Hourly Rate

[StokieSpark]

What hourly rate do you all charge??

Dont mean to be nosey, just interested as for when i set up on my own. My boss currently charges £22 per hour for me. (I do industrial electrics and plant maint)

 

[Bobby B]

150 a day is what i will be charging whilst i'm setting up i reckon. seems others round me charge 170. better to be a bit cheaper at first i think.

Sorry i do domestic, i'd imagine you should charge more

 

[billy110]

I think you could do with reading a thread by mazdaman regarding hourly rates, he pretty much had everything covered

 

[StokieSpark]

Ahh right.. cheers.

 

[bugsy]

How much are you worth?
Rates are being driven down by highly skilled well qualified professionals under selling themselves

 

[lloyd1980]

exactly
I know my old boss charges 22.50 ph, he invariably sends 2 whether it needs it or not, so theres 45 an hour, plus the third he slaps on materials and then 17.5% VAT on total amount

I work for myself now and I am not vat registered so I know im competartive, It does really boil down to how much you think your worth

initially its making a name for yourself, when you have regulars then they wont look at the bill

FORGOT to say NICE ONE BUGSY!!!!

I agree completely, I didnt go to college and put myself through years of study to charge what joe public seems to think you should be charging at the moment - naff all!!!

IMO we are highly skilled proffesional tradesmen who deserve to be paid accordingly, your telling me we are any less skilled than the local grease monkey at the garrage charging 55 an hour labour?????

And then you get joe public shopping round round and round not being bothered about quality and then vochek the polish spark does it for ten an hour

We are all in business to make money and it makes my blood boil when your crucified for trying to make a living!

 

[sparks1234]

exactly
I know my old boss charges 22.50 ph, he invariably sends 2 whether it needs it or not, so theres 45 an hour, plus the third he slaps on materials and then 17.5% VAT on total amount

I work for myself now and I am not vat registered so I know im competartive, It does really boil down to how much you think your worth

initially its making a name for yourself, when you have regulars then they wont look at the bill

FORGOT to say NICE ONE BUGSY!!!!

I agree completely, I didnt go to college and put myself through years of study to charge what joe public seems to think you should be charging at the moment - naff all!!!

IMO we are highly skilled proffesional tradesmen who deserve to be paid accordingly, your telling me we are any less skilled than the local grease monkey at the garrage charging 55 an hour labour?????

And then you get joe public shopping round round and round not being bothered about quality and then vochek the polish spark does it for ten an hour

We are all in business to make money and it makes my blood boil when your crucified for trying to make a living!

I am not wanting to deminish the differences between what a sparks and a garage would charge and I neither agree or disagree on the rates people have put in this thread previously, its difficult to compare the sparky against grease monkey rates because of the overhead differences, a garage has a large outlay to keep their prmesis going against a sparks in a van, so IMHO thats why it would seem so different for a garage mechanic who in his own field is about as qualified as we are

 

[Jason Smith]

Fact is we are highly skilled. Wea re also accountable. Skill plus accountability to me, makes us worth a lotmore than 22 an hour. However market forces etc, . I never quote low, it degrades our profession. Its actualy quite difficult to set a car on fire, or get electrocuted from it .

 

[bugsy]

oh I dunno the way things are going for Toyota at the moment there might a few with the prius

 

[sparks1234]

Fact is we are highly skilled. Wea re also accountable. Skill plus accountability to me, makes us worth a lotmore than 22 an hour. However market forces etc, . I never quote low, it degrades our profession. Its actualy quite difficult to set a car on fire, or get electrocuted from it .

Totally agree, we are worth more than £22 per hour, all I am stating is the garage does have larger overheads than us so that would be why their prices are higher

 

[Jason Smith]

yep, I agree with you totally, wheather they are working or not, the rates, rent and all that.

 

[andrew692003]

I charge £32.50 p/h for anywork to bigger companies in the area, usually commercial work.

I charge £27.50 p/h for any private work usually residential etc.

I charge £25.00 p/h for any bigger contract or priced works.(Thinking of increasing).

VAT also on top of that rates. Also I don't charge for 15mins, 30mins etc. Its a flat rate unless I get some old dear wanting me to change light bulbs etc. I'm not that ruthless!

Cheers

 

[Jason Smith]

nice to see some modern charges, I think your rate is reasonable, more or less similar to mine, and reflect the job we do. There are a load of skilled electricians out there who for the last 20 years have been charging very low rates in ignorance of what should be being charged in 2010. Its not because of any particular reason other than that they have not kept abreast with the times.

 

[roukel01]

Totally agree, we are worth more than £22 per hour, all I am stating is the garage does have larger overheads than us so that would be why their prices are higher

I know its a little off topic, but what really, really, really annoys me about what Garages charge is the fact that they still insist on charging a small fortune to plug the car into a diagnostics machine just so the mechanic can find out whats wrong with it. Can you imagine us sparks going to a fault and saying.... erm well, I'll have to get my tester out of the van to take some readings, that'll be £50 before we start... No, I don't think so!
Lets face it, a mechanic can't fix a car these days without plugging it in, its part of their job and its high time they should stop charging us for the pleasure. And no, they don't cost a fortune, infact their testers don't cost much more than ours.
The only time they should charge for this is when no repair work is carried out.

Rant over.

 

[pennywise]

Dad has just been charged £30 for getting the service lights turned off in his BM It's on the itemized service bill buggers .

 

[andrew692003]

Totally agree Jason! When we bought the company which I had worked 14 years for my boss was charging me out at £18 p/h . and that was only 4 years ago!!

The first thing we changed was the hourly rate and we're going from strength to strength and have a good reputation. We don't get many complaints about our charges but there's always the odd one trying it on.

We have a customer who owns a garage, he charges £42.50 p/h plus VAT, he phoned one day to complain about getting charged £27.50 plus VAT for half an hours work!!!! I replied that If MY van is broken he doesn't send his mechanic to me to fix it, I have to travel to him and then get a bill of £42.50 p/h plus VAT, I told him it was me that was in the wrong game! Cheeky B*****d!

Cheers

 

[Jason Smith]

Its a hard one to answer. I have a minimum fee for the first hour, after that its all calculated at the hourly rate. First hour is £45. That first hour can last for five minutes or an hour. its still £45. Long jobs, lasting for weeks, are charged at a daily rate. (i.e. no first hour charge ).
To be honest, the minimum charge prevents me getting calls to change light bulbs and the like.Repeat customers dont get a minimum charge, but a minimum of an hours charge.

 

[roukel01]

Its a hard one to answer. I have a minimum fee for the first hour, after that its all calculated at the hourly rate. First hour is £45. That first hour can last for five minutes or an hour. its still £45. Long jobs, lasting for weeks, are charged at a daily rate. (i.e. no first hour charge ).
To be honest, the minimum charge prevents me getting calls to change light bulbs and the like.Repeat customers dont get a minimum charge, but a minimum of an hours charge.

Just out of interest, how many sparks are within easy reach of your catchment area? We can't get away with any more than £25 in these parts, there's just too many of us.

 

[sparks1234]

Just out of interest, how many sparks are within easy reach of your catchment area? We can't get away with any more than £25 in these parts, there's just too many of us.

And you are where??