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Rental Calculator

Built for renting out equipment (JCB backhoe loaders, excavators, and similar) — work out what a machine genuinely costs you per day, price it to beat the local market without losing money, and see what's actually left after your revenue-share partners and member pricing. Add every machine you run as its own tab; shared costs split fairly across all of them.

Results

What each machine actually costs, and what to charge

Everything below updates automatically from what you enter in Rental Calculation, further down this page.

All equipment at a glance

All equipment compared — true cost, standard and non-member price, and margin achieved
Equipment	True cost / day	Standard (member) / day	Non-member / day	Margin achieved

Detail — Equipment 1

How the true cost is built

true cost / day = ownership + operating + operator + overhead share + mobilization

Ownership / dayRM0.00

Operating / dayRM0.00

Operator / dayRM0.00

Overhead share / dayRM0.00

Mobilization / dayRM0.00

True cost / dayRM0.00

Pricing

Target price / dayRM0.00

Standard (member) / dayRM0.00

Non-member / dayRM0.00

Margin achieved (standard)0%

Margin achieved (non-member)0%

Break-even rental days / month0 days

Monthly revenue at expected utilizationRM0.00

Suggested deposit — memberRM0.00

Suggested deposit — non-memberRM0.00

Cost structure: this machine vs. a guide

Equipment costs Overhead Operator Margin

The guide is a rough, editable rule of thumb for the category you pick — not a fact about your market. Reflects the standard (member) price above.

This machine

Local market comparison

Add a market rate below to compare.

What stands out

Rental Calculation

Enter your numbers

Fill in each tab below — Results, further up the page, updates automatically as you go.

Your equipment

How every number here is calculated

1. Ownership cost (fixed, time-based)

Capital consumption and standing costs of simply owning the machine — recovered regardless of how much it's actually used this month.

monthly depreciation = (purchase price − residual value) ÷ (useful life years × 12) IF financed: r = (annual interest rate ÷ 100) ÷ 12 n = tenure years × 12 monthly installment = principal × r × (1+r)^n ÷ ((1+r)^n − 1) [r = 0 → principal ÷ n] total interest = monthly installment × n − principal avg monthly interest = total interest ÷ n ELSE: avg monthly interest = 0 monthly ownership = monthly depreciation + avg monthly interest + (insurance/year ÷ 12) + (registration & permits/year ÷ 12) + overhead share per machine ownership / day = monthly ownership ÷ expected rental days this month

2. Operating cost (variable, usage-based — includes wear & tear)

Everything that scales with actual running hours, not calendar time.

operating cost / hour = fuel/hour + (scheduled maintenance cost ÷ service interval hours) + wear & tear reserve/hour operating cost / hour (buffered) = operating cost/hour × (1 + unscheduled repair buffer % ÷ 100) operating / day = operating cost/hour (buffered) × hours per rental day

3. Operator cost (wet hire only)

A quick estimate, not the exact PERKESO/KWSP banded tables — see the Manpower note in the Glossary for the precise route.

estimated employer cost / month = basic monthly wage × multiplier multiplier ≈ 1.155 for a Malaysian/PR employee under 60 (EPF + SOCSO + EIS, ballpark) multiplier ≈ 1.04 for a foreign worker (EPF 2% employer only, since Oct 2025; SOCSO Employment Injury applies; no EIS) operator / day = (wet hire ? estimated employer cost / month : 0) ÷ expected rental days this month

4. Overhead share & mobilization

overhead share per machine = shared fixed overhead ÷ number of equipment tabs mobilization / day = mobilization fee ÷ number of rental days it should cover

5. True cost, target price, and the revenue-share/SST gross-up

Same gross-up shape already used for delivery-app commission and SST on the Menu Calculator: dividing by (1 − rate), not multiplying by it, is what makes sure the cut comes out of the quoted price rather than off your own target.

true cost / day = ownership + operating + operator + overhead share + mobilization target price / day = true cost / day ÷ (1 − target margin % ÷ 100) combined share = (SST % + Σ every partner's %) ÷ 100 [must be < 1, else no price recovers target] IF "standard hits target margin" mode: standard (member) / day = target price / day ÷ (1 − combined share) non-member / day = standard / day ÷ (1 − member discount % ÷ 100) ELSE ("non-member hits target margin" mode): non-member / day = target price / day ÷ (1 − combined share) standard (member) / day = non-member / day × (1 − member discount % ÷ 100)

