"Consultants" travelling to work client charge

[DSLiverpool]

Chaps it's time for my first proper paid gig, however I have no idea how or what to charge for my travelling to the site which is 54 miles away, I think I will be on site one day a week for a long while - can the enlightened ones help please.
I was thinking 45p a mile but don't want to look a knob as this place has used outside advisors a lot .

[marshalla]

Does your contract allow you to pass on expenses?
Are they paying you enough and likely enough to use you again, that you could absorb the cost as if it was commuting to a full-time job?

After answering those, 45ppm seems fair.

Edited by marshalla on Wednesday 2nd December 20:39

[DSLiverpool]

There is no "contract" as in an IT consultant tight doc, the company has an issue, I have to solve it, train staff and keep a sales channel profitable within agreed parameters . If the channel performs as expected I see it as a ongoing agreement and hopefully one of 4 I hope to land that will give me a decent income with no staff, no product and no real job (!)

I'm going to mention "travelling" and see what sort of response I get.

[Simpo Two]

It's whatever you like and can get away with. You can charge 45p, 50p, £1, £2 - or work it into the day rate and announce 'Travel: FOC'. They'll like that.

[nyt]

Include it in your day rate otherwise it's like postage on eBay - people hate paying it. Doubly so if you have a 'desirable' car.

[Simpo Two]

I never had a problem with mileage doing weddings, but yes, I agree that usually people will pay thousands for a service/product but bh about £10 travel.

[DSLiverpool]

nyt said:

Include it in your day rate otherwise it's like postage on eBay - people hate paying it. Doubly so if you have a 'desirable' car.

Lol 2005 Volvo XC70 purchased just for the image it gives to others ;-)

[Jasandjules]

As above, either include it in your day rate or charge a travel time at a reduced rate?

[theboss]

Definitely built it into your day rate and then state that it's inclusive of expenses - as stated above clients generally prefer to see a fixed cost and begrudge paying expenses, plus it's more admin for everyone. Also if you increase the day rate to compensate then you're always billing at a slightly higher rate... I've done this and then had the customer turn around and offer me a paid-for hotel room or further work from home, meaning I'm always charging the higher rate whether the expenses are incurred or not.

[DSLiverpool]

OK - I am discussing on monday, quite excited it seems like a proper job after 10 years of being captain of a small ship.

[21TonyK]

Its a long time ago but even back in 98-2002 I was charging £1 per mile if subcontracted. If I was working for one of my own clients then I never charged domestic travel or daily expenses. Hotels etc I would absorb into my rates. Anything international was arranged by the client but I would have charged flights if I'd had to pay for them myself.

Today I would be charging £3 per mile as a starting point. At 60 miles per hour I'd want to at least cover my time and the travel cost.

[H6CJF]

Good luck with £3 per mile!! I charge the hmrc rate of .42p per mile. Generally the most any of my clients will stand...

[sideways sid]

I agree that clients prefer an inclusive rate to day-rate plus expenses.

I have quoted two day-rates before and clients seem to like the approach. A higher rate for on-site, and a lower-rate for off-site (i.e. working from home). Obviously any further travel is chargeable.

It obviously means that I charge the higher rate if the client puts me in a hotel overnight without quibbling over travel expenses.

[Eric Mc]

Simpo Two said:

It's whatever you like and can get away with. You can charge 45p, 50p, £1, £2 - or work it into the day rate and announce 'Travel: FOC'. They'll like that.

Yep - no need to quote "Travel" as if it is some kind of "special" recoverable expense.

If you go down that route, why not quote all the other business costs such as Stationery, Postage, Insurance, Light and Heat etc etc.

The best thing is to just charge enough in your headline fee to cover these costs. After all, the name of the game in business is to bill enough to your customers to cover your costs and generate a profit.

[Snowdrop_]

Agreed, include it in your day rate.

We charge a Day Rate + Fixed Price Expenses for the day depending on location but we lump it into one fee for the client. Saves any questions and it's one fixed price.

[Countdown]

We would normally prefer it to be included in the day rate or have it shown separately but as a single fixed sum. Where the contract says "plus expenses" there's always a slight feeling that the Contractor is going to come down the night before travelling first class, and book the penthouse apartment with coke'n'hookers package. At least f the cost is fixed at the outset we don't care if the go for the above option or sleep in the lobby of the local travelodge....

[nyt]

Eric Mc said:

If you go down that route, why not quote all the other business costs such as Stationery, Postage, Insurance, Light and Heat etc etc.

I worked for one of the big accountancy firms once that used to add 'Sundries' to their bill to cover stationery etc. It was never ever queried and just turned into a random charge added to the client's invoice as far as I could see.

[Eric Mc]

nyt said:

Eric Mc said:

If you go down that route, why not quote all the other business costs such as Stationery, Postage, Insurance, Light and Heat etc etc.

I worked for one of the big accountancy firms once that used to add 'Sundries' to their bill to cover stationery etc. It was never ever queried and just turned into a random charge added to the client's invoice as far as I could see.

I would have queried it.

[Countdown]

nyt said:

Eric Mc said:

If you go down that route, why not quote all the other business costs such as Stationery, Postage, Insurance, Light and Heat etc etc.

I worked for one of the big accountancy firms once that used to add 'Sundries' to their bill to cover stationery etc. It was never ever queried and just turned into a random charge added to the client's invoice as far as I could see.

That sounds familiar .

At a previous place where I worked we had one of the big 4 on retainer (so it was a fixed quarterly fee plus £200 per hour for any consultancy time over and above our our quarterly allowance). During One quarter there was an extra charge for £1,600 which surprised me as we hadn't asked them to do any extra work. When we queried it we found out that they'd charged us 8 hours time for a partner to come up from London for a meeting (6 hours travel / 2 hours meeting). It was a bit of a p155take especially as they have a massive office in Manchester (so no need for anybody from London) and I knew for a fact that the Partner was coming up for internal reasons anyway. But hey, let's slip it on an invoice and hope nobody queries it.

[egomeister]

Countdown said:

We would normally prefer it to be included in the day rate or have it shown separately but as a single fixed sum. Where the contract says "plus expenses" there's always a slight feeling that the Contractor is going to come down the night before travelling first class, and book the penthouse apartment with coke'n'hookers package. At least f the cost is fixed at the outset we don't care if the go for the above option or sleep in the lobby of the local travelodge....

On the flipside of that, separately billing for travel costs can focus the mind of the client. I have colleagues who have been pulled back and forth to client sites only to find the people they were supposed to be meeting weren't available or that things could have been easily sorted via phone/email/screen sharing. Funnily enough now he's charging for visits at cost or getting the client to book they are a lot more selective/prepared when they call him on site.