Originally written by Maxi Schwarz-Bastami on November 11, 2009 9:56 AM One reason for per word quotes rather than hourly is that the agency needs to give an exact quote.  The number of words in a document is fixed, while your time is an unknown quantity.  In a sense we are still considering our estimated time expenditure.

As I have experienced it, the situation is quite different. The translation agencies are in cut-throat competition with each other. A common situation is that an agency has already entered a bid for a job and is trying to line up a translator for it should that bid be successful. I have often been engaged provisionally for a job only to be told a few days later that some other agency got the job.  

I believe that this is the explanation of why some jobs are described as "urgent" (e.g. brochures for the Hannover Messe, for which the starting date is known to everybody several years in advance) - the agency has to their own surprise landed the job after cutting their price to the bone and is now having a problem finding a translator willing to do that job at a price that will leave them some profit.

Derek

Originally written by Maxi Schwarz-Bastami on November 11, 2009 9:56 AM In regards to the chiseled gravestone, I wonder how much time it takes to chisel a single letter, in comparison to how much time it takes to type a letter or number.  What preparation must be made of the stone itself, as well as procuring and storing these stones?  Is that an extra charge are included in the base fee for the first x number of letters?

With modern laser engraving machinery? The job is done in minutes! They set up the layout, press the button and zing! I believe that the prices are based on having a craftsman painstakingly chisel each letter out by hand. They still need that price so that they can pay off their investment in the machine. No procuring! You go in there and tell them what you have in mind and they walk you around the yard to pick out a piece of stone that they have in stock. As for an extra charge for the first x number of letters, quite the contrary! In the ads that I have seen, the first 100 characters are included in the price of the stone!

I used to claim that the right way for a translator to work is to imagine that his/her translation is going to be carved onto granite blocks. That concentrates the mind wonderfully and leaves no room for the odd error, no chance of cutting and pasting, no spell checker, no delete button.

Since then I switched to "good enough" translations!

Derek

Originally written by Maxi Schwarz-Bastami on November 11, 2009 10:56 AM A charge of .14/word has embedded into it a consideration of the work, complexity etc. that it entails which could be worked out as a rough per hour estimate.

Yes, I am perfectly comfortable with unit prices which one sets adequately (despite the fact that my time is also sold by the hour). My dentist charges for each shot, cleaning, filling, crown, bridge, root canal, implant, etc., and not for the time spent doing those, which may of course vary but can all be averaged out.

Originally written by Derek Thornton on November 11, 2009 6:33 AM With modern laser engraving machinery? The job is done in minutes!

Actually, they use computer controlled sandblasting equipment for engraving on granite now, but the principle is the same.  It underlines the need to stay on top of, and take advantage of, new technological developments.  This is where a price per unit of work done ($/word-character-line) presents opportunities that would be missed if pricing was based on an hourly rate.  In every industry, where technology has been taken advantage of firms have done well; where old methods have been retained, they have struggled and finally gone out of business.  Take the machining industry (which was my background).  There are firms in the US, with high labour costs when measured on an hourly basis, who are able to compete with China due to their use of high technology, producing results which are not only price competitive, but far ahead in terms of quality and proximity to the consumer of their market.

So the approach needs to be two-pronged in my view - 1) keep prices up as far as possible, which is what we are doing here, 2) use technology (in our case software and systems) as and when it develops, but the purpose is to increase productivity without decreasing quality.

Originally written by John Fossey on November 11, 2009 1:12 PM 2) use technology (in our case software and systems) as and when it develops, but the purpose is to increase productivity without decreasing quality

...and without making clients privy to how we are working. In fact, if I used any CAT tools, my client would be the last person to know about it.

Definitely; clients should neither know about nor require any tools. We do not ask the dentist which drills he uses.