[David Rogers]

Hi all,

I have a prospective job to clean all seats, the gangways and some roof upholstery in a fleet of coaches, for a local operator.

There are 10 vehicles, and all are 70 seater coaches, with a narrow gangway and the same size 'strip' of upholstery on the roof.

I really have no idea how much I should charge for this job, especially as it's a friend of a family member.

They want HWE throughout, and I'd accelerate drying using my 3 x driers.   I'd probably be doing 2 x coaches per day as they always have two each day that aren't in service. For convenience inside the coaches, I may try doing the job with my Prochem Spot Pro.   Either that or my back-up Craftex Maxi, which is nice and narrow for the bus gangway 

I was thinking of basing the price on £3 per seat, with the gangway and roof part free...... that would therefore mean £210 per coach....

Does this sound feasible?   I know there's no right answer, just after some views.

Please bear in mind that this is in the North East, where prices are around 10% lower than in the South. (No can of worms from that comment please!).

Thanks in advance,

David.

[robert meldrum]

I'd price it according to the time I'd expect to take against the hourly rate I'm happy with. Having said that I never work for family or friends if I can possibly avoid doing so.

[jasonl]

I used to clean the whole Siesta fleet in middlesbrough, charged £250  15 years ago.

[Steve. Taylor]

David i would offer to clean 1 coach at x amount on a trial to see how long the job takes you mention you could clean 2 a day what are you happy with on a daily rate?

As far as freinds and family go you stil need to price a fair amount to pay your overheads

[Fintan_Coll]

David, why should you give a reduction just because he is a friend of a friend. I have cleaned many 53 seater coaches including the headlinings, I know there is only a narrow strip on yours but you are talking about a 70 seater here.
I would certainly not be able to do a thorough job if I were to do two in a day.
I have always found one coach per day enough if you want to clean it to a good high standard which I would imagine the owner will be expecting from  you.

[garyfindlay]

You could use dry foam for the roof, speeding up cleaning and drying time.

[David Rogers]

Thanks for the feedback - very good points.   I thought about the time factor for pricing (this is ultimately how I price most jobs, even if I'm talking room of sq.ft terms to the customer) .... but the difficulty is, I actually don't know how long it will take, never having done this type of work. 

If I normally price up a job that will take me all day, I tend to work along the lines of £200, so perhaps I'll offer to clean the coaches to a high standard on the basis of this daily rate.   If I then end up whipping along the seats (they're pretty clean to be fair) and get 3 x coaches done in a day that's good for the owner, conversely if I only get 1 coach done in a day then that#s the time it takes to get a high standard, and no-one's getting fleeced.

He's not so much asking for a discount but I would certainly position it that I am giving a F&F discount (even if I'm not!).

Cheers,

[Fintan_Coll]

£200 per day is a very reasonable price for cleaning coaches no matter if you clean only one coach or manage to get around two or even three.

[M.Acorn]

My god,where in the country are you ?
My day rate is £700 !! And i have got that consistently 

[David Rogers]

My god,where in the country are you ?
My day rate is £700 !! And i have got that consistently 

Good for you - I think that's quite exceptional though, current climate aside!

I have been in business for a relatively short time, so for me it's a balance of 'eager' (not 'under') pricing and building up the word of mouths and reco's by offering great value for the pricing.

In my region (North East) I can not see any feasibly way of earning £700 in a day as a single operator, even if I was working 24 hours! 

Your experience is clearly different.

Cheers,

[Andrew Briscoe]

My god,where in the country are you ?
My day rate is £700 !! And i have got that consistently 

Buy some decent pumps/vacs for your machine then Mark 

[Jason Hedges]

Hi David,

I do coaches on a regular basis and charge £250 for the seats and carpet only to clean and deodorise. It takes about 2 1/2 - 3 hours bare in mind I use a truckmount and its still hard graft. I can do 2 in a day easy, 3 at a push if I really want to. With a good porty 2 would be a result in a long day.

I've never done a roof. Would be hard work I'd imagine so would stick another £100 on to do that as well . P.s. I'm on the South East coast but for this type of work the area shouldnt matter too much.

All the best,
Jason.

[jasonl]

My god,where in the country are you ?
My day rate is £700 !! And i have got that consistently 

Good for you - I think that's quite exceptional though, current climate aside!

I have been in business for a relatively short time, so for me it's a balance of 'eager' (not 'under') pricing and building up the word of mouths and reco's by offering great value for the pricing.

In my region (North East) I can not see any feasibly way of earning £700 in a day as a single operator, even if I was working 24 hours! 

Your experience is clearly different.

Cheers,

I spent 10 years in Teesside , in Carpet cleaning. There is plenty of money there, as there is in any county. LOADS of doctors, solicitors, footballers, business owners, people working in the chemical and oil business, house prices are relatively low, which means more spare income. The Chemdry franchise I sold in 2003 turns over 500/day min per van now, without insurance work.

[M.Acorn]

I used to live in the North east too ! do you know tees inshore engineering ,near the football ground ? His daughter was the reason i moved up there.

Worked at Santoro`s restaurant in Yarm,then worked at the Dudley arms,in Inglby greenhow,still a pic of me there behind the bar the last time i was in !!

I have only done about a weeks worth of £700 days in the 6 years i have been running  But i am coming close to that pretty often now.

[Helen]

I have only done about a weeks worth of £700 days in the 6 years i have been running  But i am coming close to that pretty often now.

Mark what I think you should be saying is that since starting up you have targeted yourself at £700.00 per day. Over 6 years you have had a weeks worth of this target, so this is not a consistent rate. I believe in setting yourself realistic targets that can then be adjusted when necessary.  If you do consistantly achieve the £700 per day rate over 10 months would be safe to say it is consistent, then you need to think about  selling your services and subbing it out, then you wouldn't have to spend out on so many repairs to van and equipment

[M.Acorn]

I suppose i average between £400 and £500 per day,so i am not that far off ,but then it can die,so over the year it balances out

[derek west]

mark
devide your yearly turnover by 250 and you won't be far off your daily average. trust me, it will be no where near 400 to 500.
if it was, you'd be vat registered or in prison for tax evasion

[Neil Williams]

I suppose i average between £400 and £500 per day,

Could you elaberate? You say 'average.' Against how many days per week is this?
Because....
If you are doing an average of £400 per day (and that btw is nowhere near £700) then say you do that 4 days a week and then do 46 weeks per year you're turning over £73,600 which means you have to be vat registered.
I like to think I'm doing you a favor here because after all your previous problems what you don't want is a tax inspection which results in you getting back charged for vat. It does happen.
As it is Marc your numbers don't add up.

[Ian Gourlay]

Mark

If you are taking 2000 a week plus why did you not go out and buy a new machine or pay sombody to put a new pump in instead of putting it in yourself

Jason I always thought Yarmouth was on East Coast to me South East Coast is Margate

[jasonl]

I used to live in the North east too ! do you know tees inshore engineering ,near the football ground ? His daughter was the reason i moved up there.

Worked at Santoro`s restaurant in Yarm,then worked at the Dudley arms,in Inglby greenhow,still a pic of me there behind the bar the last time i was in !!

I have only done about a weeks worth of £700 days in the 6 years i have been running  But i am coming close to that pretty often now.

Used to live in Eston ,, then after 5 years made enough to buy a nice house in Great Ayton, was a regular in the Dudley arms , nice food in there, always got a seat in the mezzanine , good for people watching.

Cleaning in all those villages was very lucrative, anyone with any money or sense would live there rather than on Teesside itself .