When is it cheaper to rent a excavator by the week than by the day?

From day 3. 3 days at the $1,000 day rate would be $3,000, but the weekly rate caps it at $2,500.

When is it cheaper to rent a excavator on the 28-day rate?

From day 9. At that point the week-and-day composition reaches the $4,000 28-day rate, and the price stops climbing for the rest of the cycle.

Break-even duration

Equipment rents on three rates — a day rate, a week rate and a 28-day rate — and the cheapest one changes as the job runs long. This finds the two days where it changes, on a real listing’s real published rates.

excavator

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Robert Zinno · Excavators - Crawler

Day: $1,000
Week: $2,500
28 days: $4,000

Daily stops winning on

day 3

3 days at the day rate would be $3,000. On the week rate it is $2,500.

Weekly stops winning on

day 9

9 days at the day rate would be $9,000. On the 28-day rate it is $4,000.

The working

Whole weeks bill at the week rate; the leftover days bill at the day rate but never add up to more than one extra week; and a whole 28-day cycle never costs more than the 28-day rate. That is the rule, applied one day at a time.

Rental price by duration for excavator, days 1 to 35
Days	At the day rate	On the ladder	Difference	Rate in play
1	$1,000	$1,000	—	day
2	$2,000	$2,000	—	day
3	$3,000	$2,500	you save $500	week
4	$4,000	$2,500	you save $1,500	week
5	$5,000	$2,500	you save $2,500	week
6	$6,000	$2,500	you save $3,500	week
7	$7,000	$2,500	you save $4,500	week
8	$8,000	$3,500	you save $4,500	week
9	$9,000	$4,000	you save $5,000	28-day
10	$10,000	$4,000	you save $6,000	28-day
11	$11,000	$4,000	you save $7,000	28-day
12	$12,000	$4,000	you save $8,000	28-day
13	$13,000	$4,000	you save $9,000	28-day
14	$14,000	$4,000	you save $10,000	28-day
15	$15,000	$4,000	you save $11,000	28-day
16	$16,000	$4,000	you save $12,000	28-day
17	$17,000	$4,000	you save $13,000	28-day
18	$18,000	$4,000	you save $14,000	28-day
19	$19,000	$4,000	you save $15,000	28-day
20	$20,000	$4,000	you save $16,000	28-day
21	$21,000	$4,000	you save $17,000	28-day
22	$22,000	$4,000	you save $18,000	28-day
23	$23,000	$4,000	you save $19,000	28-day
24	$24,000	$4,000	you save $20,000	28-day
25	$25,000	$4,000	you save $21,000	28-day
26	$26,000	$4,000	you save $22,000	28-day
27	$27,000	$4,000	you save $23,000	28-day
28	$28,000	$4,000	you save $24,000	28-day
29	$29,000	$5,000	you save $24,000	day
30	$30,000	$6,000	you save $24,000	day
31	$31,000	$6,500	you save $24,500	week
32	$32,000	$6,500	you save $25,500	week
33	$33,000	$6,500	you save $26,500	week
34	$34,000	$6,500	you save $27,500	week
35	$35,000	$6,500	you save $28,500	week

Rental rates only. Protection and the marketplace service fee are added on top — see the checkout figure below.

What checkout will quote you

Rental · 9 days: $4,000
Rental protection (RPP): $600
Service fee: $400
Estimated total: $5,000

Pick a listing

The numbers come from one operator’s published rates, so the tool needs to know whose.

Where these numbers come from

The rates are the operator’s own, read live from their listing. The arithmetic is the same best-price billing engine that produces 2Quip invoices — not a second copy written for this page — run on the industry-standard terms: a 28-day cycle, whole weeks at the week rate, leftover days at the day rate capped at one more week.

An operator can agree different terms on an individual rental, and a long rental bills per 28-day cycle rather than in one lump. So treat this as what the rate card says, and the operator’s quote as what you are agreeing to.