Travel Charges?

[dehoff]

What do others charge for travel to a wedding shoot that's not in the immediate area?

My partner and I are in the process of quoting out a wedding that would require a 250 mile one-way drive(flying is not an option). We include mileage within 30 miles in our package pricing, and charge $.75/mile for up to 75 miles, but have never ventured this far from home. Using my quick math skills, using our current pricing that would be .75 x500 miles= $325. Subtract $125 in fuel costs, and that leaves $200 to cover 20 photog hours (2 photogs x 5 hrs x2ways) of sitting in a car(well, maybe 15 if one of us starts to PP on the ride back). $10/hr seems a little low IMO for compensation for our time to travel, especially when we're nearly equaling our shooting time with driving time.

Does anyone charge an hourly travel rate, or use another method for calculating cost for travel for a wedding?

[tim]

How much do you want the work? Are there other photographers in that area who they could hire instead? Also consider that after 5 hours driving you won't be at your best, maybe you'll want to stay there the night before? My limit is about 2-3 hours driving before i'm too stuffed to work effectively.

[PhotosGuy]

maybe you'll want to stay there the night before? Weather, traffic problems, construction, all add to the problem. Get a room. Are you really planning on driving back after shooting all day?

I charged 1/2 the day rate for each days travel time. It's not as if you can plan to shoot anything else on those days.

[dehoff]

Thanks for the replies.

Well, as luck would have it, it appears that we already have another wedding booked for that date that is within our typical region. We had pondered quoting a full or partial day rate in addition to mileage, but were a little uncertain on how to handle this.