I'm kind of curious about this. How do you charge for your travel time? Do you base it on distance or time and if so from where? From an incall location? (yes I know you don't have an incall). From an arbitrary central point? Fixed rate? I'm assuming that you're not going to share where you live with your client. It's interesting because let's say you're in the east end and your client is in the west island, and you have to cross the city to get there. You could charge a certain amount to go across town to where your client lives. You live in the west island and your client lives in the west island 5 minutes away, but he doesn't know where you are. Do you charge the same flat rate? or based on the arbitrary point? make it up on the spot?
When I say "you" I mean the general "you" here, and not you specifically, but it seems like there's a lot of room for some arbitrary rates or some scamming to take place here. The fact is though is that I have no idea how it works and I'm just speculating, since I've never paid travel time, ever. It has just never come up for me. I'm sure agencies must have some kind of formula too. Areas of the city maybe? Probably a bunch of the gents here have some insight too. I've honestly never even stopped to think about it before.
It is in my ad.
-I charge an off island fee for leaving the island. 100 up to the first hr of travel. But I try to keep it within the hour, so there's no buildup on the initial 100, because it is off island. I don't charge extra to the places close to Champlain bridge, and I don't charge extra for Laval. (I try to count the time off island from when I leave the island, it's not about trying to gouge them, I'm trying to cover my losses, without being unfair.)
Depending on distance and time, I try to be fair, like if it takes 1.25hrs I might just call it 1hr 100, 1.75hrs, might count as 2hrs 200. I'm not looking to make money off driving where I need to go, if the booking is long enough I may choose to drop the travel fee. (3+hrs)
-On island it is not counted. It is also why I won't book less than my 1hr. Because it financially would cost me more for a 15min appointment than I get from it. So 1 hr is my minimum. I have to make enough that I am not just working to maintain working, without being able to contribute more to my family.
It was a hard lesson to learn when I started out. Making money isn't making anything if the cost to function takes everything you make. It was like I was just being funded to keep going to see more people with no benifit.
There is wear and tear on the vehicle with travel as well. Still seems every time I think I finally got ahead to a comfort zone, able to finally sustain for a moment, something else breaks on the vehicle and is expensive to fix.
Lol. Good thing I have 1 going into auto mechanics.
This does sometimes feel like it's more of a hobby than a form of income for me. It really is not profitable, but I'm having fun, and it is helping me more than if I wasn't available too. The people I get to see are my own form of fullfilment and therapy.
People here talk about providers like all they are out to do is scam and take you for every cent. Those I have met, were good people. Sure some providers choose this for easy spread their legs money, you know them, you complain about them in your reviews.
Some are doing their best to make a living, and provide a good business for themselves to live off of, and know they are people, some struggling, and dealing with people, some struggling.