What Do You Charge For Travel?

[consultant]

So what do you think would be a fair cost to charge for travel time in cases like this when the travel time can be 2, 3 or even 4 times the onsite time?

Let's say your rate is $225/hour and you have a job that will take 2 hours of onsite time (assume no post processing). That's $450 total.

But let's assume the job is 2.5 hours drive away, 150 miles. So 300 miles total, 5 hours total travel time.

The standard mileage rate is currently $0.58/mile - so by that rate, the travel time charge would be $174, or effectively $35/hour. This per mile rate is suppose to compensate for all costs of operating the vehicle, including fuel.

I know in the consulting industry, consultants charge their full hourly rate during the portion of the travel they can work on your project (sitting in a plane or train). The travel time they aren't working, I've heard typically they charge half their hourly rate. This is because while they are traveling, when they can't work, that is downtime caused by the project that prevents them from otherwise working and making their full hourly rate.

If your standard rate is $225/hour and onsite is 2 hours and travel is 5 hours for the job, let's do the math... $450 + $174 = $624 divided by 7 hours total of your time = $89/hour. Note, this travel time is traveling at freeway speeds. Travel in a crowded city, it could take you an hour to go 30 miles - so at the mileage rate, while you were in your car, you would be making $17.40 an hour. So an effective $89/hour for this hypothetical job is on the high side using the standard mileage rate. $89/hour doesn't sound that bad but that's just gross revenue and not including cost of equipment depreciation, insurance, advertising, software, and on and on and on.

Similarly, if you have to fly, you might charge for your airfare, hotel, rental car, and mileage. But if you are flying, including time spent in airports and rental car counters, you are probably spending a good part of a day (4-8) hours traveling which is time you can't spend onsite during another job at $225/hr.

So seems to me, charging the mileage rate and/or actual travel costs without factoring in any value for your time spent traveling is shooting yourself in the foot as for every hour you are spending driving you are making $17-$35/hr instead of spending that time onsite at a second closer job at $225/hr. One might argue assuming you have the option to do a second job during that time is not realistic. Better to make $17-$35/hr driving to a job than nothing at all but that time could be used for other valuable activities like networking with potential large clients.

So what do you think would be a fair cost to charge for travel time in cases like this when the travel time can be 2, 3 or even 4 times the onsite time?

 

[R Martin]

The standard mileage rate is currently $0.58/mile - so by that rate, the travel time charge would be $174, or effectively $35/hour. This per mile rate is suppose to compensate for all costs of operating the vehicle, including fuel.

That covers wear and tear on the vehicle and fuel but it doesn't cover your time, which is the most valuable. You might want to account for that as well.

 

[Volatus Drones]

For some service jobs in the past we’ve charged 1/4 our hourly rate for travel. This was just included in our lump sum proposal and not itemized. When doing this we didn’t charge mileage.

 

[R.Perry]

I have gone to a flat $1.00 per mile on average. I just incorporate that into the quote.

 

[aerialimagery]

I've never charged for travel. Especially now with drones and operators being so ubiquitous, why should someone pay you to travel instead of hiring locally? Why not instead group assignments in a particular area and charge by the job? Or just charge by the job anyway? Why complicate it?

 

[Kristina Fowler]

I charge $0.30/mile. I use it for 2 purposes. 1) to roughly cover my fuel cost and 2) to create a value proposition for the client and not make it a pricing issue. Goodwill to keep the relationship going, so to speak...

 

[R.Perry]

I've never charged for travel. Especially now with drones and operators being so ubiquitous, why should someone pay you to travel instead of hiring locally? Why not instead group assignments in a particular area and charge by the job? Or just charge by the job anyway? Why complicate it?

Ok, so you like to work for free. I have a job next week in Bakersfield, Ca. It is seven hours of driving, and less than an hour on site. So I should just charge them my normal 100 per hour on site, so I drive seven hours for free and after deductions of 0.58 cents a mile I just did the entire job for free.

When you figure in your vehicle depreciation, insurance, fuel, and maintenance. I drive a 1017 Ford F150, average 20 mpg on the freeway,

The basic idea in business is to make money, not lose it. What was the cost of your drone, extra batteries, and accessories. The drone isn't going to last forever. Any business person is going to figure every cent it costs them to operate their business then adjust their fees so they can make a reasonable profit.

I would rather lose a job because there was no profit in it than work for nothing, or work and lose money. Most people in business understand that you normally get what you pay for, if you are too cheap, that is what they believe they will get.