6. Margin actually achieved, and break-even

net received / day = quoted price / day × (1 − combined share) margin achieved % = (net received / day − true cost / day) ÷ quoted price / day × 100 fixed monthly cost = monthly ownership (excl. the ÷days step) + operator monthly cost (if wet hire) contribution margin / day = standard price / day − operating / day − mobilization / day break-even rental days / month = fixed monthly cost ÷ contribution margin / day

Every rental day beyond break-even in a given month is largely pure profit, since the fixed costs are already covered by that point — this is the single biggest lever for margin: utilization, not price.

7. Cost-structure guide ratios (rough starting points, not facts)

Mini excavator : 55% equipment / 15% overhead / 12% operator / 18% margin Excavator : 50% equipment / 17% overhead / 13% operator / 20% margin Backhoe loader : 48% equipment / 17% overhead / 15% operator / 20% margin Crane : 45% equipment / 18% overhead / 17% operator / 20% margin Forklift : 55% equipment / 15% overhead / 10% operator / 20% margin Other / general : 50% equipment / 17% overhead / 13% operator / 20% margin

Jargon index

Ownership cost	The fixed cost of simply owning the machine, whether or not it's rented out this month: depreciation, financing interest, insurance, registration/permits.
Operating cost	The variable cost of actually running the machine: fuel, scheduled service, wear & tear, repair buffer. Scales with hours, not calendar time.
Depreciation	The accounting cost of a machine losing value with age/use — (purchase price − residual value) spread over its useful life. Not a cash outflow by itself, but a real cost that must be recovered in your price.
Residual value	What you expect to resell the machine for at the end of its useful life. Higher residual value means lower monthly depreciation.
Wear & tear reserve	A per-hour set-aside for parts that wear out faster than the whole machine — undercarriage, hydraulic hoses, bucket teeth, tires. Separate from scheduled maintenance, which is routine service, not replacement.
Wet hire / Dry hire	Wet hire includes an operator; dry hire is the machine only, and the renter supplies their own operator.
Mobilization / demobilization	Transporting the machine to and from a job site — lowbed trailer, permits, and any travel to inspect the site beforehand.
Utilization	How many of your available days a machine is actually rented out. The single biggest lever on cost per day — fixed ownership costs are the same whether a machine works 10 days or 25 days a month.
Break-even rental days	How many days a month you need to rent this machine out, at your standard price, before its fixed costs are covered. Days beyond that are largely pure profit.
Revenue-share partner	Anyone owed a percentage of what a job brings in — a referring branch, a holding company, or the actual owner of the machine if you're sub-leasing it. Charged on the price you quote, not deducted from your own target.
Gross-up	Dividing by (1 − rate) instead of multiplying by rate, so that after a cut is taken out of the price, you still net exactly your target. The same shape as commission and SST elsewhere on this site.
Standard / Member price	The price built to hit your target margin after every revenue-share partner and SST are paid.
Non-member / list price	The walk-in rate. Depending on the mode you choose, this either builds up from the standard price (member protected) or is the base the standard price is discounted from.
EPF / KWSP	Employees Provident Fund — Malaysia's mandatory retirement savings scheme. As of 2026: 11% employee, 13% employer (wage ≤ RM5,000) or 12% employer (above), rounded up to the next ringgit for wages under RM20,000. Foreign workers have been mandatorily included since October 2025, at 2% employer / 2% employee.
SOCSO / PERKESO	Social Security Organisation — covers workplace injury and invalidity. Table-based (not a flat percentage), wage ceiling RM6,000/month as of October 2024. Applies to foreign workers too.
EIS	Employment Insurance System — 0.2% employer + 0.2% employee, same RM6,000 ceiling as SOCSO. Malaysian citizens and PRs only; foreign workers and staff aged 60+ are excluded.
SST on rental/leasing	Service tax on the rental or leasing of equipment for industrial/commercial use — 6% as of 1 January 2026 (reduced from 8%), with an exemption for businesses under RM1.5 million in rental revenue over 12 months.
CIDB / competency cards	Malaysia-specific heavy-equipment operator certifications (e.g. a CIDB green card, backhoe/excavator competency cards) — real, recurring compliance costs worth budgeting as part of an operator's true cost, not just their wage.