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charlotte_17th
Community Member

Job requires travel

Hi, I got an interview invite for a job that is right up my alley. However, the job requires me to travel for about 5 - 6 hours from my home town and my proposal was set to charging hourly. Is it okay to ask the client if he can make an offer for a fixed price? It's a one time project anyway. And what is normal in this case? Do you ask the client to cover transportation costs + food + your hourly rate x number of hours the project would take to finish including the travel time? 

I hope someone can help me out. 

 

Thank you!

 

Carla

2 REPLIES 2
prestonhunter
Community Member

Personally I would not travel for an Upwork job unless a client paid up front for all travel expenses.

 

And you would need to discuss this in advance with the client.

 

One thing you can NOT do is travel to a client's site, do some work, and then afterwards send the client a bill for your expenses.

 

If you plan to bill for ANY expenses, you need to discuss that ahead of time. And, really - get paid ahead of time. Either through Upwork if there is money involved. Or the client sends you a ticket and other paperwork that you don't pay for and for which no money is exchanged.

 

One option WOULD BE to ask the client to make this a fixed-price project, and roll your expected travel expenses into the total cost of the project. But you would need to have your client full fund the project up front. And even then, you're taking a financial risk. What if he doesn't release the money to you? What if something goes wrong and you don't get paid?

 

(What is funny is that this very morning, while I was on a conference call with an Upwork client, he asked if I would be available to fly out to tour his facilities and come up with additional ideas for the project we're working on. He immediately said he would pay for all expenses.)

martina_plaschka
Community Member

you will lose a lot of time travelling that you could use for other clients and projects. Just based on that I would never travel for an upwork job, it seems to defy the rationale for working through upwork in the first place.

I agree there may be good reasons to agree to travel, but just as you would be from a regular employer, all your cost should of course be covered. And don't forget the lost time!

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