For Minnesota and Washington earth-moving bids, price applicable back-up controls, employee training, maintenance, and unsafe-equipment reporting as labor and machine hours. Three equipment duties in those states' rules can add labor and machine hours that a fast estimate leaves out: how back-up moves are handled, who gets trained, and how equipment is kept compliant and reported. In practice, that can mean a back-up alarm check before the first load, a signal person on a tight turnaround, a training session for exposed ground employees, or a loader sitting idle while it waits for repairs.
This post is a pricing checklist, not legal advice or a complete safety review. The rules change, and the details depend on your site, your equipment, and your crew. Use the points below to decide where time and cost belong in your bid, then confirm the wording against the current text.
Start with the machines in scope
Minnesota's rule for mobile earth-moving equipment covers machines used for earth moving, building, or road construction or demolition. The list it names includes bulldozers, motor graders, scrapers, loaders, skid-steer loaders, compaction equipment, backhoes, end dumps, side dumps, and dump trucks ( Minnesota Rules 5207.1000).
That list is broader than the excavator-and-dozer picture many bids use. A grading package with a skid-steer, a compactor, and two end dumps has three types of equipment in scope before you count the rest of the fleet. Put each machine on the bid by name, with its own hours, rather than folding everything into one equipment line. A single lump sum hides the alarm checks, the spotting, and the training that each machine brings with it.
Washington's equipment rule in WAC 296-155-035 addresses compliance, maintenance, and reporting. They affect whether equipment can stay in use. Each of those affects machine hours and labor hours. The third duty below covers them.
Duty 1: back-up alarms or signal persons
Minnesota's rule says that all mobile earth-moving equipment "shall comply with Code of Federal Regulations, title 29, part 1926.602(a)(9)(ii) for back-up alarms or signal persons if applicable" ( Minnesota Rules 5207.1000). The state rule points to the federal provision, and the phrase "if applicable" is the part to settle before you bid, not after the machines are on site.
Read the federal text yourself, and have your safety lead confirm how it applies to the backing moves on your site. Do not price your alarm allowance from memory or from what a previous job needed. The conditions change with the haul route, the number of dump turnarounds, and how close the work is to other people.
Once you know which method applies, price it as labor and machine time, not as a footnote:
Dump trucks and end dumps deserve the closest look. Many dumps at a tight pad involve backing, and backing moves are where signal person hours and alarm checks add up. A job with many short cycles can cost more on this line than a job with fewer, larger loads, even when the total yardage is the same.
Duty 2: training for operators and ground workers
Minnesota's rule also requires training, and the group it covers is wider than most crews expect. The rule says that "Mobile earth-moving equipment operators and all other employees working on the ground exposed to mobile earth-moving equipment shall be trained in the safe work procedures pertaining to mobile earth-moving equipment and in the recognition of unsafe or hazardous conditions" ( Minnesota Rules 5207.1000).
Two things matter for your bid. First, count operators and all other employees working on the ground exposed to the equipment. That can include exposed laborers and grade checkers, not only the person in the seat. Second, include time for recognizing unsafe or hazardous conditions. It helps to tailor the session to the hazards on your job.
Price training as hours for each person in that group. Count the time for the session itself, plus the time to walk the site with each new person and to cover the equipment and the haul route on that job. Check whether subs and temporary workers fall in the group. Who controls the work matters to worker classification. New York's labor department generally describes employer control in terms of the manner, means, and results of the work ( New York State Department of Labor). That is a New York source, so it does not settle how Minnesota or Washington treat a given worker. Keep that classification question separate from the Minnesota training scope. Confirm with counsel whether subs or temporary workers are operators or other employees working on the ground exposed to mobile earth-moving equipment. Estimators often leave out the ground crew entirely. Do not.
Turnover changes the number. A crew that loses two people a month needs more training hours than a stable crew of the same size. Build a recurring allowance for each crew week for new hires and reassignments, and tie it to the staffing plan you expect, not to a clean-sheet guess.
Training also belongs in the daily plan. A pre-shift walk that covers the machines, the ground people, and the haul route is a labor line. It is short, but it repeats every day, and across a long job it adds up.
Duty 3: keep equipment compliant and report what is unsafe
Washington's equipment rule in WAC 296-155-035 sets three points that change machine and labor hours. The first is the baseline: "The use of any machinery, tool, material, or equipment which is not in compliance with any applicable requirements of this chapter is prohibited."
That has a bid consequence. If a unit fails a check on day two, the work it was supposed to do stops or moves to another machine. Price that risk with a spare unit on standby, a rental on short notice, or a schedule note that shows the float you are carrying.
The second point is about existing equipment. The rule says: "Nothing herein contained prevents the use of existing equipment during its lifetime provided it is properly safeguarded, maintained in good condition, in conformity with applicable safety and health standards, and conforms to safety factors for the material used, as herein provided" ( WAC 296-155-035).
