Ummm, yeah.
Except last time I increased prices gas was 1.8/gallon (which oddly enough was about two years ago. How soon people forget). That's actually around 12 dollars more for a service call. And when a lot of the service calls are 1-2 hrs it matters a lot. And when factoring the "free estimates" it adds even more.
At this point I don't want to charge more an hour, but I'm seriously considering charging for estimates. Sears technicians do it. Why can't we?
I'm not talking my regular customers, I get 80% of their work, and the other 20% I have a chance to be the lowest.
Except last time I increased prices gas was 1.8/gallon (which oddly enough was about two years ago. How soon people forget). That's actually around 12 dollars more for a service call. And when a lot of the service calls are 1-2 hrs it matters a lot. And when factoring the "free estimates" it adds even more.
At this point I don't want to charge more an hour, but I'm seriously considering charging for estimates. Sears technicians do it. Why can't we?
I'm not talking my regular customers, I get 80% of their work, and the other 20% I have a chance to be the lowest.
Do "billing factors" like natural gas company? Metered x factor of 1.08235 or whatever
"fuel surcharge" like UPS & FedEx?
I can't possibly see the direct reflection of fuel cost being that high.
Even at 10mpg, the increase in directly traceable cost increase in gas price from $3 vs $4 for a 50 mile round-trip service is $5 and thats assuming worst case scenario with point A to B and back to A with absolutely no productive activity to add onto that service call. If you start out in the country and go into the city and make a stop at the supply house to buy a bunch of other stuff for other jobs, that counts as a productive stop.
If material goes up, how do address it?
i.e. if your cost was $10 today and you charge $20 for it, and its $20 tomorrow, do you charge $30 to cover the incremental cost or do you charge $40? If the latter, you're actually benefiting from rising material cost.