What boom truck rental costs in Canada

R 03 mThe short answer

A supplier quotes the job; this page explains what goes into the quote. Published rates are benchmarks for public works, not quotes. These are the free boom truck schedules we found in Canada:

Four things decide whether a number applies to your job:

• Operated or bare. Half the sources include the operator. Never compare across that line without adjusting.
• The unit. Kilograms of lift capacity, tonnes, ton classes and axle counts are not interchangeable.
• The edition. The newest are 2026; three are 2024.
• The extras. Minimums, mobilization, travel, standby and fuel can outweigh the hourly rate on a short job.

R 06 mOperated or bare: why published rates differ so much

Bare (operator not included) means you pay for the machine and supply the operator. Operated (operator included) covers the person at the controls. Each source also decides what else is in the hour:

PEI and Newfoundland and Labrador publish maximums a public buyer will pay; IEOA publishes minimums; NSRBA's guide is a suggestion. A ceiling and a floor can sit close together and mean different things.

Do not subtract one source from another to price an operator. NSRBA's 25-ton boom truck at $195 an hour, operated (2024)⁵, is below Ontario's 25,000 kg line at $247.90, bare (April 2024)². That does not make the operator worth less than nothing: one is a ton class, the other kilograms of lift capacity, built from different costs.

To turn bare into operated, use the schedule's own convention or your payroll. PEI's 2026 rate for a contracted equipment operator is $47.00 an hour⁴. The rental rate converter does the arithmetic. Hiring bare also makes the operator's certificate your problem: most provinces require a certified operator above a set capacity; here is the rule where you work, in operator certification.

R 09 mGovernment schedules without an operator: New Brunswick, Ontario, Newfoundland and Labrador

New Brunswick, 2026–27

New Brunswick's rates apply to work from May 1, 2026 to April 30, 2027 and leave out operator wages⁷. Boom trucks are listed by lift capacity, from $166.25 an hour for 7,000–11,000 kg, in a section the schedule titles Non-current equipment¹:

Truck-mounted hydraulic cranes are a separate family, priced in tonnes from $84.00 an hour for 5–10 t to $191.25 for 36–40 t, bare¹:

Booms on their own are added to a truck rate: $11.25 to $68.00 an hour for a telescoping straight boom, $8.25 to $34.00 for a knuckle boom¹. The schedule does not say which truck rate, so we do not add them up.

Ontario, April 2024

Ontario's OPSS.PROV 127 rates exclude the operator². Boom trucks run from $135.25 an hour at 7,000 kg of lift capacity to $368.95 at 40,000 kg²:

Between sizes, the schedule interpolates in a straight line, rounded to five cents². Example, computed: 15,000 kg sits halfway between $170.40 at 11,000 kg and $193.40 at 19,000 kg, so it is $181.90 an hour, bare². The 40,000 kg line costs about 2.7 times the 7,000 kg line for about 5.7 times the capacity (computed). See boom truck sizes.

Newfoundland and Labrador, March 2024

The newest schedule we found online gives maximum rates without operator wages; operated hire adds the basic wage plus a 35% burden³, and every rate is 5.8% higher in Labrador³. Hydraulic boom trucks run from $38.50 an hour under 8.0 tonnes to $130.90 at 24.0 tonnes and over, bare³:

Example, computed: the 12.0–17.99 tonne line is $73.70 an hour, bare³. With an illustrative wage of $42.77, Job Bank's national median⁹, the 35% burden makes the operator $57.74, for about $131.44 an hour operated. In Labrador the bare rate becomes $77.97.

R 12 mOperated schedules and guides: PEI, Nova Scotia, Vancouver Island

Prince Edward Island, May 2026

PEI's rates are maximums that include operator wages and fuel, with a 3-hour call-out minimum⁴. Standby is paid at 50%; equipment 10 to 20 years old gets 97.3% of the rate, and over 20 years 90%⁴. A single-axle boom truck is $97.89 an hour and a tandem-axle one $125.52⁴:

PEI prices by axle count, not capacity, so ask the supplier for the chart capacity at your radius.

Nova Scotia, NSRBA 2024

The Nova Scotia Road Builders Association's guide is non-mandatory. Its hourly rate divides a monthly ownership rate by 176 hours and adds the operator, fuel and running repairs, with fuel at $1.50 a litre⁵. Telescopic boom trucks run from $105 an hour for 8 ton to $195 for 25 ton, fueled and operated, in the newest posted edition⁵:

Vancouver Island, IEOA 2026

The Island Equipment Owners Association's suggested minimums include the operator but not transportation⁶. Crane trucks and hydraulic booms run from $153 an hour for 4-1/2 ton to $220 for 15 ton⁶:

When the lift needs a mobile crane

PEI's operated mobile hydraulic cranes run from $116.50 an hour for 12 1/2 ton to $330.72 for 65 ton⁴; IEOA's minimums are $228, $268 and $299 for 18, 30 and 40 ton⁶:

A mobile crane is a different machine with a different certificate; see boom truck or crane.

