Hey everyone...How do ya all establish your farm travel fees?

What the reasonable rate to charge for traveling 1 hour to get to a client and 1 hour to return? How about 2 hours to get to a client and 2 hours to return. Basically, 2 hours is probably my cut off for one client with a couple horses. I would possibly waive a fee for quantity shoeings. What's your guys' opinion on it?

And, I pretty much charge an extra $15-$20 for every half-hour longer it may take me to complete a job with a misbehaved horse. That about right?

I think you have to established how far you are willing to travel and then price your work accordingly, figuring this travel distance into your overall "per horse" overhead. Any account short of your maximum travel distance becomes a potentially better "net" profit account then those at the borders of your outside travel range. I think it makes more sense to make sure your general pricing covers your maximum overhead account to your satisfaction then it does to try to "chase" the extra expenses with "added" fees.

As to unruly horses..... if you are willing to work on pukes for 20 bucks a half hour, move to Maine, I'll fill a book for you, pay you the 20 bucks, and handle the billing myself..

Seriously, you have to really think through what these horses are worth... I think working on a potential "career ender" is worth way more than anyone would be willing to pay.... You have to decide where your comfort zone is and don't let anyone force you outside of it.... I never have a problem with saying, "thanks,but no thanks", loading my truck, and heading out......

Dave

I charge $1.50 a mile if over 50 miles. I have one big barn 150 miles away and the different horse owners split the cost. I charge both ways. I do not come back for lost shoes so its great! As far as bad horses I do a lot of them because I do a lot breeding barns. One barn has 64 head and the other has 56. I do not charge a lot more because the numbers. I did invest in the Nolan halter and that was the best money I have spent.

Esco said that he charges a lady $600 trip charge for an $80 trim! I am not there yet!

http://farriersunited.com
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Medical marijuana

Point taken. Hey, so what do you charge the pukes for an extra half hour? $30. A dollar a minute maybe? Or is that still low?

Jeff, Let's say you gotta travel 100 miles to get to someone. That would cost them $75 ($1.50 x 50). That's sweet. I don't know who Esco is, but $600 sounds nuts.

I still feel like I am loosing money. I could have shoed at least one horse while I was driving. What I try to do is to separate the trip charges for a new truck fund. That way there is money for it in 4 years. I always itemize the invoice it that way the shoeing is not so high.

As far as pukes I do not have a set price. I just look at it like a numbers game. I have always said for every 10 good ones you are going to have one bad one! If it takes way to long the barn manager will drug the horse.

Esco is a great Farrier that has PHD in business. He does a lot of founder horses and LLD cases. Check his site out http://escobuff.com
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Body Science

I think before you establish any travel fees for your business
you first need to calculate what it costs you to drive per
mile. For example, I know that it costs me about 48 cents
per mile. This includes fuel, insurance costs, maintenance,
and initial cost of the vehicle. After you figure that out,
decide how much your time on the road is worth. So for me,
I have a standard coverage radius of 30 miles from my house.
Anything farther than that I charge 75 cents per mile round
trip. Example: Client lives 50 miles away, I charge them $30.
Fortunately for me, my furthest client only lives about 40
miles away.

As far as working on the bad ones, I have a "fractious horse
charge" which is $60/hr or $1 per minute. I know another
farrier in the area who charges $55/hr. I do charge this to
clients when s**t starts to hit the fan, but I refuse to work
on anything I don't feel comfortable with. So in addition to
a fractious charge, I would reccommend setting a limit on
what you'll work on. Decide what qualifies a horse for being
too bad to work on. For me, it generally has something to
do with rearing or kicking.

I hope this is of some help to you, and I believe the
aforementioned "Esco" was referring to Esco Buff. He's a
farrier in New York. Check him out at escobuff.com

I charge a flat fee because I feel like it is best for my area. At the end of the month I tally up all the clients I went to and move that money over into a travel account which pays truck expenses. If I lived outside of a larger city I would probably do by the mile or minute but flat rate works for me where I am.

As far as charging for misbehaved horses, I don't charge more. It is probably the only thing on my policies sheet that I don't enforce. I don't enforce it because I really don't get that many. If a horse kicks at me once, I might forgive them, kick again and I have no problem telling the client that they can work with this one more. If they "kick to kill" they can forget it even after the first time. I really don't get many horses that rear either.

Scotty Lang wrote:
I wouldn't travel two hours for just a couple of horses. I travel two hours to work on a regular basis and I make sure my day is full before I go. If your traveling two hours to trim fifteen or shoe at least 5, the trip charge isn't as necessary.

I also work on many horses that most on this board would probably turn down due to the horses less than ammicable behavior. I do alot of "first time trims" on two and three year olds and work on alot of horses that are bad to kick. Typically, I am done with these horses FASTER than I am a normal trim or shoeing. On the other hand, I have spent as long as four hours trimming two mares and charged the owner $120 each. She was happy to pay it. The first question I ask a new customer is related to the horses shoeing behavior and I tell them that I may charge extra if the horse doesn't cooperate. In many cases, the owners pay me more than I ask for anyway.
What extra I charge for a misbehaving horse has alot to do with how much effort the owner put into helping me get their horse done. If they are working as hard as I am or harder, I'm going to be easy on charging them.

If an account is so far away that it is the only stop I'll be able to make that day then there is a minimum daily rate I get.

Before I decide to work at any account I figure in how much money will make me happy to work there and that sets my price.