Ebay - charging per mile for delivery, do you charge for journey in both directions?

In message , snipped-for-privacy@hotmail.com writes

crosspost to uk.people.consumers.ebay added

why?

I think that would piss any buyer off most royally. Most people would interpret GBP1/mile the way you did initially and suddenly doubling it would be seen as profiteering.

I'd suggest that it depends on the value of the fireplace.

If it is a 1000GBP fireplace then I reckon 30 quid to deliver it is fair enough. After all, if there is an accident on the way, the seller carries the loss..as it probably won't be covered by any insurance at that point.

If it is a 100GBP fireplace, then 15GBP is fair enough.. It is still more per mile than the maximum that is allowed before it becomes taxable.

"Taxable" in the sense of recovering mileage costs from your employer. Though if you can demonstrate that your fuel / maintenance / insurance costs are significantly more than the standard figures used by HMRC then you can use higher figures (with their agreement).

In this situation they are paying not just for your petrol / maintenance / wear and tear (on the 15 mile journey!!), but also your time and inconvenience in doing the trip too.

Matt

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from snipped-for-privacy@hotmail.com contains these words:

I'd ask for £15 in this instance. You obviously think it's a fair price, and double that would presumably be excessive.

In any future auction it would be wise to make it clear that the cost is for a one-way journey, so that you don't put off buyers who might think like your colleague.

I'd disagree. I've delivered - although cheaper than £1 per mile - and no one has ever argued with the round trip calculation.

I think the general understanding of such statements (which are fairly common) is just the distance between supply and delivery points.

As such, since you said £1 per mile, it would be best to stick to the common interpretatoion and charge £15. You can always up the rate in future if you feel it's not enough.

I reckon 50p a mile FULL TRIP is a fair crack frankly, for a private sale.

You will get a better rating from the buyer for £15, which is what I am sure she would expect, and you were happy with that before talking to your, frankly profiteering, friend, so stick with it. If you think you should charge for the round trip in future, make that clear in your advert.

Colin Bignell

??? If they were selling it as part of their trade, they would pay tax on the profit they made in that year, with that particular sale being part of it. The £15 would go onto sales along with the £100 for the fireplace, and 30 miles would go down as an expense at whatever rate they think they can get away with. If they are just selling some old fireplace they don't want any more they wouldn't pay any tax on it at all, even if they charged £100 a mile to deliver it.

If most people are so stupid, then the logical thing to do would be to quote £2 per mile

I'm selling a fireplace on Ebay and offered to deliver 'locally' for £1 per mile. Before the auction ends somebody has asked if I would deliver to her address which is 15 miles away according to AA website so I thought I would charge £15 , however a colleague has said I should charge £30 as the full journey will be 30 miles.

Any thoughts?

You must have very little integrity to even consider this scam. You are not delivering anything on the return journey.

mark

snipped-for-privacy@d70g2000hsb.googlegroups.com...

But the sole reason for the journey - BOTH directions - is the delivery. So why not charge for it?

Same here. I charge 60p/mile, each way. So 10 miles away is £12.

Sorry, badly expressed on my part. I was only trying to suggest that about 50p a mile is roughly what is normally thought of as "actual cost" rates for a non-commercial trip. Obviously it isn't an "actual cost" rate for a business, which would also have to pay a salary to the driver, etc. For a business, even 1GBP per mile for a single delivery, is arguably too low.

In this case, it sounds like the fireplace will be carried at the driver's risk. In which case, the driver should really insure it, if it is valuable. And the purchaser should pay the insurance costs. 15GBP sounds reasonable to me for that. If the driver self-insures and keeps the 15GBP as a "premium", that sounds fair enough to me, too..

That really is garbage. Likely, the entire journey is undetaken for the sole purpose of delivering the fireplace. IF the seller had other business, he MAY choose to suggest he'll only charge half rate.

I know a guy who chauffeurs for a living and he's delighted if he can arrange a return passenger because it's effectively double money.

Cite from the HMR&C website please.

HMRC have abolished this option.

How does that stop the money being taxable. Surely this is exactly what 'income' is, money paid to you for your time.

tim

At £5 per gallon for fuel, your £15 buys you 3 gallons. At say, 25mpg, you get 75 miles worth of fuel for a 30 mile round trip. Now, if you're a business and you want to charge for your time or whatever, fair enough. If however, you're just a private individual who would be doing nothing special with your time if you weren't delivering the fireplace, £15 is more than adequate - £30 is a rip-off.

John