Hi Terri
I am working on how much to charge my client for my time on the Letter of Agreement and I am wondering about travel time…
Susan
This client’s property is about 1½ hours away from me and I will have to go there multiple times to complete the job.
Should I calculate a time charge for the time it takes to travel to and from her house?
Would it be the same rate that I charge when I am designing for her?
Hi Susan,
The answer is yes, you should charge for travel time.
Terri
This is valuable time that you could be using to design for someone else and you would be paid for that time.
I find that most designers charge a lesser rate for travel time, often half the designer’s regular rate.
When adding travel time to a Letter of Agreement it is important to be specific about the number of on site trips you have included in your agreement. Think through the job and project out the critical points that you need to be there to present or make sure that the work is completed correctly.
If it looks like you are going to run out of on site trips before the project is done you must have a conversation with the client before all your time is used up to see if she wants you to continue.