Engineering Service Charges

Talking of nonsence - does wearing a suit affect your pay rate? I have conflicting ideas and hear various stories about this.

Graham

Factor in such costs and raise the hourly charge. Except for unusual situations, e.g. requiring international travel, clients don't like to feel they're paying for travelling time, miscellaneous overheads etc....

When I was obliged to travel internationally for a client, the time *had* to be charged for since it was clearly time 'on their account'.

On one instance that I recall, I had unexpectedly to 'lead the team' ( of 2 ) on an overseas visit. They didn't have time to fix me up with a Company Amex card. Luckily I trusted them to pay my costs. They did indeed on my return very punctallly btw. I've never before had to sign a chit for £1800 ( $3300 ) in hotel bills before ! It has to be said that we ate and drank rather well that week too. ;-)

Graham

I used to charge extra if I had to show up in a necktie ;)

Bob

I charge 1/2 rate during travel. Seems to annoy bean counters immensely. So much so that I rarely have to travel ;-)

...Jim Thompson

I only wear a suit to weddings and funerals ;-)

Baggy, wrinkled trousers, like I slept in them, help convey the eccentricity, but I don't wear sneakers, though I come close... I wear ECCO's.

Plus I like the swift kill approach, "Did you measure...?" "No?" "I suggest you do!" Then relish the groans ;-)

...Jim Thompson

The reason I charge for travel is because it's invariably for a meeting that will accomplish nothing.

...Jim Thompson

What is included in "travel"?

Time in your car from your home/office to theirs?

Time in cars and airports (or bus terminals or train stations) on the way to a remote site?

Time in a hotel room or restaurant waiting for the next meeting or next leg of the trip, including the trip home?

Well, how much do you charge?

John

Any time occurring during "normal business hours". After all, if I were in my office, I'd be billing the time to someone.

I try to convince clients to pay for First Class air travel so I can actually open my laptop and do something useful, but they usually balk.

To Europe, it's either Business Class or above, or forget it... get someone else.

...Jim Thompson

WTMWB = What The Market Will Bear.

Bob

And for that rate you're still stuck with a SAAB ;-)

...Jim Thompson

John, my manager asked that we not advertise our rates too publicly. I could not resolve your email address, but if you email me I will let you know the value.

Joel

Infiniti Q45 and a Frontier King-cab Pickup

...Jim Thompson

No suit, pickup truck and a $20 Timex watch, seems to work just fine... I billed $28,974.30 for June, and I'm still way off my pre-9-11 income ;-)

...Jim Thompson

Not me. I've been married to the same woman for 45 years!

Sounds over-priced to me. That's equivalent to US$49.35 for a full (750mL) bottle.

...Jim Thompson

about

more.

whole -

Not sure I agree,

We recently had a custom made order fulfilled and delivered without one cent being paid to the Indian supplier up front. Payment was made on invoice after delivery to our premises in Australia. Cost was just over US$6,000.00. The entire transaction was conducted via email with no phone contact at all and we were a first time buyer to them. Delivered goods were to our exact specification and extremely well packaged. I was impressed - go figure.

Cheers.

Yes, the contractor above worked out of his house in OH. He spent a week with us to get him up to speed on the requirements and then he'd only call in for progress meetings (PHBs have to have something to do). Of course when he was on our site he was also paid full expenses and didn't answer to our chicken-shit travel accountants.

We have a different problem. We can't keep the people. By the time they're trained on the work at hand, they're gone and someone else has to be brought up to speed. It seems there is a huge demand for programmers and they switch jobs monthly. In one case the job could have been done by the people here in less time than it took to keep bringing new people on board. I doubt that we're going there again.

Why not advertise your rates? That reminds me of a couple of "vendors" I've recently tried to buy from, who won't actually quote me a price.

Besides, the probability of one of your customers checking this ng is roughly zero.

John