You are comparing several quotes for guarding a shop in Montpellier, a construction site in the Hérault or a warehouse near Béziers. One provider quotes 17 € excl. VAT per hour, another 26 €. The gap looks huge and the reflex is tempting: pick the cheapest. Yet in private security, a very low hourly rate is almost never a good deal. It is often the signal of a fragile arrangement that will cost you later, in service quality or legal exposure.
This article does not give the TMG Sécurité Privée rate card. It sets out 2026 market benchmarks so you can read a quote, understand what a price really covers, and recognise offers that do not hold up.
What an hourly rate must really finance
The price of an hour of guarding is not just the salary of the officer present on site. When you pay an hourly rate, you finance a complete chain, and it is this chain that determines whether the service will last over time.
A viable hourly rate must cover at least the following items.
- The officer's gross salary, at least at the level of the sector's collective bargaining scale, raised by 2.8% on 1 January 2026
- Employer social contributions, which add a significant share to the cost of labour
- Night, Sunday and public holiday hours, with the surcharges set by the collective agreement
- Supervision, schedule planning and replacement in the event of absence
- Equipment, uniforms, ongoing training and keeping the professional licence card current
- Professional civil liability insurance and overheads
The 2026 market benchmarks
Based on the SMIC and the sector scale in 2026, an hourly rate billed at around 25 to 28 € excl. VAT corresponds to a security officer (ADS) service delivered under healthy social conditions, with real supervision and a margin that lets the company last.
Below 19 € excl. VAT, the maths becomes hard to balance honestly. With a gross hourly SMIC of around 12 € on 1 January 2026 and employer contributions on top, the cost price of an hour of guarding leaves little room. A rate below this threshold often means something has been cut: unpaid surcharges, hours only partly declared, cascading subcontracting or an officer without a valid professional licence card.
These figures are market benchmarks, not a TMG Sécurité Privée rate card. They help position a quote, not set a universal price. A one-off night assignment, an emergency response or a qualified post will naturally sit higher.
Why a price that is too low becomes your problem
The risk of a rate below the viable threshold does not stay with the provider. It flows back to the client, and that is what many buyers discover too late.
As the principal, you have a duty of vigilance. If your provider does not properly declare its officers or pays them below the legal minimum, you can be held liable for undeclared work. An abnormally low price is a clue that the authorities and the courts know how to read.
- High officer turnover, hence loss of site knowledge and reduced vigilance
- Posts not filled in the event of absence, time slots left without real coverage
- Officers not briefed on the site or whose professional licence card is not current
- Risk of financial joint liability in the event of an undeclared work inspection
- Disputes and service interruptions when the provider cannot sustain its business model
Reading a security quote without falling into traps
Comparing two quotes on the hourly rate alone is like comparing two cars on colour alone. You need to look at what is included, what is compliant and what is verifiable.
A few concrete questions allow you to sort quickly.
- Does the company hold a CNAPS operating authorisation, and is the manager's approval in order?
- Do the officers proposed hold a valid professional licence card?
- Are night, Sunday and public holiday surcharges built into the rate or billed on top?
- Does the quote specify supervision, replacement and the terms for continuity of service?
- Does the provider cover your area in-house, or does it go through unidentified subcontracting?
The right price is the one that lasts
Choosing a security provider is not about buying an hour of presence. It is about entrusting the protection of a site, goods or people to a company that must stay standing for the whole term of the contract.
A rate aligned with the 2026 market benchmarks finances officers who are declared, trained and paid properly, supervision that answers the phone, and an insured structure. That is what separates a reliable service from a token presence. In Montpellier and the Hérault, the question is not to pay the least, but to pay for a service that will hold up on the night you really need it.
