Travel Fees

I saw on someone's website where they charged extra every mile past a certain point. Don't remember the specifics. I was wondering what you all charged for travel, and at what point to you charge extra?

Unless it's close by (ie in my city; 10 minutes drive or less), I do a 2 hour minimum and don't bother with travel. If they only want an hour, I'll tack on a $35 travel charge (at which point they usually just book 2 hours anyway...haha).

I had someone inquire about a party in Sechelt (depending on traffic, it'd be about an hour drive + a 45 minute ferry ride, then another short drive) and I quoted $500 for a 3 hour party (3 hours @ $90/hour, plus the $100 to cover ferry costs and the extra $130 to cover travel and the fact that I wouldn't be able to book anything else that day)...and never heard back. Haha. I don't know what they were expecting, but if I lived that far away, I'd be prepared to pay extra.

At any rate, I'm not even the best person to answer this question, since I guess I technically haven't charged travel...eventually I'm revamping prices, and will possibly do a travel surcharge according to cities...

I normally go within a fifteen minute drive of my home for free, this includes the city. Beyond that, I charge .50/km (standard fee.) Or I increase my fees by a tank of gas, $45.00.

However, I don't stand hard and rigid on travel expenses as I am always willing to negotiate. For example, I get advertising in exchange for a reduction in travel fees, or an additional gig.

I do ask for accomodation to be provided for anything beyond a 3 hour drive. The furthest I have driven was 6 hrs for a gig and I was paid .50/km, plus accomodation.

When I started out I each time calculated the travel costs, but it took to long and people found it complicated. Then I had a price for each region in the country. But people still found it too complicated. Now I have a price for if it is in the studio, one for the city and one for the rest of the country (with the exception of one small island that it takes a day to get to). And since the price is so I can get to the other end of the country without any loss, I earn more ;-)

But I still have some asking about what the price is *lol*

I include the first 15 miles to and from the job in the fee and then it is $.50 per mile beyond that. So if the job is 30 miles from me for a total of 60 miles round trip, the first 30 are included and there is a $15 travel charge. Pretty easy to calculate at .50 per. Probably too low, but since gas isn't too high it is fine for now. Will raise if price hits $4 a gallon again.

It covers gas, but not really my extra time.

I charge $0.50/km for mileage if the booking is over 50 kms round trip from my home. That's for the whole trip, not just the portion over the 50 kms.

This weekend's festival was a 508 km round trip so the travel charge was $254 on top of my weekend rate. (and THEY provided two nights accommodation for us as well.)

It doesn't stop be getting the festival/event bookings and actually I still get birthdays in the local area that have travel on them...

I am in a rather isolated area - the next towns are a fair distance away and there are a lot of rural properties on gravel roads - I figure the travel charges cover the new windscreens that I need because of the rocks that come flying at me!

Metina: 4$ is still cheap, here it often cost twice ;-)

Old thread I know, but I just got an inquiry for a store opening about 400km away, haha.

Do you have specifications as to the type of accommodation? IE min 3 stars etc?

Do you talk about per diems for food, or leave that alone?

Kristal wrote:about a party in Sechelt

just looked it up on google maps... Airlift me from Whistler?, Only a couple bucks more???

Haha, that guy never did call me back. He kept insisting that it wasn't that far, and people in Sechelt went to work in Vancouver ALL THE TIME, even after I repeated that I didn't live in Vancouver, and what with the ferry etc I wouldn't be able to book anything else...

This new inquiry asked if I'd be willing to split the 5.0 hr minimum over 2 days. (I know...I've since replied and said my previous quote was off the wrong page, and I would honour the 5.0 hr min if she booked for this event, but for future, it was my full 8.0 hr rate for up to 8.0 hrs of work) After a 5 hour drive? HA! Dreaming.

K, your location states Vancouver, BC....where the naughty word are you??

oops I might have typed a .............

lol, I say Vancouver because no one outside of BC knows where Surrey is, and the convo goes:

"Where are you from?"

"Surrey"

"Where's that?"

"Near Vancouver"

"Oh!"

Whereas I'll be out of town and:

"Where are you from?"

"Vancouver, you?"

"Me too! Are you actually in Van?"

"Nope, Surrey. How about you?"

"Me either. I'm in Coquitlam."

So just saying I'm Vancouver is easier

Surrey is SE of Vancouver and can be as fast as 30 minutes away (like at 2am when no one's on the road) or during rush hour, I can sit in traffic for 45 minutes and not even be on the bridge to get OUT of Surrey yet....and it'll take me 2 hours.

I've heard of Surrey.... couldn't point it out on a map, but I've heard of it.... of course, I've also heard of Coquitlam. Never been to BC, but I'd like to some day.

Haha, fair point. How about Anmore and Pitt Meadows?

I'm pretty sucky at geography-type things anyway - this latest event was for Oliver, BC - and I had to look it up to find out exactly where it is - tiny place between Osoyoos and Penticton...ish.

At any rate, I'd written saying a 5.0 hr min would be $550 and travel would be $0.50/km and I'd need 2 night accommodation, and got a reply asking for the total amount. Travel ended up being $450 (anyone who can be bothered can do a map search and find out that here to Oliver is roughly 437km) and I got a 5 word answer: "Not in the budget. Thanks." Fair enough, but it's a 5 hour drive one way for me and why would you think that out of town entertainment would be willing to work for peanuts, especially considering this would take about 2.5 days out of my life that I can't book with anything else?

Plus I think it's funny when I can list the service price, then list what travel would be, and they don't (can't? won't?) total it up themselves, so when I finally total it up, it's suddenly too much...

Any BC folk on here I don't know of who lives closer to Oliver than I do?!

Oh, and Perry, when you eventually make it out to BC (as in Greater Vancouver area, not as in the Okanagan where that job would have been, haha) let me know and we'll jam!

Washington is like that too. Everyone is from Seattle. Like the whole of western washington practically is considered "Seattle."

Will do Kristal... sounds like fun!

Magna's closer to Oliver than you Kristal

I've done 3 and 4 hours drives to gigs - and they pay for travel and accommodation in that case as I am not driving home the same day!

I don't charge any extra for meals or per diems. I figure my travel charges cover it.

True - but not by much! It would still be about 4 hours one way for her.

I charge .40/km for big events, sometimes less for birthday parties. There have been times when the mileage charges have been more than the fees. I live in Saskatchewan where everyone seems to spend their lives driving. I don't charge for meals but have had them book me a room on occasion. Often those places are up north where the nearest motel isn`t even a 1 star. I still like the adventure of it, seeing new places, bringing the art to new people and don`t mind as long as the bed is clean and there is a hot shower.
I know a balloon guy in Saskatchewan who charges the same hourly rate for travel as he chrages for twisting. He is about the same amazing caliber as you Kristal and he is always busy all over the province.

I used to charge only for when I had to travel over 60 miles beyond my home town. But with gas prices the way they are, I've had to increase that to any place more than 40 miles from my home town. I charge $1 per mile over that limit (one way). For example, if they are 100 miles away, they pay $60 in mileage fees. No one has balked at it so far!