My shop rate is no different than my in home rate. My business expenses have not stopped because my car is parked so my rate remains the same either way. The only thing I am not using at that time is gas. Seeing as how we have to use our vehicle to pick up the action and return it to the location, I charge two separate charges for this. One for pickup, a service call charge and one for returning it, another service call charge. This gets me to and from the location. I also add on the time involved for removing and installing the action. I gave an estimate on filing hammers and regulation for example, not removing a spinet action and re-installing it too which will take at least 1 hour labor removing keys etc. I think of it this way. If I were in their home and had to remove the action to repair a broken hammer shank, I would charge my normal labor rate for removing and installation of the action. Doing likewise removing and installing of the action to bring to my shop for any other work is no different. Jer From: pianotech-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:pianotech-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf Of kurt baxter Sent: Tuesday, June 29, 2010 1:35 PM To: Pianotech List Subject: [pianotech] Shop rate vs house call rate Ok, so I am in the process of updating and organizing my fee schedule, and was wondering how others figure rates for work in-home vs in-shop. Do most technicians charge less per hour for the same repairs/regulation if they do it in their shop? If so, why, and by how much? No need for actual dollar amounts, just a percentage of what you normally get for an hour of tuning or repair, and your thinking behind it. I figure my house call rate needs to cover: Driving time. Gas Car expenses Tools and training The inefficiency resulting from working in someones living room with limited tools. On the other hand, my shop rate needs to cover: Shop rent Utilities Maintenance Even more tools (and training). The work involved in moving the action to and from your shop (unless of course you just charge two service calls on top of your shop rate) It just feels odd to try and calculate how much my time is worth based on where I am standing at the time. -kurt -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://ptg.org/pipermail/pianotech.php/attachments/20100629/2ea8132c/attachment.htm>
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