Travel Fees?

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You're confusing items....I quote all-inclusive.... I, however, need to know at the end of the year how much I've collected for those expenses vs how much I've spent,

One has no bearing on the other. I have detailed accounting of my costs across all departments and activities, even at the single event level. It does not mean that I need to itemize the bill on the client side and I don't.

If I were to itemize a cost for the sound system, then most U.S. states deem that portion of the invoice to be a rental and require sales tax. I don't do that, because at no time does the equipment leave my own custody and care - and that eliminates an unnecessary cost to both the client and myself. If a carpenter lists an amount for his tools - then he too would have to charge sales tax on that amount.

At best, I will break out the fee for discreet service categories, such as lighting, audio/video, graphics, etc. which helps people understand how their event cost changes as their needs change or grow. I do not however, have numbers that apply to 12 versus 24 up lights, etc. because again - that defines a rental not a service or production. No one is told how many up lights I bring to an event. There is a result that needs to be achieved and that is what they pay for - not the pieces used or unused to attain it.

If I am doing a rental and then riding along as a technician - then by all means I would itemize. That's just not the case with DJ gigs and much of what I do.
 
One has no bearing on the other. I have detailed accounting of my costs across all departments and activities, even at the single event level. It does not mean that I need to itemize the bill on the client side and I don't.

If I were to itemize a cost for the sound system, then most U.S. states deem that portion of the invoice to be a rental and require sales tax. I don't do that, because at no time does the equipment leave my own custody and care - and that eliminates an unnecessary cost to both the client and myself. If a carpenter lists an amount for his tools - then he too would have to charge sales tax on that amount...
Rife with so much misinformation that it warrants simple disregard.
 
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One has no bearing on the other. I have detailed accounting of my costs across all departments and activities, even at the single event level. It does not mean that I need to itemize the bill on the client side and I don't.

If I were to itemize a cost for the sound system, then most U.S. states deem that portion of the invoice to be a rental and require sales tax. I don't do that, because at no time does the equipment leave my own custody and care - and that eliminates an unnecessary cost to both the client and myself. If a carpenter lists an amount for his tools - then he too would have to charge sales tax on that amount.

At best, I will break out the fee for discreet service categories, such as lighting, audio/video, graphics, etc. which helps people understand how their event cost change as their event needs change or grow. I do not however have numbers that apply to 12 versus 24 up lights, etc. because again - that defines rental not a service or production. No one is told how many up lights I bring to an event. There is a result that needs to be achieved and that is what they pay for - not the pieces used or unused to attain it.

who said breaking out line items on services? We're talking about transportation. The post is about if you charge for travel and how it's figured. It's not about the rest of the contract. I simply said the reason I break it out ON THE CONTRACT is so that I can go back and look at all of our events and know exactly, to the penny, how much was collected to cover travel related expenses. It is NOT itemized when quoting to the customer, except to note that the price I gave them INCLUDES everything, such as transportation and tax (so they know there are no other unexpected costs to show up). The number of uplights you bring has no bearing on the travel expenses.
 
I really, honestly, do not belief that the customers care whether the Travel Fees are itemized or not. It all leads to a TOTAL AMOUNT any way. We should be up front with prospects about where our location is, and how far we are from their event regardless. Some people may want to go with a more local DJ, and that is their prerogative if they choose to do that. ...This is why I generally keep my service area up to a 90 mile drive. Most of my events are a 50 to 80 mile drive one way every year, and I don't mind driving that distance to earn my money at my current price level.

Outside of this online quote generator I recently started using, I have never really itemized my travel fee. I just included it in my quote to the prospect. However, I still charged $2.00 per mile over 90 miles one way on most of my weddings. In the past, we have ran specials that only included locations within 30 miles. We booked a number of events 40 to 60 miles out on those special deals, and the clients were fine paying the travel charges. I told them up front I was charging $2.00 per mile for distance over 30 miles from the DJ. Of course, those specials were online bookings and at considerably lower rates than our regular prices, so those clients knew they were getting deals regardless. All of those bookings were parties on open dates under 60 days out.
 
Speaking about travel fees:

I may have posted about this in the past, but maybe about 7 to 8 years ago, I met a local DJ who had a set pricing structure like this:

$250 = Set Up/Tear down Fee
$50 Per hour of music or performance time
First 20 miles Free. Additional mileage was $1.00 per mile 1 way from his house.
He did not travel over 70 miles. So highest travel fee was $50.00
$50.00 if you want to meet with him in person prior to the event.
Casual Events were free
$50 if you wanted him to dress in a suit and tie.
$100 if you wanted him in a tuxedo


Example quote would be like this:

$250 Set Up/Tear down
4 Hours at $50.00 per hour = $200.00
Event 50 miles away = $30.00
Wedding, with him in a tux = $100.00
In Person meeting before event = $50.00

Price would be $630.00.

