You still have to buy the truck and trailer, maintain it, replace tires, etc., etc., etc., buy fuel and pay for your time to do all this, in addition to the driving.
This type of thing is why trainers burn out. At that rate, you might be paying your costs, but you’ve worked for free.
If I fill my trailer, I cover my maintenance, fuel and pay myself. But my job isn’t a hauler. I’m a horse trainer. I haul the horses to get to the show to make my living.
I suppose I’m supposed to charge for hay and feed at the show over top of what board is because I’m not feeding it at home? 
Are you buying feed and hay at shows at your cost and not having clients cover that cost? I don’t understand why you’d do that? At home do you charge by the feeding or specific amount for hay and feed?
The shipping is a service.
The training is a service.
Either way those are hours in the day you spent on a client. You should charge what your time is worth for all your services.
This is a business, not a hobby, I assume. If so I recommend operating it like a business.
Your costs need to cover buying the rig, too. You have it as a service for the customers. If you are buying hay and feed and shavings at the show, then yes because even if the horses aren’t there, you still have mortgage/rent, insurance, electricity, help to pay.
I get that. However I’ve seen trainers bring hay and grain from home and then still charge for the food on the road above and beyond board…except the horse isn’t home eating the food included in board….that’s a no for me.
Feed at a horse that that’s significantly higher priced than what is fed at home? No problem. Charge them.
Other trainers cheating their customers should have nothing to do with you pricing your services appropriately. Stop thinking you need underprice to make up for those who overprice. Charge what you are worth or you’ll find yourself working 14 hour days for five bucks an hour.
For taking clients to a show, I routinely see local barns advertising a flat rate to a specific location (e.g. The Pines $150) and that will be what the client pays for trailering round trip for a local day show. Most of these barns usually take a 6 horse, sometimes also a 4, so I assume they are making what they want to make given the number of horses. They also have day fees, trainer fees, etc to add to what they’re collecting, per horse/rider, per show. Makes a different equation than someone who is only doing a drop off/pick up transport.
I see nothing wrong with up-charging fees for a day show that is going to keep the instructor/trainer away from teaching lessons all day.
Taking six students to a show should not mean the training program takes a huge hit in income.
So what you really meant was, you don’t do a fancy set-up at shows, not that you just don’t charge for it. Semantics matter.
That’s fine, it’s important to know your client base.
However, trainers that do a show set-up and charge for it, are perfectly justified in doing so.
There is absolutely no way of knowing if 15-20% commissions are *exorbitant (I assume that’s what you meant instead of absorbent). There are about a million factors in determining if someone overcharged or was compensated fairly. What was the price the horse sold at? How much marketing was done? How many trials did the trainer have to make time for? How long was the horse on the market? Was training also being done, without a separate fee?
Do some trainers take advantage of their clients? Sure. Are all trainers that are charging more than 10% commission, unjustified? No.
As a long time self employed contractor in another industry which is prone to lots of people undercharging (because there are many people who dabble and few who try to make a living), now married to someone whose CDL is part of their job. Do not undercharge shipping. That is a favor that does no one any good in the long run. It undervalues your work, your time, and your sunk costs; it shocks the client when they have to pay the actual costs; and it makes the life of the person who does shipping/trucking as their primary job that much harder.
If you do not want to charge the actual rate, make the discount very, very clear. That is: shipping costs are X but because you are my training client, your shipping cost is discounted to Y.
In general a CDL driver should be making 30 cents or more to the mile. Which is On TOP of the regular cost of running the vehicle (the IRS mileage standard). Complicated shipping, which I would consider horses to be, but not as complicated as hazardous or oversize freight, ought to be more. and that 30 cents is on the ‘Swift’ low end, it really ought to be 60 cents to the mile. In joke: (Swift, a major carrier on the east coast, is known to stand for: ‘see what I f— today’)
A lot of businesses will take a loss on one aspect, if it brings in more money in the long run. If she undercharges shipping, but that makes her clients more likely to go to shows and therefore pay coaching fees at the show and/or lesson/training fees to prepare for the show, then maybe she comes out ahead in the long run.
Sure, and no problem with that. I guess I’m just tired of people complaining about the cost of shipping something (inanimate objects in my case) because the cost is so often buried or discounted. There is no such thing as free shipping. I’m just grumpy tonight!
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