I travel a lot. Many of my customers do not have the car running and driving and I will go to them.

This is a business and you are providing a service. The customer hired you to work on their project that is in a situation making things difficult for you. This requires an additional "service" charge and/or "location" fee added to the invoice.

Location work helps free up my shop so that I can get more work done. The customer appreciates the fact that I come to them and is willing to pay more for my time and skills. Charge your customer more for location work.

100% agree with @Fred Mattson. You going to their shop is an added service. You should be compensated for travel expenses and inconvenience. Charge what your time and effort are worth to you. If the customer really needs you to go to his shop, he'll pay it.

I'm a one man show here. I absolutely will not do work outside of my shop. Actually I won't go to a customers location for an estimate. Its mainly due to how much time there is in the day. I can barely keep up with the work I have now, much less try to work out of some unknown space. If I had the desire to deal with employees, I think I'd actually enjoy doing some on location work, and let the employees deal with the day to day stuff.

This requires an additional "service" charge — Fred Mattson

Look at what others in your area charge, plumber, electrician, HVAC, your time is worth more than any of those guys. The last time I had to call a plumber 10 years ago or so, It was $90.00 minimum service charge weather he does any work or not. It seems high but when you consider time, fuel, wear and tear on your vehicle. $90 seems average, maybe even on the low end.

For sure raise your labor rate, $300 for 14 hrs. that's only 21.43 per hour. Compare that to any other skilled labor rate in your area. My starting/minimum price for a bow style headliner is 600 and that's at my shop. Obviously what can you charge depends on cost of living in your area and your reputation. I went 1 step forward and 2 back for so long, because I wasn't charging enough.

Thanks to all for your input. This is what I really appreciate about this forum. For those that do go mobile, what works best for you; an additional service charge or an increase in an hourly rate?

I do agree Fred, it is nice to not tie up my shop, and it is nice to get out once in awhile. The hard part is not being able to anticipate everything I will need and having to make more than one trip to complete the job. Mileage fee? Years ago when I was trying to support my family with this trade I was doing full enclosures on large boats in the water. I found it near impossible to estimate time on those jobs.

You are right Andy, I was not happy coming home with $300 bucks and a stiff neck. I definitely under bid this job. It was one of those jobs that required more time than I anticipated and I wasn't going to cut corners to save my profit. It's not hard to find customers who want Concourse work at Walmart prices.
My boss (the wife) tells me that if I'm not making $40 an hour that I should stay home and work for her. I'll keep trying :smile:

I have a $65 destination fee added to an out of shop project. It covers travel time and gas. For out of state jobs or multiple trips, the fee goes up. The customer will understand. Call a plumber and you find that the first hour of service is five times the additional hourly rate.

I also have a dedicated travel kit. It is a roller bag that carries all of my essential tools. (Yes I have at least three sets of everything.)

Before I started with car saddlery I built pools. And at the beginning it was really hard for me to always work in the same place, because I missed the changing contacts and encounters with the people (in the training you have quite little contact to the customers) But meanwhile I hate it when I have to work outside the company...
Of course I also do work outside the company, but only if it can't be arranged otherwise. Here are a few examples:
- Adapting a hood on an 8 million $ Ferrari -> of course I don't want to have it in the workshop. Already because of the insurance this would be a nightmare. So I do it at the customer's home. But he pays me the time of the journey and a certain amount per distance.
- Assembly service / disassembly service of fitness cushions which I should cover -> Of course I do that. This is easy money. Finally you also pay the time of the driving and the driven distance.
- Working on unknown vehicles, oldtimers or other work where suddenly something happens that was not to be expected -> thats the reason why I HATE IT !!!!!!! Then you are miles away from your workshop, and have to improvise because you lack a tool, or you can't improvise anything in the foreign workshop. Our job is so full of surprises and new challenges... it is (from my point of view) always easier to work in your own shop. Because you can simply react better to any difficulties that arise.