Your opinion

If my water pump goes bad when I am mowing. My time stops what I am charging to mow. Now if I hit a stump, or a rock and tare out some flail mower blades. Should my time keep going to replace the blades? This happened to me today. I lost two sets of blades and the hangers. This was about $30.00 out of my pocket for the parts. My time back to my truck, and installing new blades was around 20 minutes. Should I just forget it, and lose around $20.00 in mowing time. When I add up my time. If I say I worked 18 1/2 hours I worked 18 1/2 hours. It would be so easy to pad my time, but I don't operate like that. Stan

Me personally i wouldnt charge, but if you where doing the job for me I could understand you charging for your time.

I probably wouldn't charge, but I would build cost into my hourly rate to cover breakdown time and parts cost. If one piece of ground is excessively rocky, etc. I'd adjust my rate for that piece.

I wouldn't charge time for the breakdown. But, you do need to cover a breakdown in hourly rate. Also have a minimum hours charge. On the flip side; Should your car be up on the lift at the garage, I'm sure you're charged when the tool breaks, grease gun runs out, air hose burst, running for parts, etc..

I'd say no. You should already have repair expense built into your hourly rate.

IMHO if a job is bid at a fixed price,so be it. Time and material is what it says. T&M is usually cheaper because you do not have to pad the estimate to account for the unforeseen.

Breakdowns are part of your overhead.

In an ideal arrangement,it should be agreed that an damage caused by unflagged obsticals is on the field owner. I havn't run into many suprises while putting up hay but bush-hogging is a mine field. It doesn't matter if I have bush-hogged a place previously,the owner knows before I start if someone illeagly dumped on his property and I break something on it,the owner pays. Were I haying on a field accessiable to trespassing,I would likly ask for similar agreement.

When your car is up on the lift you're usually paying flat rate. This means the guy who is working on it gets paid the same no matter if it takes 30 minutes or 90 minutes.

In my opinion you would not charge to fix normal wear and tear that said. Stumps and rocks are not normal wear and tear. I rember my cousin telling me about coustom mowing and after a couple years of tearing up his equipment and cleaning up the mans fields they told him they would cut the field and they did not need him any longer, thats why I say you should not stop your time for there stumps and rocks.
Thats my opinion
John

Being a mechanic things might be a bit different, but I agree with not charging when something happens like your water pump goes out. On the other hand, if your charging hourly then having to take your time to repair damaged caused by debris in the field should be included in the price, along with at least a portion of the parts damaged. Now if you agreed to do it for a definite, flat rate, then you should have had the price padded with enough to cover any typical, unforseen, problems and still be able to turn a profit.

Looking at if from my perspective, as a mechanic, My reasoning is this. If I charged flat rate then any problems encountered would be covered in the price. However when I charge by the hour, if I run into something like a dozen broken bolts in an exhaust manifold, a part siezed to a shaft that takes ten times as long to move as it would if it were free (things flat rate will never cover, and the very reason I work time, and material on everything)it's not my fault the customers machine is that messed up. In the end the customer gets the bill for the full amount of time I spent working on their machine, broken bolts, siezed part, and all.

Basically, in my case it's not my fault the bolts rusted off and broke, the part sheered a key and spun causing it to lock up, or was so old it was rusted tight enough for it to be siezed, etc, etc any more than it's your fault there was debris in the field that damaged your mower. In the end what you do is up to you, and you alone, but if you were working for me I would understand that you have a business to run, and if you give away your time, and parts, for free, to handle a problem that was no fault of your own you wouldn't be in business very long. As such, I would understand and have no problem paying. As far as my customers go I don't think any of them would have a problem with it either.

If I break a flail while hedge-cutting, my watch does not stop while I am fixing it, but I have the cost of the flails factored in to the hourly rate. If however I burst a hose due to catching it or general wear and tear then the watch stops. Or if something cracks or breaks on the frame of the machine rather than on the cutter head that needs welded or even fitting a knackered bearing, the watch also stops. Never have had any argument about my method in 30 years cutting.
Sam