Hi guys. Lately I've been getting calls for these little jobs that require lots of driving. I have one right now that is 2 hours each way. The job is removing and replacing (2) 18" decals, and sticking another 16" decal. What would be fair to charge for my driving time? I know the guy will pay whatever I ask, but I need to be fair.
Thanks always, Felix
Posted by George Perkins (Member # 156) on :
This is always a hard one and way too easy to undercharge for.
Shop rate for 4 hours at 50%? The government allowed rate for use of vehicle, I think it was 54 cents a mile?
I'd suggest calling a plumber and ask them what they would charge for four hours of travel, you won't feel so guilty.
Posted by Curt Stenz (Member # 82) on :
I used to do quite a bit of work for a marketing person who's clients were all out of town and like George stated, half your rate for travel.
Posted by Dave Sherby (Member # 698) on :
I do the same, 50% of my shop rate. I feel bad trying to charge full shop rate for travel. Your shop rate includes your skills. Driving can be done by anyone. On the other hand, in my area, plumbers, heating guys and electricians charge full labor rate from the time they step out the door till the time they get back to the shop. I even had one heating guy (never called him again after this) that charged me full rate for him AND a trainee. The owner stood there and BS'd with me while his trainee cleaned out the wasp nest from my furnace exhaust pipe.
Posted by Alicia B. Jennings (Member # 1272) on :
I used to drive all over the state, and I do charge for travel time. Being that I really like driving, it's not so much a chore. I'm happy with starting out at $70 for the first 30 minutes and then $25 per hour after that. If I have to have lunch out, got figure in for that. I have a 4 cyclinder truck.If you have a larger motor, then you might have to charge more.
Posted by Ian Stewart-Koster (Member # 3500) on :
I do it a bit differently, because we're in the country, and about 3 hours from Brisbane. We get a fair few job orders from interstate, to be made & installed in Brisbane, so I charge a token tank of fuel as 'travel contribution', and charge quite a bit for time-on-the-job, but no travel time, however I use the opportunity while there to restockk acrylic sheeting, corroplas, alupanel and other stuiff, so dave a courier trying to find us later on.
If you're lucky you can get three trips' worth out of the one trip.
Posted by Dan Sawatzky (Member # 88) on :
We have a very different take on travel time. We charge consistently no matter what we are doing. Time out of the shop is charged at full rate if we are doing business. I just got back from a trip to Trinidad... my seventeenth trip on this project over a four year period. I charged a daily rate equal to shop rate (my time only) of $1,500 per day plus all expenses. This includes travel time. The customer happily paid, as always.
Time spent out of the shop is lost time unless we charge for it. We prefer the customer to come to us but that is not always possible. Our customers understand my time is valuable.
-grampa dan
[ January 21, 2018, 05:35 PM: Message edited by: Dan Sawatzky ]
Posted by Dave Draper (Member # 102) on :
I have to agree with Dan.
From a former shop owner with employees viewpoint, I had to pay my employees (which were my sons) and they didn't want to get paid 50% of their hourly for driving time. The shop had bills to pay, the landlord, power company, gas, and water wanted full payments; and don't forget the truck payments, gas and auto insurance, and the phone.
If you had to hold off work on somebody's project to go two hours away and charge less, that would not be fair either to first customer.
I think it sends a message to the local customers you would work at a discount rate for customers two hours away.
When you bid the job that is two hours away and it comes out to (let's say for example) $1800 the travel time is already in the bid and the customer has to decide if he wants to spend that on the job or not. Its not about you, its about what the customer will pay.
Its a tax write off for him anyway, and I don't think your going to put the guy out of business.
And one other thought: If the situation was reversed and someone had to come from two hours away and work on YOUR project, would you demand he charge a small amount for travel time? I think you would already have a plan in place as how to pay for the job, like raise prices or something.
[ January 21, 2018, 07:21 PM: Message edited by: Dave Draper ]
Posted by David Harding (Member # 108) on :
I used to charge 50% and then got whacked in the head with a 2x4 and thought, "I'm still working on this job, why is there a discount for travel time? It's all part of the labor and expense to do this job!" Now, I charge regular rate and include it in the price quoted for the job.
Posted by Dave Sherby (Member # 698) on :
Hey David, lend me that 2x4. Dan has a unique situation. All his competitors are charging for time out of the shop just like Dan does. In my case, I live in a small town. It accounts for about 15% of my business. 70% of my business comes from a city with 4 other sign shops. If I charge full price for travel, I believe that many of those jobs will just go to one of the local shops and save themselves $75 on the same sign, especially when too many customers are only looking at price. I get my share of customers that are coming to me because of my work and style, but I can't live off of them.
Posted by Dave Grundy (Member # 103) on :
I was much like you Dave S. You know where we lived..out in the boonies.
10% of my business came from clients that were within a 30 minute drive. The other 90% required driving 45-90 minutes each way and sometimes over 2 hrs each way.
I guess I just built the travel time into my prices or absorbed them into the cost of doing business. It worked for me though.
There were occasions when I would drive 90 minutes round trip to do a $150 graphic replacement on a fender of a repaired truck on a Sunday morning (the actual work time was about 15 minutes).
It wasn't a money maker, but it kept my client happy and loyal so that when the next fleet of 10 new trucks arrived, I did the same 90 minute drive and then earned $2000-3000 for a day's work.
Then there were the $1000/trailer jobs that still required that 90 minute drive. Even better!
It worked for me.
[ January 26, 2018, 12:03 AM: Message edited by: Dave Grundy ]