 

[Mavic Mac]

Benjamin Franklin: The bitterness of poor quality remains long after the sweetness of low price is forgotten.

​

 

[aerialimagery]

Ok, so you like to work for free. I have a job next week in Bakersfield, Ca. It is seven hours of driving, and less than an hour on site. So I should just charge them my normal 100 per hour on site, so I drive seven hours for free and after deductions of 0.58 cents a mile I just did the entire job for free.

When you figure in your vehicle depreciation, insurance, fuel, and maintenance. I drive a 1017 Ford F150, average 20 mpg on the freeway,

The basic idea in business is to make money, not lose it. What was the cost of your drone, extra batteries, and accessories. The drone isn't going to last forever. Any business person is going to figure every cent it costs them to operate their business then adjust their fees so they can make a reasonable profit.

I would rather lose a job because there was no profit in it than work for nothing, or work and lose money. Most people in business understand that you normally get what you pay for, if you are too cheap, that is what they believe they will get.

No I didn't say that. I said I don't charge for travel time as an additional item. I charge by the job which includes whatever I want to cover my expenses. The point is that now that everybody has a drone, why should they pay me a travel fee to travel 100's of miles if someone 5 miles away will do it for much less because of no travel cost? (Not that I don't think I'm worth more--I am--I have many years of experience and do good work, but nobody seems to care much about that now). Ideally, I would try to gang up several jobs in the area so that I could spread out my travel costs and price competitively with those who are local.

I live on the west coast and used to do much aerial photography (from airplanes and helicopters) on the east coast. I didn't charge for travel. I advertised a fixed price, the same for everyone. I just made sure I had a lot of work to do with many different companies when I was in a particular area, and my travel costs relative to what I grossed in sales was small. My average job was about $500 and average travel cost per job was about $50. I would also keep my aircraft costs per job low by doing many jobs per flight.

If you already have a job in Bakersfield and you are established with a company that wants to work with you and send you wherever and pick up the travel tab instead of looking for local service, that's a different story. But if it would be a prospect, I wouldn't bid $500 plus $500 travel costs. Instead, I would see about adding on other work in the area and just raise the price for that customer a little. But if I couldn't get additional work, I still would bid a flat fee, but a lot more than my regular pricing, that they could take or leave. I don't see any advantage to breaking down the fee according to work time and travel time. If the travel cost were high, I wouldn't want to put the idea in their head to look for someone closer to them.

I've done thousands of aerial photography jobs and I had a good run for over 20 years made a good money (after deducting the costs--I do know about that) for doing seasonal work (about 6 months per year). I'm not as dumb as you think I am. But those days are over.

 

[Earthman]

If you don’t recover your labor and other direct costs, you better be investing in the project for marketing reasons, or it’s a hobby not a business.

If you are working for a business person, they’ll understand your fees. If they don’t understand, focus on other clients.

I don’t compete in markets beyond my reach except occasionally for marketing reasons.

I use the attached to estimate real estate projects and to explain my fees line by line to agents (I can't upload a spreadsheet here so the attached is a PDF of my spreadsheet). Without post production (if all they want is photos and videos), my fee is typically a few percent of the agent's commission (the agent gets 97% of their commission after paying me) and a fraction of 1% of the selling price of the property. Without changing anything other than sales price of the property, my fees are even lower on higher priced properties.

 

[aerialimagery]

If you don’t recover your labor and other direct costs, you better be investing in the project for marketing reasons, or it’s a hobby not a business.

If you are working for a business, they’ll understand. If they don’t, focus on other clients.

Yes, I’m a consultant and I don’t compete in markets beyond my reach except occasionally for marketing reasons.

Please reread the previous posts. Recovering costs and having something worthwhile left over was never in dispute.

 

[JDS]

I charge a flat rate of $1.00 per mile, outside of my immediate 50 mile radius. I do the same for my Bee keeping removal service. Most folks don't seem to mind it.

 

[R Martin]

I drive a 1017 Ford F150, average 20 mpg on the freeway,

Does that still have the wooden wheels on it? You gotta hand it to Ford though; 1003 years old and still chugging along....

 

[PrudentialUAS]

If someone decides to not charge they can always use it as a deduction.

 

[BigAl07]

No I didn't say that. I said I don't charge for travel time as an additional item.

No sir you specifically said:

I've never charged for travel. Especially now with drones and operators being so ubiquitous, why should someone pay you to travel instead of hiring locally? Why not instead group assignments in a particular area and charge by the job? Or just charge by the job anyway? Why complicate it?

