Travel Fee?

E

eric77

New member
How do you mobile guys charge for travel? I have found myself travelling up to an hour away and ussually charge about $50 if I have to travel that far. When you guys charge a premium for travel do you specifically say what your travel fee is or do you just factor it into the price? I have tried both and to be honest, Im not sure which customers would prefer to hear/
 
I like to say since I am driving an hour round trip I have to charge an extra 20-30 bucks to a.) cover gas, and b.) cover time. Customers dont usually like hearing my time is worth money, but I think at a time when gas crawls to 3-4 bucks a gallon they can understand why you charge for mileage.



Greg
 
If I have to charge a mileage fee, I'll tell the customer that is what the extra charge is for. For some reason it's easier for a customer to swallow $200 for a detail on their car with a $40 mileage fee, than if I build it into my pricing and tell the customer it's going to be $240 to detail his car. Obviously it's the same amount of money involved, but psychologically, they view each senario differently. Why....I have no idea. You'll have to ask Freud! LOL
 
I would think that customers expect to pay a traveling fee, so when you tell then its $240 tehy will think it will be that plus a traveling fee :D.
 
SilverLine said:
If I have to charge a mileage fee, I'll tell the customer that is what the extra charge is for. For some reason it's easier for a customer to swallow $200 for a detail on their car with a $40 mileage fee, than if I build it into my pricing and tell the customer it's going to be $240 to detail his car. Obviously it's the same amount of money involved, but psychologically, they view each senario differently. Why....I have no idea. You'll have to ask Freud! LOL
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Thats how I imagined it would be, but I have heard from a couple different people that adding premiums irritates people and makes them think like they are spending more.
 
I think very very few mobile businesses won't add some sort of premium to locations outside of a certain business. Why should a mobile detailer be any different. For example, the company that comes out to service our hot tub charges us a $60 mileage fee just to drive about 25 miles!! If any of my clients question the charge I will typically just explain that the severe rise in gas prices have forced me to add the charge. As someone mentioned, most people that have dealt with any type of mobile service expect some sort of mileage fee. I don't charge anything if it's within 25 miles, but I'm really starting to crack down on locations outside of that as I was pretty laid back on the charge last year. Sometimes I would charge it and sometimes not...just depended on the distance traveled. However, gas prices are nearly $3 a gallon in Ohio and it's quickly becoming too expensive not to recoupe some of that back. So, everything outside of the 25 mile limit will have at least a $15 mileage fee or more depending on the distance traveled.
 
I have a service radius and travelling within that area is included in the price. Anything outside of that radius I charge per mile.
 
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