Pricing Help – Mobile Coffee Trailer

[Richard Urquhart]

Peter I will go first £850.00

[Peter Normington]

thanks Rich,
any more?
Peter

[Nigel Hindley]

With artwork being supplied and there isnt much vinyl and wouldnt take too long id probably quote around £500

[John Childs]

Pure gut feeling but, if done in our workshop, it looks like about £650 – £700 to me.

[Phill Fenton]

I’ll price it up properly tomorrow when back at work and reply then. Meanwhile can you tell me if all the cut vinyl and digital print will be applied to existing coloured boards or are you supplying these as well (or covering these sections in vinyl)?

[Peter Normington]

Phil,
the background will be painted, that is coffee colour, the rest is white,? all the wording is to be applied onto the existing background, but on the wing boards, it may be better to print the whole thing than split the print from the cut vinyl?

Peter

[George Elsmore]

£650 ish it looks very classy for a trailer

[Phill Fenton]

I would cost this at £458 + VAT assuming it’s all vinyl lettering direct onto existing coloured backgrounds and the two side boards are digital prints direct onto existing substrate.

[Richard Urquhart]

Gosh I’m need to charge less me thinks. Rich

[John Childs]

I’ve still not worked it out because I’m too idle but, thinking about it some more, it’s really only the same as doing one side of a 7.5 tonner.

£500.00.

[John Childs]

quote Richard Urquhart:

Gosh I’m need to charge less me thinks. Rich

You’re in London (almost). I’m not.

That may well explain a lot of the difference. 😀

[Karl Williams]

I would charge £700 for that Peter. I’ve done a lot of catering units and realistically that’s was the guys I do them for would be more than happy to pay.

[Nigel Hindley]

Wow some of you guys are so expensive. Its a small amount of vinyl and around 3-4 hours work?

I would say its less work than an average size van really I thought my price of £500 was on the steep side to be honest.

Nigel

[Jill Marie Welsh]

A dear friend always said "Charge as much as you can while keeping a straight face"
And I could never do that job in 3-4 hours.
I do not offer prints, but certainly that job is worth at least $1,200-1,500.
Paid up front of course.
(the only person who ever tried to cheat me was a carnie)
Love….Jill

[Richard Urquhart]

It may only take 3-4 hours on site, what about the printing of the panels and then lamination, getting this all cut out and ready. 3-4 hours I’m quick but think from start to finish including taping up in the workshop it would be a push, then adding mark up and profit for the company on top. Its not that I couldn’t do it for that it just its got to be worth that to the customer not trade prices.OK let say I was a bit high but I wouldn’t do this for less than £750 Rich

[Nigel Hindley]

I figured my price at £300 for alll vinyl (we buy in our printed vinyl ready laminated) £200 for labour ie one man half a day? price was absed on doing at premises.

As artwork provided there isn’t much weeding? fitting to straight panels 4 hours should see this from beginning to end?

Maybe this is why I’m not making any money?

Nigel

[Peter Normington]

Thanks for all the estimates guys,
the reason I asked was, this is actually a trade job for the trailer manufacturer, and I do a lot of work for them, but the customer is also a bit savvy and as it his design, it looks like he has a good idea of what he wants.
Having spoken to him on design and colour issues he is well educated in our craft.
Mr Fenton was nearest to my original estimate, but I have gone in at slightly less, the reason is that instead of painting the trailer panel I have offered to wrap it in vinyl which works out less than the paint job and will only cost about £20 in materials and 30 mins work for an extra 200squibs. and all the colours will match perfect.

I estimate the cut vinyl will take maybe two hours to cut and weed
Print only take 5minutes of my time to size up and click on print, laminate will be done with other stuff on the same roll so another 5 minutes.
machine time, say 30 mins

Fitting , about 2 hours max

My customer needs to mark up, but the end user wants the convenience of a finished product,
the business plan is to have ten of these trailers over the next six months.
not sure if coffee and cookies can sell from a trailer though!

Peter

[Liam Pattison]

I hope the reality of those cookies lives up to the picture.

I think the trailers would be successful, as carrying a large coffee around seems to be very fashionable and it will probably be quicker for people than going into a shop.

I think it’s a great looking design as well.

Liam

[John Harding]

I think some of you guys ought to do a time and motion on yourselves as Rich said quite a bit of work there – for my part around 700 squids would be my guestimate

John 😕

[John Childs]

quote Peter Normington:

plan is to have ten of these trailers over the next six months.

That makes a big difference. The tenth will take you a fraction of time that the first one does.

I often look at other people’s prices on here and think that they are mega expensive. The truth is that they are probably looking at a job as a one, or maybe two, off, whereas the nature of my clients means that I tend to look at things in larger volumes. Therefore, my gut feeling for a price is usually less than others.

The problem for us is that, for somebody that walks in off the street, we don’t charge enough. I am aware of this, and am trying to break the habit.

Nobody is right or wrong, it’s just that we are looking at the same job from different directions.

[Peter Normington]

quote John Harding:

I think some of you guys ought to do a time and motion on yourselves as Rich said quite a bit of work there – for my part around 700 squids would be my guestimate

John 😕

John, what timings would you put on this job?
my estimates aren’t far off base on my experience,
but the times for production and fitting, need to be comparable to the competition, and ultimately that dictates the end cost, if you can do it quicker and smarter that the competition, then you will get the job,

I think most of the estimates given were on the high side.
so if we were all quoting for this, given that the quality would be equal,
who would have got the job?

not sure who needs the time and motion study…

just food for thought

Peter

[John Childs]

quote Peter Normington:

John, what timings would you put on this job?

I haven’t worked anything out Peter. Like I said, just gut feeling, but I’ll have a look in the morning.

