Charge for lawn mowing by the minutes a stop really takes, including the drive to it, multiplied by what a truck-hour has to earn. For a two-person crew with a truck that is about $75 per truck-hour in this example, which makes a 31-minute stop worth about $40. The part new owners miss is the drive: the same $40 lawn that earns $80 per truck-hour on a dense street earns less than the truck costs to run when it sits 20 minutes from the rest of your route. The numbers are illustrative. Use your own costs and your own timing.

Price the time on site first

Mowing is a time business. A lot's size matters because it sets how many minutes you spend, and the price follows the minutes. Time two or three typical lawns with a stopwatch, from truck door to truck door, including trimming, edging, blowing off the driveway and loading the equipment.

Working numbers for a two-person crew with a zero-turn mower:

  • Small lot (under about 5,000 sq ft of turf): 15 minutes on site.
  • Medium (5,000 to 10,000 sq ft): 25 minutes.
  • Large (10,000 to 20,000 sq ft): 45 minutes.
  • Over 20,000 sq ft, or sloped, fenced or overgrown: quote after a visit.

Lot size bands, with a formula

The truck-hour cost in this example: two workers at $18 an hour is $36, plus 10 percent payroll costs ($3.60), plus $8.40 for fuel, mower and trimmer wear and insurance. That makes $48 a truck-hour. To cover overhead and keep a profit, aim to earn $75 per truck-hour of route time. The formula:

Price = (minutes on site + minutes of drive) divided by 60, times $75.

  • Small lot, 15 + 6 drive = 21 minutes: $26.25, but your minimum stop is $35 (see below).
  • Medium lot, 25 + 6 = 31 minutes: $38.75, round to $40.
  • Large lot, 45 + 6 = 51 minutes: $63.75, round to $65.

Round to the nearest $5 so quotes look like prices, not calculations.

Drive time is the hidden cost

The 6 minutes of drive above is for a stop on a dense street, where you pull from one lawn to the next. Take a stop that sits away from your route. The drive is 20 minutes to get there and 20 back to the route, 40 minutes of truck time that no customer pays for. With 25 minutes on site, the stop uses 65 minutes, or 1.08 hours of a truck that costs $48 an hour. Cost: $52. Revenue at $40: a loss of $12 every visit, before any overhead. That is why a $40 stop 20 minutes away loses money while the identical $40 stop next door pays.

To make that stop work you'd charge (65 / 60) x $75 = $81, which most customers won't pay, so you decline it, quote it high or wait until you have three more customers near it.

A route-day profit worksheet

Compare two eight-hour days with the same $45 average price and the same 25 minutes on site.

Day A, a dense route, 12 stops, 6 minutes of drive between stops:

  • Revenue: 12 x $45 = $540.
  • Time: 12 x (25 + 6) = 372 minutes, 6.2 hours, plus 1 hour for loading, fuel and dumping = 7.2 hours.
  • Cost: 7.2 x $48 = $345.60.
  • Margin before overhead: $194.40, 36 percent. Revenue per truck-hour: $75.

Day B, a spread-out route, 8 stops, 18 minutes of drive between stops:

  • Revenue: 8 x $45 = $360.
  • Time: 8 x (25 + 18) = 344 minutes, 5.73 hours, plus 1 hour = 6.73 hours.
  • Cost: 6.73 x $48 = $323.
  • Margin before overhead: $37, about 10 percent. Revenue per truck-hour: $53.50.

Same price, same lawns, a $157 difference per day, and Day B leaves you under water once overhead is paid. Over a 30-week season with four such days a week, the gap is about $18,900. The lever isn't a higher price; it's a tighter route. When you take a new customer, ask whether they're within a few blocks of someone you already serve. Our piece on getting customers for a landscaping business covers filling a street.

Weekly, biweekly and the minimum

  • Weekly keeps grass short and fast to cut. A medium lot is $40.
  • Biweekly means taller grass, slower mowing and more clippings: expect about 25 percent more time. Charge $50 for the same medium lot, not $40.
  • Minimum stop: $35 here. It covers the drive, unloading and setup that exist on a tiny lawn too.

Skipping a week is the customer's choice but not your discount. In peak growth, a missed week means a harder cut next time, and you can charge for it.

Extras and seasonal changes

Bag-and-haul cleanup, hedge trimming, leaf removal and mulch are time-based too. At $75 a truck-hour, a 15-minute extra is about $19, so $20. Quote spring and fall cleanups by the hour of truck time, with an estimate of hours. Fuel prices change; if you carry a fuel surcharge, state it in writing at the start of the season rather than adding it after.

Raising prices on a route

Most routes need a $3 to $5 raise every year as costs rise. Send a short message in January: "Starting March 1, your weekly mow is $45 instead of $40, because fuel, equipment and labor costs have gone up. Thanks for being a customer." Thirty days' notice, a specific date and a small step. Read how to raise prices without losing customers for options. A written quote for new customers is in how to write a quote for a service, and how to price your services covers the base idea. If your winter plan is snow, getting snow removal contracts uses the same route logic.

The same cost-first method works for house cleaning and pressure washing. A tight route is also a sales job: Rocketship finds the buyers on the streets you already serve, emails them from your own Gmail, follows up, and books the meeting on its own. Plans that get you customers start at $24.99 a month (Launch), and both Launch and Frontier start with a 7-day free trial, card required.