There are two jobs on Trendsource that are out of the way for me, but I would perform them given sufficient incentive. How do I request distance pay from them?

Click "request this project" . Then a window pops up with all of the information about the shop. At the bottom are three check boxes. Request with PAD (distance pay) , request, and cancel. Check the box request with PAD and a form will appear with a place for you to put your request.

I have yet to have them accept any offers from me. I calculate mileage the IRS rate and use the time estimate from MapQuest to charge for my driving time as well. Particularly for the BV assignments, you have to assume that you will be driving there just for this BV assignment due to the requirement to set up an appointment with the client within 2 days (unless the client wants a later date). No probably no time or opportunity to find other shops along the way. I also add tolls for bridges and highways as appropriate.

Even for other types of shops, I have never had them accept a PAD even when they have not pleaded for me to "name your price" for a locations which have ranged from 30 to 200 mles away.

Yes its like pulling teeth with them. I don't mind negotiating but I've already gone as low as possible on some locations yet every time its like the first time all over again. I generally don't even bother. If they call me I'll give them my price but I don't request PAD at the site anymore.

I agree with all above. I have used that "request PAD" for jobs that are in the middle of nowhere, and they can't find someone to do it. But my PAD requests just sit and sit, and then it goes to "backup," and then when the job is completed, the PAD request goes to "not accepted."

Requesting a PAD is like fishing, you have to keep throwing your line in and eventually you'll catch a fish. I haven't had much luck fishing lately, but a year ago or so I caught my limit every time I threw my pole in! LoL
I generally wait until the 3rd round of email request arrives, the 'name your price' email. I too calculate based on the Fed mileage rate, road and time factor. I'm pretty sure my request spurs them to find someone to do it for less.

Like the others I have never had them accept my request for distance pay and I've asked for well under the IRS rate.

I have had quite a few of them accepted - but - I keep it very reasonable.

I usually only request $5 -10 extra because I only take these assignments if I already have or can get a few more jobs along the way. If they don't accept it, no biggie but if they do then my gas is paid for all the jobs that day.

The hard part is the waiting, especially if I see the jobs the night before and they usually are not approved by noon the next day so working a route around their jobs is not a good plan. I just work their assignments in and around existing jobs where possible.

An issue I have is that once I had requested an assignment with PAD, there is no way (as far as I can tell) to cancel the request. So it might be reasonable to go somewhere this week, but the request hangs on for 3 or 4 weeks sometime, and suddently it is approved and assigned to me. Does anyone know how to cancel a request, short of creating a Help request online? Maybe I am missing something obvious.

@Boutique wrote:

I have had quite a few of them accepted - but - I keep it very reasonable.

I usually only request $5 -10 extra because I only take these assignments if I already have or can get a few more jobs along the way. If they don't accept it, no biggie but if they do then my gas is paid for all the jobs that day.

The hard part is the waiting, especially if I see the jobs the night before and they usually are not approved by noon the next day so working a route around their jobs is not a good plan. I just work their assignments in and around existing jobs where possible.

@myst4au wrote:

An issue I have is that once I had requested an assignment with PAD, there is no way (as far as I can tell) to cancel the request. So it might be reasonable to go somewhere this week, but the request hangs on for 3 or 4 weeks sometime, and suddently it is approved and assigned to me. Does anyone know how to cancel a request, short of creating a Help request online? Maybe I am missing something obvious.

@Boutique wrote:

I have had quite a few of them accepted - but - I keep it very reasonable.

I usually only request $5 -10 extra because I only take these assignments if I already have or can get a few more jobs along the way. If they don't accept it, no biggie but if they do then my gas is paid for all the jobs that day.

The hard part is the waiting, especially if I see the jobs the night before and they usually are not approved by noon the next day so working a route around their jobs is not a good plan. I just work their assignments in and around existing jobs where possible.

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If they decide to accept your offer they will send you an email and you can accept or decline. It won't hurt you to decline. They may have even sent the offer to several and first one to accept it gets it.

Liz

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/06/2015 01:30AM by Traveliz.

I've had the most success by negotiating directly with the project's scheduler when they've called asking for assistance with projects.

Last summer they offered $100 to go to a location within 50 miles. When It came around again, I quickly requested the assignment and another one close by as part of the bargain. They offered $10. By the following week someone picked it up.

I completed 5 shops on a Saturday for a total of $35 PAD. 50 miles round trip.

Btw...computing IRS rate and driving time? So you do that on all of your shops?

