Minimum charges and after-hours rates in concrete cutting
Minimum charges and after-hours rates are where small cutting jobs make or lose money. This guide covers the kinds of minimum most cutters use, how loadings and minimums combine, how to word them on a quote and docket, and how to make sure they are charged every time.
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Why a minimum charge exists
Every job has a fixed cost before the first cut: loading the truck, travel, parking, induction, set-up, slurry control, pack-down and travel back. On a full day of sawing that cost disappears into the metres. On a job of two core holes it is most of the job. A minimum charge makes sure a visit covers what it costs to turn up.
Set your minimum from your real costs: a crew member's time for the shortest realistic visit, travel in your usual area, and the running cost of the truck and equipment. A minimum that is too low means you subsidise small jobs. One that is far too high pushes small work to whoever is cheaper, and that small work is often how you get the big work from the same builder.
The kinds of minimum
Most rate cards use two or three of these. Using all of them at once tends to confuse customers.
- Minimum per visit: the least a single attendance is charged, whatever the work. Sometimes called a call-out or minimum job charge.
- Minimum per hole or per cut: each core hole is charged as if it were at least a set depth, and each saw cut as if it were at least a set length. This protects the price of fiddly work inside a job that clears the visit minimum.
- Section minimum: a floor on one kind of work. Track sawing and wire sawing take long to rig, so they often carry their own minimum, for example the track sawing lines on a docket are never less than a set amount, regardless of how much was cut.
- Set-up or establishment fee: a fixed charge for getting a particular saw ready, charged once per visit or once per section. It covers rigging, separate from any minimum on the cutting itself.
- After-hours minimum: a higher minimum per visit for nights, weekends and public holidays, when labour costs more and crews are harder to find.
After-hours and weekend loadings
After-hours work is usually charged as a loading on the labour-based lines (for example +50% on weekday rates), along with a higher minimum per visit. Define the windows plainly: weekday hours as a start and finish time, then Saturday, Sunday and public holidays. Many cutters charge Sunday and public holidays at a higher loading than Saturday, which follows how crews are paid.
Decide which time counts. The fairest rule, and the easiest to defend, is the time the crew were actually on site as recorded on the docket. A job booked for 2pm that starts at 2pm and finishes at 7pm runs past the end of the weekday window, so part of it falls in after-hours. Your terms should say whether the loading applies to the whole job once any of it is after-hours, or only to the part after the cut-off. The second is fairer and causes fewer arguments.
Also say who chose the time. When the builder asks for a night shutdown, the loading is plainly theirs. When your crew run late because the morning job overran, charging the next customer after-hours rates will cost you the customer.
How minimums and loadings stack
There are two common ways to combine them, and each is reasonable as long as you pick one and use it every time. The first is the highest applicable minimum: work out the job at rate card prices with loadings, then compare it with every minimum that applies, and charge the higher. Minimums never add to each other. A Saturday job is held to the Saturday minimum, never the weekday minimum plus the Saturday minimum.
The second is loading the minimum: the after-hours loading is applied to the weekday minimum, so a $450 weekday minimum becomes $675 at +50%. This is simpler to explain but gives one less number to set, and you lose the ability to set an after-hours minimum that reflects call-out costs at night.
Set-up fees usually sit outside both. Set-up covers the rigging, and the minimum covers the cutting, so a track sawing job can be charged its set-up fee and also be brought up to the section minimum. Say so on the rate card, because it is the line customers question most. Our per-metre pricing guide covers the base rates these minimums sit under.
A worked example
Three jobs under one set of example terms: $450 minimum per visit on weekdays, $45 minimum per hole, $850 minimum on track sawing lines plus a $250 track saw set-up fee, and Saturday work at +50% with a $700 minimum per visit. Every figure is made up for illustration and is not a market rate.
| Job | Work at rate card prices | Loadings and fees | Minimum that applies | Charged (ex GST) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Weekday: 2 small core holes | 2 holes at $35 = $70, raised to the $45 hole minimum = $90 | None | $450 per visit | $450.00 |
| Weekday: track sawing 6m | $520 of track sawing, raised to the $850 section minimum | $250 set-up, outside the minimum | $850 on the sawing lines | $1,100.00 |
| Saturday: 6 core holes | 6 holes at $60 = $360 | +50% Saturday loading = $180, total $540 | $700 Saturday minimum | $700.00 |
Uses the highest applicable minimum. Under the other method, loading the minimum, the Saturday job would be compared with $450 + 50% = $675.
