In regards to blanket "unit pricing", either make your price high enough to cover the difficult jobs and secure amazing profit on the easier stuff-doubtful you will get the job, but whoever does get it on the terms the larger companies are fishing for will likely lose their shirt or do sub-standard work that will cause problems later on. I am just now getting to the point of having the confidence to bid things comfortably, and being OK if I don't get the job. Point being, contract work is steady income, but if it is low income, you might as well be working for someone else. Excavation is one of those trades that has so many unknowns, that bidding off of unit pricing will get you in trouble if it isn't job specific. I love it when people call wanting a linear foot price on a driveway over the phone. My reply is it all depends if I am cutting the top of a mountain off or spreading rock accross an open meadow

My feeling is that a lot of bigger companies simply dangle the carrot to see if anyone will bite.....the promise of volume makes a guy think he can still make money, but unless you have lots of equipment and cheap labor, I would think volume is a hard thing to do in Excavation. That is just my opinion, and I don't have much experience with contract work simply because I have never felt I could make much money at it being an owner operator. I do know of guys that seem to do well with the Gas Company, but they are married to the Gas company and do not have much in the way of a client base......meaning the Gas company slows, and their income slows. I feel more and more like people expect too much production with underground work. Digging holes is easy, navigating around existing utilities, setting proper slopes, proper bedding/backfill, etc. etc. take time and it is time well spent. However, alot people rely on out of sight out of mind, and thus they can lowball with sub-standard work. I have been thinking about this alot lately, and I would like to see excavation be more respected as a trade rather than the attitude of "Wow that was more than I expected, I think my brother's girlfriends uncle has a tractor I can borrow instead!!!"

We are professionals and should be able to bid as professionals