Posted by Steve Nicholas on December 18, 2004, 7:59 am, in reply to "Call out charges "
Hi John.
To overcome the problems associated with charging by the hour I decided some time ago to charge for "units" of labour.
So, it's 1 unit for a callout (which includes travelling and tinkering time), 1 for plugging the diagnostic kit in and other such jobs done at the workshop. The exception being that I would not charge the equivalent of an hour for changing a bulb! So, an element of flexibility is included.
The unit charge is based on an hourly rate after any initial charge, but I make my charges quite clear before turning a wheel and give the customer the choice. This avoids the "but it only took you 10 minutes!" scenario.