Common disputes and how to word them
Most minimum charge disputes start with a customer who never saw the minimum before the invoice. "You were only here 40 minutes" is hard to answer if the quote said nothing about a minimum. Put minimums, loadings and set-up fees on the quote, on your terms of trade, and on the docket the customer signs, in the same words each time.
Keep the wording short and specific. For example: "A minimum charge of $450 + GST applies to each visit between 7am and 4pm Monday to Friday. Work outside these hours, or on weekends and public holidays, is charged at the after-hours rate, with a minimum of $700 + GST per visit, based on the time on site recorded on this docket." For standby: "Waiting time caused by the site not being ready is charged at $120 + GST per hour after the first 15 minutes, and is recorded on this docket with the reason." Your own figures go in, and the structure stays.
Have the customer sign the docket with their name printed beside it, and record time on and time off on the same page. If a builder later says the job did not run into the evening, the signed times answer it. This is general guidance and not legal advice. If you rely on your terms to recover money, have them checked by someone qualified, and keep GST treatment consistent with how you already invoice.
Making sure minimums are actually charged
The minimums most often missed are the ones that depend on someone remembering. The crew forget to note that the job ran past 4pm, the office does not notice a docket is under the minimum, or the set-up fee is left off because it was not on the sheet. The fix is to make each charge a rule worked out from what the docket already records: the work done, the section it came from, and the actual times on site. The crew record the job, the rules apply, and the office checks the result before it is sent.
In Core Docket, minimums per unit, minimum invoice amounts, section minimums (one minimum can cover several sections, such as track and wire sawing together), set-up fees charged once per docket when a section is used, and after-hours or weekend loadings are all set on the price list. Time-based charges are worked out from the job's actual times, so the crew never choose them, and the finished docket becomes a draft invoice for the office to review and send to your accounting suite. See which accounting suites connect today. If yours is not connected yet, Core Docket will build the connection where it is possible.
Questions
What is a minimum charge in concrete cutting?
It is the least a job is charged, however little work is done, so the visit covers travel, set-up and pack-down. It can apply per visit, per hole or cut, or to one section of work such as track sawing.
Do minimum charges add together?
Usually they do not. The common approach is to work out the job at rate card prices with loadings, compare it with each minimum that applies, and charge whichever is higher.
Is a set-up fee part of the minimum charge?
Most cutters keep it separate: the set-up fee covers rigging the saw and the minimum covers the cutting. Whichever way you do it, say so on the rate card and the quote.
How should after-hours rates be worked out?
Base them on the time the crew were actually on site as recorded on the signed docket, and say in your terms whether the loading applies to the whole job or only the hours past the cut-off.
How do I avoid disputes over minimum charges?
Show the minimum, loadings and set-up fees on the quote, your terms and the docket in the same words, and have the customer sign the docket with their printed name and the times on and off.
Read next
- Pricing per metreHow concrete cutting and core drilling businesses build a rate card: per lineal metre by depth band, per 10mm of depth by diameter, loadings, set-up, relocation and standby.
- Rate card and pricingThe Core Docket rate card for trade businesses: work priced the way it is measured, by the hour, item, metre, hole or load, with minimums, callout fees, after-hours loadings and customer price groups.
- InvoicingHow Core Docket turns a signed concrete cutting docket into a priced draft invoice and sends it to your accounting suite.
- Wall and track sawingSoftware for wall sawing, track sawing and wire sawing businesses: cuts priced per metre by depth, establishment fees and section minimums charged once per docket, and signed dockets to your accounting suite.
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