Side jobs with your tractor

[MossRoad]

But is it true and how much extra does insurance cost if you're excavating VS planting a shrub?

 

[Diggin It]

Yes.


Stuff like that?

Nuh-uh.


Money.


Reason 1: If they can't tax it, they permit fee it and fine it. They get their money one way or another. Employees know where their paycheck comes from, so they want to make sure it's funded, hence the ratting out citizens.

Reason 2: Many of them either run side jobs in the business or have friends or family who do. Protecting those businesses by ratting out DIYers and wildcatters means more money for them.

Some states are now assessing sales type taxes on services like landscaping. You pay the permit fees. You pay the landscaper. You pay taxes on the landscaper's price.

 

[MossRoad]

Nuh-uh.


Money.


Reason 1: If they can't tax it, they permit fee it and fine it. They get their money one way or another. Employees know where their paycheck comes from, so they want to make sure it's funded, hence the ratting out citizens.

Reason 2: Many of them either run side jobs in the business or have friends or family who do. Protecting those businesses by ratting out DIYers and wildcatters means more money for them.

Some states are now assessing sales type taxes on services like landscaping. You pay the permit fees. You pay the landscaper. You pay taxes on the landscaper's price.

So you can't answer my question either? I asked about insurance.

 

[Fallon]

My landscaping type policy runs me $800 a year. I'm covered for fencing (post holes) & putting in sprinkler systems (6" deep trenches I assume, which I don't care about as I only do tractor work, not manual install stuff). Digging is explicitly not covered. I wont go any deeper than my tiller can go doing horse arena or driveway maintnance.

Insurance that covers digging starts at $9,000 a year past I checked. Which is about what I bring in annually as my side gig. I'd have to step up my game beyond a side gig to cover that, which wont happen.

When I renewed my insurance this year my broker had to get me a different policy that covered snow removal. Ended up being $75 more.

 

[Fallon]

Oh, and I'm not an insurance agent. So just like I'm not a lawyer... Go find & talk to an insurance agent/broker on what exactly may or may not be covered in your area under what type of policies.

 

[Redlands Okie]

Was told just yesterday that in my north central Oklahoma location that my tractor working insurance does NOT include snow removal work. For a minor EXTA payment of about $1600 I could be covered for snow removal. With our limited snow events I just have no plans to add that cost to my overhead.

 

[edgarrian]

My dad put out yards with his tractor and that was a good side gig for him. He carried the insurance as well. He started small and as the years went by and his name got out he was able to upgrade his implements and get a bit more efficient. For instance we would spread straw by hand. Which takes forever. After a few years he paid cash for a straw blower. He kept his jobs local to the town we lived by. The town was a good sized small city. If you are looking to do some wood chipping, tilling, or mowing with a rotary mower. Then you might consider what your lowest price would be for say even a 20 minute job. I at one point had a dump truck and excavator and my pull in rate for the first hour was 175 then after the first hour I charged my hourly rate. You don't want to drive 20 minutes and do a job for half hour and only charge 50 bucks. People will do that b/c its a side gig. Never sell yourself short but don't over price yourself. Sometimes you can bid a job and actually make more than your hourly rate. Which is nice. Sometimes you lose a bit. Some customers will want a bid some are ok with the hourly rate. I generally chose the bidding route as i felt like I made more money doing it that way. My father was a bid guy as well when he put out grass. Clearly I'm of a different opinion than most that have commented but that was my experience.

 

[Geotech]

Mossy,

I don't have first hand knowledge about changes in general liability insurance regarding shallow/deep excavations. I do know that the classification of an employee changes for the purpose of determining worker's comp insurance premiums. And those premiums increase for deep vs shallow excavation work. I expect general liability does too. We drill exploratory borings and hitting a gas line is a REAL possibility. We don't need to get permits for most work, but we are required to call DigTess, 811, etc before excavating deeper than 16 inches with power equipment. When they mark the lines, they are locating them as best they can, and we hit a gas line once even after lines were marked by utility locators. We were lucky there was not a huge explosion as the gas came up with wind force out of the borehole. Gas lines can be shallow, particularly older ones that were installed in shallow rock before directional drilling was a thing. Or how about hitting a fiber line? Hitting a transatlantic AT&T/Verizon fiber line would be financially catastrophic.

Your not going to have issues with this working is someone's back yard most of the time. But big open tracts of land are a crap shoot and even in smaller tracts, you NEVER know.

 

[prof fate]

**** happens.

A few years ago the cable tv guys were re-stringing their lines on poles and caught my gas meter (it's by a pole by the road) and tore it clean off.

In the 90s I worked selling over the phone (pre internet days) and somebody in NYC (i'm in western pa) hit one of those fiber optic lines and took out our 800 line..and a whole lot more. We were 'out of business' for about 3 days while they fixed that one.

I had to open up my septic and leech bed, had a friend open up a well line at the farm..nothing is where you think it is!

I was trying to smooth out the drive way at the farm..girlf friend has owned it 20 years. Just going down 4 or 5 inches I pulled up bricks and big rocks that were under the gravel..she had no clue they were there. Has had the driveway 'raked' in the past...apparently not so deep.

And I did some work leveling the edge of the pasture to put in an arena...pulled up all kinds of timber, wires, trash...

On my own property this year tilling for a garden pulled up a 6' steel pipe...didn't break the tiller, thankfully!

 

[Sprinklerman]

I am an irrigation contractor /landscaper . I use my tractors all the time for work .Thats why I bought them . Skid steers are a dime a dozen . I work on established lawns and the tractors do little or no damage .