Rex says
Money math without the spreadsheet headache. Plug in your numbers and I'll show you exactly where the dollars land.
Try a scenario
Click to load — tweak from there.Inputs
Result
Total travel fee
$114.50
Mileage cost
$33.50
Paid drive-time cost
$81.00
Billable miles (beyond free radius)
50
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One click, a permanent link with your numbers baked in.
How to use this
- 1Enter round-trip miles.
- 2Enter mileage rate ($/mi).
- 3Enter free-travel radius (round trip) (mi).
- 4Enter total drive time (hrs).
- 5Enter hourly rate for paid drive time ($).
- 6Enter lodging (if overnight required) ($).
- 7Enter per diem (meals, incidentals) ($).
- 8Read your total travel fee on the right — it updates as you type.
- 9Hit Share to keep the scenario or send it to someone.
About this calculator
Vendors frequently underprice travel because it's charged as a flat guess instead of built from real costs. This calculator adds round-trip mileage cost at the current IRS business rate (or your own vehicle cost estimate), paid drive-time hours beyond your free-travel radius, and overnight lodging/per diem for out-of-town events, producing a defensible travel fee you can quote as a line item rather than absorbing into your base price.
Worked example
Using the values the calculator loads with:
Inputs
- Round-trip miles: 90
- Mileage rate: 0.67 $/mi
- Free-travel radius (round trip): 40 mi
- Total drive time: 1.8 hrs
- Hourly rate for paid drive time: 45 $
- Lodging (if overnight required): 0 $
- Per diem (meals, incidentals): 0 $
Results
- Total travel fee: $114.50
- Mileage cost: $33.50
- Paid drive-time cost: $81.00
- Billable miles (beyond free radius): 50
What each field means
Inputs
- Round-trip miles
- The round-trip miles used in the calculation. Starts at 90 so you have a working example on load.
- Mileage rate ($/mi)
- The mileage rate used in the calculation, measured in $/mi. Starts at 0.67 $/mi so you have a working example on load.
- Free-travel radius (round trip) (mi)
- The free-travel radius (round trip) used in the calculation, measured in mi. Starts at 40 mi so you have a working example on load.
- Total drive time (hrs)
- The total drive time used in the calculation, measured in hrs. Starts at 1.8 hrs so you have a working example on load.
- Hourly rate for paid drive time ($)
- The hourly rate for paid drive time used in the calculation, measured in $. Starts at 45 $ so you have a working example on load.
- Lodging (if overnight required) ($)
- The lodging (if overnight required) used in the calculation, measured in $. Starts at 0 $ so you have a working example on load.
- Per diem (meals, incidentals) ($)
- The per diem (meals, incidentals) used in the calculation, measured in $. Starts at 0 $ so you have a working example on load.
Results
- Total travel fee
- Returned as a money amount in US dollars and shown as the headline result. It recalculates instantly whenever you change an input, so you can compare scenarios without reloading.
- Mileage cost
- Returned as a money amount in US dollars. It recalculates instantly whenever you change an input, so you can compare scenarios without reloading.
- Paid drive-time cost
- Returned as a money amount in US dollars. It recalculates instantly whenever you change an input, so you can compare scenarios without reloading.
- Billable miles (beyond free radius)
- Returned as a whole number. It recalculates instantly whenever you change an input, so you can compare scenarios without reloading.
FAQ
What mileage rate should I use?
The IRS standard business mileage rate (updated annually, roughly $0.65-$0.70 per mile in recent years) is a defensible baseline since it already accounts for gas, maintenance, insurance, and depreciation. Vendors with larger vehicles (vans full of gear) sometimes use a higher custom rate to reflect real operating cost.
Why set a free-travel radius instead of charging from mile one?
A local radius (commonly 20-30 miles round trip, or about a 20-30 minute drive) is baked into your base price already, since it's assumed for any local booking. Charging travel only beyond that radius keeps your pricing competitive locally while still recovering real cost on distant bookings.
Should drive time really be billed at an hourly rate?
Yes for any trip that eats into your available booking hours for the day — a 2-hour round trip could otherwise be another engagement session or admin block. For very short local trips it's usually not worth itemizing, but multi-hour drives should be compensated like any other work time.
When is overnight lodging necessary and who should decide?
If the venue is far enough that same-day return before a required call time or after a late load-out isn't realistic (commonly beyond a 2-3 hour drive each way), lodging protects both parties from a no-show risk caused by driver fatigue and should be built into the contract, not decided last-minute.
Accuracy and limitations
- Results are estimates before tax, fees, and inflation unless an input explicitly covers them.
- Rates are treated as fixed for the whole period — variable-rate products will drift from this projection.
- This is educational maths, not financial advice. Check anything contractual with the lender or your accountant.
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Cite this calculator
Writing about this topic? Grab a citation — every link helps keep these tools free.
RevenueLab. (2026). Wedding Vendor Travel Fee Calculator. Retrieved from https://www.revenuelab.fyi/toolbox/vendor-travel-fee-calculator
<p>Source: <a href="https://www.revenuelab.fyi/toolbox/vendor-travel-fee-calculator" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Wedding Vendor Travel Fee Calculator — RevenueLab</a> (2026).</p>
Source: [Wedding Vendor Travel Fee Calculator — RevenueLab](https://www.revenuelab.fyi/toolbox/vendor-travel-fee-calculator) (2026).