Question about adding travel fees

[BIG WOOD]

I just landed this contract with about 20 facilities in my area. Some are 5minutes away and some are 2hrs away. How can I tactfully input the extra cost for round trip travel in with the job. Should I just up the charge on each job, depending on how long the travel time is or should I put a separate cost on travel on the invoice? About 13 of these buildings are more than a hour one way. I'm still learning the software they use, so I'm not certain yet on how I'll be entering each proposal. I'll know more next week after the webinar

They'll be needing each of these buildings cleaned at a minimum of once/year. I'm tempted to just get a hotel room and stay in the Atlanta area for 1-2 nights to clean the 13 buildings in that region. I'd like to include that cost in the invoice as well. I guess I could split up the hotel cost into each of the 13 invoices, which wouldn't show much of an increase to raise any concerns

 

[Hack Attack]

I'd put travel charge on the invoice so it's clear what it is

otherwise you might get asked to explain why the same/similar size area in 2 different locations is different

 

[Lee Stockwell]

On recurring route work we don't charge extra for travel to individual sites, it's just built into the overall price.

If they don't cherry pick, I won't.

 

[The Great Oz]

Landed means you and the buyer have already agreed to terms, so tactfully, anything you add now should be discussed with that company's rep. May not be a big deal, and they can also say no, but at least you don't charge for something outside the done deal and get an angry call about it.

 

[steve_64]

Might want to talk to your accountant too. Adding to each invoice instead of charging it to travel might get taxed differently.

 

[Dolly Llama]

I just landed this contract

since you're asking about what to charge....I'll interpret it to mean you don't have a "contract" .
You have a loosely defined "verbal" agreement to a new account??

..L.T.A.

 

[BIG WOOD]

Ugh! A bunch of high school elementary teachers on here.

"Landed a Contract": Definition.
-I sent them all of my Business' data on insurance, Authorization agreement for automatic deposits, and filled out a ton of paperwork on the Vendor maintenance form and setup request checklist as being the main vendor for this region.

Did I sign a specific length of term contract? No

does that help? It is more than just a verbal agreement on a new account.

But back to the original reason I started this thread. @The Great Oz Thanks for your input. I wasn't wanting to put an extra travel charge below the original proposal on the job. That's why I started this thread. I wasn't sure how some of the other businesses who have similar "accounts" not contracts handle this.

It's impossible for me to take a whole day off just to travel to do estimates that far away. It would take a whole day's worth of traveling to each one to measure it. The guy I spoke with who is in charge of arranging this is aware of this. I hope to have a meeting with him about pricing these out when I schedule to clean the buildings. I was hoping to get the approval on a small range of what I would charge by the sq. ft. to give him an idea of what each job would cost because I'm literally going in these work orders blind until I see the job that day.

A little history of this account. I've been cleaning for the Janitorial company that has been subbing me out here locally for a couple years and they've been very happy with my service and prices. So I'm assuming they know my prices are reasonable. We'll see

Any input on that reasoning?

 

[Dolly Llama]

does that help?

I think so.
but let me condense into "meAtSpeak" to see if I have it right

you've filed the paperwork necessary and are now approved as a vendor .
BUTT...you have no clue what or how to charge, because you don't know what the buildings are, nor what or how much the work scope will entail per building??

is that close?
if sooooo
is it THAT damn busy mid Feb in Swamp Knob Georgia you can't schedule a day to check out the places and get specifics and see set-up and possible PITA factors large and small??

I think you'd be nutz to roll into any com job blind.
let alone one hours away

..L.T.A.

 

[BIG WOOD]

I think so.
but let me condense into "meAtSpeak" to see if I have it right

you've filed the paperwork necessary and are now approved as a vendor .
BUTT...you have no clue what or how to charge, because you don't know what the buildings are, nor what or how much the work scope will entail per building??

is that close?
if sooooo
is it THAT damn busy mid Feb in Swamp Knob Georgia you can't schedule a day to check out the places and get specifics and see set-up and possible PITA factors large and small??

I think you'd be nutz to roll into any com job blind.
let alone one hours away

..L.T.A.

Yes I am too busy. This year is going great for me

as for the other buildings...they look very similar to the ones I’ve serviced up here

 

[Kenny Hayes]

Back in the day working for bell on microwave huts, we’d charge mileage from our location to each. Even doing a route. But that was our prior agreement. Without an agreement I’d average them all out for the charge.

 

[steve_64]

Ask your contact what he would prefer.

 

[Hack Attack]

Yep I'd talk to your contact re the finer details

even though adding mileage might be adding to the invoice it's often easier for them to have that one point of contact

and if they can see what the charge is, it might make them more inclined to arrange more than one site in a given area

 

[Cleanworks]

Yep I'd talk to your contact re the finer details

even though adding mileage might be adding to the invoice it's often easier for them to have that one point of contact

and if they can see what the charge is, it might make them more inclined to arrange more than one site in a given area

Or use some one closer

 

[Hack Attack]

Or use some one closer

it's a possibility, but you don't wanna be staring through your windscreen spending fuel and time knowing you'd make more staying put

 

[Fat Mike]

it's a possibility, but you don't wanna be staring through your windscreen spending fuel and time knowing you'd make more staying put

Especially 4 hr round trip just for driving. That gets old very quick. We did a place an hour away at night and another 4hrs. Had done some 2-1/2hrs away. We realized for us it just wasn’t worth it. We just did better staying close to home. Furthest now is roughly 30-45min away.

