Beer Trucks

Rob Smith

New Member
Hello all, I am bidding on a dist. for a local beer company (woohoo) and saw what the company they are using charges. I may be nuts but you guys tell me what you think of these prices. 28' and 30' trailer $7.95 and $12.40 brushed. For a 40' and 45' trailer $10.20 and 13.40 brushed. Plus they have several other straight trucks (with the bays on the side) 12 bays, for $7.95. Let me know what you guys thin. Thanks and nice to meet all of you.

Rob:D
 

Steven Rowlet

New Member
Those prices are way too low. We have some vans, 1 ton flat bed trucks and pickups that we charge $10.00 each for and have been doing so for several years. We cut our time in half since we started and that is the only reason we haven't raised the price. You would wish you had never seen them if you went with those prices.
 

Rob Smith

New Member
I totally agree on them being too low, the company that is doing this is basically the biggest fleet washer in the area and I just cant see how he is doing it. I dont even know if I want to try these for $10 a piece ?

Nice meeting you Steven!
 

Steven Rowlet

New Member
Rob, I don't see how the guy is making any money period. We get $25.00 for a dual rear tandem tractor without a sleeper and $10.00 extra to brigthening the tanks and that is a deal. I would charge at least $20.00 ea. on the trailers. I would go with $25.00 ea. on the straight trucks.
 

Rob Smith

New Member
Lets see if I can really make you confused, I bid on another fleet this Co. had and walked away from that one because ......get this ...... he was charging $5.00 for a plain snub nose Semi cab and that was once a month. This other company is killing me and probably eating hamburgers instead of filets LOL. I just cant see how he does it! (charging so low that is).
 

Bill

New Member
Ther have always been co. that are low balling everything ( The Yellow Truck Co.) among others. You cant compete with them. They wont be doing it very long anyway so look elswhere. But keep your eye on the fleets they wash becuase they will be getting dirty. No one works for free for very long. The problem I have is when you approach the comp. to bid on their washing they have been burnt so many times by some guy in a pickup w/ a p/w on the back charging them pennies. And you give the a legitimate price they cant justify it. So you need to have some good references. Keep in mind this service is usually at the bottom of their priority. So if you can take this load off and be CONSISTENT they can justify the extra expense. Good Luck Keep your customers happy! That says way more about your comp. than fancy trucks and pretty lierature. Bill
 

Scott Stone

New Member
I will be the rebel here.
Those are low prices, but there are a couple of things that you need to take into account. How many are there, and where are they in relation to you? Those things can have a lot of effect of wha tthe actual price should be.
Another thing to remember, If they are showing you the price, they are probably dissatisfied. That means a possible easy target.
As for the prices that some people charge, you would never survive in my market. They would laugh you off the lot.

Scott
 

Larry L.

PWN TEAM - Moderator Emeritus
I would help them laugh me off their lot if they show'd me prices like that,I'd even grin at'them as I drove off cuzz I had rather be around better manag'ment (he,he) than around who ever is the lowest wins.

It doesn't matter to them if you stay in business are or not b/c they know there is another powerwasher standing on the corner wanting some of or all of their bussiness.

Yel,I know but.

enjoy today because torromow maybe alot different even though torromow may never come,something does!

O.. the rebel flag,we had to take down,cann't fly it no more on our main flagpoles,the flag to the left is now my rebel flag,onward we go in learning and not knowing when the battle will really end.
 

fishguy

New Member
I agree that the prices seem low but Scott makes a good point how many are there , how often do they want them washed, and how close are they to you.

I ran into the same problem this company had 75 small semis and about 200 28ft trailers and wanted them wash once amonth I bid the job at 12$ a unit and they just laughrd at me and said your way to high, if you cant beat 6 $ a unit then see ya later ! My replie was ok see ya!! After a little spy work I found out that it was a family of Koreans who were doing it they were using 2 little 6hp washers to do it ...lol....
 

ron

New Member
hey fishguy/ron p

your lol'ing it up but lets do the math
270 x6 = $1,650.00
now 2 home depot washers + buckets + brushes + fuel + soap+ fuel cans+garden hose
= about $1400 for the WHOLE 12 MONTHS OF WASHING
now lets say it did cost him the whole $1650 for the year and put it all in his mini van
and they could do this work in 2 days per month x 11 months
thats $18,000 for 24 days of work even if it took 3 days per month thats still
$18,000 for 36 days of work no insurance,no employees,no workmans comp,
no fixing anything,no maint,no overhead,no payments,no advertising,no accountant,no second phone,no computer,1 bill to hand out.
you did say FAMILY. now under the same cicumstances that would pay the mortage on my home for a year. Now they still have over 300 days per year to make more money.
they prob. cut grass during the rest of the month. LOL NOT!
you were going to charge them over $30,000 per year, that would mean to me, that if i could line up just 3 accounts like that[at your price] i could work evey other week and fish every other week do you have it that good? if you do DONT TELL.
It would just make me crazy/er.
 

fishguy

New Member
Ron I relized how much money was involved but like you said they prob. didnt have insuance or any thing but a licence which in this state only cost 25$ to get and a city licence if they even got one of those which run 50 - 85$ deppending on the city and here were required to have a licence for every city we wash in. so with my costs involved in all that and gas , chems, and every thing else there wasnt much profit in it for me.. I beleive it took them 5 or 6 days to get them all done. I'm pretty sure they car alot of the car lots to they do them for .50 each just spray em with water and shamme them dry. but I tink this is a mostly a summer thing with all the pollen.

I have another company that I bid on at the same time (around 6 years ago) that I bid at 12$ a unit (28ft, 48ft, 53ft trailers) I wash there roughly 3 times a week (mon. weds. fri., ussally) for half a day and wash 20 - 25 units though it dose slowwwww down in the winter do to weather sometimes...like now the wind is whipping around at about 30mph but at least it stopped snowing now its just dumping buckets of rain!!
 

Larry L.

PWN TEAM - Moderator Emeritus
Forgot to tell ya,the wind we had last Saturaday blow'd a train of the tracks,30 car pile up,several tankercars,one of the tankercars was buried almost half up in the side of the highway,lucky no bad chemicals.If it had been bad chemicals the way the wind was blowing it would have killed everybody in town.
We didn't use to have this kind of wind but lately I miss severals days a year b/c of it.
Got rain'ed out Monday while washing bird do do,I was 3/4 done when it started throwing bucket fulls at me with whipping winds that felt like needles.
 

ron

New Member
ron p

sounds like a easy day
just throw a bucket of suds on dem rigs and let mother nature do the work. lol
thats how the fleetwashers do it
why you think they can get so meny done a day?
 

Rob Smith

New Member
Sent my bid in

Thanks for all the help guys, submitted my bid today and we see how it looks in a few hopefully. Went with 11.50 per unit. If thats not good enought for them, oh well :D (or at least I can say that for now LOL)

Rob
 

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