Discuss first hour labour cost? - Hourly rate work in the Business Related area at ElectriciansForums.net

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spud1

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Hi All,

Does anybody else charge more for their first hours labour than the successive hours?
Im thinking of implementing this, as our work recently has been lots of smaller jobs and callouts (Sometimes less than an hour on site) , lots more travelling between, so I kind of feel like we are not fulfilling our earning potential as much as if we were on bigger, longer lasting contracts.

We do charge a short notice callout charge on same day callouts, seperate to that of onsite labour, and always charge a minimum of an hours labour, but Im talking about charging say 50% more for the first hour and then after that reverting back to our standard hourly rate

Is charging more for the first hours labour a common practice?
 
Most definitely, for reasons stated above.

Also have an emergency call out rate too.
 
Depends on you hourly rate I suppose , if you are already charging a top dollar rate then perhaps having a flat rate work out over the week.

if you are on the cheaper hourly side then I would up my first 2 hours of the rate for sure

wet pants in my area have no qualms charging £95-105 per hour in my locality so why should sparks be any cheaper
 
Depends on you hourly rate I suppose , if you are already charging a top dollar rate then perhaps having a flat rate work out over the week.

if you are on the cheaper hourly side then I would up my first 2 hours of the rate for sure

wet pants in my area have no qualms charging £95-105 per hour in my locality so why should sparks be any cheaper
Im gunna lay it on the line... We charge a flat rate of £33.00+VAT per hour currently (Somerset based)
 
Im gunna lay it on the line... We charge a flat rate of £33.00+VAT per hour currently (Somerset based)

that’s quite cheap if I’m honest if you are a legit all schemed up registered contractors.
you won’t get a fully vetted sparks in my area of Surrey for less that £50p/h
 
that’s quite cheap if I’m honest if you are a legit all schemed up registered contractors.
you won’t get a fully vetted sparks in my area of Surrey for less that £50p/h
Yeah all legit. NICEIC Approved Contractors & Domestic installers. 20 Years in the trade, employ another sparky too. I think it comes down to the part of the country your in half the time.
 
£45 call-out inc. up to 1 hour on site. £30/hour thereafter. unless it's more than 10 miles, then £1/mile (there and back) on top. the £1/mile covers travel costs and give me £15/hour travel time.
 
I also do the first hour at 1.5 times standard. OoH would be 2x if I was in a fit state ...
 
Pricing / rates can also be subjective imo

job round the corner might just do flat rate regardless if it takes 1hr or 3hrs

job 45-50 minutes in the car will do double time the first hour to cover fuel

ive never really had a hard and fast hourly rate , only fixed price I ever had was day rate for builders
 
I think for too long back in the past sparks have been afraid to charge a proper rate.
roll back 10 years and I would regularly blurt out ‘oh just give me £20 an hour’ without really giving my time as a proper consideration.
I just wanted lots of work at any price really, rushing round like a made man trying to do 3 or 4 jobs some days.
roll forwards to now and i now know my main assets is my time and charge accordingly.
if people want it done Cheaper that’s absolutely fine but I won’t be doing it on the cheap anymore...
 
it's not just your time that you need to charge for. it's knowledge. this is where we fall down. wet pants charge up to £100.hour for just knowing that pi$$ flows downhill. with the knowledge we have, should be double that. e.g. £10 for hitting it with a hammer. £60 for knowing where to hit it.
 

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