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Thread: Contractors - do you charge travel time?

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    Contractors - do you charge travel time?

    I'm a self-employed designer working on a great project at the moment, but one which involves 3 hours travelling every time I'm need to go to their offices to work in-house with them. This is my first large project which has involved a lot of travelling out of town, with my work over the past few years being mainly from home or local. Should I be charging my client for those hours spent in the car, or is that not a "done thing"? Looking back I should have discussed this with them at the start of project, so I wanted to get opinions from other's before I say "oh, by the way, I'll be invoicing for 3 hours more on each of the days I've come to you..."

    Any advice appreciated.

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    Re: Contractors - do you charge travel time?

    Personally I (we) don't charge for the time spent driving to a meeting for a project - instead we build those costs into the project cost - a rough number of meetings and milestones is usually built into the project plan, so you can assign an arbitary figure for travelling costs if you are going to have to travel a reasonable distance to meetings with your clients.

    Really depends on your relationship with your clients though and if you charge a fixed hourly rate or a fixed price for "the project". I would be tempted to keep a track of the mileage you are doing and speak to them about it - you will probably find they are happy to pay a proportion if not all of your travel costs (not an hourly rate, but say 10p a mile).

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    Re: Contractors - do you charge travel time?

    For me, it depends on the nature of the job.

    Some work I do is priced by the project, in which case it's down to me to work out costs, including time costs, and quote accordingly. That implies nailing down the requirements , including the extent of travelling time ..... and adding an element to cover overruns for things outside my control. It also implies nailing down, in advance and in writing, what the customer says they want, because it inevitably changes. And if it isn't carved in stone that they pick up the costs of changing their mind, they'll do so at the drop of a hat.

    Other jobs are charged by the hour. If a client needs a specific job and it's going to take four hours, but it's three hours each way to get there, I charge for ten hours (plus expenses). One job took me about half an hour ..... but involved a return drive from London to Durham. I'm certainly not doing that trip for 30 minutes pay.

    In other words, the way I charge varies according to the client's needs, but one way or another, I'm getting paid for my time and any expenses incurred or I won't do the job. And if it's a fixed price, I build in a healthy margin of error on the estimate of time and costs, because I'm not being the only one shouldering the risk of the unexpected. So if the client wants a fixed price, that price includes an allowance for things like travel taking longer than expected. If they don't want to take that risk, it's 'pay as you go'.

    You're right, JimNastics, yo8 should have covered this up-front, and it should be in the contract. If it's a large job, you do have a written contract, don't you?

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    Re: Contractors - do you charge travel time?

    it all depends on the contract, we don't pay contractors traveling time usually, it's up to them to rake it in on the hourly / daily rate. I have one guy who got it into his contract to get a 1st class rail ticket to London for every day / part day on site.

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