What do people charge for the first hour and for callouts

[Questforknowledge]

I couldn't seem to find a recent thread relating to this but sorry if I'm repeating past posts.

Evening all,

Am I am wondering what others charge for the first hour of jobs... historically Ive charged £40 per hour regardless but have been thinking when you consider the driving to and from, re arranging jobs to get across to a job and just the overall time spent is this worth doing?

I have considered perhaps an initial hourly charge of say £65 and then £40 for each hour there after

And a call out charge for weekends and weekdays after 6 as £75 first hour £45 thereafter


Interested to see what anyone thinks

 

[LukeD]

Now: £80 per call out in North LOndon. Islington is charged at £100 just because its a nightmare for traffic . Parking i pay for if i can park .If its residents only , i ask them to pay for me as a visitor etc . £55 a hour after that

 

[mattg4321]

£70+vat generally for first hour. Sometimes a bit lower if a good customer and on my route home. Sometimes more if not local to me or central Brighton etc

 

[Dustydazzler]

Random call out where I have no idea what I will be up against it is £95 per hour

If I know the client and have done work before then £65 - £80 per hour depending on distance

My wife and her friends are all in the PT ( fitness business ) and they are charging £100 per hour for a one to one session these days

 

[Midwest]

My work places uses various contractors, electricians seem to be the cheapest, at £55 first hour.

Door and window company £95, plumbing £100, fire £130, pool plant £160 and Dali lighting commissioning services £530 per day, even just the first hour.

All excluding vat. Nice work if you can get it.

 

[Dustydazzler]

I do some work for some posh old clients and the one that gets me is interior designers charging £250 for a 2hr 'Consultation' to talk paint colour and fabric choices

 

[swaRRR]

I couldn't seem to find a recent thread relating to this but sorry if I'm repeating past posts.

Evening all,

Am I am wondering what others charge for the first hour of jobs... historically Ive charged £40 per hour regardless but have been thinking when you consider the driving to and from, re arranging jobs to get across to a job and just the overall time spent is this worth doing?

I have considered perhaps an initial hourly charge of say £65 and then £40 for each hour there after

And a call out charge for weekends and weekdays after 6 as £75 first hour £45 thereafter


Interested to see what anyone thinks

£80 call out and £50/hr. Imo your rates are much too low. It's fine if it works for you but the problem is it has a wider impact - lower prices drives down everyone's prices. If sparks are all expensive, we all win.

 

[LukeD]

I do some work for some posh old clients and the one that gets me is interior designers charging £250 for a 2hr 'Consultation' to talk paint colour and fabric choices

I came into the business through a World famous interior Designer who passed away a few weeks ago. What his team charged to visit a client was enough ! What clients had to pay for him to actually turn up was madness . But they all seemed to just want their ego's massaged and most of the money been spent must have been semi dirty in one way or another as they truly didnt care what they paid as long as they could tell everyone at Dinner etc !

 

[Markyd]

Had an emergency call out Bank holiday Sunday just gone....£100 for first hour and £70 per hour after that

 

[Questforknowledge]

Random call out where I have no idea what I will be up against it is £95 per hour

If I know the client and have done work before then £65 - £80 per hour depending on distance

My wife and her friends are all in the PT ( fitness business ) and they are charging £100 per hour for a one to one session these days

we re in the wrong trade !

 

[Dustydazzler]

we re in the wrong trade !

Our rates simply just haven't yet caught up with other trades and professions post Covid

Try finding a 'decent' plumber in the London area who charges less than £85-90 per hour call-out , other trades have ratcheted up prices and seem just as busy as ever

Time we did the same

 

[LukeD]

"tapping into" the needy is a huge money maker . People pay bonkers money if they think it will make them better looking or "Empower " them etc . There is so much money out there its worth thinking about

 

[Robson689]

My work places uses various contractors, electricians seem to be the cheapest, at £55 first hour.

Door and window company £95, plumbing £100, fire £130, pool plant £160 and Dali lighting commissioning services £530 per day, even just the first hour.

All excluding vat. Nice work if you can get it.

I wouldn't think twice about paying an electrician over £100 an hour to work in my house but they simply don't ask that much! My company charges me out at 115 an hour or 800 a day +vat +travel for earthing installation

 

[swaRRR]

Our rates simply just haven't yet caught up with other trades and professions post Covid

Try finding a 'decent' plumber in the London area who charges less than £85-90 per hour call-out , other trades have ratcheted up prices and seem just as busy as ever

Time we did the same

To be fair, on-site prices have definitely gone up. Earlier this year improvers on site were on £14-17/hr. I'm currently getting £20/hr with double time on a weekend. Only have my 18th edition.

 

[loz2754]

To be fair, on-site prices have definitely gone up. Earlier this year improvers on site were on £14-17/hr. I'm currently getting £20/hr with double time on a weekend. Only have my 18th edition.

Interesting. Would you mind sharing what general area of the country you work in please? And whether this is for direct employment, or sub contract work.

 

[swaRRR]

Interesting. Would you mind sharing what general area of the country you work in please? And whether this is for direct employment, or sub contract work.

Subbying through an agency, north east and surrounding areas. Industrial work.

 

[nicebutdim]

Subbying through an agency, north east and surrounding areas. Industrial work.

When you started the apprenticeship last year, it was something you seemed to be really enjoying. Was it just money that prompted the change of direction?

 

[swaRRR]

When you started the apprenticeship last year, it was something you seemed to be really enjoying. Was it just money that prompted the change of direction?

I was enjoying it, but then employer started ripping me off by not paying me for college time. Made it completely financially unviable. Ironically all the guys who worked for the company were complete doyles who either didn't know what they were doing or were uninterested in the apprentices' learning, but the agency workers on there were gold dust.

I learned a lot from just making sure i was working with the most experienced guy on there. Four or us going up in two MEWP's? Bagsy i'm getting in his one.

I was basically doing the improvers job on site along with the improvers and when i found out they were on 50% more money than me i thought why not just do that.

Then i ended up doing mostly solar for good money and now i'm on some pharmaceutical build earning silly money. Take home pay is 4 figures a week - i'm literally 6 figures better off over the course of an apprenticeship by not doing an apprenticeship. I'm still learning every day and wanted to do an apprenticeship but at the end of the day i'm not doing it for passion, i go to work to make money and i make much more of it this way and can still get properly qualified.

Funnily enough the guy who took me on my first solar project is the project manager at a prominent solar company out of Salford and Durham. He called me up begging me to go help him on a job. What had he done? Took the main earth out of a board and tried to use it as a draw wire to pull a cable from the underneath of the stairs (where the CU was) up into the first floor floor space, and it had come off and gotten lost under the floor and he couldn't get it back to the board. Kiddies running round in a completely unearthed home.

He then proceeded to drill a hole straight through a joist into the clients kitchen ceiling, leaving a massive 30mm hole. The week before he drilled through a main incomer and knocked 3 houses out for like 6 hours.

Guy threatened to walk because he wanted 75 grand a year.

Absolute muppet. Unqualified muppet i may add. Think he got his 18th edition out a packet of cornflakes since he didn't know basic regs and only had some mickey mouse testing cert. I was talking to him and making a joke about 'at least they didn't put something really dangerous in with that sized (1.5mm) cable, like....' and i was about to say '63A breaker' when he chimed in with '6A breaker, he'd have burnt the place down'.

 

[Midwest]

there are some sorts out there!