BSS Examiner Fees

[CaptainJacks]

Another boater on our moorings was charged £20 for the BSS examiner to get in his car and drive from his office to our moorings which is less than a ten minute drive!

If he took the boat to the BSS examiners marina he would have not been charged or given a £20 discount for making it convenient for the examiner to work!

I'm not sure how other people feel about this and wondered if this is a commen practise?

[Martin Megson]

Seems reasonable to me. BSS test is hardly an emergency and can be planned well in advance.

[Arthur Marshall]

So there and back about half an hour if you include loading the can with the stuff he needs... £40 an hour - about par for the course I'd have thought. I suppose it depends on the total cost of the survey etc. The fees for this pointless exercise are ludicrous anyway.

[John V]

I don't know if it's common practice or not but I can see the rationale behind it. One job that my company used to do was PAT testing. (I got into it very early on when the charges were good and got out of it as the prices dropped)

I had a set charge for the test and report if the items to be tested were brought to my premises, an extra charge if the items were gathered in a central position and a much higher charge if they had to be searched for. If it takes longer it has to cost more otherwise it's not worth doing.

[b0atman]

BSS like topsy it will grow and grow.

KISS should be their motto not what can we add on now.

[Sabcat]

It'd be interesting to see if there's easily comparable figures for the number of boat fires etc. before the introduction of BS and after.

[John V]

BSS like topsy it will grow and grow.

KISS should be their motto not what can we add on now.

 

 

Yes you're probably right.....with some regulatory testing there are large vocal vested interests against increase in rules/ cost that keep it controlled,

with BSS that's missing

[MtB]

I charge for my time. Like a solicitor, it's what I sell. It's all I have to sell. Same for the BSS geezer.

 

Traveling to a customer and back has to be chargeable time otherwise the further away someone is, the less incentive there is to go. People used to ask me 'ok how much would you charge to drive to (say) Portsmouth to fix my boiler' after I'd said sorry, too far.

 

This made me think long and hard about it, and the answer is now 'I'll go anywhere if you are happy to pay for my time spent traveling as well as time spent on site'.

 

Is that so unreasonable? My customers don't seem to think so (apart from the odd one here and there, whose decide to carry on hunting for more local expertise)...

 

 

MtB

Edited September 26, 2014 by Mike the Boilerman

[b0atman]

At a previous marina the "good" marina owner (a boater) used to organise a days work for the examiner thus saving boaters money as the travel cost was then shared

[Sabcat]

At a previous marina the "good" marina owner (a boater) used to organise a days work for the examiner thus saving boaters money as the travel cost was then shared

 

We tend to do that here as well, if you're BSS is due, ask around see if anyone else is close and get a few done together. Makes sense for everyone involved.

[Grace and Favour]

Another boater on our moorings was charged £20 for the BSS examiner to get in his car and drive from his office to our moorings which is less than a ten minute drive!

If he took the boat to the BSS examiners marina he would have not been charged or given a £20 discount for making it convenient for the examiner to work!

I'm not sure how other people feel about this and wondered if this is a commen practise?

That's a great deal cheaper than most householders would have to pay as a call-out fee for their local plumber, sparky, locksmith etc

[CaptainJacks]

I wonder how many minimum wage workers charge their employer travel fare so they can get to work!

It baffles me why some people think they should be payed to arrive so " they" can earn a living.

Surely if that's the case then the customer should be payed to "arrive" for providing the living.

[Grace and Favour]

I suspect that those professions that charge a call-out fee are able to do so because they offer a service or experience / qualifications that the customer requires.

 

A minimum wage employee may not be offering the same level of exclusivity

[MtB]

I wonder how many minimum wage workers charge their employer travel fare so they can get to work!

It baffles me why some people think they should be payed to arrive so " they" can earn a living.

Surely if that's the case then the customer should be payed to "arrive" for providing the living.

 

This is the case when you have nothing much to offer beyond turning up.

 

But as G&F points out, once you have an expertise that people want, the whole game changes. why shouldn't it?

 

 

MtB

P.S. And there is nothing stopping the OP training as a BSS bod and earning £20 for half an hour's work himself!

[Arthur Marshall]

That's because people on minimum wage generally have no bargaining power, no union representation and are in general ripped off by their employers (care workers for example). Doesn't make it right - if you are self employed, you are paid for your time and expertise, cos that's all you've got to sell. If you find someone doing it on the cheap, it's because either they don't have the expertise or they've got lots of time (probably because they haven't got the expertise). As the man said, you can pick any two out of good, quick and cheap...

[Sabcat]

I wonder how many minimum wage workers charge their employer travel fare so they can get to work!

It baffles me why some people think they should be payed to arrive so " they" can earn a living.

Surely if that's the case then the customer should be payed to "arrive" for providing the living.

