Did a favour for someone - how much payment would YOU expect

R2R

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The situation....

Arranged to take someone hunting at the weekend. I said I didnt mind but would need diesel money. I am insured to take them before people shout me down!! My tb had colic on Friday so was up at yard until 10.30 then at midnight etc...to check. Back up at 6 to go to get my lorry (which is at another yard where one of my horses is on training livery)

Got up at 6am, drove to get lorry, picked person up, drove to garage

Filled lorry up with diesel (£25) and told them had put £25 in the lorry....'oooh I havent got any cash' from the person.

Drove for an hour

unloaded, help sort horse out

Followed on foot for 3 hours - up hills and all sorts - in case person fell off....

drove an hour back arriving back at 2

Fed/hayed helped person out with horse....

So how much diesel do you think is reasonable?
 
The whole god darn lot.
You gave up most of your day, your diesel, and wear and tear on the lorry all for their pleasure.
If it was me i would of paid for all the diesel and took you out for lunch after as a thank you.
 
If it was me I would pay you the £25 for the diesel at the very least. I mean if I was to hire my own transport it would cost me about £90 + fuel and even shared transport could possibly be more than £25 plus having to get other people to want to come along and share the costs.
 
I would think it would be reasonable to give you the 25 quid, if the other person thinks this is unreasonable then dont do it for them again:)

If you had done all that for me i would probably give you a bit extra anyway
 
hmmmm - difficult one.

If it was me you were giving a lift to, I wouldn't have proceeded to go if you weren't going - but if you insisted to still give me a lift then I would pay you the £25 diesel.

But, being devils advocate - the girl may have felt she didn't want to pay that much diesel as she originally was getting a lift with you, and its not her fault your horse got colic and couldn't go.... I wouldn't agree with this, but I can see how someone would think this way and pay less. (sorry).
 
I would have handed over £25.00 quite happily, and assuming that it wasn't you returning a favour, I would have bought a 'thank you' prezzie as well. :)
 
i think it depends on who the person is to you.

a friend? i'd expect my friends to not want me to be out of pocket and so pay whatever it'd cost me - so, if i used £10 i'd expect them to offer that plus maybe a 'i owe you a favour' type thing. i'd never dream of charging a friend for my time. and would walk a million miles after a hunt for someone i thought would do the same back for me.

not a friend? i'd have arranged in advance the money, and if i was going to charge for time etc. but, again, if that wasn't arranged, i'd ask for whatever it'd cost me so i wasn't out of pocket, and i'd put it down to experience. and i'd try and work out how many calories i'd burnt and be grateful for that! :D

eta: sorry, that reads really snappy.. it wasn't meant to! :D
 
In this sort of situation, it is much better to be up front about money BEFORE you take them. So when they ask you to take them somewhere say something along the lines of "I am happy to take you, but you will need to pay the diesel costs, which I estimate will be about £25." If you want recompense for your time as well, then say "Obviously it is going to take 5 hours out of my day, when I could be teaching/doing some other type of freelance work, so I would expect £x on top of the diesel money."

This is obviously assuming it is a purely business arrangement, and that this person isn't your best friend or someone who does other favours for you.
 
Unfortunatly things like this make you think twice about helping other people out.
Many years ago a friend asked if I would go and collect a new horse for her, as she had no transport, so agreed would help her out for cost of diesel.
It was a 130 mile round trip, helped loading, lent travel boots etc. She didnt pay me a single penny. So funnily enough next time she needed a favour I was busy!
But the other side of the coin was when we were at a championship show, (about 15-20 years ago) and someone we knew, had brought a new pony but didnt have room on her lorry, so asked if we would take her little darty back to our yard, and she would collect him later. She broke down on the way home and phoned to say would be late getting to us, so we offered to take pony back to her yard (about 15 miles away) and put him to bed for her. 2 days later we recieved a thankyou card with £25, and next time we saw her at a show she insitited on buying us all bacon rolls. :D
 
TGM - I asked them to pay for what I put in the lorry. I could have filled it up (£60) but I put £25 in...I then said "right that is £25" and they turned around and said no cash!

I probably should have turned my lorry around and gone home at that point, but didnt - I would have thought the £25 would have gone in....

