Hiring a 3.5

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Annieryan

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Hi all
So I need to pick your brains. I’m seriously thinking about buying a 3.5ton to hire out. Now I know I won’t be making a fortune but then again want to make something and if possible avoid returning back to work.
I have the money to purchase a box outright and to hire a box near me there is 3 companies within a half hour drive and none in the town I live in. 2 hire decent boxes the other is cheap and nasty conversion.
So my real question would be would it be worth the hassle? And I’m fully aware the box will never be treated the way I would!
 
Not worth the hassle, sorry. There will be times when everyone wants to use it then long periods when no one wants to know, plus insurance costs will be high and it won't be well treated by at least 70% of users. Also you'll find when you want to use it will be the time others want to hire it!
 
Definitely not worth the hassle. My 3.5t is an ex hire box, they decided to sell it as they were making a significant loss every day it wasn't hired out due to the cost of insurance, not to mention the poor condition it often came back in.
 
You also need to consider all the costs that go alongside. You need specialist insurance if you hire out for business, and will also need some decent contracts in place to cover for damages. Also, to start with, some insurance hire and reward policies need you to be the driver, and will only offer self-drive hire after a while in business as obviously, more risk than you driving your own box.

You then have maintenance costs, cleaning costs, running costs, MOT's etc etc.

Just a few things to consider! I know some people who have done it, but they often run it alongside another 1 or 2 businesses
 
I looked into buying a small hire business when a friend of a friend was selling up due to having twins.

On paper it looked very straightforward, with quite a reasonable profit margin. But the reality can be quite different. She ran hers from home, but she had a large hard standing area and outbuilding to store the wagon. She was always asked to store the customers car, during the hire period. She was also asked regularly for extra early/late pick up and drop offs.
The majority were really good with returning the vehicle in good condition and within the time frame.
The things that put me off were:

I’ve not got room for customer vehicle parking.
Maintenance was top priority which meant time unavailable to hire.
If it were returned damaged, there’s money lost in unavailability and other customers let down. With no replacement vehicle, I don’t know of any garage that would supply a ‘courtesy box’.

That said she did say she had enough enquiries/bookings to warrant another box. But I didn’t have the revenue for that without borrowing money.
 
Thankyou for your replies.
The plan is to keep it on the drive at home. I have got some quotes back and I’d need to hire it 1 and a half times to break even which I believe is doable. The only thing I’m struggling to find out is taking payments. I get you can get machines to take the payment but what about holding deposits...do the smaller hire companies not take these use PayPal only or have I completely missed something while doing my research
 
Have you considered hiring out a one horse down plated trailer where MOST B licence holders can legally tow it ?

At least if its sitting doing nothing it will not cost much

As far as I know nobody seems to cater for towing a trailer on a B licence which can also be towed by those with B+E
 
Annieryan said:
Thankyou for your replies.
The plan is to keep it on the drive at home. I have got some quotes back and I’d need to hire it 1 and a half times to break even which I believe is doable. The only thing I’m struggling to find out is taking payments. I get you can get machines to take the payment but what about holding deposits...do the smaller hire companies not take these use PayPal only or have I completely missed something while doing my research
Click to expand...

Some I know take a holding/damage deposit as cash on collection, refunded when returned so long as no damage seen
 
ROG said:
Have you considered hiring out a one horse down plated trailer where MOST B licence holders can legally tow it ?

At least if its sitting doing nothing it will not cost much

As far as I know nobody seems to cater for towing a trailer on a B licence which can also be towed by those with B+E
Click to expand...

Yes but then the hirer would need to have a tow bar which a lot of people don’t have on their cars
 
Yes it would be. But at least some would be covered as most small damage would be able to be fixed cheaper than going through insurance
 
By holding deposit did you mean deposit to hold the booking, or deposit when you take the truck?

The latter I would expect to be taken and returned on safe return, but I thought you meant the former!?
 
Also I think it would be wise to have a good repairer set up ready who can do things quite quickly. A friends box was of the road for quite a long time after it was damaged on hire - which could be quite a loss of earnings if it happened mid summer.
 
I have a friend who hires out 3.5 boxes as a business and I know from him it's a lot of hassle. The insurance for the horsebox is very high, you get people who hire it for a day and travel 500+ miles so mileage gets racked up pretty quickly. As a result new tyres, brakes, other things that wear out are regular expenses. Then people return it uncleaned or damaged, and if they had an accident in it even if the insurance covers the damage it means the horsebox is off the road (so not available for hire) for some time. And at the end of it you have a horsebox with very high mileage so it's value has depreciated considerably and it can be difficult to sell on as compared to an average private owner horsebox it has way more mileage on it.
 
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