Is $50 a week a fair price for a ride to and from work?

Question

This lady asked me if I would give her a ride back and forth to work.
She lives about 20 minutes out of the way from my place to where I work. Which means Id have to get ready sooner as it takes me a half hour or better to get to work without going out of the way. It's also about 20 miles out of the way for me to go.
Please tell me what you think, I don't wana short-sell myself or overcharge this woman. Thanks.

Forgot to say that she also lives out in the boonies, and where I live is over-populated by the ever annoying, car thrashing White-Tailed Deer.

We don't live in a metro-area, our nearest city has two taxi-cabs....and you have to call them 3 days before you will need them. The city bus fees are also outrageous, and also must be set up the same way. I live in a mostly rural area and my place of buisiness is also in a more rural area, but just so happens to be on a main highway.

Answer 1

You have to work it out properly. Take your average fuel consumption of your vehicle per mile and multiply it by the 20 miles you have to travel to pick her up, then add a small premium for your trouble and inconvenience. See how that works out and use that as a base for charging her.

I never believe in screwing anyone, be fair to yourself as well.

Answer 2

You sound like a very nice person to agree to give this lady a lift. If she was the one who asked the favour, has she not offered a sum of money already? If not, then it doesn't sound like $50 is worth the extra hassle for going 20 miles out of your way each day. If you really want to do this then find out how much a taxi ride would cost her every day for a week and then maybe charge her 50% of that.

Answer 3

That's 10 dollars per hour of extra driving, not counting gas. So to me, it wouldn't be worth it..
unless she was a very good friend or relative, it was short-term, or her situation (eg she can't drive herself because of bad sight). This you have to figure out for yourself.
What I would try and do, is seek out alternatives. Maybe some else lives closer that works nearby or there is someone retired that would like the extra money in the area.

Answer 4

Several ways to do this, calculate your gas mileage for the entire trip and your time (at your present wage). Or ask a taxi driver how much he would get for the same trip (one way...then double it)...or simply ask her to pay a fair amount....I like this method as most tend to be a little more generous than we are to ourselves.

Answer 5

with her being 20 miles outa the way, id charge more then 50 ,, thats 1 hour and 40 miles per day

Answer 6

Tell her to save her money and take the metro, after waiting for the bus in terrible weather she will be more than happy to pay you $50.00 weekly..

Good Luck you Old Scrooge.

Answer 7

No, gas is to expensive, your getting less sleep but doing more work, not to mention the wear and tear on your car. I hate to say it
but $100 would be about even.

Answer 8

forget about the money for now for a minute... Do you really want to commit to picking up/dropping off this lady as long as you work there?

Sometimes the hassle isn't worth it.

Answer 9

if you take into effect, not only the fuel cost, oil changes wheel alignments, licence liability, etc but the headache of having to endure endless yapping causing headaches, I'd say go bit higher.

Answer 10

No, use a bus instead. this woman may abduct you and cheat you out of your money.