Bobcat hire in Durban
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Bobcat hire rates in Durban
| What you book | Price |
|---|---|
| Standard bobcat with operator, per day | R2,400–R3,700 |
| Standard bobcat with operator, per hour | R190–R370 |
| Bobcat with breaker, auger or broom, per day | R3,000–R3,600 |
| Three days with operator | R7,200–R11,100 |
| Trailer transport inside Durban, there and back | R1,300–R3,840 |
Durban is one of our main centres, and Verulam, Phoenix and Amanzimtoti fall inside the normal delivery area. Further up the North Coast the trailer is priced on the road distance: Ballito is about 50 km from Durban by road. Transport for a bobcat there and back usually comes to R4,300–R5,200, shown as its own line on your quote. How the price moves with hours, attachments and transport: bobcat hire rates.
Get a Durban bobcat priceWhat Durban hires a bobcat for
Rubble off tight stands
Renovation and demolition rubble out of back yards on the Berea, the Bluff and the older suburbs, where a TLB can't get past the house. A standard bobcat needs a gap of about 1.6 m.
Yards near the port
Sweeping and scraping container yards and warehouse aprons in the industrial areas south of the harbour, with a broom fitted, and moving pallets with forks.
Storm clean-ups
Sand and silt washed into yards, driveways and parking areas after heavy rain. The April 2022 floods showed how much a single storm can move.
Paving and driveways
Boxing out, then spreading and levelling crusher run or G5 before the paving or a plate compactor goes down.
Posts and palisade
An auger on the front drills fence-post and palisade footings in a row, quicker than digging them by hand.
Sand, clay and slopes: Durban ground for a skid steer
Much of coastal Durban, the Berea and the Bluff included, sits on old red dune sand that stands steep and has little clay to bind it. Inland, the shales weather into a clay that turns slippery when wet. Both matter for a skid steer, which steers by skidding its wheels:
- On sand it digs in when it turns hard on soft ground, so the operator keeps turns on firm patches and works with a lighter bucket.
- On wet clay it loses grip and churns the surface. After a storm, give the site a day to drain or lay a firm route of crusher run.
- On slopes it works up and down, not across, because its load sits out front. A standard bobcat (Bobcat S450 or similar) is rated to carry 608 kg in the bucket, half its 1,215 kg tipping load.
- On lawns and pavers it scuffs on every sharp turn. Tell us what it must cross on the way in.
Durban's rain comes mostly from October to March (South African Weather Service), so outdoor clean-ups and paving prep go quickest in the drier winter months.
Where the rubble goes
A bobcat loads; a tipper carts it away. Rubble must go to a licensed site, not a verge or an open stand. In north-west Durban, the City reopened the Buffelsdraai landfill on 1 April 2025 for garden refuse, builders' rubble and sand cover material, after it had been closed since July 2023. Ask us which site your loads will go to when you book, because the drive to the tip decides how many loads a day one tipper can take. Rubble jobs pair best with a tipper truck in Durban.
Working on the verge or in the street
Breaking out an old driveway apron or digging in the verge is work in the road reserve. Under eThekwini's Excavations By-law, 2022, that can't start until a wayleave is approved and issued, and closing a road needs its own application four weeks ahead. Inside your boundary no wayleave is needed.
Bobcat, TLB or mini excavator?
Pick the bobcat for moving, loading, sweeping and levelling. It has no backhoe, so for trenches and footings book a TLB in Durban, or a mini excavator where the gap is narrow. Its 2.16 m dump height clears a skip or a low-sided tipper. Operators come with their certificates, copies on request before the machine arrives.
Bobcat sizes, specs and every attachment: bobcat hire. In Gauteng: bobcat hire in Pretoria. Phoenix, Chatsworth, Amanzimtoti, Queensburgh and Hillcrest each have a bobcat section on plant hire in KwaZulu-Natal, and the rest of the city is on plant hire in Durban.
WhatsApp us for a bobcat in DurbanQuestions people ask
Can a bobcat work on a steep Durban driveway?
Often, but slowly and with the bucket kept low. A skid steer is short and carries its load up front, so on steep Berea and Bluff driveways the operator works up and down the slope, never across it, and loads lighter. Send a photo of the driveway; if it's too steep, a TLB or a mini excavator working from a level spot is the safer choice.
Do you hire mini bobcats in Durban?
Yes. A mini skid steer (Bobcat S70 or similar) is 0.91 m wide and weighs about 1.3 t, so it goes through a 1 m gate or down a side passage. It carries about half what a standard bobcat does, so a big heap takes longer. The exact price for a mini comes back on WhatsApp.
Can you take the rubble away as well?
Yes. Book a tipper with the bobcat: a 10 cube tipper with driver is R3,700–R5,250 a day with operator. The bobcat loads, the tipper takes it to a licensed landfill, and the tip fee is charged there on the weighbridge. See tipper truck hire in Durban.
How much is a bobcat for half a day in Durban?
The hourly rate is R190–R370, but hourly hire carries a minimum, and the trailer costs the same for two hours as for eight. A short job usually costs close to the day rate of R2,400–R3,700, so line up everything the machine can do on the one visit.
Related
Sources we checked
- Bobcat S450 skid-steer loader specifications and attachments (Bobcat)
- Bobcat S70 skid-steer loader specifications (Bobcat)
- eThekwini Municipality: Excavations By-law, 2022 (Wayleaves and Excavations By-law)
- eThekwini Municipality, Buffelsdraai landfill site to reopen tomorrow (March 2025)
- SAnews, eThekwini Buffelsdraai landfill site set to reopen for public use
- Department of Transport, Minister Fikile Mbalula: KwaZulu-Natal disaster relief (6 May 2022)
- The Conversation (April 2022), How geology put a South African city at risk of landslides, by a geotechnical engineer
- South African Weather Service, What kind of droughts does South Africa experience? (summer rainfall season)
Need a bobcat in Durban?
WhatsApp us the job, the town and the dates. We confirm the machine, the start date and the price in writing before the machine moves.
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