Bidfident for directional drilling contractors
Estimating software for directional drilling
Drilling contractors use Bidfident to price each bore by the metre: pilot and ream, HDPE pipe butt-fused and pulled back, and bentonite with its disposal. The drilling rig, fusion machine and vacuum excavator each run for their own hours, not the crew's. Launch and reception pits go in by number, crossing consents as a lump sum, and the utility survey and reinstatement as subcontract packages.
Enter your email and Bidfident sends you a sign-in link. New companies start with a starter rate library. Who runs Bidfident, and what it keeps about you.
Sound familiar?
The rig charged for the crew's whole day
Digging pits, setting up and fusing pipe keep the crew busy while the rig stands idle, but a spreadsheet row charges it the same hours. In Bidfident the rig, fusion machine and vacuum excavator each get their own hours per unit.
A big rig rate magnifies a small slip
The rig is the dearest item on the job, so a slip in its hours per metre moves the tender a long way. In Bidfident the total stays in view and shows how much it moved after each change, so a jump that size is hard to miss.
Consents and fluid lost between rows
Lump-sum consents and fluid disposal sit in a corner of the sheet and get missed. In Bidfident consents go in as a lump-sum preliminaries item, and fluid is a line priced by the metre like the bore.
How Bidfident fits your work
The drilling rig for the hours it runs
Give the rig its own hours per metre, apart from the crew's. The fusion machine and vacuum excavator can each have their own hours too.
Bore lines that look wrong, flagged
Before the tender goes out, Bidfident flags a bore or pit line with no cost code, no quantity, a total of zero, hours with a zero rate, or hours or a material price more than 25% off the library's.
Survey and reinstatement quotes compared
Enter each quote on the Subcontractors tab, see the lowest flagged, and carry it or the one you pick. No reinstatement quotes yet? Carry an allowance.
Consents as a lump sum, supervision by the week
Crossing consents go in as a lump sum. Supervision runs by the week and follows the job duration, part weeks allowed.
Rig, fusion and vac rates in one place
Your drilling operatives and every item of plant with its hourly rate, in one library that every estimate uses.
Each crossing with its own subtotal
Tag each bore with its crossing, the trunk road or a watercourse, and group the sheet to see what each one comes to.
Worked example: directional drilling under a trunk road and two watercourses
A made-up job, priced in Bidfident: 26 lines of your own work, 4 subcontract packages and 5 preliminaries items over a 4-week programme. The 4 lines this page talks about are listed one by one, and the rest are added up in one row. It's the same job you can open as an example project in Bidfident, so every figure below matches it.
To open this job in Bidfident: sign in and set up your company in the UK, then on the Projects screen, under Example project, pick "Telecoms and fibre" and "Directional drilling" and press Add example project.
| Item | Amount |
|---|---|
Directional bore, 150 mm, pilot and ream, 240 m
| £5,520.00 |
HDPE pipe, 100 mm, butt-fused and pulled back, 240 m
| £2,728.80 |
Bentonite drilling fluid and disposal, 240 m
| £1,200.00 |
Launch and reception pits, vacuum excavation, 2 nr
| £1,120.00 |
22 more lines of your own work
| £35,325.56 |
| Item | Amount |
|---|---|
Utility survey and cable tracing
| £1,250.00 |
Reinstatement, turf and surfacing
| £4,600.00 |
Traffic management, trunk road verge closure
| £3,768.00 |
Ground investigation review of bore profiles, allowance
| £1,750.00 |
| Item | Amount |
|---|---|
Site supervisor
| £3,800.00 |
Street works and watercourse consents
| £2,400.00 |
Mobilise drilling spread
| £3,740.00 |
Crew van and tool trailer
| £1,432.00 |
Crew accommodation and subsistence, gang of four
| £4,080.00 |
| Item | Amount |
|---|---|
Own work
| £45,894.36 |
| Excluded lines, not counted | £645.43 |
| Subcontractors | £11,368.00 |
Preliminaries
| £15,452.00 |
Direct cost
| £72,714.36 |
Contingency
| £3,635.72 |
Overheads and profit
| £7,635.01 |
| Subtotal before the bond | £83,985.09 |
Bond
| £839.85 |
Insurance
| £419.93 |
Tender total
| £85,244.87 |
VAT, for reference
| £17,048.97 |
See it in Bidfident
Coming soon Ask your estimate anything. Claude first, ChatGPT to follow. See how it will work
Questions
My bore is priced by the metre but the rig works by the hour. How does that add up?
Each line takes the metres, the crew's hours per metre and the rig's own hours per metre. Bidfident works out the hours and prices both at their hourly rates.
Can one bore line carry both the drilling operatives and the rig?
Yes. A line has a trade with its hours per unit and one item of plant by the hour, plus a material price, so the operatives and the rig sit on the same bore line.
How do I price bentonite and disposal?
Put it on its own line by the metre with a material price. A line with no trade or hours carries no labour.
Can I price consents and permits as a lump sum?
Yes. Preliminaries items go on the Overhead tab, by the week, by the month, as a lump sum or each.
Does it read bore profiles from drawings?
No. Type your metres in, or copy and paste them into the sheet.
What if my rig rate changes after I submit a tender?
A submitted tender keeps the labour and plant rates it was priced with, so a later change to your library doesn't move a price you've already sent.
Does Bidfident work with Claude or ChatGPT?
Not yet, but it's coming. You'll be able to connect Bidfident to your own Claude or ChatGPT account and ask about your estimates in plain English. The answers will come from Bidfident's own figures, so they match the estimate. It will use the account you already have: Claude first, ChatGPT to follow.
Price your next drilling tender in Bidfident
Enter your email and Bidfident sends you a sign-in link. New companies start with a starter rate library. Who runs Bidfident, and what it keeps about you.