Haulers · Pricing

How to price an idle-asset posting

4 minute read

An idle vac trailer at your yard earns zero. A vac trailer running on short-notice work at $130/hr earns real money. But pricing an idle-asset listing too high kills conversion; pricing it too low trains your generators to expect cheap capacity. Here's how to think about it.

Two unit choices: hour vs. day

Dispo lets you list an idle asset at hourly, daily, or weekly. Pick based on the generator's usage pattern:

  • Hourly ($110–160/hr typical for 150 bbl vac) — the generator knows the job is small (a few bbls, a short unload) and doesn't want to pay for a full day. Use for your fastest-turn assets.
  • Day rate ($800–1,300/day typical for 150 bbl vac) — the generator knows they'll consume the full day and prefers price certainty. Better fit for pre-scheduled or multi-stop jobs.
  • Weekly rate (mostly for equipment — frac tanks, vac boxes) — storage / staging use cases where the asset is placed and sits.

Mental model: three prices

For any asset, think in three prices:

Book rate — what you charge on a committed, pre-scheduled job. Highest price, most predictable.
Idle rate — the price that makes you want to run it right now instead of taking the loss on it sitting. Usually 70–85% of book rate.
Walk-away rate — the floor below which running is a net loss (fuel, driver hours, reset time). Don't list below this.

Rule of thumb: list at the idle rate, not the book rate. The generator is paying you for being available now, not for being cheap.

What to include in the listing text

  • Minimum runtime. “4 hour min” prevents a generator from booking you for a single hour that barely covers your yard-to-site time.
  • Window of availability. “Available through 4 PM today” sets expectations.
  • What's not included. Disposal fees, tipping fees, waste storage after completion.
  • Specialty notes. “Stainless, just washed, good for caustic or acid.”

A/B-test your idle rate

The first month on Dispo, tweak your idle rate based on what converts. If a 150 bbl stainless at $135/hr gets no bookings in 4 weeks, try $125. If it books in 20 minutes three weeks running, try $145. The platform gives you the feedback loop that phone-calling never did.

The pattern we see working

Small haulers (1-5 trucks) win most on Dispo by listing idle assets aggressively. Big haulers (20+ trucks) win by bidding on reverse-auction jobs from generators they don't yet have a relationship with. Both get exposure to the 50-70% of the market they were never in conversation with before.