On Call Rates / Call out Rates

**doodab** · 30 March 2010, 17:10

I would aim for 1 x day rate for being on call monday to friday + 1 x day rate for a weekend on call + pro-rata for any hours spent actually dealing with calls.

**TykeMerc** · 30 March 2010, 17:14

Originally posted by doodab View Post

I would aim for 1 x day rate for being on call monday to friday + 1 x day rate for a weekend on call + pro-rata for any hours spent actually dealing with calls.

Reasonable.

**boxman** · 30 March 2010, 17:17

Thanks guys that was quick!

**Wanderer** · 30 March 2010, 20:04

Originally posted by boxman View Post

I've been offered a day's pay for being on call for the four day period Good Friday to Easter Monday but I'm not sure how good this offer is compared to other people's experience.

1 day's pay for every 7 days on call.
Call-out fee is minimum 2 hours and then charged by the hour.

You may want to come up with an SLA for response time. If you are out at the beach on a day-trip how long would it take you to get online to fix a problem. Would you carry a laptop around with you on call etc. Would you be sober enough to drive to the office etc. You don't want them to own your life just because you are on call.

As you say there has to be consideration to how often you got called out. If it was more than a couple of hours every fortnight for something that needed you to get online to fix then I'd be charging more because their systems are obviously broken and they can't be arsed fixing them.

**ChimpMaster** · 30 March 2010, 21:31

We get almost 1 days pay per week spent on-call, and then our usually hourly charge applies after that. This is regardless of bank holidays.

I am finding that this can add about 20% to top-line income. It's not easy money, but if you're doing what you know and love, and the client appreciates and pays you for this, then where's the harm.

**questiontime** · 30 March 2010, 22:47

As others have said, you have to charge a fixed fee for being on-call and then an hourly rate. Very reasonable and it unlikely to be challenged. If it is, your client is being unreasonable. Remember, fixed fee is not free money as some clients would like you to believe. It is the fee for being available to them if needed.

Don't expect them to solve SLAs for you but propose a solution. You will be driving what you want rather than them saying what they want.

I assume you have details, ie, the issues and the hours spent for the past 4-5 weeks. Make a list of the issues, categorize them logically (maybe dev, test, prod or whatever makes sense in the environment) and give them severities as you see fit and the response time you think will suit.

Say, what you intend to charge (be reasonable, of course!) and what it would have cost them for the last few weeks. Show how much can be saved if unnecessary calls can be avoided.

If you start charging, you will not get as many calls. That is certain!

my 2p worth

**blacksheep** · 30 March 2010, 22:52

Originally posted by doodab View Post

I would aim for 1 x day rate for being on call monday to friday + 1 x day rate for a weekend on call + pro-rata for any hours spent actually dealing with calls.

possibly try that as an opening conversation.

I'd suggest 1 day's pay for every week of "being available for on-call", plus
- any call/incidents of less than 30 mins duration - charged at 1/2 hour
- calls/incidents of more than 30 mins duration - round up to the next 30 min time period and charge at pro-rata.

**boxman** · 31 March 2010, 06:10

Thanks everyone for your contributions. I'm getting a clearer idea of what is reasonable and already in place for similar situations. I'm always focused on being commercial in my dealings with clients but balanced by an appropriate amount of goodwill. This approach has stood me in good stead over the many years that I've been contracting and means that I get most of my company's business via repeat clients. I have an opportunity to make a proposal to my client in the next few days so I appreciate now having a firmer basis for negotiations in my mind.

**stingman123** · 31 March 2010, 08:32

This has worked for me in the past.

Run an office audit,
Fix as most problerms as possible, calculate this on a % of users working at a % of their given work day, try to hit 95 %
Draw up a contract, state that the current state of the office is that 95% of users can work 100% of the time, of the other way around ,sometimes clientco prefer that option.
In the contract state you fees and include a basic call out charge. Do most of the problems caused eminate from users either being too stupid? Too lazy? or "fiddlers" if so, your call out fee is justified. Either way include one.

My call out fee is £500, then £70 per hour. Before the contract was signed, I had a backlog of calls, now I get @3 a month!! (this is my plan b by the way)
I have an automated web based call logging sysyem and an iphone useld to remote into the machines, hence my SLA response is virtually immediate, for call solved remotely, I charge £50 per hour.

hope this helps

On Call Rates / Call out Rates