[Andrew Briscoe]

I have worked out the last £800 of sales cost me £17.50 in fuel.
I didnt work out hourly cost as difficult, due to prespraying on tickover and extracting on economy, rarely use flat out.
I personally think it is a very small amount compared to the speed that you can get through your jobs.
Have been thinking of getting one of them window cleaners sprayers that some have been raving about, thus saving further fuel.

Andrew
ps my tm is a diesel.

[AshWhite]

I bought an IK9 sprayer instead of using my hydraforce, noticed a big saving in fuel, and use a LOT less chemical.

[Simon Gerrard]

Andrew,
That's good going. My Titan has a lot bigger engine but only costs £4 per hour, LPG.

Simon

[Shaun_Ashmore]

I think % could vary dependant on speed of cleaning to costs of cleaning.

Shaun

[Shaun_Ashmore]

I guess when you are cleaning with 300 ft you need full throttle I am usually running on 75ft, I've just added mine up but you'd call me a liar.

Thank gotts for LPG.

Shaun

[Mike Halliday]

to fill both my tanks( T/M & heater) cost £35 of red diesel....... this earns me £1400ish

[Andrew Briscoe]

Shaun, we are poorer the further North you go, i would say i am mid range price wise.

Mike, is that with your helper, i find when i have a helper your tm isnt running as long, the helpers legs are !!

[mark_roberts]

My Boxer drinks around £5-£6 an hour which is too much IMO.

Mark

[AshWhite]

My Boxer drinks around £5-£6 an hour which is too much IMO.

Mark

Same here

[Andrew Briscoe]

what i quoted was based on last fri pm, mon, tues and yesterday, i had been quiet.
out of the £800 i only had 1 decent job, the rest were only worth around 70-80
lots of crappy little jobs, however bookings are getting better

[AshWhite]

Andrew:

We use the most powerful triple vacuumed machinery available, leaving your carpets much drier, usually dry within 1-2 hours, we can also speed dry your carpets with our room driers.

Soon to be introduced is our new van mounted system, which will heat the water as we drive to the job. This greatly reduces our carbon footprint, and saves you, the customer, losing all your hot water. This should be in operation for the summer of 2009. The more powerful machine will stay in the vehicle, meaning less disruption in your home


Update your webite mate!

[Andrew Briscoe]

Have the update all written down for website, last week was first quiet week we have had in last few years, worked everyday since march except a weeks holls.

Will be contacting my web guy soon, also getting some videos and some new pics done as well as tacca logo, so lots to organise

Andrew

[Andrew Briscoe]

Oh and the tripple vac hasnt been used for last year hardly 

[Jim_77]

Andrew,

I've worked out a rough figure of what the TRUE cost of running a TM is.  It's much more than fuel used per hour.

- purchase cost of machine minus sale price when you get rid of it.   divide that figure by how many hours use you had out of it
- fuel used per hour
- oils & lubricants
- consumables (filters etc)
- de-scaling
- servicing
- deprecation
- miscellaneous accessories

I've made a rough guestimate that I get through about £4 of LPG an hour.  However, taking all those other things into account the TRUE cost of running a TM is closer to £12 an hour.  Obviously this is based on the way I work, i.e. higher prices/lower volumes so it might work out differently for a different business model.

Still wouldn't go back to a porty though!

[The Carpet Cleaning Pro]

Same here... I worked out roughly £12 per hour including fuel, lubricants and filters, descaling etc. Was only thinking of the porty days earlier today. Just dont fancy all the buckets of water. Fill, empty, fill, empty and on and on and on. Also can get through allot more work allot quicker and custies are just so much more impressed with the truckmount than the last guy with that little blue thingy.

[AshWhite]

You worded depreciation differently, then counted it twice ;P

[Jim_77]

Oh I did, didn't I

Well, as far as the tax man's concerned.......

[Simon Gerrard]

I think there is a fair argument to say a Truck Mount doesn't actually cost you anything. Just think of all of the extra jobs they do that you couldn't have done with a portable and the man hours saved and all the extra revenues and profits that generates. Actual cost - zilch. 

Simon

[Andrew Briscoe]

All valid points, however i was only talking about fuel consumption 

Having 12 staff and numerous machines, extorianate fuel and insurance costs, paye  etc I know only too well cost of running a business.
Andrew

[Tom Bennett]

I've recently started using my electric sprayer to pre spray, it wasn't to save money but because of the dwell time.
I get really frustrated standing around for 5 to 10 minutes.
So I thought I'd try the sprayer to see if it would make any difference.
It's obviously takes longer to spray but that's the beauty of it, by the time I've sprayed the carpet(s) the first area sprayed has had the required dwell time, so I can extract. I find it much better and the plus points are that you are not putting as much pre spray down as you would with the hydraforce therefore the carpets should dry quicker and the truckmount is not running as long so fuel bills will be down.
It works for me.