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Billing travel time

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    Billing travel time

    I have this in my contract schedule: "Travel time outside UK is chargeable."

    Seems self explanatory. Except, I've been a little ad-hoc in billing for travel time. So, I'm now going to have a discussion with the client to agree billing for travel time.

    But ... I just want to make my mind up what I'm going to request, as I haven't really billed for travel time on previous contracts.

    Searching through threads here, it seems to go from "I bill all travel time" to "I would never bill travel time".

    A few examples of some recent expeditions are:

    1. Went to Denmark for 3 days work - i travelled out the afternoon before and returned on the last working day (evening flight)
    I only billed for 3 days.

    2. Went to France for a 5 days work, travelled out Sunday PM, worked Mon-Fri, travelled back Friday PM
    Billed for 5 days (not for the Sunday)

    3. Travelled to Norway for a meeting over 2 days - travelled out day 1 AM, meeting day 1 PM and day 2 AM, travelled back day 2 PM
    Billed for 2 days (so this time billing included travel time)

    Next trip planned is to the US: 3 days work Mon-Wed, but I'm travelling out Sunday (pretty much all day travelling), and leaving Wed evening, so eventually get home Thursday AM
    I plan on billing them 3.5 days - as I can't deliver other work for another client on the Thursday as I'm travelling.

    Now though, I'm wondering if I should also bill a day for Sunday travelling out, and look to bill future travel time when it's disrupting my weekend, or I'm unable to work due to travel time.

    Once I've got my own view sorted, I'll approach the client and see how they interpret the contract clause !

    Thanks.

    #2
    Bill for the day out as you can't do anything then.
    "You’re just a bad memory who doesn’t know when to go away" JR

    Comment


      #3
      I always have a similar clause in all my contracts.

      Going to Europe, I bill half a day travel time.

      Going to America, East Coast, I bill two full days. It's easy to justify. Each way, it is a five hour flight, with two hours at the airport before flight, that's seven hours even before you count commuting to the airport. Why should I do that on my time? If I want to go for a quick break to see New York or Atlanta, maybe I'll cut them a deal, but if it is just for work, I expect them to pay.

      Going to America West Coast I bill 2 1/2 days, to Singapore or Hong Kong 3 days, or four if I'm grumpy and don't want to go (it's going to be 24 hours in the air, that's three days of billing just on air time). If they really want me out there for a meeting, they are going to have to pay for it.

      I work from home, so I never have a commute. I bill by the hour. So any time I have to travel from home to go to a client's site for some meeting or to hold their programmers' hands, I consider the entire travel time as billable. I may give them a break if I have something I can work on in-flight or at the airport, so that the travel time is useful time to me. If it isn't, I expect them to pay for it.

      If you normally work on site, and don't bill them for your travel time to their site, then that much time per day is built into your rate, and so you should give them that much travel time per day without billing. Anything above that is time that you are either giving them for free or billing them for.

      Client relations, of course, may drive your billing decisions on this. But normally I bill based on the number of hours it takes me from home to hotel/their office.

      I'd say billing for travel time is a minor indicator of an arms-length business-to-business relationship rather than an employer/employee relationship, and I'd note it in my IR35 dossier. They aren't likely to pay employees an hourly rate from the time they leave home to the time they arrive. It's one of those little things that won't make a difference if you are clearly inside or clearly outside, but the little things can add up in a close case.

      Comment


        #4
        Leave home before lunchtime: bill for full day
        Leave home between lunch and 7pm: bill for half a day

        I don't look at time zones and try to work out the maximum billable possible. If I fly home on an overnight flight, i.e. One where I will be sleeping, I do not bill the client for the hours when I should be sleeping. That's not professional.
        …Maybe we ain’t that young anymore

        Comment

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