price raising

[A440A@AOL.COM]

Terry writes;
<<   The far regular zone (within my county - about within 30 miles)

gets $10 added on.  >>

Greetings, 
    This means you are making less than $10 an hour for driving your car, and 
you are also paying at least 15 cents a mile in overhead.  In the longest 
case, that means you are charging just enough for expenses, and giving your 
time away for free.  Seems to me that this here situation might represent a 
leak in the income bucket .  
    A workable solution for me is to charge an hourly rate for the job.  If 
it is an hours drive away, it becomes at least a 3.5 hour job, which makes it 
dang expensive. However, there are some rural areas with wealthy people 
around here that are glad to pay whatever, just get it tuned! Getting two or 
more jobs in the same area is something I leave up to the customers, but that 
only reduces the travel portion of it . 
The two tunings might be different amounts of work, etc.  so I have learned 
not to lock myself into a price over the phone.   Just make sure the customer 
has heard a worst case scenario, timewise, and clearly understands your rate 
and what it could cost.  
    Nothing's worse than having the piker show himself AFTER the work is 
done.  
Regards, 
Ed Foote RPT