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§ 00 · Cost model

Do the maths.

Tell us about the job. We'll show you what it costs to send your own engineers to Manchester — and what you'd save by using Smart Hands instead. Every figure below is computed from the assumptions further down the page.

Flat £95/hour Whole-hour billing per engineer No VAT
§ 01 · Calculator

Run the numbers.

Two comparisons. Use the one that matches your alternative.

Sending: IT Infrastructure Engineer @ £39k/yr

2hrs
1100

How long each engineer is on-site. Smart Hands bills per engineer-hour: 1 hr × 2 engineers = 2 billable hours.

1
110

Lost revenue when engineers can't bill other clients at the ad-hoc rate.

Lite (6–11h) / Plus (12–17h) / Pro (18h+). Under 6h: hourly applies. Retainer details.

Sending your team
£0

—

Using Smart Hands
£0

Plus small incidentals. How billing works.

You'd save
£0 (0%)
› Time breakdown per engineer · strict 9-5 — capacity
Work required per engineer —

Cost breakdown — sending your team

› Direct expenses £0
› Employment cost £0
Total £0
What else you get

Things that don't show up in the maths.

The numbers above are like-for-like cost. These show up in the day-to-day instead.

Same-day or next-day attendance

No scheduling lead time. No travel to book or calendars to coordinate. We could be on site tomorrow.

Scale engineers up or down

Add an extra pair of hands mid-project, or scale back if the job's smaller than expected. Pay only for hours actually worked.

2 engineer-days kept on your existing workload

Your team stays focused on customers and core projects. No backlog, no missed deadlines.

Completion Report on every visit

Summary of works completed, before/after photos with descriptions, and recommended next steps.

Zero booking & expense admin

No train bookings, hotel reservations, receipts, or reimbursement processing.

Capped cost, no surprises

Not-To-Exceed cap on every estimate — we pause and ask before exceeding it. Cancelled trains and engineer illness don't become your problem.

Local site knowledge

We know Manchester data centres, access procedures, and the M2 area inside out.

No engineer wellbeing trade-off

Nobody's living out of a suitcase or trading family time for travel.

Smart Hands Warehouse

Store spare kit (racks, switches, SFPs, cable) with us so engineers can pull it on visit day. No courier delays, no on-site storage hassle. Learn more.

Schedule a call
§ 02 · Assumptions & sources

Every figure, sourced.

Every number above is calculated, not made up. Here's exactly what we assume — and where the figures come from.

Geography

Where the work happens.

  • ▸Client site is in M2, Manchester.
  • ▸Engineers travel into Manchester Piccadilly.
  • ▸Piccadilly to site is 15 minutes each way, including time spent waiting for the Uber X to arrive.
  • ▸Hotel (when needed) is at Manchester Piccadilly.
Working day

Strict 9-5.

  • ▸Engineers work 9-5 strictly, giving 7 productive hours per day after a one-hour lunch.
  • ▸A day-trip is viable only if the round-trip train, site travel, and work all fit within 9-5. No early starts, no late returns.
  • ▸Multi-day trips: one hotel night for every additional day on site.
Train cost & time (return, per engineer)

Trains, averaged for fairness.

Methodology: for fairness, we average the first 3 outbound and last 3 return train costs for a standard working day. Outbound = "leaving at" (earliest depart). Return = "arriving by" (latest arrive within 17:00). Where same-day return is not possible (Cardiff, Edinburgh), we use the next-day return train cost.

Trains searched: Wednesday 27 May 2026, Standard class, sourced from thetrainline.com.

London Euston

£84.50

Return cost per engineer (used in calc)

Outbound — leaving at

09:13 → 13:13 · avg 3h 27m

 £50

Return — arriving by

13:54 → 16:42 · avg 2h 14m

 £34.50

Cardiff Central

£94

Return cost per engineer (used in calc)

Same-day return not possible — overnight required

Outbound — leaving at

09:10 → 13:59 · avg 3h 49m

 £46

Return (next day) — arriving by

09:30 → 14:46 · avg 3h 24m

 £48

Edinburgh Waverley

£100

Return cost per engineer (used in calc)

Same-day return not possible — overnight required

Outbound — leaving at

09:05 → 13:18 · avg 4h 43m

 £52

Return (next day) — arriving by

09:00 → 14:37 · avg 4h 47m

 £48

Oxford

£67

Return cost per engineer (used in calc)

Outbound — leaving at

09:14 → 12:59 · avg 2h 49m

 £33

Return — arriving by

12:25 → 16:40 · avg 3h 10m

 £34
Travel expenses

Hotel, subsistence, Uber X.

