I have a sub within 2 hours of all parts of the state.
For 1 hour, one way, I pay $15 extra. For 2 hour, one way, I pay $30. The exception to this is they have to ask for a special trip charge which I generally approve. Most of the time, the subs are happy with the other work they get and are fine eating these occasional jobs.
These jobs are few and far between and not common.
Now if I'm doing a long haul job and I have laborers with me, I pay them the entire time and I usually make enough money that an extra $100 doesnt affect my profit too much. I dont do these jobs and get trip charges very often.
I have a screwed up job story to tell.
A client, starting with the letter M, offered me 3.5k to tarp a 3,000 sf house, that was a 5 hour drive away and wanted it done first thing the next day which meant I had to drop everything and leave immediately. I figured I could net $2.5k from a days work easily. Costco has good, cheap, large tarps.
I took my girlfriend, and booked a nice B&B, thinking she would hang out while I tarp this by myself. We had a great dinner and rang up a few nice expenses.
I make it to this property and its on the top of a frigging mountain with crazy wind problems. The lowest part of the roof is 35" high. And the kicker, it's concrete shingles. I call the client and begin what has become a bad relationship ever since.
His suggestions:
1) cover the entire 3000sf roof with my tarp and tie all the eyelets together with a really long rope. "My tarp isn't that f*$(ing big".
2) goto Home Depot and ask one of their pro desk guys for advice, the know how to do everything. "(teeth clenched) No"
3) drill pilot holes through the concrete shingles so you can pound 4" nails thru 2x4s and then into the roof. "This will destroy the roof and no".
4) break all the shingles off until you have nothing but plywood... "Ok, but you need to send me an email stating that you want me to remove a 40k roof so we can tarp it"
I finally went inside to look at the water damage and what I found was questionable whether it was caused by roof leak or vapor damage inside a shower. It wasn't HUD keyed so I had to break in and change the lock to a hud key and leave a new lockbox.
When I explained the issue, their response was, "Oh, well, screw it, just invoice for a trip charge." Their standard trip charge is $30. I invoiced $1100 ($1000 for trip, $60 for the lock, $40 for the lockbox). They didn't pay me for the knob or lockbox and reduced my trip to $150. Wow. I lost 2 days of work, about $300 in gas and way overspent on everything else.
If I didn't gross over 500k from them per year, I would have liened their house I was so upset.
This manager and I have never seen eye to eye since I told him he wasn't qualified to suggest what I should do on anymore jobs requiring construction experience.