Production cost calculator

Two numbers most earthwork teams don’t know: how much their fleet burns in undetected idle time, and how much a 10-day gap between survey and decision is worth in rework exposure. Put in your own numbers and find out.

Calculator 01

Idle Time Cost Estimator

How much is undetected idle time costing your fleet right now?

Number of machines on site

Avg hours worked per day

Working days per month

Avg fuel cost per hour

$/hr

Estimated idle time 20%

Industry benchmark: ~20% idle time for heavy equipment

Optional — add operator labor

Include operator labor cost

Operator hourly rate

$/hr

Monthly idle cost — fuel

$8,800 / month

Annual cost $105,600 / year

10 machines × (8 hrs × 20% idle) × $25/hr × 22 days

How Propeller helps

Propeller identifies which machines are idling at high rates so you can address issues before they compound — whether that means investigating a specific machine, redeploying it to another site, or evaluating whether your fleet is being used as efficiently as possible.

Calculator 02

Survey Delay Rework Exposure

If your crew is off-grade and you don't find out for 10 days, what does that cost?

Active machines during delay

Hours worked per day

Machine operating cost per hour

$/hr

Fuel + operator combined. ~$150/hr typical for a dozer or excavator.

Survey delay window

days

Applies to any third-party survey — traditional or drone. Enter your typical turnaround from request to usable data.

Estimated rework percentage 15%

% of work needing rework if an off-grade deviation went undetected

Surveys per year

Default = monthly. Adjust to match your current cadence.

Rework exposure per survey cycle

$90,000 / survey cycle

Annual exposure $1,080,000 / year

5 machines × 8 hrs × $150/hr × 10 day delay × 15% rework

How Propeller helps

This applies to any third-party survey — traditional or drone. The key issue is waiting: every day between survey and decision is a day your crew could be building off-grade. Propeller gives your team continuous site data so you're not dependent on scheduling a third party to come out.

We’ve set idle time at 20% because it’s what most teams find when they start tracking for the first time — and it’s conservative. The $150/hr rate covers fuel, labor, ownership, and maintenance; adjust it to match your fleet. On the survey side, 10 days reflects the real end-to-end timeline for a typical survey workflow — whether traditional or drone-based: scheduling, capture, processing, QA, and handoff. The 15% rework default sits in the middle of the Construction Industry Institute’s published range and represents what outdated site data typically costs — not a worst case. All inputs are yours to change. The more accurate your numbers, the more meaningful your result.