You are absolutely right about production times being an important consideration though, and although it doesn’t help much in this instance, that’s where the Weeder and Sheeter come into their own for our normal work

I watched my boys make up ten van kits this afternoon and, although I’ve seen it before, the speed with which they did it I found amazing. I defy anybody to do something like that quicker, and therefore cheaper, than them.

And for me, that’s the crux of the matter. If our methods and techniques allow us to make stuff quicker than our competitors then we can be cheaper than them whilst still making the same profit. A competitive advantage the business gurus would probably call it.

The Weeder is good, but anybody without a Sheeter is putting themselves at a disadvantage before they even start.

[Peter Normington]

sorry John C
the question about timings was for John H
but your answer is still relevant

Peter

[Richard Urquhart]

I agree with what your saying and having all the gear is great but surely the end result will be to de value the end product just because is can be produced faster. I quoted this on a one off and for a retail customer not as a trade job as an on going contract.

I can make signs far cheaper than most in my area as I have lower than most in over heads but I don’t do jobs cheap because of this. I also have a laminator and can laminate faster than the sign company just down the road who do it by hand but I dont charge any less as I have to purchase the laminater in the first place. I do work cheaper for some customers than others but I quoted this as I said on the spec given. Rich

[Peter Normington]

quote Richard Urquhart:

I agree with what your saying and having all the gear is great but surely the end result will be to de value the end product just because is can be produced faster. I quoted this on a one off and for a retail customer not as a trade job as an on going contract.

I can make signs far cheaper than most in my area as I have lower than most in over heads but I don’t do jobs cheap because of this. I also have a laminator and can laminate faster than the sign company just down the road who do it by hand but I dont charge any less as I have to purchase the laminater in the first place. I do work cheaper for some customers than others but I quoted this as I said on the spec given. Rich

Rich
the purpose of asking for what you would quote, was simply to get a retail value, so I could get an idea of what the job would be worth as a sellable job to a trade customer, who would need also to make a profit on selling the product. Perhaps i should have asked for a trade price in the first plac?

sorry if I I mislead anyone, the quotes given were not high for retail, but more than a trade customer would pay

Peter

[John Childs]

Richard,

I understand where you are coming from, and agree to a certain extent. But the Sheeter cost us about £250, so hardly a major capital expenditure that has to be written down over a few of years. We also have a laminator, but wouldn’t use it for applying app tape because the Sheeter is much quicker and easier.

We certainly don’t want to devalue our product either and, just because we can make something cheaper, doesn’t mean that we always do.

Quite the reverse in fact because production costs are only a part of the equation. Another, probably the most important, aspect is service level. Obviously it has to be kept within reason, but we can often be a bit more expensive than our competitors and still retain the work because our customers know that they can rely on us and they would prefer to use us than change to an unknown supplier.

It has been discussed before, so I don’t want to go into too much detail here, but it costs our customers a lot of money in engineer down time to change their vans over. Sometimes they can be out of action for three days, so you can understand my customers reluctance to take a leap in the dark rather than stick with the known quantity.

Sorry for going off-topic Peter.

[Peter Normington]

finished job
thanks for all the input

Peter

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[Nicola McIntosh]

nice job done peter, nice and clean 😀

do you want me to start a new thread in the portfolio forum? cause there will be loads of replys 😀

[Glenn Sharp]

Looks really good Peter…..very nice

Is it all print or is there cut vinyl in there as well?

[Jill Marie Welsh]

Really turned out sharp.

[Warren Beard]

very nice, clean and sharp Peter, good looking job :thumbup2:

These "different" jobs are usually also quiet fun to do.

cheers

Warren

[Peter Normington]

quote Glenn Sharp:

Looks really good Peter…..very nice

Is it all print or is there cut vinyl in there as well?

the only print was the wing boards, but the cafe moi logo was vinyl throughout to maintain colour consistency.
the brown was flood coated
Peter

[Harry Cleary]

I haven’t seen a classier looking one Peter…looks great. 😀

[John Childs]

Turned out very nice Peter.

As coincidence would have it, Peter M has just taken an order to do a couple of trailers next week. I’ll ask him to post up pics of them too.

[Neil Davey]

Looks great Peter, to echo Harry’s comment, you rarely see classier looking trailers. 😀

[Phill Fenton]

Great Job Peter – well done. :thumbsup:

[Neil Speirs]

Lovely work Peter, I hope I can put something out like that in years to come.

[Neil Speirs]

quote Warren Beard:

very nice, clean and sharp Peter, good looking job :thumbup2:

These “different” jobs are usually also quiet fun to do.

cheers

Warren

Happy 4k post Warren 😉

[Peter Normington]

the end product turned out well.
If you read my first post, I cant take credit for the design, the artwork was provided by the client, (a part time designer)
we interacted with practicalities etc. to come up with the best way to achieve what he wanted, considering costs.

I enjoyed doing this. and the client was very happy,

Peter

[Neil Speirs]

quote Peter Normington:

the end product turned out well.
If you read my first post, I cant take credit for the design, the artwork was provided by the client, (a part time designer)
we interacted with practicalities etc. to come up with the best way to achieve what he wanted, considering costs.

I enjoyed doing this. and the client was very happy,

Peter

Well in that case, I hope in years to come I work with a designer like that 😉

[Warren Beard]

quote Neil Speirs:

quote Warren Beard:

very nice, clean and sharp Peter, good looking job :thumbup2:

These “different” jobs are usually also quiet fun to do.

cheers

Warren

Happy 4k post Warren 😉

Fanks 😳 😮

[Richard Urquhart]

Peter a fantastic outcome and great looking trailer, well done mate 😀