Can I ask what do people charge when travelling to a job?

[John McCormick]

Hi Paul,

Interesting question I often think am I charging enough for travel.

Local jobs within a 10 mile radius I charge 50p per mile

Long distance jobs charge £1 per mile

I guess people might charge differently if they are based in cities,

Hope that helps? 😀

John

[Ian Johnston]

Are you charging for repairs or initial jobs?

[John McCormick]

quote Ian Johnston:

Are you charging for repairs or initial jobs?

Initial jobs, Ian

[Gary Birch]

I calculate it on hourly rate + 10%(to allow for hold ups on the road) + 45p per mile (this covers wear and tear) + overnight supplement if needed.

We win some and we lose some.

[Stuart Miller]

As I live in a fairly rural area nearly every job I do entails driving between 40 and 160 miles round trip, so I would soon go broke if I didn’t charge mileage.
When I started doing this I worked out

Fuel Cost
Vehicle annual servicing & repair costs
Annual average mileage
Road Tax
Insurance
to find my actual costs per mile.

I also add £10 per 50 (roughly 1 hour) miles as a driver wage. So at least when I am behind the wheel I feel I am not wasting time but actually earning money. Not a lot but makes me feel better.

All in all this comes to around 45p per mile.
Many jobs involve 2 trips for a survey then fitting so the mileage is added twice.

In a city location probably not worth it for a couple of miles and I only charge this when going further than 10 miles from my base but around here everyone recognises it as essential to do business.

[Adrian Hewson]

WE work out what a job costs and then add what we want to make on top, saves arguments afterwards, the more you split the job into the component parts re charging the more the customer has to analyse and think about.

Normally we rarely travel more than 25 miles to a job, further than this its too time consuming

[Ian Johnston]

i live in northern ireland, and do jobs throughout the UK & Ireland, from the Orkneys to Kent to Killarney.
over the next two months we have jobs in Wigan, London, and Rotherham and Scarbourgh , Dublin as well as around home,
We cost a job on a par with local guys but let our experience win the contract,
We never charge for travelling as a separate item, it’s costed in, it’s not my customers fault i don’t live beside them, Give them a complete package cost including the travel costs and there not be any arguments, or hidden extras,
Your workmanship and experience should be what you sell not just your signs 😀

[Stuart Miller]

quote Ian Johnston:

i live in northern ireland, and do jobs throughout the UK & Ireland, from the Orkneys to Kent to Killarney.
over the next two months we have jobs in Wigan, London, and Rotherham and Scarbourgh , Dublin as well as around home,
We cost a job on a par with local guys but let our experience win the contract,
We never charge for travelling as a separate item, it’s costed in, it’s not my customers fault i don’t live beside them, Give them a complete package cost including the travel costs and there not be any arguments, or hidden extras,
Your workmanship and experience should be what you sell not just your signs 😀

Ian I cant believe you charge the same price for say a £300 sign if it 2 miles down the road compared to one 200 miles away!!
Quite agree that you don’t separate it out though.
When I quote it s for that job and is not itemised for the customer on the quote, but the mileage distance charge will be incorporated into the quote.
So the same job will be different in price by £72 if it is 40 miles away and required a survey visit before installation. It has to be as the job may only make £72 profit and if you don’t do it you have worked for nothing. Obviously it makes you uncompetetive price wise to a sign maker next door to the client but then you have to sell on other points as you say. Very much depends on the demographics of your business. For signs I usually stay local but for window tinting there are only 3 of us within 100 miles and we are all in the same situation so mileage is an important part of the price.
For larger jobs there is usually more profit made so the mileage amount both becomes less important for your margin and less impact on the price for the customer so its on small jobs that the individual sign maker does that it is most important. Bigger jobs well yes lets just forget it.