Hire periods, off-hire and the money left on site

A scaffolding job is priced on an erect, a hire period and a strike. The erect is quoted carefully, the strike is eventually done, and the hire period in between is the part that quietly determines whether the job made money.

Standing time nobody is counting

Structures overrun their quoted hire period constantly, for reasons that are usually nobody's fault — the following trade is late, the client's programme moves, weather stops work. The commercial problem is not the overrun; it is that nobody notices it while it is happening. A structure quoted for eight weeks and standing for fourteen has generated six weeks of chargeable time that will only be recovered if somebody knew to charge for it.

Off-hire has to be a recorded event

The equivalent failure at the other end is a strike that happens without being recorded as the end of the hire. If the only record of when a structure came down is a gang's recollection, the hire period is whatever the client says it was. A register that records the strike as deliberately as the erection is what settles that.

Telling the client before the invoice

Extended hire is far easier to agree while it is happening than at final account. A client told in week nine that a structure is now past its quoted period generally accepts it; the same client told at week fourteen, in an invoice, experiences it as a surprise charge. The conversation is the same and the reception is completely different.

Common mistakes

• –No tracking of standing time against the quoted hire period
• –Strike dates recorded from recollection rather than at the time
• –Raising extended hire at final account rather than as it happens
• –No link between the hire period and the job's original price build-up
• –Structures left standing after the work is finished because nobody asked
• –Off-hire agreed verbally with no written confirmation

In practice: six weeks nobody charged for

A structure quoted at eight weeks stood for fourteen because the following trade was delayed. The firm struck it, invoiced the original figure, and only noticed the overrun months later when someone reviewed the job's margin and could not account for the gap.

The client would very likely have accepted an extended hire charge raised at the time. Raised four months later it was unrecoverable, not because the firm was wrong but because the moment had passed and nothing contemporaneous supported it.

Watch the hire period while it is running

The practical control is a prompt when a structure passes its quoted period, not a review at final account. It turns an invisible commercial leak into a decision — charge it, absorb it deliberately, or negotiate — made while the client is still on site and the facts are fresh.

Absorbing it deliberately is a legitimate choice. Absorbing it without knowing is what costs firms money year after year.

Worth knowing: the quoted period is a commercial assumption

Hire periods are quoted on an assumed programme, and programmes move. Treating the quoted period as a prediction rather than a commitment — and tracking variance against it across jobs — tells a firm whether it is systematically under-quoting hire for particular clients or particular work types.

• –Track actual against quoted hire across jobs, not just per job
• –Look for clients whose programmes routinely slip
• –Price known patterns in rather than absorbing them repeatedly

Where this connects: quoted periods are assumptions worth testing

Hire is quoted against an assumed programme, and programmes move. Treating the quoted period as a prediction rather than a commitment — and tracking variance against it across jobs — tells a firm whether it is systematically under-quoting hire for particular clients or particular work types.

That turns a recurring irritation into a pricing input. A client whose jobs reliably run six weeks past the quote is not an unlucky client; they are a client whose programmes should be priced as they actually run, which is a conversation better had at tender than at final account.

• –Track actual against quoted hire across jobs, not per job
• –Identify clients and work types where programmes routinely slip
• –Price known patterns in rather than absorbing them repeatedly
• –Prompt when a structure passes its quoted period
• –Raise extended hire while it is happening
• –Confirm off-hire in writing, whoever agreed it on site

One practical test: compare quoted against actual

Take the last ten completed jobs and compare the hire period quoted against the period the structure actually stood. Not to apportion blame — to see the shape of it.

Most firms find the variance is not random. It clusters by client, or by work type, or by the trade that follows them onto site. Once that is visible it stops being bad luck and becomes a pricing input, and the conversation with the client whose programmes always slip can happen at tender rather than at final account.