[MJF]

Hi,

Should I be charging travel time /mileage to my customers? I'm new to the business and so far my one customer pays me £5 travel and he is a 30 min drive each way. I'm meeting with another prospective customer tomorrow who is 15 miles away. I've already said my hourly rate is £11ph.

[MJF]

Anyone?

[Ian101]

I guess ur a house cleaner with £11 an hour ?

I mainly clean windows with pressure washing hopefully taking over the windows ... I wouldn't travel those kind of distances to clean 1 house - no point what u make u gonna loose on travel so yes u need to charge travel time to make it viable .. if they say no then u gonna to either have to find work closer to home.

btw £11 an hour for work then travel should be more £11 an hour plus fuel etc

[MJF]

I actually don't mind travelling but like you say it has to be viable.

So rather than mileage should I have perhaps said £12ph outside of a 5 mile radius and £11 under 5 miles?

[Ian101]

I actually don't mind travelling but like you say it has to be viable.

So rather than mileage should I have perhaps said £12ph outside of a 5 mile radius and £11 under 5 miles?

ru happy to work for that rate and is it sustainable enough to keep the business going ..... only u could answer that 

[MJF]

That seems to be quite a high rate for a cleaner from what I've researched? Lots operate for less. Maybe others can advise what they charge. I really don't want to undercharge as its very hard work

[BDCS]

House cleaners fall into ntwo groups - one lot doing it for bunce money during school hours who cannot sustain their rates when employing and then the other are proper companies who charge more but factor everything in. You need to decide who you are and work out the costs fully.

[Kev Martin]

You need to set your stall out accordingly.  Vans have to purchased, taxed, insured, serviced, mot'd and depreciation accounted for.  I think if I ONLY worked locally only say up to 20 mile radius then my hourly / daily rate would have a proportion built in.  However we work all over the UK and even Europe therefore we charge 0.45p + VAT per mile on all travel.  We also charge for Parking and any tolls or congestion charges.  This said I think it has to be applied appropriately for example if my Window Cleaner said it is £25 to clean your windows and another £5 for mileage I would probably tell them to do one as that is 20% and I see it as disproportionate but if they said sorry Kev prices have increased slightly and your charge has gone upto reflect this to £27 then I would probably pay it.  Likewise if I moved and wanted to keep my Window Cleaner because I liked them and had moved say 15 miles and they agreed to continue cleaning my windows for an additional £5 to cover fuel then I would pay it in that situation as well.!!!!

It is all about the way you put it over to the customer in my opinion

Kev

[creighton foyle]

My wife is a domestic cleaner, she works within about 7 or 8 mile radius of home , she doesn't charge mileage / fuel but has a minimum charge of £25 for two hrs then £10 for any further hrs worked on that visit.