I'm curious what size territory the contractors in the group have and how long is your maximum trip to a job?

I go about 45 minutes maximum, or around 20-25 miles. The majority of my work is in town...within 5 miles and ten minutes.

Dave

I'll do about an hour. Or longer if the money is right.

The company I work for has accounts with retail chains.

A 60 to 90 mile service call is not at all unusual for me with 150-200 mile one way trips happening occasionally.

The last two projects I worked where about 70 miles from home.

Glad it's their gas.

Dave,
I live in Vernon Hills and will travel as far as the South Loop or Western Suburbs. Sometimes I can spend an hour and a half and thats with no traffic.

bot,

is that for residential? commercial? both? How do you get paid for that time? What if you were sending an employee, how would you cover that cost?

Mahlere,
I am a fairly new contractor so this is what I have to do to stay busy. Driving in Chicago can be a nightmare sometimes. Employees only get paid for travel time inbetween jobs, which isn't very often and they don't complain because I take good care of them. I will travel for any kind of work, as I am a work-aholic.

but how do you get compensated from your customer for this time?

Well for us it's easy.

We charge them by the hour as soon as I start heading their direction.

If it also happens to be a 'off hours' call it is a four hour minimum and I charge the customer for every minute I am out of my house.

From the time the answering service calls me until the time I anticipate I will be back home.

Add to that a truck and mileage charge.

Of course none of our calls are to single family homes.

What do they get for this?...quick response, professional, reliable service.

Also the abilty to get a lot of man power on the job ASAP if there is a major issue.

Bob

I average about 15min to 45min but will go 60min in slow season if needed but this rarely happens. The company I am with now does it right. Theyt would rather have too many calls than too many techs. This keeps guys busy and happy.