Getting Travel time paid for

[TykeMerc]

This is about being reasonable. When I travel on clients business I bill from the time I leave my office (home) to the time I get back less my normal travel time to/from their local office.

if there is are overnight stays then day start/end is arrival/departure from clients regional office. I apply the same principle for international travel, and yes it does mean that an overnight flight is chargeable time.

In short its time out of my life over and above the norm.

Exactly what I do too and for the same reasons.

If the client is charging you out at one of their client sites unless they are terminally stupid they will have built in some travel time contingency.

If you charge by the professional day it's simple enough to work out a fair amount of time to charge for the travelling time and perfectly reasonable to do so.

[diesel]

If you go by train, why not do some work for the client on the train? That way, you can still bill the time as you are working, and they can't complain about it because you are working.

I'd get it sorted one way or the other before you set out on the next trip, though - beforehand you can possibly be in a position of strength; afterwards you have no bargaining position.

Are you talking about travel time to get to client site, or is this travel to an additional location that is not the normal location for you to be working?

Working on Train - will see what work i have at the time, as i am not keen on keeping my laptop with me on public transport. but otherwise its a good idea.

I am talking about travel time to venue where my client wants to me to do a presentation to their potential clients. So its not really being charged out to an client its from my client overheads, if you knwo what i mean.

Anyway i need to let my contact know last night, so i decided to accept to do this job, but kept quiet on hours front. He did say in his last email "he excepts time booking to be as normal". Normal to me is hours done for my client regardless as per my contract. If he objects then i will say i need to reconsider as its more than 1.5 days worth of hours which limits what i can do for my other client.

[TheFaQQer]

Working on Train - will see what work i have at the time, as i am not keen on keeping my laptop with me on public transport. but otherwise its a good idea.

I am talking about travel time to venue where my client wants to me to do a presentation to their potential clients. So its not really being charged out to an client its from my client overheads, if you knwo what i mean.

Anyway i need to let my contact know last night, so i decided to accept to do this job, but kept quiet on hours front. He did say in his last email "he excepts time booking to be as normal". Normal to me is hours done for my client regardless as per my contract. If he objects then i will say i need to reconsider as its more than 1.5 days worth of hours which limits what i can do for my other client.

Sounds a fair try. Of course, working on the train only really works if you have a first class ticket - otherwise it's almost impossible with the plebs around you...

Best of luck getting at least some of it paid.

[MPwannadecentincome]

Well compare all this to dealing with lawyers / solicitors and accountants - they may bill you for every conversation, time travelling etc etc. In fact they could potentially double bill as if they are travelling for one client and charging for that then they talk to another client on the phone in the meantime they could be billing 2 clients at once!

[diesel]

Well compare all this to dealing with lawyers / solicitors and accountants - they may bill you for every conversation, time travelling etc etc. In fact they could potentially double bill as if they are travelling for one client and charging for that then they talk to another client on the phone in the meantime they could be billing 2 clients at once!

i am sure my solicitor did this to me!
Great idea...will see what work i have to do on the day!

So far my contact has confirmed that i am presenting on the day with NO mention of my discussion of travel hours - therfore as far as i see it its billable under my hours worked for this client!!!
thanks all for replies...