Costs...charges...always a topic...

Could anyone who does high-volume number (on a single property) trapping send me a message? I'm trying to figure out what's fair to my clients, and have been for some time. I have some large jobs coming up this Spring, and I could really use some sound advice. Thanks.

What animal?

Establish and cover your travel time rate costs out and back to the job, avg. anticipated on site time if you are doing regular trap maintenance and any material costs and you will be working on the profit side in most cases.

Whatever the reason for site visits you must always bill this to your job unless you are doing occasional courtesy visits for some reason that may be necessary or on your route of travel daily.

You start billing for animal charges only you wont do very well on average if you don't price that rate with good judgment in mind.

Extended time on any job will run you into a steady time and cost expense. You can charge a per visit fee then a per animal charge in the event you are doing multiple catches daily for a period of time.

There are several variables to consider in jobs that may require extended time vested, multiple catches and resetting multiple traps on a daily basis. Type of animals etc.

CA ground squirrels...by the hundreds. They're a lot of work.

You need to at least bill $85 an hour. That includes travel time. Do not be afraid to lose a little business.
It does not matter what animal it is, only time spent catching said animal.

This is a sound business approach. I guess there are many ways to incorporate it. The simplest to me would seem, setup fee, mileage or per/check fee, and animal catch fee. I just do ADC trapping as a side job/hobby and normally turn down jobs that are more than a few miles out of the way. I made an exception to that this week. Got a call from a landlord who seemed desperate. Told me he was 10 minutes away. I foolishly quoted a very modest setup fee and my normal per animal fee...which is $100 for everything other than skunks or beaver (possums, groundhogs, coons....I don't do squirrels, etc).

Well it turns out to be over 20 miles and 1/2 hour each way. I ended up catching 4 critters. Had to pull this morning but cautioned him there was very possibly more. So I sold him the body grippers and he will check for the next few days before having the entry points repaired. I ended up feeling well compensated....but when I went out to do the set up, I realized that if I didn't catch anything in the 3 checks, which is always a possibility, the setup fee would not even cover the mileage.

The thing I have noticed in ADC business is that folk are usually eager to have the problem solved but often seem to think that it should be done very cheaply or free. I had a call a few weeks ago from a guy frantic because he was trying to catch a squirrel on his patio but caught a skunk instead. So I agreed to come out right away and get it and he then proceeded to beat me down on price. I did come down some but not as low as he wanted, we met in the middle. I assumed that for him it was an affordability issue. However, when I arrived on location it was an 800k house (I looked it up afterward). So....it was not an affordability issue he just didn't put the value on the service, even though he really didn't have any other option (not the type to get his fingers dirty on a skunk).

Basing a fee structure in our business on a per animal catch basis will not prove very profitable over time on most jobs. Per trip fees is the only way I would recommend. I have done this a long time and it is the way to go. Set up fee, per trip fee always and at times also an animal fee. Most cases there is no animal fee even though it may be incorporated into the per trip fee.

You will learn in time to bid a per trip fee as to what each job will be as to the anticipated as far a animal captures go. There can be exceptions but it doesn't matter as you will be covered in your per trip fee.

If I am setting up a dumpster type job for example I will bid a much higher set up and a per trip fee and a per animal fee due to more work, baiting and animal handling.

Residential work is usually not nearly as high of a capture potential per trip. But at times they can surprise you also. Lots of variables in this work.

Get your per trip fee working and you will always make out with an initial service call/set up fee in place.

Bob....how do you feel about the per trip arrangement when the animals end up not being caught, for whatever reason? I presume that you are excluding the location after determining it has been cleared, so that it ultimately doesn't matter if nothing was caught? Are customers OK with that?

If the customer is checking the traps daily for us and we have no other site visitations in the job and no catches are made we only bill for the set up fee if that is what the customer wishes to do.

However if any other methods or services are required to catch an animal that may be educated to some degree or avoiding traps etc. and that is suspected, the per trip fee is applied. Things can happen to a target animal while doing a job. Some may get road killed, get caught by someone else or some other unknown circumstance occurs and they don't return for a while or never. Lots of variables at times.

These scenarios are explained upon discussing the problem with the client up front before work begins so that there are no mis understandings about the fees and any other unanticipated expenses for us and the customer.

I have mentored many WCO's and trouble shoot for many over the years. Some just don't explain enough to the client before commencing their work. Therefore making it more difficult to handle things once you are into a project that may not be clear to the client and something occurs that you didn't plan on.

Just explain to your client there is a fee for your returning for any reason. Trap maintenance, animal removal or re evaluation as needed. They can decide to terminate services if they choose at any time but if they truly want a problem solved most will hang in there until the problem is solved and will understand the expenses in most cases.

There are some air heads out there that just don't understand anything that is said. Or it is just a convenient card that they play with you because they think they will play the dumb card with you. That is the challenges in dealing with the public at times.

This work isn't a perfect science by any means. Some projects turn out to be a work in progress situation that my take more time then anticipated. That is a daily course of action for me many days. You have to make adjustments as needed to move forward with solving the problem.

I agree with Bob. But I will add my mind set is not trapping or removing animals, even though that is what I am doing. My mind set is to solve the problem, what ever way I can. most time it will be traps, but not limited to traps. I don't care how many animals are there I care how long is it going to take to solve or get the results the customer needs or you and the customer agrees on. I loose money on per animal rates. I am charging total time. remember total time means adding phone and time working up an plan also.

Sometimes trapping activities cause an animal to leave the area. So you then indirectly solved the problem. The customer should be happy. But, they want a body for the payment.

Customers ask me to guarantee that I will catch an animal. I explain that it could get hit by a car, etc. they think the animal only resides in their little bubble.

Pass - I would have politely reminded him of the fee quoted on the phone and then told him that the skunk can stay with him.
How would he have reacted if when you arrived you raised the price?
That type of customer will not refer anyone to you and will never call you back.

Bob, I appreciate your detailed response. It is very kind of you to share your knowledge and experience with the rest of us here!