Yes, I compute the IRS mileage rate on all shops (especially the "name your price" shops 200 miles away). That is how they get recorded in my Excel spreadsheet, but as stops on a route. Why? Because total mileage gets entered on Schedule C of my income tax return, and then it gets multiplied by the IRS mileage rate. If you really believe that your actual expenses are lower, use that rate on Schedule C as well, but people who just try to get enough money to cover gas are fooling themselves. As far as time, I am less strict about that, and that is an error which I acknowledge, but I am not going to work for $1.15 an hour. That was the minimum wage in 1968, and back then, that is what I got paid. BTW, due to inflation, that $1.15 in 1968 is worth $7.96 now versus the current Federal minimum wage of $7.25 Sometimes I loose money on a shop because I assume that I will be able to add other shops and make it a route, and it doesn't turn out that way, but my intent is to always make a profit. I am running a business, afterall.

@whosear wrote:

Btw...computing IRS rate and driving time? So you do that on all of your shops?

Newer shoppers need to know that whether they can score that rate or better depends on where they are, the volume of work available, the number of willing shoppers and just how willing those shoppers are. Philosophy about what we should or should not earn for our work has nothing to do with it. The MSC will pick up the least expensive / most dependable shopper, weighing off the tradeoff according to their desperation to get the job done.

I'm not in favor of taking money losing jobs under any circumstances. That's not a good business model and doing jobs to "help out" Jack or Jill is not smart if it requires any additional financial outlay on the part of the shopper and the shopper doesn't get paid for the additional outlay and get some consideration back in turn somewhere down the road.

Let me give you an example of a decision gone unexpectedly bad. I got a call offering a bonus to shop westward on a lone orphan job. The offer was fair, I thought I had an "extra" day, and I took the offer and made the trip to do the shop. It was an okay deal but not dream quality spectacular. Later that week I ran into a snag with cold heavy rain and I asked the same company (and the same project team) for an extension on two outside base rate jobs I didn't want to do in the pouring down rain. No can do, Mary. I opted not to do those shops so I lost them and also lost the reassignment lock I had on them. I made a bad decision and I take responsibility. That said, anybody here think that show will play again?

What looks like a good deal is not always a good deal. It all depends.

We have to make the best decision we can at the time depending on the information we have to work with and the offer they make or the bonus we ask for. Our best is all we can do, and we can learn from what happens as we go along. If we price ourselves out of the market we won't have nearly as much work. That's okay if our plan is to take only the peachy plum jobs now and then and to work on a limited basis. If we want more consistent work and more consistent income we have to work day by day and we have to work at the rates we are able to get. The MSC will never care how much it costs to run a car.

I love Trendsource and rarely, if ever, requested distance pay (most were in town) but one was not and I asked for just enough to cover the gas but my offer was refused.

Sunnydays2, it's not that you didn't make them a good offer because you did. Somebody else made them a better offer.

@MDavisnowell wrote:

Sunnydays2, it's not that you didn't make them a good offer because you did. Somebody else made them a better offer.

My offer was $10 bucks for 60+ RT miles

I consider this low but I liked the job, the company and it would have covered the gas

It was probably $5 more than someone who lived 100 RT miles away offered to do it for.
Once again, I see no reason to offer to do it for less than the IRS mileage rate. That is what will show up on my Schedule C. If you were hoping to do other jobs along the way, then bidding low might be justified. But otherwise, I think it is a mistake.

@SunnyDays2 wrote:

@MDavisnowell wrote:

Sunnydays2, it's not that you didn't make them a good offer because you did. Somebody else made them a better offer.

My offer was $10 bucks for 60+ RT miles

I consider this low but I liked the job, the company and it would have covered the gas

The thing about that too is when you request distance pay their going to assign it to someone who does request distance pay first. Now if they are within the reporting period then they will go ahead a assign it to you with the distance pay.

I only ask for PAD when they call me to complete something for them. This tells me they're desperate to get it done, and you have all kinds of bargaining power. You can ask to extend the dates, and if they can do it they will. Every time they call me I ask for a bonus and they give it to me every time (they set the rate, though).

And they don't care how far you have to travel to do it. They care whether or not they have it covered. There was probably someone closer that they got to do it instead. I don't go out of my way for anything, unless the bonus is stacked.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/16/2015 06:38PM by leahwood.

Same here. For tax purposes I include all miles involved in reaching a destination in making my unofficial P & L I do not count 10 miles a day of my driving as I assume that is the unreimbursed mileage if I had a job. Also I do not factor in the time to drive those miles as well. Same rationale.

I've requested distance pay on a number of projects, but never been awarded. They have been $15-20 BVs that are 1.5-2 hrs away in Podunk towns with nothing else available anywhere near it. They show up in 'requested' or 'B shopper' staus, but never any further. Hmm, maybe I should start taking some of those city bus routes when the scheduler is desperate . . . ?