For your bid, maintenance time has to be in the machine hours. Include scheduled service, greasing and fluid checks, inspection of guards and brakes, and the repair downtime you can reasonably expect for the machine's age. Set the allowance by each machine's age and hours, not by one flat rate for the whole fleet.
The third point is reporting. The rule says: "Employees must report to their employers the existence of any unsafe equipment or method or any other hazard which, to their knowledge is unsafe and where such unsafe equipment or method or other hazard exists in violation of this chapter you must correct it" ( WAC 296-155-035).
A bid with no line for correction time has a gap. Add an allowance for tagging a defect, repairing it, and rechecking the unit, plus a log of when each report came in and when the unit was cleared. The log also shows what you did if a question comes up later.
The same WAC section includes a separate line about structures: "(8) As construction progresses, you must secure or brace the component parts of structures to prevent collapse or failure." Structures are not machines, so this is not an equipment line. On a dig or grading job that builds walls, forms, or temporary supports, though, it reminds you that bracing and securing work is a task to schedule and price, not an afterthought.
Keep the wording straight when assigning reporting and correction time. Your allowance is your own estimate, built from your fleet's history.
Putting the duties into the bid
Use this order on every excavation, grading, or dig bid in either state. Keep notes on which rule drove which line, so an owner or reviewer can see the reasoning.
- List every machine by the categories in the state rule that applies to the bid, and include rentals and support units.
- For each machine that backs up, decide the alarm method or the signal person, and price the hours. Mark any line where the answer depends on site conditions.
- Count operators and exposed ground employees. Price their training hours, and check whether subs and temporary workers fall in the group.
- Add daily checks, scheduled maintenance, and repair downtime by machine, based on age and hours.
- Set a correction and reporting allowance, plus a plan for a spare or a rental if a unit comes out of service.
- Compare the total labor and machine hours against the schedule. If the number has grown, find the float first, then look for scope you can actually reduce.
This method also helps when the bid goes out. If the owner asks why a line is in the price, you can point to the rule and the local condition behind it. That is a stronger answer than a general safety allowance.
A worked example for a grading bid
Consider a grading package in Minnesota. The scope includes a dozer pushing material, a motor grader finishing the surface, a skid-steer doing edge work, a compactor on the lifts, and two end dumps hauling fill from a borrow pit to the pad. A bid built on old habits would show one equipment line for the dozer and maybe the grader, a labor line for the operators, and a few laborers for cleanup. Here is what the three duties add.
Start with scope. Each machine in this package gets its own machine hours. The skid-steer and the compactor are easy to forget because they look minor next to the dozer. They are on the list anyway.
Next, backing. The end dumps back up at the pad, and the dozer and grader turn in tight areas. Decide the alarm method for each machine, and decide whether a signal person is needed at the pad given its layout. The answer depends on the layout, and a layout you have walked is a better basis than a guess. If the signal person is needed, price that person as a separate labor line for the hours they hold the position.
Then training. Count the dozer and grader operators alongside exposed ground employees: the grade checker with the rod, the laborers spreading material, and employees working near the compactor. Add a line for training that whole group, and a line for the daily walk that covers the haul route to the pad.
Then maintenance and reporting. In this illustrative bid, the dozer is the oldest unit on the job and carries the most hours, so it gets a larger maintenance allowance than the newer skid-steer. Include the time to correct any defect the crew reports. If the dozer goes down during a lift, you need a plan: a spare, a rental, or a schedule that shows the float. For a Washington bid, check these maintenance and reporting allowances against WAC 296-155-035, rather than assuming the states' requirements are identical.
The result is a bid that shows the applicable work allowances, line by line. The owner sees where the cost sits, and you see where the float is.
Common mistakes in these bid lines
Pricing training for operators only. Check the employee list against exposure to mobile earth-moving equipment, including ground work. A bid that trains only the people in the seat leaves out a group the rule describes.
Using one equipment line for everything. A lump sum for the fleet hides the alarm checks, the signal person hours, and the maintenance allowance for each machine. Break the fleet out by machine, even when the owner's form asks for less.
Forgetting rentals and swap-outs. A unit that arrives mid-job still needs its check, its setup, and its place in the training plan. Schedule the time when the machine shows up, not when the bid was written.
Treating "if applicable" as always or never. Pricing it as always-on inflates the bid, and pricing it as never-needed creates a gap. Walk the site and document the call.
Using a flat maintenance percentage. A new machine and a machine with heavy hours do not need the same allowance. Set the number by age and hours, and say so in the bid notes.
Leaving out correction time. If your bid has no line for tagging, repair, and recheck, the work still happens, and the cost lands in the margin.
Checking the current text before you bid
For the Minnesota and Washington quotations, consult the official pages for Minnesota Rules 5207.1000 and Washington's WAC 296-155-035. The worker-classification paraphrase in the training section comes from the separately linked New York State Department of Labor page. Read them before you finalize a bid, and read the federal provision Minnesota points to as well. Rules get amended, and the version you read today should be the one you price against.
For a particular project, confirm the requirements with your safety professional or counsel.