Plant in a prolongation claim: hired and owned
Plant standing idle during a period of delay is among the heads of a prolongation claim most frequently mishandled, because hired plant and owned plant represent different kinds of loss and are commonly aggregated as though they were the same. This calculator keeps the two apart from the point of entry to the point of output.
For hired plant the inputs are the additional days and the daily hire cost, which together represent additional cost actually incurred. In the case of owned plant the inputs are the additional days and a daily holding cost, and the position is then developed through a stated alternative daily income and a probability that the plant would have found alternative use. The loss on owned plant is a question of lost opportunity rather than of invoiced cost, and it turns on whether the plant could in fact have been earning elsewhere during the period.
Additional movement cost and avoided operating cost are entered under their own fields, so that costs saved during the standing period reduce the claim visibly rather than disappearing into a net figure.
The results are reported in the same separated form, with actual additional cost and the owned-plant opportunity scenarios shown apart, so that a reader can identify which part of the figure rests on an invoice and which part rests on an assumption.
The calculator asks for the assessment date and for the reference of the hire invoice or plant record relied upon. Hire and operating rates change over the life of a project, and a plant claim will stand or fall on whether the rate applied can be tied to a document covering the period claimed.