We would consider further locations for big ticket services only

 

[BIG WOOD]

Especially 4 hr round trip just for driving. That gets old very quick. We did a place an hour away at night and another 4hrs. Had done some 2-1/2hrs away. We realized for us it just wasn’t worth it. We just did better staying close to home. Furthest now is roughly 30-45min away.

We would consider further locations for big ticket services only

I'm realizing that the only way to do this without that problem is to get a hotel room and knock out all those buildings in that region in one 3 day weekend and stretch out the hotel cost on each invoice (average $20 each ticket), vs charging a travel fee for 6-9 visits of cleaning 13 of their facilities in that area. It'll be less wear on my truck also

I'll arrange all this before he sends me the work orders just to make sure we're on the same page. I'll be wanting him to send me 10-15 work orders at once so I can work out where to get the hotel room to clean as many as I can. These will only need to be done once/year so I think camping out in that area that one time will be the most efficient way to do that

 

[Lee Stockwell]

That's how we do it. Try to get an early start each day.

 

[jcooper]

Especially 4 hr round trip just for driving. That gets old very quick. We did a place an hour away at night and another 4hrs. Had done some 2-1/2hrs away. We realized for us it just wasn’t worth it. We just did better staying close to home. Furthest now is roughly 30-45min away.

We would consider further locations for big ticket services only

I agree, if possible. You have to go where the cleaning is (or wherever people will pay what you need).

 

[The Great Oz]

"Landed a Contract": Definition.
-I sent them all of my Business' data on insurance, Authorization agreement for automatic deposits, and filled out a ton of paperwork on the Vendor maintenance form and setup request checklist as being the main vendor for this region.

Did I sign a specific length of term contract? No

does that help? It is more than just a verbal agreement on a new account.

Sorry for jumping to the conclusion that the deal was set. Sounds like you have a working agreement rather than a contract, so each building could come with separate rules.

Most corporate service buyers are lazy enough to want to work with a single company rather than try and find a local cleaner for each location, but I'd still recommend folding travel/lodging expenses into the price of each building, and quote a price per building rather than a psf price. If anyone questions square foot price differences you can tell them you reduce the price for the ones that are easier to clean.

 

[darcie smith]

Sorry for the late response, Matt, but I just saw this. When people tell me what address they want service for, if it’s more than 20 miles from us I explain to them that it’s considered out of our service area. One of the line items in our system is “out of area fee,” and it adds $2/mile past 20 miles to the work order. (So 32 miles from shop to job would add $24). Some people are fine with that and a few have said they’d look for someone closer.

 

[Mikey P]

Sorry for the late response, Matt, but I just saw this. When people tell me what address they want service for, if it’s more than 20 miles from us I explain to them that it’s considered out of our service area. One of the line items in our system is “out of area fee,” and it adds $2/mile past 20 miles to the work order. (So 32 miles from shop to job would add $24). Some people are fine with that and a few have said they’d look for someone closer.

Matt can't count past five so can you come up with a simpler way to charge $100 per hour while driving....

 

[BIG WOOD]

Matt can't count past five so can you come up with a simpler way to charge $100 per hour while driving....

Sumbich!!!!


There is a lot of scribbling numbers going on though. I've already put together 16 estimates for this proposal. I'm going to another region to measure the remaining 7 buildings today. Thanks for the response @darcie smith

 

[BIG WOOD]

Sorry for the late response, Matt, but I just saw this. When people tell me what address they want service for, if it’s more than 20 miles from us I explain to them that it’s considered out of our service area. One of the line items in our system is “out of area fee,” and it adds $2/mile past 20 miles to the work order. (So 32 miles from shop to job would add $24). Some people are fine with that and a few have said they’d look for someone closer.

The one furthest away from me is 92 miles outside the border of my region and 121 miles from my house. Would you add $2/mile from your border or from your house?

 

[Andy]

[

Would you add $2/mile from your border or from your house?

QUOTE="darcie smith, post: 4687014, member: 53597"]
and it adds $2/mile past 20 miles to the work order. (So 32 miles from shop to job would add $24).

figure it out!

 

[darcie smith]

The one furthest away from me is 92 miles outside the border of my region and 121 miles from my house. Would you add $2/mile from your border or from your house?

From our border

 

[DAT]

The one furthest away from me is 92 miles outside the border of my region and 121 miles from my house. Would you add $2/mile from your border or from your house?

For me, min is $120 within the city, fernly is $250 min, fallon is $500 to $750 min... Elko is $1250 min for 2 room job(if that ever happens...)