It is local work so there is no travel time , is the hour meter as accurate as the watch on a minute by minute basis ? I only want to charge them when the machine is actually being used if that is a normal way of figuring a bill , I want to be fair with my customer and myself.
Don't short yourself either. That 'unbilled' time needs to be billed somehow. Depending on the type of work you might have to lay out, picking up, moving stuff, that won't show on the machine, but needs to be paid. I would basically start the billable hours when you arrive on site; and stop it when you have finished loading machine; or walking with owner to confirm your done.
If you show up at 730Am, and leave at 4pm, and took a few minutes to eat a sandwich and refuel, I'd charge them 8 hours, even if machine shows 6 hours of working time.
Either is fine; you just have to make the numbers work. Anything less then 15 minutes, I wouldn't even count, so peeing by truck door, getting a drink, ect; but at the same time; you finish at 4:12pm, I wouldn't try to charge 8.25 hours.
With all that said; as a customer, I would expect an hourly contractor to show up ready to work; not fueling, greasing, sipping his coffee, playing on phone, ect.
