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In this section we post questions
from members
and responses
from The Mentor. |
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 "I have to travel to Europe this weekend for a client.
Nearly all of my time on Sunday will be spent traveling from the airfield in
Switzerland to the hotel in Germany.
My question is, do I charge the
client for my time on Sunday? The rest of the time I will be performing my
actual consultant's duties." |
 Naturally, you have to recover the
cost of your travel from this client one way or the other. Your choices are:
1. Charge for travel time - If this is expected to be a one time "gig"
this may be your only choice. However, you should not surprise them with this.
If you have already told them what your fee is and not mentioned that you bill
for travel time then this is not a good option. If you mention this up front
you may find that it is no problem and that they are used to paying travel
expenses for their "stateside" consultants.
2. Raise your rate to
include travel time costs. This is the one I usually use but can price you out
of the market if the assignment is short..
3. A variation of two for
longer assignments. if you expect long term business from this client, you can
spread the cost of this travel over the entire assignment. The only problem
with this option is that you will have to keep track of travel expenses
reimbursements to make sure you have recovered them.
These are all of
the options I can come up with. I hope they help. I would be interested in
hearing about what you eventually do. Have a great trip!
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Response: |
Thank you very much, I appreciate the
feedback.
I have decided that I will not charge the client for travel
time. In the first place my contract does not refer to this and in the second
place this assignment will be a rather lengthy one and in the third place the
client is going to reimburse me for all travel costs.
I was unsure of
the consulting fee aspects and your response has helped me out in this regard.
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