CIVIL: IRON THAT BILLS NOTHING
Ownership cost runs whether machines work or sit. A CAT 330 excavator carries roughly $200 per day in ownership cost parked, and $150 to $200 per hour loaded when running. Industry idle rates average around 30 percent. Bids that skip ownership cost hand that money to the owner.
This page covers one problem. The full picture for this trade, including the other places margin leaks, is on the civil operating system page.
WHERE THE MONEY GOES.
Covered in full in the quick answer above. The sourced numbers and what controls it are below.
THE COST, SOURCED.
a $7.1M civil contractor found $779K on the balance sheet within three months once equipment and mobilization costs were tracked and billed instead of buried. (a verified civil client, verified client story, Ch2)
THE SAME PROBLEM, WRITTEN UP.
Your existing asset continues to sit idle burning a hole in your balance sheet while you continue to pay thousands of dollars each month against your loan on it.
Tenna equipment cost guide
Every machine on the job costs money, whether it's moving or sitting idle.
Excavating Insurance Partners estimating guide, 2026
THE NUMBER TO MEASURE IT AGAINST.
Civil contractors run about % net profit at $1M to $5M, rising to roughly 10% at $5M to $10M. The CFOS target at $1M to $5M is10%, set at 10 percent before taxes or 3.5 points better than your trade's average at your revenue, whichever is higher. A problem like this one lives in the distance between those two figures rather than in a loss on any single job.
Gross margin over the same bands runs % to 23%, against a CFOS target of 10%.
THE SYSTEM THAT FIXES THIS.
Cost codes built against the estimate, so a job can be read while it runs.
FREQUENTLY ASKED.
