Thread: How do you price the driving distance into your rates

I've finally summoned up courage to post the rates. F*** the undercutting!

May I ask how you price the travel distance into your rates? Let's say - two identical events, one is 5 min drive from home and the other 40 min.

Many thanks for your input.

I base it entirely on travel distance. Within my local area there is no travel fee, but beyond my local zone I use the standard IRS mileage rates.

Anything within a 30 minute drive is what I consider my "service area", because I live in the 'burbs and driving into the city is about 30 minutes for me. After that, I tack on $25 for every additional 30 minute block. So:

30 minutes or less - no mileage
30 minutes to 1 hour - $25
1 hour to 1 1/2 hour - $50
1 1/2 hour to 2 hours - $75

2 hours is as far as I've ever gone for a gig, but I would probably just keep adding on if I was asked to go further and I wanted the gig.

To answer your questions, Nisha, the 5 minute drive would have no mileage charge, and the 40 minute one would have $25 tacked on to the rate for whatever package they booked.

just wondering.
when you're talking about a 1h drive for a gig, are you talking about a gig that is 1h drive away, or 1h of total driving time (30min to go + 30min to come back home) ?

i dont charge for the time, i charge by the km... standard practice in belgium...

A 20 -monute drive (one-way) is factored into our rates. More than that: IRS milage rates.

Originally Posted by artemisia_danst

i dont charge for the time, i charge by the km... standard practice in belgium...

Yes. Counting both ways!

Originally Posted by mahsati

I base it entirely on travel distance. Within my local area there is no travel fee, but beyond my local zone I use the standard IRS mileage rates.

This is how I do it also.

Does anyone else here live in the sticks? I find that my gigs are always a good 40-minute drive or more. I never get anything in my backyard. Would somebody in my situation allow for a slightly larger travel radius?

Or I wonder if this is all yet another divine sign that I should start raising my prices ,r:;

Originally Posted by Kathiya

just wondering.
when you're talking about a 1h drive for a gig, are you talking about a gig that is 1h drive away, or 1h of total driving time (30min to go + 30min to come back home) ?

A one hour drive away. Otherwise my normal travel radius would have to be 15 minutes away (to make 30 minutes or less round trip), and because of where my house is I'd be charging mileage for pretty much every gig. I can't even get to the closest Wal-Mart in 15 minutes!

Originally Posted by SatinWorship19

Does anyone else here live in the sticks? I find that my gigs are always a good 40-minute drive or more. I never get anything in my backyard. Would somebody in my situation allow for a slightly larger travel radius?

Or I wonder if this is all yet another divine sign that I should start raising my prices ,r:;

I do... I've driven up to 2 hours for a gig. I start charging mileage at the standard IRS rate after about 30-40 miles, depending on how easy it is to reach my destination, traffic expectancy, etc.

I don't charge for under 30 min each way. Above that, I charge $25 per hour driivng time (round trip).

Mahin

I don't live out in the sticks, but in southern California, it can take a long time to travel 10 miles, depending upon the time of day.

I've made it easy for myself: I make my home my base point and any location equidistant from that point to the farthest point away from me within the county will be within my standard rate. This means that I will travel short distances into neighboring counties at no extra charge; the miles I travel at no extra fee are about 35.

After that, I look at time. For example, traveling to the farthest point west in the "Valley" section of Los Angeles is about 80 miles and can require traveling for 2 1/2 hours on a Friday night; that same distance can be traveled in about 75 minutes at other times/other days. So if somebody wants me for a 7:00pm show 'way out in Van Nuys on Friday night, they're going to pay not only an additional distance fee, but an additional time fee as well.

The distance fee is about $.50 per mile (give or take); the time fee is about the same. Using our Van Nuys example, as mentioned above, I'll travel 35 miles at the standard rate. Van Nuys = 80 miles - 35 miles = 45 miles at $.50 per mile. The time fee is calculated as this: potential drive time of 150 minutes - 75 minutes (least driving time) = 75 minutes at $.50 per mile. Add the distance rate ($22.50) and the time rate ($37.50) together and we've got $60 in extra costs added to the base rate for the gig. I charge only for one way in most circumstances.

I never quote a fee until I have all the particulars as to day, time and location because it can make such a difference.

ETA: my pricing is a "from" rate; I don't list anything else that could go into the fee because it varies so much.

Deborah

On Halloween I had someone contact me who was adamant that they wanted me to read cards for their Halloween party. Which is great, except that they were located in an area where Los Angeles, Orange and Riverside Counties all come together. Very inland. I am located in Marina del Rey on the coast. It would have taken me about 1.5 hours to drive to their location. Than 3 hours of reading, and home.

I thought about it and sent her an e-mail saying, not only would I have to charge her my standard rate for reading - $125 and hour - but an additional mileage and time charge. Which I was estimating would bring it up to $850. Would she like me to recommend a reader from her local area.

Her reply:

No thank you, I'll find someone else on my own. . .

{{{HUGS}}}

Originally Posted by SatinWorship19

Does anyone else here live in the sticks? I find that my gigs are always a good 40-minute drive or more. I never get anything in my backyard. Would somebody in my situation allow for a slightly larger travel radius?

Or I wonder if this is all yet another divine sign that I should start raising my prices ,r:;

I live in the sticks, so I almost always end up charging for mileage. No one has complained, but I think it is because my clients are essentially in the sticks too so maybe they are not surprised by a mileage charge?

Originally Posted by SatinWorship19

Does anyone else here live in the sticks? I find that my gigs are always a good 40-minute drive or more.

I'd say that most of my gigs are a good 40-minute drive at the least if only because of where I live. I guess that's the reason I don't sweat the time as much as the distance, unless, as in the example in my post above, there can be a huge amount of travel time based on time of day.

Deborah