R 15 mWeekly and monthly rates

No Canadian government or association publishes a daily, weekly or monthly boom truck rate for private hire; the public figures printed here are for public works. The public long-term numbers are conversions.

New Brunswick converts hourly rates to weekly as hourly × 40 × 0.85, and to monthly as hourly × 168 × 0.80⁷. A week bills 34 hours and a month 134.4 hours: 15% and 20% off the straight total (computed).

NSRBA prints a monthly figure beside each operated rate: $10,165 for the 8-ton boom truck, against $105 an hour⁵. Over the guide's 176 hours that is about $57.76 an hour (computed), a little over half the operated rate; the rest is operator, fuel and repairs.

A day. BC Wildfire Service's tables treat a day as eight hours: $6.27 an hour, $50.16 a day on its smallest deck crane line¹⁰. Example, computed: eight hours of New Brunswick's smallest line is $1,330.00, bare; of PEI's tandem line, $1,004.16, operated.

Ask what hours a weekly or monthly rate covers, and whether the operator, fuel and travel are in it. For longer terms see leasing and the rent, lease or buy calculator.

R 18 mWhat a private quote adds

A published hourly rate is the core of a quote, not all of it. Some operators publish their own rates online; we do not reproduce them. Expect these line items:

How to compare two quotes

1. Same capability. Ask each supplier for the chart capacity at your radius, not the ton class.
2. Same basis. Both operated, or both bare plus your operator's wage and payroll costs.
3. Billed hours. The greater of job hours and the minimum, plus mobilization and travel.
4. Extras. Standby, fuel, permits, rigger, signaller and lift planning.
5. Tax. A rental without an operator is a lease of tangible personal property for GST/HST¹⁵; whether an operated hire is one supply or several is a question of fact¹⁶. Provincial sales tax differs: BC does not count an agreement that supplies an operator as a lease¹⁷; Saskatchewan taxes the crane charge but not an operator charge invoiced separately¹⁸; Manitoba treats equipment with an operator as a service when the supplier accompanies and controls it¹⁹. Summaries, not tax advice; see renting a boom truck.
6. Totals. Compare job totals. A lower rate with a longer minimum can cost more on a short lift.

The lift itself is covered in lift planning.

R 21 mOperator wages

Job Bank lists boom truck crane operators under NOC 72500. The national median is $42.77 an hour, low $26.50, high $52.19⁹, for 2023–2024, updated November 2025.

A wage is not a billed rate: payroll costs sit on top, and Newfoundland and Labrador's schedule uses a 35% burden³. Red Deer County, which pays 100% of ARHCA hourly rates, caps labour at $55.00 an hour¹¹. Yearly earnings depend on hours, which vary with the season.

One trap: Job Bank files "operator, picker truck" under NOC 83110, logging machinery operators²⁰, so those figures are not crane work. See picker truck rates.

R 24 mProvinces with no public table, and the price trend

The biggest markets publish the least. Alberta earned 35.3% of the equipment rental and leasing industry's national revenue in 2024 and Ontario 31.1%²¹, yet Alberta has no free boom truck table.

• Alberta. The Alberta Roadbuilders & Heavy Construction Association (ARHCA) sells its 2026 Rental Rates Guide for $200, with a fuel addendum effective May 4, 2026²². Alberta's public buyers pay a paid guide's rates; we do not reproduce it. Alberta Wildfire sets its own rates only for fireline equipment the guide does not cover¹². See Alberta.
• British Columbia. The BC Road Builders & Heavy Construction Association's Blue Book, published with the Ministry of Transportation, sells for $80 in hard copy only²³.
• Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Quebec and the territories. We found no free, current boom truck table.

Statistics Canada's rental price index for construction, transportation, mining and forestry equipment (NAICS 53241) stood at 118.6 in the second quarter of 2026²⁴, against 115.5 a year earlier²⁴, with 2020 = 100: about 2.7% higher, computed. It covers all heavy equipment rental, so use it for direction, not to inflate an old schedule.

When you hold a quote against a published rate, name the source and edition, match the operator basis and compare job totals. If the gap is large, ask which line items explain it.