Late night emergency call out charge??

[garywhiteeye]

Hi All

 

Im writing as I need some advice on pricing an emergency call out.

 

I have a grounds maintenance contract for a site in west London. Its an apartment block.

 

Last Saturday when the winds were still quite high I got a call at about 9pm from the manager saying that a tree had come down in the private road leading to the property, this was the only way in or out of the site as the cleaners had parked in front of the only other exit.

 

They needed the tree cleared asap! If there was an emergency (fire/medical etc) that would be big trouble im sure you can appreciate!

 

Luckily I haddnt had a beer at that time on a Sat night so I loaded up the car with my tree kit and headed down for aprox 10.30 on my own (there were other people on site, just not my regular guys)

 

It was quite tough work and dangerous with the winds still blowing and working by the beams of the car for light! took me about 1.5 hrs to clear the road.

 

Now I need to put an invoice in, does anyone have experience of pricing this sort of work? any advice would be really handy.

 

Thanks in advance

 

Hope everyone was safe in the winds!

 

Gary

[testcricket01]

Hi All

 

Im writing as I need some advice on pricing an emergency call out.

 

I have a grounds maintenance contract for a site in west London. Its an apartment block.

 

Last Saturday when the winds were still quite high I got a call at about 9pm from the manager saying that a tree had come down in the private road leading to the property, this was the only way in or out of the site as the cleaners had parked in front of the only other exit.

 

They needed the tree cleared asap! If there was an emergency (fire/medical etc) that would be big trouble im sure you can appreciate!

 

Luckily I haddnt had a beer at that time on a Sat night so I loaded up the car with my tree kit and headed down for aprox 10.30 on my own (there were other people on site, just not my regular guys)

 

It was quite tough work and dangerous with the winds still blowing and working by the beams of the car for light! took me about 1.5 hrs to clear the road.

 

Now I need to put an invoice in, does anyone have experience of pricing this sort of work? any advice would be really handy.

 

Thanks in advance

 

Hope everyone was safe in the winds!

 

Gary

 

We dont get much emergency work round here but when we do we know what we would charge to do it in normally then double it for emergency stuff. At a guess for us 1.5hrs work would be min 200+vat so id say 400+vat min

[mark_goldfinch]

We have been charging a call out rate for all of the emergency work we carry out then what the work would normally cost on top. So just work out what it's worth for you to go out in the middle of the night in difficult conditions. We where charging £150 call out per site plus works completed. Most are happy to pay it.

[CJM]

Break it down

£50 call out

1.5 hours @ £35 (or whatever your hourly rate is) per hour per man

Out of hours charge £150

= £252.50

 

 

I think that's fair and reasonable, if it got me out of bed and would disrupt work the next day (lack of sleep) I'd make sure I'd up the out of hours charge to something that would cover me the next day

[Hollyharrytaz]

So by that you charge £1000 plus a day per person working on the basis of 200 for 1.5 hours for a normal day then double it for a call out £2000 ? I would call that taking the pi s I think you would very soon not have any work and would lose a lot of contracts

[testcricket01]

So by that you charge £1000 plus a day per person working on the basis of 200 for 1.5 hours for a normal day then double it for a call out £2000 ? I would call that taking the pi s I think you would very soon not have any work and would lose a lot of contracts

 

we wouldnt go out on are own should be at least 2 men on site, let alone cutting up fallen trees in high winds at night. are normal day rate is between 400/500 plus vat a day min for 2 men truck and chipper. we are totally stacked out with work, little jobs we charge 200 plus vat min it might have taken you 1.5 hrs to clean up but it will have been at least another hour on top of that getting your gear together and travel time etc.

[Python]

We charge £750 an hour upwards depending on the day but were guaranteed on site in 2 hours or less

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Arbtalk mobile app

[Ty Korrigan]

Hello,

I value my clients and want to keep them happy.

I would consider double time plus travel at same rate to be fair.

A client is likely to view this as normal for a tradesman.

In an emergency, people pull together and a professional gesture such as not overcharging or even doing it for your normal rate for an important client 'may' pay dividends in the future.

Regards

[mark_goldfinch]

So by that you charge £1000 plus a day per person working on the basis of 200 for 1.5 hours for a normal day then double it for a call out £2000 ? I would call that taking the pi s I think you would very soon not have any work and would lose a lot of contracts

 

For EMERGENCY work yeah I see no problem with that. Client have a rite to say no thank you I'll look else where. If that happens then its on to the next one. We had 35 call outs in three days so 2k a day was easily hit. Plus we won extra work from that so they obviously don't think they are having the piss ripped out of them.

[Lyncombe-climber]

So by that you charge £1000 plus a day per person working on the basis of 200 for 1.5 hours for a normal day then double it for a call out £2000 ? I would call that taking the pi s I think you would very soon not have any work and would lose a lot of contracts

 

That's nothing. You want to see what I charge