Originally Posted by Scott Stone

This the way I figure it:

Travel Time, two employees at $10 an hour, with Benefits, etc. 2.5 hours ~$75
Truck expense 1.5 hours @ 30 MPH ave. 45 miles, minimum ~$22.50
Lost Revenue @ $45 an hour, since if you were not doing this you would
be doing somethig else making money ~$67.50

Total cost for one tank of water (per trip) ~$165

That being said, if ti si new construction, there should be some water somewhere for you to tap into. Every new construction that I have seen has had at least one house in the vicinity tha had the water turned on, and usually they all do. If the SUperintendent doesn't want you to use the water, he is just being a jerk.
You need to remember that the AP guy ( I assume that is the guy in charge of invoicing) has one job, and that is to make the contractor money. Just like the Super has one job, to make the contractor money. If you want to think about it, you have one job, too. That is to make YOU money.
All that being said, you made a mistake. In this kind of situation you never list out what the charges are going to be for transporting water versus the actual cleaning of the property. That just gives the customer leverage to negotiate. You need to just give them a bottom line price. They do not need to know what your costs are when cleaning something. It is none of their business. If they insist on knowing, it is only so that htey can hammer you on your pricing. Most do not want to cost you money, but they sure do not want you to make a bundle off of them.