There is a lot of talk about owning costs like purchase price and interest rates when looking at equipment. What we often fail to look at closely enough are the operating costs. Fuel, filters, oil, tires, wear items can add up with time but the most expensive single cost of running most equipment is labor.

I would say a majority of the businesses that I work with enjoy employing people and are not looking for ways to reduce the labor of their key employees. However, better utilization of labor can make a big impact to your bottom line and employees that feel valuable to a company have better employee retention.

When looking at replacing or evaluating equipment make sure you include all of the costs, including labor and balance the costs with productivity. Only then do you know what the correct machine is for you.