Dozer Hire Rates Guide 2025

Dozer is short for the word “Bulldozer”. Dozer is Australian colloquial term for bulldozer.

Dozers are tracked tractors with a substantial wide metal blade that is mounted to the front of the machine, using for pushing and flattening dirt. Dozers have large tracks that move the machine over soft or unsteady ground, allowing it to push direct, flatten and level it.

Learn more about Dozer hire here

The majority of dozers on iseekplant are tracked dozers, which is your standard dozer with tracks, and come in sizes D3 through to D11. These dozers are the most plentiful in Australia's plant hire industry and there is a much larger array of them listed on iseekplant. Then, we also offer a type called 'swamp dozer' (sometimes called a 'swampy') - which have much wider tracks on them, that are able to operate in extremely soft ground, wet ground or mud. The wider track gives greater surface area for operation and stability.

A rarer type of dozer is a wheel-mounted dozer, that uses wheels as propulsion and these allow the dozer to operate on paved surfaces (such as concrete, or asphalt). There is also a 'dozer-adjacent' machine called a drott (sometimes called a tracked loader) that looks a lot like a dozer but is in-fact a track mounted loader.

Find out more about the different types of Dozers for hire here

The short answer is no... but it's not quite that simple.

A valid driver’s license serves as the only requirement for hiring bulldozers on personal property including residential and agricultural land. The hire company maintains complete authority to decide who can hire and subsequentally operate the equipment. But the keys will remain out of your reach if you fail to demonstrate your operating abilities to them. Reputable hire companies will not provide heavy equipment on a dry hire basis, such as bulldozers, to operators who lack demonstrated operating experience.

The rules regarding civil and commercial construction sites become more complicated. The PCBU (Person Conducting a Business or Undertaking) now bears legal responsibility for machine safety according to recent regulatory changes (from Safework) which apply to site managers and employers. The legal responsibility for machine safety rests with the person who conducts business or undertakes operations.

The PCBU must have a valid reason to believe the operator has sufficient knowledge of bulldozer operation even though a formal license or ticket is not always necessary. That might involve:

• Watching them operate the bulldozer before work begins
• Reviewing past experience or tickets
• Verifying previous employment history
• Contacting references or checking logbooks

You do not need a specific bulldozer license but you must demonstrate your competence to the site owner or manager who bears the legal responsibility for any accidents.

Learn more about Dozer licenses here

Before we share general averages for hourly rates for dozers, we must note that almost no-one will be willing to hire you a dozer for an hour, or even a day. Dozers cost a lost to move around, and so many suppliers will be hesitant to hire you a dozer for a short period of time.

Hourly rates fluctuate based on location, local demand, size, attachments and a variety of other factors. Rates below include GST:

• D6 Dozer $198 per hour (dry hire) $286 per hour (wet hire)
• D7 Dozer $220 per hour (dry hire) $308 per hour (wet hire)
• D8 Dozer $357 per hour (dry hire) $440 per hour (wet hire)
• D9 Dozer $473 per hour (dry hire) $561 per hour (wet hire)
• D11 Dozer POA POA

Review our article above for more accurate rates information.

iseekplant works by cataloguing machines by suppliers and organising them in a way that construction professionals can find machines close to their jobs easily. When they enter their machine into our database, they often catalogue all the attachments you can hire the machine with. As such, when you are searching for a dozer on iseekplant, you can refine your search on the left hand side by the types of attachments you want, and the system will return a list of dozer hire companies offering that dozer and attachment. You can also hire dozer hire attachments directly from suppliers and fit them to your own machine. The most common dozer attachments listed on our system are:

• S Blade
• U Blade
• Clearing Blade
• Ripper
• Tree Pusher
• Sloping blades
• PAT blade
• GPS Machine Control

Discover more about Dozer hire attachments here

We have 764 dozers listed on our system, as well as well as 79 swamp dozers and 53 drotts, and this number grows everyday. Of all these machines listed on our system, the most popular brands in our system in order of popularity are:

• Caterpillar
• John Deere
• Komatsu
• Volvo
• Case
• Kobelco

Discover more about the best Bulldozer brands here

iseekplant's whole purpose is connect construction professionals with quality machines and services close to their jobsite. You can literally hire a dozer in any of the 16,000 post codes in Australia, or at least hire the dozer that is as closest to your jobsite as possible. When you search for dozers on iseekplant, our system returns a list of suppliers, and that list is ranked close to the location you entered.

The majority of dozers on our system are located within a close distance to the major cities - and many construction equipment hiring companies are based on the outskirts of these towns: Brisbane to Sydney, Canberra, Melbourne to Darwin, Perth and Adelaide. We also offer dozer hire solutions in all major regional towns and areas from Mackay to the Gold Coast, Toowoomba, Bendigo, Hobart, and then across the country to Bunbury.

Dozers are more commonly hired on a daily rate basis. Most suppliers will only hire them on a long-term basis due to the high cost and inconvenience of moving dozers around.

**Dry hire rates range from $960 to $2,880+ per day, depending on dozer size (based on 8-hour day). **

• D6 Dozer: $1,600–$1,760/day
• D8 Dozer: $2,720–$2,880/day

**Wet hire (with operator) ranges from $1,360 to $3,520+ per day. **

• D6 Dozer: $2,240–$2,400/day
• D8 Dozer: $3,360–$3,520/day**

Additional costs may apply, including: Mobilisation/demobilisation: $900–$3,500 each way, fuel: $2–$3 per litre, GPS: $20–$50 per hour.

Also remember that standby fees, accommodation, permits, and insurance may also be charged depending on site and job conditions.

The Caterpillar D6 or D7 dozer provides the optimal combination of power and efficiency together with good maneuverability for most land clearing operations. The D6 dozer performs best for clearing trees, brush and debris on farms, development sites and acreage properties. The D7 dozer performs best in heavy clearing operations that involve dense vegetation and large trees and challenging terrain. Large wooded areas with uneven terrain require D8 dozers or bigger machines usually, but these machines need more space and higher operating costs and experienced operators.

The Caterpillar D6 or D7 dozer represents the most efficient tool for removing tree stumps. The D6 dozer operates effectively on tree stumps measuring up to 30cm in diameter and performs well in residential and agricultural settings (altough we will note you will rarely see a dozer on a residential work-site - they are almost exclusively used in commercial and civil construction).

The D7 dozer provides additional power to handle big stumps and deep root systems which makes it suitable for commercial land clearing and older growth areas. The removal of large stumps and dense forested areas requires a D8 dozer or larger but these machines come with higher costs and need experienced operators. Using a dozer with a ripper attachment will work best when loosening roots before pushing out stumps.