Van costs

[Carlosfandango]

Since I started out in business I've just been charging my hourly rate from when I get in the van to when I get home, but I've been speaking to other guys recently and they charge either a set price per day or per mile plus their rate. I live in an area where I do a fair bit of driving to jobs (15k a year). What's an average to charge per mile to include other running costs like depreciation, servicing etc or is there a better way?

 

[telectrix]

hmrc allow 45p/mile for the 1st 10,000 then 25p/mile for additional mileage. if you charged customer £1/mile, that'll give you cost + something for travelling time.

 

[Octopus]

But be careful as your travelling "costs" may price you out of jobs.

 

[Leesparkykent]

About 33p-41p a mile

 

[Carlosfandango]

One of the guys I was talking to today was told by his accountant that the van should pay for its self. He is old school right enough. But he makes a good living and buys a new van every 4 years! Oh he is a plumber, that'll explain it!

 

[Leesparkykent]

If you work out your average miles of 15000miles @ 33p it works out £4950 a year, so averaged out over 48 weeks a year allowing for time off etc it works out at a tad over £20 a day. I don't thing that unreasonable IMO.

 

[uksparks]

So when you do a quote do you add travel on to the quote?

i only ever put labour at the rate of £30/hour and never put mileage on. Do you think i should put mileage on to every quote?

 

[Leesparkykent]

So when you do a quote do you add travel on to the quote?

i only ever put labour at the rate of £30/hour and never put mileage on. Do you think i should put mileage on to every quote?

It depends how you work your hourly rate out to your expenses. I wouldn't add mileage to the quote in black and white I would just add it within my quote.

 

[davesparks]

Do you travel far enough to warrant it?

I only allow for travelling if it's outside of the local area or involves public transport (ie. Central London)

 

[richy3333]

I charge mileage and travel time outside of a set area. It's in my T&C's so nobody can quibble that I tried to hide it.

 

[Octopus]

My first "hour" is higher than the subsequent hours and nobody complains about that.

 

[Knobhead]

I can just imagine the trouble XXp per mile would cause. Customers following you back to base or going on line to check you’re not pulling a fast one.

I did callouts for a number of years and got paid mileage. One of the managers worked out there were four routs I could take from home to work and checked the mileage for each!
A bit of an argument ensued as I claimed the highest. He had to concede that it was the safest rout in winter and was unlikely to get blocked by tourists in summer. (The joys of living in a national park.)

Give people the chance to argue and they’ll argue.