Re: Charge for Travel Time?

[Barb Philbrick <caslonsvcs -at- IBM -dot- NET>]

>If a contractor works mostly off-site
>should he/she charge for travel time
>to/from the site?
I don't charge travel time unless it's more than 30 miles away. If I
do charge for travel time, I let my client know it. This holds for
on-site and off-site work. My rationale is that:
* You have to travel to get to any job, so it's not fair to charge for
reasonable distances.
* Most of the time I work off-site, so my travel is minimal.
* I deduct about half of my car expenses.

Ultimately, I think it's a personal decision based on your business
philosophy and how you've calculated your billable rate.

>The company's new policy is to have it's
>writers use a tool that is new in the market.
>QUES: Who pays for the learning time?
If it's a commonly used program, I'll pick up the learning costs,
since I'll probably be able to use the program for other clients. It
also increases my worth as a contractor. If it's a rarely used that I
am highly unlikely to use, I'd ask the client to pay for training.

Last year one of my clients had an in-house training course that I
attended. They paid for the course (no extra cost for me --- they paid
a flat rate for up to xx people), but I took a week off billables to
attend.

Regards,

Barb

Barbara Philbrick, Caslon Services Inc.
Technical Writing. caslonsvcs -at- ibm -dot- net
Cleveland, OH