The standard pricing model for residential tech service in Baton Rouge, and most everywhere else, goes like this: you pay a trip fee of $49 to $99 before I've done a single thing, and then you pay an hourly rate on top of that once I start working. The trip fee is framed as covering "travel time and fuel." What it actually covers is the company's cost of doing business, billed as a line item to the client.
1 · How the industry prices
I understand why companies charge trip fees. Running a service business has real overhead, fuel, insurance, vehicle depreciation, unbillable drive time. Those costs have to go somewhere. The trip fee is a way to recover them explicitly, upfront, before any work begins. It also functions as a commitment signal: if a client has to pay $75 just to get me in the door, they're less likely to cancel.
What I object to is calling it something it isn't. "Trip fee" implies the client is paying for travel. What they're actually paying for is overhead, my overhead, not theirs. And charging clients for my overhead before delivering any value has always felt like the wrong way to start a relationship.
2 · Why I price differently
I build travel time into my pricing. The first minute I arrive at your home is billable labor. You're not paying a fee for the privilege of seeing my truck in your driveway, you're paying for my time from the moment I start working. That's it.
Clients who pay a trip fee feel nickel-and-dimed before I've touched anything. Clients who don't feel like they're being treated fairly from the start. That difference in how someone feels about working with me is worth more than the $75 I'd collect at the door.
3 · The actual math
The honest comparison is mixed. On a long job, the trip-fee-plus-hourly model usually comes out a hair cheaper than mine. On a short job, mine usually comes out cheaper, because I don't add a flat fee on top before the meter starts. Those margins aren't the point.
The point is that when you call me back in six months for the next thing, you remember that I showed up, fixed the problem, and the invoice matched the quote. No surprise line items, no "drive-out" charge tacked on after the fact. That predictability is worth more, to me and to the client, than any trip fee I'd ever collect.
Every project starts with a written number in advance. Quick fixes are quoted up front. Larger work gets a written scope and a fixed fee. You'll never get a bill with a number you weren't told about.