can change the method after the price is fixed (see native vegetation approvals). Name each risk, assign a rough probability and cost, and carry the sum as a visible contingency rather than hiding it in the hourly rate.
An illustrative worked example
The following uses round, obviously hypothetical figures to show the structure. It is not a rate for any real job.
Assume a 10 hectare site of mixed regrowth for a subdivision. The sample block gives 400 stems per hectare, so 4,000 stems in total, with 80 per cent below 200 mm and a handful of large trees to be handled separately. Assume a measured productivity of 40 stems per productive hour with a shear on a 20 tonne carrier, and an all-in carrier and attachment cost of $250 per hour.
Four thousand stems at 40 an hour is 100 productive machine hours, and 100 hours at $250 is $25,000 for the felling pass. Now assume the grapple pass takes 60 hours at the same rate ($15,000), stump grinding takes 80 hours ($20,000), mobilisation is a fixed $6,000 for two floats and changeover, disposal by chipper and haulage is $18,000, and a contingency of 10 per cent is carried for rock and weather. The subtotal is $84,000, the contingency $8,400, and the estimate before margin is $92,400. Divided by 10 hectares that is $9,240 per hectare, which is the figure the client sees. The point of the exercise is that the per-hectare number is an output, and every line underneath it can be defended, varied or renegotiated if the scope changes. The cost-per-unit calculator does this arithmetic for any combination of hours, productivity and unit.
What the tender should say about method
A rate is only as good as the method it assumes. State the carrier class, the attachments to be used on each pass, whether material will be mulched in place or recovered, where stumps will be ground or extracted, and what the finished ground will look like. If the client’s specification is silent on any of those, the tender should say what has been assumed. That protects the contractor when the site changes and gives the client a like-for-like basis for comparing bids, which is the same discipline described in the request for quote template for buying the equipment itself.
Confirm before you submit a clearing rate
- Sample block measured: stems per hectare, species, median, 90th percentile and maximum diameter, slope and access
- Productivity assumption for each pass, with the source (paid trial, previous job in similar timber, or supplier demonstration)
- Mobilisation priced as a separate line, including floats, permits and attachment changeover on site
- Handling and disposal method fixed: mulch in place, chip and haul, stockpile or burn where permitted
- Stump treatment scope and finished ground condition agreed with the client
- Traffic control or rail possession costs identified and responsibility for them confirmed
- Retained trees, exclusion zones, sediment control and approval conditions read and priced
- Named contingency for rock, weather and access, carried as a visible line rather than hidden in the rate
Frequently asked questions
Should I quote per hectare or per hour?
Quote in the unit the client asked for, but build the estimate from measured productivity on a sample block. A per-hectare rate is an output of stems, diameters and passes, not an input. If the scope cannot be measured in advance, an hourly or day rate with a clear method statement is more honest for both parties.
How much contingency is reasonable for clearing work?
There is no standard figure. Build it from named risks, such as rock contact, wet weather, access and approval conditions, each with a rough probability and cost. A visible contingency built that way is easier to defend than a percentage pulled from habit.
Why separate stump treatment from felling in the rate?
Because it is usually a different attachment, a different pass and sometimes a different client expectation about the finished ground. Keeping it separate lets you vary it if the client decides to leave stumps, grind them or extract them, and it shows where the time actually goes.
What if the client only gives me a hectare figure and no vegetation data?
Walk the site, measure a sample block yourself and state the assumptions in the tender. If a paid trial is possible, do it. Pricing from an area figure alone is the most common way clearing contractors lose money.
How do traffic control and possession costs change the equipment choice?
Both make machine time expensive relative to everything else, so the attachment with the fastest cycle for the dominant material wins, and spare wear parts should be on site. An hour lost inside a rail possession cannot be recovered.
Get a recommendation, not just a price
Send us your excavator model, hydraulic figures, tree species and typical diameters. We will come back with a carrier-matched configuration and a written specification you can compare against any other quote.