Apparently you DO charge for travel you just don't list it as a separate line item but you build it into the price.

If we travel we get paid to travel. If we are traveling we aren't flying and we aren't making $$. It's a business not a hobby or charity so we need to get paid for our time.

You need to get paid for your time, car wear & tear, and travel expenses. In today's climate with a Part 107 on every corner most clients won't pay for travel and that's fine with me. I still have a couple that are willing to pay for my experience etc to travel to them but it's just a few times a year and they pay well for it.

 

[aerialimagery]

The main point I was trying to make is why should someone be paid a substantial travel fee if the same service is available locally. I've never specifically charged a customer for travel especially since I almost never traveled and did work for only one customer, but spread out the costs. When I did work on the east coast (from the west coast) I didn't say the fee is $500 plus a $600 airfare, plus a $400 rental car, plus $300 in meals, plus $800 in motel costs, plus $2,000 to cover my travel time, plus gas, etc., etc. I ganged up my work making travel costs per customer small enough that I could compete with local pricing (though I didn't have much competition in those days). So my point to the OP was that he ought to consider getting more work in whatever area he is traveling to, otherwise by adding substantial travel fees he could price himself out of the market.

If someone has a unique service and and/or has well above average talents that are not available locally, then that could be a different story, but the OP is a beginner.

 

[R.Perry]

I think every area of the country is different, in New York, or San Francisco you can demand a more money than you can is other parts of the country. As already stated, the idea is business is to make a profit. I have lost a few jobs I bid on because someone came in cheaper. I recently lost a job I bid on because because someone offered to do it for fifty bucks, and that person must like working for nothing, that isn't building experience, that is just cutthroating the industry, and yes I know cutthroating isn't proper.

Speaking of getting experience, my personal opinion is if someone is new to this business, get your experience at home or wherever you can fly, get to know your drone inside and out, as well as the available software like Litchi, Done Deploy, and obviously DJI, or any of the others that you may wish to use. I highly recommend not gaining your experience at the clients expense, that will only hurt the industry. Personally I wish I had a lot more experience before I took on the two and a half year project at UC Merced, I learned a lot there, and thanks to some of the folks on this forum.

 

[BigAl07]

I think every area of the country is different, in New York, or San Francisco you can demand a more money than you can is other parts of the country. As already stated, the idea is business is to make a profit. I have lost a few jobs I bid on because someone came in cheaper. I recently lost a job I bid on because because someone offered to do it for fifty bucks, and that person must like working for nothing, that isn't building experience, that is just cutthroating the industry, and yes I know cutthroating isn't proper.

Speaking of getting experience, my personal opinion is if someone is new to this business, get your experience at home or wherever you can fly, get to know your drone inside and out, as well as the available software like Litchi, Done Deploy, and obviously DJI, or any of the others that you may wish to use. I highly recommend not gaining your experience at the clients expense, that will only hurt the industry. Personally I wish I had a lot more experience before I took on the two and a half year project at UC Merced, I learned a lot there, and thanks to some of the folks on this forum.

Excellent reply!! I totally agree across the board.

 

[Deltadave]

No I didn't say that. I said I don't charge for travel time as an additional item. I charge by the job which includes whatever I want to cover my expenses. The point is that now that everybody has a drone, why should they pay me a travel fee to travel 100's of miles if someone 5 miles away will do it for much less because of no travel cost? (Not that I don't think I'm worth more--I am--I have many years of experience and do good work, but nobody seems to care much about that now). Ideally, I would try to gang up several jobs in the area so that I could spread out my travel costs and price competitively with those who are local.

It's not a one size fits all. In some industries, only highly skilled pilots with extremely expensive and rare equipment can do the job. You cannot just find these in every city or even state. I have to consider including airfare, shipping and lodging at the very least.
My point: Not a simple number added across board. Maybe in the Realty sector where everyone with a 107 racing to the bottom price may apply, but it varies widely across industries and requires serious consideration. Best suggestion I have is to find several operators in your industry and area and compare prices. Don't undercut them or price yourself out, but be competitive and let your superior product make you stand out. $.02

 

[BigAl07]

.....Don't undercut them or price yourself out, but be competitive and let your superior product make you stand out. $.02

Rock solid advice! So many fall for the "undercut" mindset and it's a race into the ditches.

We learned a long time ago to expect a fair price for our work and to WOW them with something that the competition can't/wont deliver. When you client is impressed they sign those big checks a lot easier and they talk very highly about you in the industry.