travel costs

[Ken Jankura]

OK, I'll chime in here to stir the pot. Thanks, rook, for asking. I don't
charge travel for my service area, which is about a 50 mile radius. Yes I
drive a good bit. No I wouldn't wish to live in a city if you tripled my
income. I am usually able to schedule a number of clients in one area, or a
number of customers to or from the way home. Background note: I live 2 miles
from a town of 200, 6 miles from a town of 5000, 20 miles from two towns of
20,000, what's a fella to do? If my cutoff point was 10 miles, everybody is
long distance! In a ten mile radius from me, there are 50 pianos, go ahead
make a living on that (3/4 of them are Betsy Ross spinets:-).  I purchased
the previous tuners index cards when he burned out, and he was based about
20 miles from me. I had to make a decision to tune pianos or make people
mad, now I tune pianos and make people mad. I raise my prices regularly (he
was dirt cheap) (Alright already, I'm getting there!) but I don't charge for
travel. I feel ok about not charging somebody $20 extra because they're 1/2
mile over my designated arbitrary limit (some places are so much easier to
get to even if they're farther away, so the idea can become absurd real
quick). The fact that I got an incredible amount of work in all areas at one
time was a factor in my initial decision not to charge for travel. I  can
always schedule a few in any area, and most of my driving is rural. I may
change my mind sometime in the future (I have too much work). But that's the
way I do it. For now.
Ken Jankura
Newburg, PA


----- Original Message -----
From: "Phil Bondi" <tito@PhilBondi.com>
To: <pianotech@ptg.org>
Sent: Wednesday, August 08, 2001 9:08 PM
Subject: Re: travel costs


> I hope the discussion on this heats up soon..I cover a 3 county
> area(somewhat by choice) and I presently do not charge any xtra for that
> '3rd county' that I don't go to all that often..I do, however, make every
> attempt to do at least 2 pianos in that county in one trip..sometimes it
> happens, sometimes it doesn't.
>
> $till profitable,
> roo(k)
>
>
>