True Rate Minimum and trip charge
Minimum charge and trip fee, from your rate
A small job still costs you the drive, the setup and the clean-up. The True Rate kit's starter settings cover that with a $35 trip charge on every ticket, a 15% buffer on jobs under 4 hours, a 5% contingency and a $195 minimum. They're starting points, not market data. Here's how they stack up, and how to set yours.
- Trip charge
- $35 every ticket
- Minimum
- $195 checked last
- Small-job buffer
- 15% under 4 hours
- Contingency
- 5% on the subtotal
The order it's added up
- The tasks at their flat prices: hours × your rate, plus supplies marked up 25%, rounded up to the next $5.
- The small-job buffer, if the whole ticket is under 4 hours of work.
- The trip charge.
- The contingency, on everything so far.
- If the total is still under the minimum, it comes up to the minimum.
The order matters. The trip charge counts toward the minimum, so on a tiny job the customer pays the minimum, not the minimum plus the trip.
Three one-task tickets
At the kit's worked-example rate of $90 an hour, with the starter settings above.
Install smoke / CO detector
0.4 starter hours, $0 supplies, at $90/hr.
| Flat price for the task | $40 |
|---|---|
| Small-job buffer, 15% | $6 |
| Trip charge | $35 |
| Contingency, 5% | $4 |
| Up to the $195 minimum | $110 |
| Ticket | $195 |
Patch medium drywall hole (6" to 16")
1.5 starter hours, $25 supplies, at $90/hr.
| Flat price for the task | $170 |
|---|---|
| Small-job buffer, 15% | $26 |
| Trip charge | $35 |
| Contingency, 5% | $12 |
| Ticket | $243 |
Install pre-hung exterior door
6 starter hours, $60 supplies, at $90/hr.
| Flat price for the task | $615 |
|---|---|
| Trip charge | $35 |
| Contingency, 5% | $33 |
| Ticket | $683 |
Set your minimum from your numbers
Start from the smallest visit you'd actually take, priced in full. At $90 an hour, the trip plus one hour is $125. The trip plus two hours is $215. The kit's $195 starter minimum is about 1.8 hours of shop time plus the trip.
If your rate is higher, your minimum should be too. If most of your small calls are across town, raise the trip charge, not the minimum, so it lands on every ticket.
Say it before you go. One line on the estimate or in the first text, "Our minimum for any visit is $195, which includes the trip", saves the argument at the door.
Jobs that hit the minimum on their own
At $90 an hour, these 40 jobs come up to the $195 minimum when one of them, quantity one, is the only thing on the ticket. Bundle them, or quote the minimum up front.
Common questions
What is a minimum job charge?
The least you'll bill for any visit, however small. In the kit's Price This Job sheet it's checked last. The tasks, the small-job buffer, the trip charge and the contingency are added up, and if the total is under the minimum, the ticket comes up to it.
Should I charge a trip fee and a minimum?
The kit does both, because they do different jobs. The trip charge pays for getting there and goes on every ticket. The minimum only matters on small tickets, and on a big job it never kicks in.
Do I charge the trip fee again for a second visit?
The kit's "Did you forget?" list says to add a custom line or another trip charge for each extra visit: dry time, inspections, back-ordered parts. Say so on the estimate before you start.
What's the small-job buffer?
A 15% add-on for jobs under 4 hours. A short job carries the same loading, setup and clean-up as a long one, so those minutes are a bigger share of it.
Starter settings from the True Rate kit's Price This Job sheet. They're not a survey of what anyone charges. Set your own.
Price the whole ticket
The kit's Price This Job sheet adds the trip, the buffer, the contingency and the minimum for you, and shows your margin before you send the number. $39 once, for Google Sheets or Excel.