How much does VMS sign hire cost?
VMS sign hire in Melbourne starts at $45 per day ex GST on a 12-month contract and rises to $75 per day ex GST for a hire under a month. Any hire of one to six days is a flat $500 plus 8% insurance. The same rates apply to LED trailer signs and LED screen trailers.
The rate card
All figures exclude GST. Insurance is 8% of the total hire, added separately.
| Contract length | Per day | Approx. per month (30 days) |
|---|---|---|
| 12 months | $45 | $1,350 |
| 6 months | $50 | $1,500 |
| 3 months | $60 | $1,800 |
| 1 month | $70 | $2,100 |
| Under 1 month | $75 | $2,250 |
| 1 to 6 days | Flat $500, plus 8% insurance | |
What moves the total
Hire length. The day rate drops as the term gets longer. A board you keep for a year costs $45 a day; the same board for three weeks costs $75 a day. If a hire runs longer than booked, tell us before the end date and we re-rate the whole hire to the band it now falls in.
Delivery. Setup and installation is a one-off $350 for hires under three months across Melbourne, or free if you tow it yourself. Deliveries to Geelong, Ballarat, Bendigo and Gippsland add a distance-based charge on top, quoted against the site address.
Insurance. Always 8% of the total hire. On a one-week job at $75 a day that is about $42; on a three-month job it is a larger line, which is part of why longer terms work out cheaper per day.
Power. Short hires run on solar and battery at no extra cost. Hires of about three weeks or more should assume a 10A power point that you provide on site.
An operator, for screen trailers. If you want someone to run content live at an event rather than looping a file, that is quoted separately from the day rate.
A worked example
A council needs a VMS board for a four-week roadwork in Melbourne. That is the "1 month" band at $70 a day, so 30 days is $2,100. Insurance at 8% is $168. Delivery and setup is $350. The total is $2,618 ex GST. Self-pickup would take it to $2,268.
Related questions
- Is there a minimum hire?
- One day. Any hire of one to six days is charged at the flat rate of $500 plus 8% insurance, ex GST, regardless of which board or screen you take.
- Does the price change between a VMS board, an LED trailer sign and an LED screen trailer?
- The day-rate card is the same for all three. What changes the total is the hire length and the delivery distance.
- How is insurance calculated?
- Insurance is 8% of the total hire price and is added as a separate line. It is not optional.
- What does delivery cost?
- Delivery, setup and installation is a one-off $350 for hires under three months, or nothing if you self-pickup. Regional deliveries beyond Melbourne carry a distance-based charge on top, quoted against the site address.