Yesterday they gave me £10!!! I do think it is a bit cheeky to be honest - I dont want to(and wouldnt) charge for my time but a 70 mile round trip etc I think £10 is a bit off, to be honest.
 
yeah id expect fuel reimbursed and summit on top to cover good will toward general wear and tear.
personally i am still waiting for a friend to pay me for borrowing my horse-box last wk. It cost me £55 to add them to insurance and i specifically said not to allow fuel to go under quarter of a tank as she is an old box they would need to top up as they left.
they clearly topped up to get to and from their destination but returned it under quarter of a tank and i had to clean out the poo left.
I don't mind helping a friend and initially said £30 but after cleaning the poo up and seeing the fuel level txt saying £40. They initially said they would pay the following day. Guess what........... yeah nothing.
I know every1 has their lives to live but this has cost me, not made me anything and there's helping a pal out and being taken advantage of. Its just rude. If anything i would be well within reason to ask £60 just to cover my costs as it were.
Tut. money and friends is a dodgy area which is why i never lend money guess im gonna have to reassess lending of box also.
You cant hire one for less that £70 down my way then you return with same fuel as you left so your talking £100
I taking cash prior in future.:(
So after hijacking your thread (sorry ) id say a favour me shouldnt put you out of pocket as long as your costs are covered any amount over is your choice. If your unsure it suggests its not the right amount ie to little or much if your lucky. Cover your expenses the favour is that you do it or loan it. your not a business after all
 
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TGM - I asked them to pay for what I put in the lorry. I could have filled it up (£60) but I put £25 in...I then said "right that is £25" and they turned around and said no cash!

I probably should have turned my lorry around and gone home at that point, but didnt - I would have thought the £25 would have gone in....

Yesterday they gave me £10!!! I do think it is a bit cheeky to be honest - I dont want to(and wouldnt) charge for my time but a 70 mile round trip etc I think £10 is a bit off, to be honest.

i agree with you.

i'd never charge a friend for my time. ever. but... in return i'd never expect my friend to leave me out of pocket in doing them a favour like that. and i think, in your case that your friend is either taking the pee, or maybe unaware of the cost of diesel/value of money...? are they very young and inexperienced? do you think they were expecting you to take your horse?

x
 
If it were me you'd have got your £25, lunch bought for you and a bottle of wine and box of choccys too!!! I'm so damn grateful whenever anyone gives me a lift (lorry on order...woohooo can't wait!!) that I always show my gratitude!! Can't believe anyone can be that rude to not ensure she had the cash ready and waiting to give you. :(
 
I know. And when I questioned I got "I got up at 5.30 in the morning"

Eeeer yep....SO DID I!!!!

It has really left a bad taste in my mouth to be honest.
 
£10! how unreasonable! I'd have paid the £25 at least, but probs more because I don't have transport or access to any Pickle will fit into! so I appreciate anyone who'd offer me transport for under £100!
 
I got given it in an envalope, opened it and called and explained I thought it was cheeky...but still no offer of £££.
 
Do they not drive themselves and not have any idea of what it cost? Thats the only excuse thats remotely believable.

I would say to them "I am £xx out of pocket from taking you, nevermind the time I gave up for you as well. In future I will be unable to take you anywhere again, and you will have to find alternative transport."

In future you must work out how much it will be in advance.
 
TGM - I asked them to pay for what I put in the lorry. I could have filled it up (£60) but I put £25 in...I then said "right that is £25" and they turned around and said no cash!
The trouble is, some people are clueless about the cost of things, so better to give them an estimate of how much diesel you will have to put in at the time they ask you for a lift, so they know upfront.

However, still very bad form of them to only give you a tenner when you specifically asked for the amount you put in the tank. If they are, say, a ditzy teenager then you can perhaps put it down to naivety (ie they had no clue that the diesel cost would be that much and they actually only had a tenner to their name - although even in that case they should offer to muck out all your horses for free or something!). But if it is a mature adult then very bad mannered indeed and I definitely wouldn't be giving them a lift in future.

But lesson learned for next time someone asks you for a similar favour - tell them exactly how much it will be straight off (and over-estimate rather than under-estimate).

ETA: Just seen your post above about the Porsche - in that case they are taking the p*ss big time, and I would ask them directly for the remainder of the money owing.
 
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