Main contractors running internal hire: charge your projects properly
Charge your projects properly.
You move your own fleet between your own projects. Without internal hire rates and utilisation evidence, you cannot see which project is really carrying the cost.
Darikoda gives you the internal cross-charge record. Captured at source.
You move your own fleet between your own projects. Without internal hire rates and utilisation evidence, you cannot see which project is really carrying the cost. Darikoda gives you the internal cross-charge record.
Where the portfolio average lies
The six places per-project equipment cost disappears into the portfolio average.
Per-project equipment cost hidden inside the portfolio.
Three concurrent projects share one fleet. Without internal cross-charge, the fleet cost reads as one number across the portfolio. The project that is really carrying the equipment burden disappears into the average.
Subcontractor operator on your machine.
You own the equipment. You rent it to a specialist subcontractor who supplies the operator and runs day-to-day work. The operator works for them. Poor care of the machine shows up in your costs later. You can remove a bad operator from your machine, but not from the subcontractor's payroll.
Hours challenged at month-end.
You charge by machine hours, supply the fuel, deduct from the subcontractor's payment. When the paper tally is disputed, you lose revenue or absorb cost. The internal cross-charge model has the same evidence problem as external hire, with less visibility.
Redeployment decisions made too late.
Which machine should move, which should stay, which is due for service, which is blocked by site priority. Without cross-project visibility, a machine sits on a completed scope for weeks because no one at head office had visibility on what was free where.
Service-risk visibility across projects.
Missed service forces the subcontractor to rent outside while your own machine produces nothing. The cost is your repair plus their external rental plus the missed productivity, all wearing the same brand.
Asset-condition history under someone else's operator.
The machine returns from project A with damage. Was it operator error, fault progression or end-of-life? Without attribution at PIN level, the answer is opinion. Resale value and renewal economics depend on the evidence.
What changes between portfolio average and project truth
Three scenarios where internal cross-charge becomes evidence-led.
Old way
Three road projects share one excavator fleet. Equipment cost shows up as one number across the portfolio. Project A looks healthy, Project C looks middling. Three months later it surfaces that Project C had been carrying 60% of the fleet hours.
On Darikoda
Each shift logs hours against the project and the subcontractor. Per-project equipment cost surfaces live. Project C is named in week three, not at quarterly review.
Per-project attribution
the unit at which true project profitability becomes visible.
Old way
Subcontractor at Project B disputes 22 hours on the rented loader this month. Their tally clerk says 158, your fleet record says 180. You absorb the 22 hours because the only counter-record is the foreman's memory.
On Darikoda
Operator PIN at start, stop and idle. Hour-meter time-stamped with GPS. Even when the operator belongs to the subcontractor, the machine record stays attached to the asset. The deduction conversation happens with evidence.
Per-event hour-meter
the unit at which internal-hire dispute defence becomes possible.
Old way
Loader returns from Project A. Cab damage and worn undercarriage. Was it operator error, fault progression or end-of-life? Without attribution, the answer is opinion. The cost shows up in your books with no defensible attribution.
On Darikoda
Daily condition log, PIN-attributed fault reports, GPS-confirmed positions. The history of the asset's time on the project is structured rather than reconstructed.
Per-shift condition
where resale value, renewal economics and operator coaching all start.
Different scenarios. Same underlying gap. Same closing move.
Three engines applied to internal hire
The operating record, framed for the head office that owns the fleet but not the operator.
ENGINE 01
Internal cross-charge record.
Per-machine hours and fuel against the subcontractor on each section, with the same structured evidence used in external hire. Internal hire rates configured per project, per equipment class, per agreement.
ENGINE 02
Per-project equipment cost attribution.
Each project carries its real fleet burden, not the portfolio average. Per-project profitability stops hiding inside the portfolio aggregate. The intervention window opens before quarterly review, not after.
ENGINE 03
Asset-condition log under PIN-level attribution.
Operator PIN, condition log, fault report. When the machine returns, the history of its time on the project is structured rather than reconstructed. Service-cost and resale conversations happen with evidence.
Proof point
Each project carries its real fleet burden, not the portfolio average. The bleeding project surfaces in week three of the quarter, not at quarterly review.
Built so the internal cross-charge survives the project-level audit.
Internal hire on Ghana road portfolios lives or dies on the integrity of the per-shift record. Six commitments make that record survive the trip from subcontractor operator to head office cross-charge.
- Every shift's hours and condition entry saves locally first and syncs when signal returns. Remote project sites do not wait for connectivity.
- Every transaction has a sync state. No silent gaps between site reality and head office cross-charge.
- Even when the operator belongs to the subcontractor, the asset record stays attached to the machine. PIN-level attribution at the tablet captures who was at the controls.
- Internal hire rates configured per project, per equipment class, per subcontractor agreement.
- Failed syncs at remote projects become visible issues, not silent gaps in the per-project profitability dashboard.
- ERP and finance see the same record. Internal cross-charges land in the GL with the operational evidence already attached.
If you do nothing
The cost of one more quarter on the portfolio aggregate.
