T&M and travel

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JoeNorm

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Let's say you have to travel 45 minutes each direction to a job that might take 3 hours. If you are doing the job T&M how should I address the travel time?

I know everyone is going to say charge a flat rate but that is not the question. I'll get there soon.

Thanks
 
JoeNorm said:
Let's say you have to travel 45 minutes each direction to a job that might take 3 hours. If you are doing the job T&M how should I address the travel time?

I know everyone is going to say charge a flat rate but that is not the question. I'll get there soon.

Thanks
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I would probably charge a half day, 4 hours, for my good clients. I'm busy enough now where if it was someone I didn't know or didn't really want to work for I would probably say one day minimum charge.
 
I charge one way driving time so that I can charge for picking up material. If the job is 45 minutes away I will also charge about 15 - 30 minutes for the return trip.

Probably not the best system but I have been doing it for a while now and customers do not seem to mind.
 
I say charge the same rate for driving time as for working time. It's time you're not on another job, and even though you're not being productive, you're incurring expenses you don't incur while at the job.
 
We charge the same for travel as for service and we charge for mileage tolls and any other expenses we might incur. I don't see why you should waste your time traveling someplace for free.
 
Kind of no different than when you travel far enough that you will be finding a place to stay at night. You may not directly itemize those expenses but you will include them somehow in what you end up charging for the job as it is a cost related to the job.

I generally start tracking time when I start loading supplies to take to said job. Often there may be more time involved where I may be answering phone calls related to other clients or other business or even personal aspects, or still spend a little time putting away things from yesterday's job, or whatever not related things come up. So I kind of adjust that time to what I feel is fair if it isn't time totally dedicated to the one client. Travel time also billed to the client, but then also run into times where I don't go straight to their place and maybe make some adjustments as I see being fair.
 
Thanks, all very helpful. I can see why people have half and full day rates. Keeps things simple.
 
I am new at this, but I charge time worked on a job plus 1 hour. So if I worked 4 hours on a job I bill for 5, no matter if it’s 5 mins or one hour away, people tend to see this as fair and if not I really do not need to be working for those people.


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