Essentially, weddings could be the same price as a party if you did not meet with him, and were fine with him dressing casually. He did not care.

...Not sure if he is around any more as a DJ...I don't think he is, but I always thought the way he went about pricing was quite interesting.
 
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Speaking about travel fees:

I may have posted about this in the past, but maybe about 7 to 8 years ago, I met a local DJ who had a set pricing structure like this:

$250 = Set Up/Tear down Fee
$50 Per hour of music or performance time
First 20 miles Free. Additional mileage was $1.00 per mile 1 way from his house.
He did not travel over 70 miles. So highest travel fee was $50.00
$50.00 if you want to meet with him in person prior to the event.
Casual Events were free
$50 if you wanted him to dress in a suit and tie.
$100 if you wanted him in a tuxedo


Example quote would be like this:

$250 Set Up/Tear down
4 Hours at $50.00 per hour = $200.00
Event 50 miles away = $30.00
Wedding, with him in a tux = $100.00
In Person meeting before event = $50.00

Price would be $630.00.

Essentially, weddings could be the same price as a party if you did not meet with him, and were fine with him dressing casually. He did not care.

...Not sure if he is around any more as a DJ...I don't think he is, but I always thought the way he went about pricing was quite interesting.

It's a good way to do it I wouldn't be advertising that though
 
It's a good way to do it I wouldn't be advertising that though

Me neither, but he was advertising it at the time.

His pricing structure seems pretty fair to me. I mean, a party will generally receive the same basic set up that a wedding reception will have from any given DJ. The wedding reception client will need to use the wireless mic more for for speeches/toasts, and more is involved from the DJ. However, outside of that, the only other tangible factor is that the DJ is generally expected to dress nicer for a wedding vs. a party. So, yeah, charge more because you are wearing a suit or Tux, lol.

It kind of kept things simple as well. I don't think he was too involved with lighting at the time, so Not sure if that was an additional charge or not. He did tell me that he had just increased his set up fee to $250 because he recently had a few pita venues. He was charging $195 for that prior, so a 4 hour party would be priced at $395.

Back around that time I did get a few clients asking me if I charged a set up and tear down fee, and I always said no, my quote covers everything. ...I don't think clients like to hear "Set up/Tear down fee" when being told a quote, but if the quote comes out lower, I'm sure some don't mind it at all. ...I mean when I tell people "My standard wedding package is $1,500 inclusive" vs another guy saying "There is a $250 set up/tear down fee, plus $50 per performance hour, and $100 additional if you want me to wear a tux, and $1.00 per mile travel fee if your venue is over a 20 mile drive from me" ...That is a big difference in price. Then again, the other guy does not sound like high quality service with the way they quoted either....a least to me...
 
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It's just a different way to sell. It's no different than saying a car is $1,000 - but the tires are $10,000. You want leather seats, that'll be an extra $1,000. A hamburger sandwich is $1.00 but the bread is $5.00. You want lettuce, that'll be an extra $0.50.
 
Me neither, but he was advertising it at the time.

His pricing structure seems pretty fair to me. I mean, a party will generally receive the same basic set up that a wedding reception will have from any given DJ. The wedding reception client will need to use the wireless mic more for for speeches/toasts, and more is involved from the DJ. However, outside of that, the only other tangible factor is that the DJ is generally expected to dress nicer for a wedding vs. a party. So, yeah, charge more because you are wearing a suit or Tux, lol.

It kind of kept things simple as well. I don't think he was too involved with lighting at the time, so Not sure if that was an additional charge or not. He did tell me that he had just increased his set up fee to $250 because he recently had a few pita venues. He was charging $195 for that prior, so a 4 hour party would be priced at $395.

Back around that time I did get a few clients asking me if I charged a set up and tear down fee, and I always said no, my quote covers everything. ...I don't think clients like to hear "Set up/Tear down fee" when being told a quote, but if the quote comes out lower, I'm sure some don't mind it at all. ...I mean when I tell people "My standard wedding package is $1,500 inclusive" vs another guy saying "There is a $250 set up/tear down fee, plus $50 per performance hour, and $100 additional if you want me to wear a tux, and $1.00 per mile travel fee if your venue is over a 20 mile drive from me" ...That is a big difference in price. Then again, the other guy does not sound like high quality service with the way they quoted either....a least to me...

I have a hard time imagining that he's still doing it this way. In the past 5 years, virtually all of my clients want to see a simple price on your website. They do not want to call/email for a quote and relatively few of them want to even meet in person.
 
...virtually all of my clients want to see a simple price on your website. They do not want to call/email for a quote and relatively few of them want to even meet in person.
..and I wouldn't need a price proposal or a meeting with the sangwich stacker at my McDonalds.

I'm am grateful that my clients don't expect me to make 'em a Quarter Pounder with Cheese (A Royal with cheese for you metric peeps)
 
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