 

 

All of them do, just not directly. It's why you don't go and do a minimum wage job 150 miles from where you live, because it's not worth it. If the job paid £60k a year, you might do it. The same applies to trades that charge a call out, you could only use those that don't in which case you're going to be limited to people in your immediate area or only being able to get big, expensive jobs done.

[CaptainJacks]

My point is they are already being paid for their work surely in order to do that work regardless of qualification they need to arrive to provide the service so why expect to be paid to arrive unless it is outside of the area.

The guy at Asda stacking the shelves is far more valuable to society than a BSS examiner no?

[Captain Fizz]

Oh dear!

[kevinl]

As there's no fixed fee for a BSS then does it matter, this guy even with his travel charge may still be cheaper than other examiners in the area. The fact he chooses to itemise how his cost are made up doesn't matter it's the total cost that counts. Bringing someone to my house or boat takes time and so it costs money I pay it somewhere along the line unless you were given a cost for the BSS then told about the travel charge after then it's wrong.

I personally object to all the hidden charges the likes if Ryanair add on even though without paying them I wouldn't be allowed to travel and don't get me started on "booking fees" for tickets, what a racket that is.

K

[Sabcat]

My point is they are already being paid for their work surely in order to do that work regardless of qualification they need to arrive to provide the service so why expect to be paid to arrive unless it is outside of the area.

The guy at Asda stacking the shelves is far more valuable to society than a BSS examiner no?

 

Whether labour is socially useful or not doesn't matter, it's the value to you that matters. BSS examinations take a pretty well consistent amount of time, he could simply charge a fee and offer a discount if your bring the boat to him. Boiler repairs, as an example are different and a call out charge is basically necessary in order for whoever does them to make a living. If a chap comes to fix my boiler and the call out is £100, it takes it him 10 minutes or less, great. We're both happy. If he wasn't charging a call out, what's he going to invoice me for, 1 hour minimum charge, what's that going to be? £100. It's just a call out charge by a different name. Either way, I can't expect boiler chap to come out here on the off chance there might be work for him to do and if there's not he's getting next to nothing and I've still got a fixed boiler at the end of it.

[Bettie Boo]

hmmm

 

our surveyor had a set price for the full pre-purchase survey, he charged us £40 for traveling from the Midlands up to Chorley. I felt this was more than reasonable. He is well respected and came highly recommended and is very busy. To earn & build up that respect he had to work hard, be precise at his trade and put in a fair amount of time over the years.

 

He could have just as easily said "sorry I don't travel that far" when I called to book him. Instead, he was almost apologetic when he said there would be a travel expense on top of the survey cost.

 

I have no problem in paying for someone's traveling time. After all, they are providing not only their service, but the experience and knowledge they have built up over the years to perform a task I am not qualified to do myself.

 

I think I'm probably more than competent to stack shelves in my local grocery store, and therefore don't really see it reasonable to pay either the 16 year old kid or semi retired (just wants to get out of the house for a few hours a week) pensioner a travel allowance.

 

Just my two cents worth, and yes I appreciate not everyone who stacks shelves is either 16 or a pensioner, no offense was intended....as I have actually stacked shelves, be it many years ago when I was 16

[CaptainJacks]

 

Whether labour is socially useful or not doesn't matter, it's the value to you that matters. BSS examinations take a pretty well consistent amount of time, he could simply charge a fee and offer a discount if your bring the boat to him. Boiler repairs, as an example are different and a call out charge is basically necessary in order for whoever does them to make a living. If a chap comes to fix my boiler and the call out is £100, it takes it him 10 minutes or less, great. We're both happy. If he wasn't charging a call out, what's he going to invoice me for, 1 hour minimum charge, what's that going to be? £100. It's just a call out charge by a different name. Either way, I can't expect boiler chap to come out here on the off chance there might be work for him to do and if there's not he's getting next to nothing and I've still got a fixed boiler at the end of it.

It's a fixed fee of £125 for the job then to charge to get to the job is not on.

If I go on site as a time served master carpenter I get a day rate I don't get paid for getting my ass in

the van and getting to work.

If people wish to play devils advocate that's fine but I don't accept travel costs for a fixed rate cost on top acceptable especially ten minutes round the corner in the local area.

In response to MTB if I disagree with my dentists costs would you suggest I go and train as a dentist too lol ?

[Arthur Marshall]

If I go on site as a time served master carpenter I get a day rate I don't get paid for getting my ass in

the van and getting to work.

 

What, you don't factor in your travelling time when working out your day rate? I think you need a better accountant....

[Woodstock]

When Gary worked on site- the firm used to pay 1 way travel:- ie to the site, but not home. The driver of each van was paid both ways. It seemed to work well

[captain birdseye]

The cost and time of travel must always be taken into account when pricing any job. I will include also whether the people travelling may need to lodge when working away. All this would be included in any tender for work.

 

It is far better to be 'up front' about this than charge a flat day rate, and people who are near the perminent place of work paying the same as people who want the inspector to travel miles.