Travel and pricing... How are you charging more for driving time?

[jcooper]

Hey Fellas,

I need to find a way to make this easier for the wife... Just wondering, how are you charging more for driving time?

Are you simply raising the minimum for far away towns? Turning them down? Or are you raising sqft prices? 20 miles add an extra .10 cents, 30 miles add an extra .20, etc....

Big map with price circles drawn on it?

Any ideas?


If I'm going to drive 45 minutes we can't have the same minimum as jobs close by, uggggg. Tomorrows going to suck!

 

[Hack Attack]

I have my areas that I dont charge for and then beyond that $1 for every minute travelled there and back

Doesnt break even with cleaning but it covers some cost/time

 

[BIG WOOD]

I add $50 to my minimum for every 30min extra driving time.

 

[Desk Jockey]

$1.75 mile × 60 miles =$105.00 hour that is what I figure travel time is worth. If you want less, lower the mile rate. If you want more an hour raise the mileage rate.

$175.00 minimum in primary service area. $265.00 minimum secondary service area.

 

[Dolly Llama]

I need to find a way to make this easier for the wife

tough to make "easy" Coop
cause one size won't fit all

absolutely have to have a higher minimum for 2 roomers and a hall 40 miles away .
But you can't just measure distance either .
There are places we went that were 50 miles one way and took well less than an hour to get there due to being mostly 70mph interstate .

while another Ville was 30 miles as the crow flies, but took over an hour due to routes and traffic


..L.T.A.

 

[Hack Attack]

$1.75 mile × 60 miles =$105.00 hour that is what I figure travel time is worth. If you want less, lower the mile rate. If you want more an hour raise the mileage rate.

$175.00 minimum in primary service area. $265.00 minimum secondary service area.

Your pricing is close to what I used to have but had some customers do the math and comeback with you charge $100 an hr? my plumber and mechanic etc dont..

So I cut back my driving rate, if you can get higher rates cool

 

[Desk Jockey]

Your pricing is close to what I used to have but had some customers do the math and comeback with you charge $100 an hr? my plumber and mechanic etc dont..

So I cut back my driving rate, if you can get higher rates cool

What you need to remind the client is every hour of windshield time is time you could spend cleaning. Cleaning per hour returns twice what travel does.

Truth is traveling many times is just not worth the effort. If they don't like the rate and can't appreciate what you are doing for them, maybe you should let them call someone else.

 

[ruff]

If you are reasonably busy- Charge for your drive time and be upfront about it.
Hiding charges always comes back to bite you. If they want you, they will be willing to pay it.

 

[jcooper]

I add $50 to my minimum for every 30min extra driving time.

How much for a 45 minutes of driving hell?

Does the client know about the 50$ upcharge? They still book?

Truth is traveling many times is just not worth the effort.

Tomorrow it sure isn't! If you have the business here, why go there?

$175.00 minimum in primary service area. $265.00 minimum secondary service area.

Just higher minimum? Not higher sqft?

 

[Mark Saiger]

We just tell them we would like to get a minimum of $***, to work in their area and we can usually make things work but sometimes (like now) when we are blasted crazy busy... They are going to have to wait until I get more requests for an area or they can start calling their neighbors to set up more work for us.

We have one an hour away from us at a large high end resort next week that we are now thinking we should have scheduled two days... They got their neighbors!

 

[Desk Jockey]

How much for a 45 minutes of driving hell?

Does the client know about the 50$ upcharge? They still book?






Tomorrow it sure isn't! If you have the business here, why go there?




Just higher minimum? Not higher sqft?

I agree, why go there. Ego can be a trap. Someone says how great you are and they really want you and before you know it, you're doing something that makes no business sense.

We do higher sq/ft but you can do as you want. We really don't try to use price as a deterrent. However it makes little sense to do it for little profit or a breakeven.

 

[Jim Williams]

I network with another cleaner who I refer for those jobs in our capital city. I have no desire to get in all that traffic and he sends me any in my area he gets. I normally don't travel more than 30 minutes in any direction. I have one customer who is more like 45 minutes away but I don't charge him extra. He always pays me more than I charge anyways.

 

[Hack Attack]

Depends on your population base if I lived in the city I couldnt see myself wanting to travel more than 30mins in any direction

But I've got pop base of 46k with density of 9 per square mile so I travel

 

[Acp]

used to charge per mile but now its just a higher minimum the further out it is.

 

[Cleanworks]

price of gas these days, I charge a little more, the further I go.

 

[DAT]

some customers comeback with you charge $100 an hr? my plumber and mechanic etc dont..

Yes they do....

 

[Hack Attack]

Yes they do....

Here they are charged in the $60-80 per hr range, the difference which most dont see is its not uncommon for a plumber to be several days on 1 site or for work to come to the mechanic not vice versa

 

[steve_64]

Depends on your population base if I lived in the city I couldnt see myself wanting to travel more than 30mins in any direction

But I've got pop base of 46k with density of 9 per square mile so I travel

30 minutes in Chicago might be 10 miles sometimes.

I don't charge extra for travel but I rarely drive more than 30 minutes. 20 minutes is a long drive for me.

 

[jcooper]

Hack Attack said: ↑
some customers comeback with you charge $100 an hr? my plumber and mechanic etc dont..
Yes they do....

Heck yea! My furnace guy(for a yearly service) charges us 125$ spends about a half hour here.

 

[Old Coastie]

Lazy sods. I often drive 100 miles.
I like it. LIKE IT, I tells ya!

And I charge for it.