Illustrative scenarios at typical Ghana main-contractor internal-hire scale. The audit produces the specific number for your portfolio, your subcontractor mix, and your asset register.
Scenario 01
20 hours per machine per month disputed on internal hire.
20 hours × GHS 600/hour internal rate × 30 machines = GHS 360K per month absorbed on weak-evidence internal cross-charges.
GHS 4.3M per year. Per-event hour-meter recovery starts in the first month.
Scenario 02
60% of fleet hours hidden inside one project's overrun.
Project C carries 60% of GHS 600K monthly equipment cost while reading as portfolio average. GHS 240K per month absorbed into 'portfolio variance' rather than surfaced as a project-specific issue.
GHS 2.9M per year. Per-project attribution surfaces the bleed in week three.
Scenario 03
One missed service forcing subcontractor external rent.
Missed service removes machine from hire for 10 days. Subcontractor rents external at GHS 12K/day = GHS 120K. Your machine sits idle, producing nothing while your subcontractor pays external.
Per-asset service-risk visibility prevents the missed cycle entirely.
Scenario 04
Asset condition without attribution.
Loader returns with GHS 80K of damage. Without per-shift PIN-level attribution, the cost lands in your books. Resale value drops by an additional GHS 120K because the maintenance history reads as 'general operator wear'.
Per-shift condition log defends both repair cost recovery and resale value.
Most main contractors running internal hire recognise three of four of these in their last quarterly review.
Inside a typical month
What a Darikoda month looks like for internal hire.
From project envelope on day one to internal cross-charges landing in the GL with evidence attached.
Day 1 per project
Each project gets its internal-hire envelope.
Per-project rates, per-equipment-class rules, per-subcontractor agreement. The same per-asset record serves all projects, sliced by the cross-charge rules each project demands.
Shift start
Subcontractor operator logs in via PIN at the tablet.
Asset record stays attached to your machine regardless of who employs the operator. The hours, fuel and condition stay attributed at PIN level.
Daily
Daily condition log and fault reports captured at the source.
Worn undercarriage, cab damage, hydraulic leak. Each entry PIN-attributed, GPS-confirmed, time-stamped. The asset history is structured rather than reconstructed.
Weekly
Cross-project equipment view drives redeployment.
Which machine should move, which should stay, which is due for service. Head office sees the answer before the subcontractor at the next project rents external.
Month-end
Internal cross-charges land in the GL with evidence attached.
Per-project equipment cost, per-subcontractor cross-charge, per-asset utilisation. The portfolio aggregate stops absorbing the bleeder.
A note from Theo
“The asset condition stays the contractor's problem, but the operator works for someone else.”
Internal hire on road and civils projects is one of the most under-served operational structures in Ghana. The main contractor owns the asset, the subcontractor employs the operator, the asset condition stays the contractor's problem, and the dispute defence requires evidence on both sides of the same wall. The portfolio aggregate hides the bleeding project. The asset returns from the project with damage and the attribution is opinion rather than record. The operating record closes both gaps. Per-shift, per-PIN, per-project, captured at the event. The internal cross-charge becomes evidence-led rather than negotiated. That is what we built for main contractors running internal hire across Ghana road portfolios.
Theo Ilori
Founder, Darikoda. UCL MSc Mechanical Engineering. Formerly GE precision turbines, Caterpillar/Unatrac Ghana & Nigeria.
Internal hire FAQ.
The questions other Ghana main contractors with internal fleets ask in the first call.
We are a main contractor with 150 machines across four road projects. Where do we start?
Internal cross-charge configuration first. Per-project internal hire rates, per-subcontractor agreement structure, per-equipment-class rules. From go-live, each shift logs hours and fuel against the project and the subcontractor. The aggregate stops hiding the answer.
What is the difference between internal hire and external hire on the platform?
Mechanically the same evidence layer: hour-meter, fuel, daily status, operator attribution at PIN level. Commercially the difference is who absorbs the dispute. With internal hire it is you, against your own subcontractor. The evidence still defends your per-project profitability.
Our subcontractors do not currently use tablets. How do you handle that?
Shared tablets at section level, PIN-level worker attribution. The subcontractor's operator logs in to their PIN at the start of shift, logs out at the end. No one has to issue a tablet per operator. The hours, fuel and condition stay attributed to the right person.
Does this work alongside our ERP and accounting?
Yes. The operating record feeds the ERP the per-asset, per-project truth the ERP cannot produce on its own. Internal cross-charges land in the financial ledger with the supporting operational evidence already attached.
We sometimes external-hire to top up. Can we run both models?
Yes. The platform handles dedicated hire firms and main-contractors-running-internal-hire as variants of the same record. Some machines are external on one project, internal on another. The contract envelope distinguishes them.
Want the leakage map for your internal hire model?
30 minutes on WhatsApp. You keep the map regardless of next steps.
Patterns described here are drawn from extensive field audits and industry research across Ghana's mining, construction, roadworks, and quarry sectors. No specific operator is named or identifiable.