Rainmaker writes:
> Another question on consulting: How do you folks handle the
> travel issue? Do you bill full rate when in-transit? What about
> for air travel and overnight stays?
>
> For example, if you travel one hour to get to the client, do you
> charge time portal-to-portal, or do you start the time when you
> arrive and leave? If you have an out-of-state contract and leave
> this afternoon to be on-site tomorrow, do you charge for today's time?
The most reasonable way would be to charge some combination of a
"travel rate" for the travel time, some large chunk of your regular
rate (like 2/3 or 1/2) based on the idea that you oughta get paid for
your time, but that the client isn't getting a lot of value out of
that time.
Life being what it is, however, people just can't deal with that.
So I find the best bet is just to front-load my rate and count all of
those issues as overhead. I'd prefer not to do it it this way, but I
just don't have the time to convert the rest of the world to my way of
thinking.
I *will* jack up my rate when negotiating specific situations or
contracts, depending on such circumstances. I don't always (or even
usually) explain this to people, although sometimes it's come up
during negotiations (usually in the form of a reply; they imply I
should be so eager to take the job that I should accept an offer of a
lower rate; I casually cite various factors about the job that make me
not-eager. It's a more polite way of saying "screw you, I want the
money").
Steven J. Owens
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
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