Sunrise, I know what you are saying...But to pay a man $10 hr and make profit you better charge atleast $24 hr for that (1) man, work comp., insurance for him driving your equip./vehicles, not to mention retirement(401k match), etc...
the bigger companies have higher overhead & I have bid against big O, green & yellow & the Ny based company, I can beat them everytime & im running as legit as they are, How? a $100,000 bucket truck needs to make a certain amount just for itself, plus the crews wages, plus salesman wages, plus GF wages & the folks at corporate.
As a small Biz I pretty much do it all, sales, work the field, payroll, maintenance, etc.. we as a small biz cut out atleast 3-4 peoples wages by doing it ourselves......not much family time for us, but untill we grow thats how it goes! as MD. Vaden has posted I too have heard of companies bidding at a loss to get the small guys out of the way, this is where we have to have working capital!!! sooner or later that have to raise prices & thats when we jump back to normal.
Its whether we can suffer a loss for a time too, if you can...IMO this is what makes a Biz last.
whats sad is crew leaders making $13hr & others making $8-$9 an hr, thats terrible!! but hey you gotta live & I feel bad for those guys!
LXT..........