Fleet vehicle pricing

[Liam Pattison]

I use very reliable highly experienced fitters who work to flat rates within a certain distance and their daily rate covers their petrol cost travelling most of the country, (some jobs they make better money on than others obviously!) But at least that will give you one flat rate to calculate for fitting.

I’m not sure if i can advertise on here, so if you want to contact me by pming me for their rates and details or anything please feel free or just click the link to my website and contact me that way.

thanks

Liam

[Robert Lambie]

there is allot involved in this and what you probably think is expensive to charge, wont be.

i am guessing here and just my opinion… but i do not think you will get this and will be a waste of time.
companies that need work done on this scale do not send out general inquiries to random companies via the net. either they do not know what they are doing, or its possibly even a bogus order.

please do not get me wrong, by all means follow the leed etc but i would call the company and find out if all is as per email.

IF the order is genuine, and the company IS doing this via the net… they will have approached many companies and i would imagine, some will be better equiped and have the expereince to cover a rebrand on this scale.

sorry for being negative, just pointing out some things to help you before getting involved.

[John Lloyd]

Rob,

Fully agree I am being used as a price comparison or the person sending me the quote is just a middle man not understanding what they are doing, but you can always dream!

[Phill Fenton]

And another thing..I wouldn’t go muscling in on JC’s territory. The last person that tried that woke up to find a horses head in his bed 😕

[Hugh Potter]

quote Phill:

And another thing..I wouldn’t go muscling in on JC’s territory. The last person that tried that woke up to find a horses head in his bed 😕

let’s hope he doesn’t include the riders head too next time!!

sorry, no useful comments from me 😉

[John Childs]

Right up my street. We do lots of jobs like those, but they all come from known bona fide sources. So, first off, listen to what Rob says and do your homework.

Don’t worry about it looking expensive. You’re not just pricing to do vans, you are also providing a service in going out to do them on-site in small batches at times to suit the end user. They must be prepared to pay for this service. Anyone else quoting will have the same obstacles and expenses as yourself, and SHOULD be in the same ball-park pricewise.

Don’t be tempted to reduce your price because of the size of the job. Volume brings it’s own problems, and you will need the money to overcome them.

Look at the alternatives. The usual routine is that the supplying dealer prices in one delivery trip, which is usually from him to the end user, but it doesn’t have to be that way. It can often be financially beneficial to have the vans delivered to you, do the work on your premises, then you arrange onward delivery at your cost. Naturally that cost gets added to your quote. It is cheaper to have a minimum wage muppet driver running up and down the motorway system, than a highly trained and expensive fitter.

Even cheaper is to have a proper delivery company do it for you. We use Paragon Automotive. We recently did a job for a company on the south coast and Paragon delivered nine vans cheaper than ever we could do it. Also, they have all the infrastructure, proper insurances, and hand over the vehicles to the end user in a professional manner.

Finding reliable local fitters isn’t difficult, but can take a bit of trial and error. I start here on UKSB and look for people in the right area. If they have a website, take a look at the type of work they have done previously. Do a search on their names and see the type of posts they have made, questions they have asked, and advice they have given. From that you can then form an opinion on whether they are capable of carrying out a particular job. Then you can contact them and see if they would like to do it. Not all do, they may be too busy, or just prefer to fit what they make themselves, whereas others may be desperate for work and be grateful for a job of any sort. There’s all shades of grey between those extremes, and some that are just happy to do a job for you as a favour. Sometimes you can pick the wrong one and come unstuck, but that has been rare. Eventually you can build up a little network of good, reliable fitters who you know will do a good prompt job.

Sorry, didn’t mean to write War and Peace. 😕

[John Childs]

Oh yes, as an indicator, I once had one of my good regular customers go through a re-brand. New vans were not a problem, but they asked how much to go around the country and change all their existing vans. The actual van work added up to about two hundred thousand but, when all the travel, accommodation, overtime and subsistence costs were added in it came to just shy of a million quid.

Fortunately they decided not to do it because we would have struggled with a job of that magnitude. 😀

[John Childs]

Me again. 😀

Also think about financing.

Timescale will have a lot to do with it but, for example, let’s say we are looking at fifty vans per month at £500 each.

That’s £25,000 of work in the first month and, assuming that they comply with your thirty day terms, by the time you receive a cheque you will have done another £25,000 worth.

You will have to pay your wages weekly, and also pay for materials so, even if the customer pay you on time, they will always be in your side for £50,000.

This might sound cheeky, but isn’t intended to be that way because I know nothing about your fiscal resources, but can you afford to finance the job? And can you still do it if they don’t pay on time and take sixty days? That’s £75,000.

Also consider the outcome if they go broke and don’t pay at all. What effect would that have on your business, would it affect your ability to survive?

We are doing this sort of thing all the time but, as I said above, we know our customers, and I would have to think long and hard about taking such a risk on an unknown source.

[John Lloyd]

John,

Thanks for all the useful information. I knew these jobs we’re out of our league, but it’s interesting to understand the process, one day!

[John Childs]

quote John Lloyd:

Thanks for all the useful information.

No problem John, but you need to thank Phill. I lifted all that out of a draft copy of his forthcoming book – Vehicle Graphics for Beginners. *rofl*

Seriously, ask a few more questions. My screed above was just an example, and it may be that they are only looking at a change cycle of ten vans per month, at a value of £250 each.

Don’t give up until you have all the facts.