For Spray-Drone Operators

Estimating & Proposal Guide

A price that holds up starts with knowing what the job will actually cost you to deliver. This guide walks through the cost drivers that change from job to job, gives you a worksheet to run your own numbers, and shows how to explain your price so a buyer can compare it fairly.

No suggested rates here. Your costs, your market, your numbers. Everything on this page is a way to organize them.

Jump to the Worksheet Explain-Your-Price Checklist

Cost drivers
Worksheet
Quote formats
Explain your price

Before You Price

What Changes the Cost of a Job

Two jobs with the same acreage can cost very different amounts to deliver. Walk through each of these before you put a number on paper.

Travel and mobilization

Drive time, mileage, lodging and per diem, trailer moves, and how many trips the job really takes.

Setup and teardown per site

Each new site means unloading, planning the flight, checking the area and packing up. Many small sites cost more than one large one.

Terrain and obstacles

Slopes, trees, power lines, fences, structures and irregular boundaries slow the work and add manual flying.

Productivity you actually achieve

Use the acres or line-miles per hour your crew has delivered on similar work, not the spec-sheet number.

Refill logistics

Where the water comes from, mixing and loading time, battery swaps and charging, generator fuel, and how far the reload point is from the work.

Weather days and standby

Wind, rain and temperature windows. Decide in advance how standby time on site is handled and who pays for it.

Product

Who supplies the product, who stores it, and who carries the cost if a job is cut short. Make it explicit in the quote.

Risk

Sensitive areas, water, neighbors, crops nearby, corridor constraints, access restrictions and site-safety requirements.

Reporting and mapping

Application records, maps, photos, data files and any customer-specific forms take office time after the flying is done.

Contingencies

Equipment downtime, a missed window, rework, or a site that turns out different than described. Plan for some of it.

Run Your Numbers

Job Cost Worksheet

Enter your own costs for one job. The worksheet does the arithmetic. It does not know your market, your equipment or your site, so the result is only as good as the numbers you put in. Nothing you type is saved or sent anywhere.

Price by acres Price by line-miles

Crew and equipment

Labor cost per person-hour ($)Wages plus taxes and benefits

Crew sizePeople on the job

Equipment cost per operating hour ($)Ownership, maintenance, batteries, as you calculate it

Fuel and power per operating hour ($)Generator fuel, charging, vehicle on site

Productivity and job size

Productive hours per dayHours actually spraying, not hours on site

Acres per productive hourWhat your crew achieves on similar work

Total project acresFrom the RFQ or your site review

Job-specific costs

Travel and mobilization ($)Lump sum: mileage, lodging, per diem

Product cost, if you supply it ($)Leave blank if the buyer supplies product

Setup and teardown hours per site

Number of sites

Reporting and admin hoursRecords, maps, invoicing

Reporting cost per hour ($)

Allowances and margin

Weather and standby allowance (%)

Contingency (%)

Target margin (% of price)Must be less than 100

Productive hours—

Project days—

Field labor—

Equipment, fuel and power—

Setup and teardown—

Reporting and admin—

Travel, mobilization and product—

Subtotal—

Weather and contingency allowances—

Cost before margin—

Price at your target margin—

Price per acre—

Effective day rate—

Enter any of your costs to start. Each line fills in as soon as it has the numbers it needs.

Check the result against reality. Compare the price per unit and the day rate with jobs you have already done. If the numbers surprise you, revisit productivity and setup time first. Those are the inputs most often guessed too optimistically.

How Buyers Ask

Quote Formats

Price the way the RFQ asks. If a buyer wants a per-acre price, a lump sum or a day rate, give it in that format so your response can be compared side by side. If their format doesn't fit the work, answer in their format first, then explain your assumptions.

Format	When buyers ask for it	Watch out for
Per acre	Field, pasture, habitat and broad-area work where the treated area is known.	Whose acreage counts: mapped, gross or treated. Small or broken-up blocks that drive up setup time.
Per line-mile	Roadsides, utility and pipeline corridors, ditches and canals.	Corridor width and how many passes it takes. Access points, traffic control and obstacles along the line.
Per day or crew-day	Spot treatment, scattered targets, or work where the scope is hard to measure in advance.	What counts as a day, travel days, and how weather or standby days are billed.
Lump sum	Defined projects with clear boundaries and a fixed scope.	Scope creep. Spell out what is included and what triggers a change order.
Time and materials	Uncertain scope, emergency or trial work.	Buyers will want rates, a not-to-exceed amount, and records that back up every hour and every product charge.

Next Step

Put Your Price in a Complete Response

A clear price is one part of a strong response. The RFQ Response Kit covers the documents buyers ask for and what makes a response stand out. Buyers also look you up, so make sure your directory listing is accurate.

Get Ready for RFQs Find and Claim Your Listing

Starting out? See What It Takes to Spray, or browse more Operator Resources.

This page is general guidance for planning and awareness only. It is not legal, tax, accounting, insurance or business advice. The worksheet is an arithmetic aid: results depend entirely on the numbers you enter, and WeedGunners does not suggest or endorse any rate or price. Operators are solely responsible for their own pricing, contracts, licensing, insurance and compliance with applicable laws, regulations and product labels.