Anybody charge by the day?

Hi guys,

Just wondering if anybody charges by the day - rather than by simple detailing packages, etc.

I've been doing it for a few months and its been going alright. It depends on the car and condition, but I get a complete interior done and then a single stage RO Machine Polishing of the exterior. I get good feedback because its a high quality service.

I am basically selling my time rather than selling a detail package. I got fed up trying to do two cars a day, and finding that one or the other (or both!) is in pig-sty condition and impacts the work time of the next car (or I end up working late).

At least this way, I work with the customer and focus on the area of the car that needs most attention. Eg, if its a dirty interior I spend 2/3rds of my day on that making it new (if it needs all that time) then I spend the rest on the exterior. Vice versa as well. Some people just want paint polishing only.

It takes a lot of the pressure off me for the day and I don't end up with a 5 hour job some days and nothing to do for the rest of the day.

As most of our cars are dealer cars, we usually just have a set price. For cars that need extra attention we try to upsell the needs on a per vehicle basis. For example, if we normally charge $85.00 to do a full interior, a very dirty car would get a double charge. For exteriors we would normally charge $15.00 but double that for a very muddy one. From there is where we upsell more work, so far its averaged out to about $25.00/hr. So I giess in a way we too are charging by the day as we can rarely do one in less than a day.

Makes sense, Bob.

My work is retail about 90% of the time. How much work do you put into the exterior on a Dealer car? I know they get a bit irksome when it comes to charging extra for dirty cars. Basically, there are too many hacks here who don't bother upselling, and do pretty basic work for pretty basic pay. Dealers don't care that much as long as the car is presentable at the max possible profit for them.

Yup, most dealers just want them presentable and shiny. Luckily for us we are fortunate to deal with a man that wants more. We usually just wash and wax the outsides with minor touches here and there but he has no problem spending extra money if paint repairs or polishing is needed.