Loading…
2
My uncle told me to always charge a day rate for travel, not just mileage.
He said this after I drove four hours to a shoot in Asheville and only billed for gas. The next job had a two day shoot with a hotel stay, so I tried his advice and charged a full day for travel each way. The client agreed without question, and it added $800 to my invoice. Has anyone else found a better way to price long distance jobs?
4 comments
Log in to join the discussion
Log In4 Comments
the_alice5mo ago
My first year freelancing I drove from Austin to Dallas for a single headshot session and only asked for gas money. I felt so burned out on the drive back. Your uncle is totally right. That travel day is a full work day you can't use for anything else. Charging a day rate for it makes the whole trip worth your time and stops you from feeling taken advantage of. What do you charge for your normal day rate now?
6
lucast814mo ago
My cousin in Denver runs a small video business and he never charges for travel days. He builds the cost of his truck and his drive time into a higher project fee instead. His argument is that clients see a line item for travel and get sticker shock, but they will pay a bigger total number if it's just wrapped into the creative fee. He says it makes him seem more premium and avoids nickel and diming conversations. I tried it last year and actually landed a bigger job because my bid looked cleaner without extra charges.
3