  • ▸

    Hotel (multi-day trips only): £96.20 per room per night, one room per engineer.

    Source: Premier Inn Manchester City (Piccadilly), Non-Flex Standard Room (1 Adult), £96.20 for 1 night (20–21 May 2026), checked via premierinn.com on 19 May 2026.

  • ▸

    Subsistence (multi-day trips only): £15 per engineer per day.

    Source: HMRC modest-estimate within the £25 24-hour upper limit.

  • ▸

    Uber X (Piccadilly ↔ site) (every trip): £4 per ride, one way (£8 per day per Uber X). Up to 4 engineers per Uber X. Two rides per day (out + back).

    Source: uber.com, Piccadilly to M2, May 2026.

Engineer salary (base, by role and seniority)

Salary & on-costs.

Role Used for Standard Senior
IT Infrastructure Engineer MSP, billable, internal team £39k £42k
Network Engineer ISP £40k £54k

Source: Glassdoor average base pay, UK-wide, all years of experience, 19 May 2026.

  • ▸Engineer cost per hour = base × 1.15 (employer's NI, HMRC 2025/26: 15% above the £5,000 threshold) ÷ 1,854 working hours/year.
  • ▸Lost revenue (MSP and "bills for on-site" only) = (£90 − engineer cost) × 7 hrs × 70% utilisation per engineer per day. Source: netitude.co.uk, "Understanding and Managing Your IT Support Expenses" — lower end of ad-hoc IT support rates.
  • ▸Smart Hands rate: £95/hour per engineer, 1-hour minimum, no VAT. Billed as hours × engineers × rate — 1 hr × 2 engineers = 2 billable hours = £190.
  • ▸

    Retainer plans (optional, applied when toggle is "Include"):

    • – Under 6h — retainer doesn't apply; hourly billing (£95/hr)
    • – Lite (6–11h) — £540/mo, 6h included, £94/hr overage, 3-month minimum then monthly rolling
    • – Plus (12–17h) — £1,032/mo, 12h included, £90/hr overage, 6-month minimum then monthly rolling
    • – Pro (18h+) — £1,476/mo, 18h included, £86/hr overage, 12-month minimum then monthly rolling

    Calculator picks the plan that matches the hours range, plus overage where applicable.

Traditional Remote Hands rate (used in the "vs Traditional RH" calculator)

Reference rate & what's not in it.

  • ▸Conservative rate used: £150/hour (ex-VAT) — what many Tier 1 data centres charge.
  • ▸

    Equinix reference (ex-VAT):

    • – Normal/After-Hours Rate, Flexible Scheduling: £190/hr
    • – Normal/After-Hours Rate, Standard Scheduling: £220/hr

    Source: Equinix Smart Hands pricing schedule shared with customers (Standard Scheduling pricing applies by default; Flexible Scheduling reduces the rate but trades off response time).

  • ▸Billing increments: Traditional Remote Hands typically bills in 30-minute increments (rounded up). Smart Hands bills in 1-hour increments with a 1-hour minimum.
  • ▸

    What's not in the comparison:

    • – Out-of-hours premiums (some Tier 1 DCs charge more; Smart Hands does not).
    • – Per-visit access/escort fees (some providers add these; Smart Hands does not).
    • – Multi-site work — Traditional Remote Hands is locked to one DC; Smart Hands moves between 20+ Manchester data centres at the same rate.

Got better numbers for your business? Schedule a call to run through the numbers with us — or Get Started straight away.

§ 03 · Next step

Like what the maths shows?

Have a real job in mind? Send us the details and we'll quote it — time & materials with a Not-To-Exceed cap.

Schedule a call or skip the call