Is this a bad idea, mobile weighbridge service?

ElleSkywalkingintheair

ElleSkywalkingintheair

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I have 5 fatty ponies who are constantly on diets and although I have had few companies come out and weight them obviously it's not in their intrests to repeatedly come out and weight the same 5 ponies for no extra feed sales so have been considering getting my own mobile weighbridge to use.

Obviously most of the time weighbridge would be locked away gathering dust so wondered if offering a service to weigh people's ponies at their yards would be a good way to make some extra cash and help cover the costs of having it.

I don't know what sort if any insurance I would need? Also I've always walked my own horses onto weighbridges so would expect the owner/yard manager to do this bit would I need some sort of personal accident insurance too?

I would not be offering any feed advice (although I am qualified to do so as it's a minefield) literally just the weighing of horses.

I am director of a limited company so obviously all earnings would go through this and be decleared to tax man etc.

Anything glaring I am missing?!
 
I would definitely have you come and do mine. I wish it was a service which was available.
 
angrybird1 said:
Feed companies do it for free and they will come out repeatedly in my experience. So I wouldn't personally pay for this.
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A feed company would have to pay me to come into my yard. I will happily pay for this service of its available in Cheshire/Staffs/Derbyshire borders.

ES, I think if you were to market it as for health and for worker measurements you could easily cover some of your costs if you are in a horse dense area. Can you offer advice as to what a healthy weight would be, I think that would be good.?

I guess it's the weighbridge cost that puts people off.
 
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angrybird1 said:
Feed companies do it for free and they will come out repeatedly in my experience. So I wouldn't personally pay for this.
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We’ve found they will often only come to yards with over ten horses and generally for free only once a year (I think spillers do two 6 month visits to start?)

We thought it might be a useful thing for people who want to monitor weight on a more regular basis- perhaps every 8-12 weeks, particularly during the summer months.
 
We weigh the horses at work every Monday and it is very useful to know what their ideal racing weight is so we can change the feed/work appropriately. Personally I can hop along to work and weigh any of mine if I wanted to but I never have.

I can see the appeal and you could make it pay for itself and then some if there are alot of yards/horses in your area. You would need to do a minimum number of horses per yard to make it worthwhile though.
 
Like any weight device - if you don't have the weighbridge calibrated it will become less and less accurate. You can't just stick it to one side month after month and expect it to give an accurate reading. The rubber pads compress and decay over time. Perhaps it is fine for a basic general indication which might or might not be vaguely in the right direction depending on the ambient temperature and how you have stored it. But a weigh tape will give you that.

If you can afford the initial device as well as the maintenance / checking to keep it accurate then great. That is a really positive service. You would need professional indemnity insurance because you would be offering a paying client a formal assessment of weight. If that was wrong for some reason you would need indemnity insurance. I doubt you would need 3P insurance - but it would probably be a bit of belt and braces.

But - be sure you do understand the cost not only of the equipment in the first place but also the maintenance and re-calibration. A large professional yard might be able to justify that, but personally I am happy with the feed company I prefer coming every 6 months and a weigh tape in the middle.

And no we don't have10+ horses... They will come out for one.
 
Thanks all. Food for thought especially Shay I hadn't though of indemnity insurance or calibration, excuse my ignorance but is it more complicated that just getting a set of calibration weights and routinely replacing the rubber pads and storing in advised place/position?
 
Allen & page come out for free with a weigh bridge and will come out for just a small number of horses (often come out just for my five) they also come out twice a year to me for free.

Therefor it’s not something I would pay for when I can get it done for free.
 
Dancing_Diva said:
Allen & page come out for free with a weigh bridge and will come out for just a small number of horses (often come out just for my five) they also come out twice a year to me for free.

Therefor it’s not something I would pay for when I can get it done for free.
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Yes that's been my experience.
They will come out to 3 and also don't overly push their feeds.
 
I think it's quite a good idea. Whilst many have answered that they wouldn't pay for the service when feed companies will do it for free, I think there are some people out there who would rather not get a feed company involved. I appreciate those companies can offer additional advice and aren't necessarily pushy with their feeds, but if they came to me then I would certainly feel somewhat obliged to purchase from them at the time or in the future.

Would also be useful for those looking to monitor their horses' weights on a more regular basis too, although I suppose that would depend on how much you charge.
 
ElleSkywalker said:
Thanks all. Food for thought especially Shay I hadn't though of indemnity insurance or calibration, excuse my ignorance but is it more complicated that just getting a set of calibration weights and routinely replacing the rubber pads and storing in advised place/position?
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I don't know the details for specific makes but the manufacturer you buy from would. If you are selling the service the weights and measures act may well apply so you would have to have it professionally checked. If you aren't making money from it then just being able to tare off to a known weight would probably suffice.
 
I think that it's a good idea. However, I'd only be interested in it if the weighbridge was properly maintained and calibrated so that I could rely on the result being accurate.

I can get my horses weighed for free at my vets, so anytime one gets taken up there for any reason they get popped on the weighbridge. Do your local vets offer this, if so it might reduce local interest in a mobile service?
 
I personally would feel rather cheeky asking a feed company who I do not use product wise, to come out even twice a year to weigh my horses just because it is free. I'd rather pay for a non-bias person to come out and do it.

I do think you need to look at insurance, and also making sure you have it correctly maintained (perhaps provide a yearly 'MOT' cert for the weigh bridge that you can show if asked?)
 
Depending on cost, I would be interested. We have a weight bridge coming to our yard soon but the hassle of organising everyone would make a small charge for convenience acceptable.
 
My vet brings the weight bridge to me three times a year or so or I pop in the vets when I am passing or they are in for something .
I would not pay for this service as I get it for nothing .
 
I would be interested in a service like this. I livery with friends and I don't buy my feed from the companies which do the weighbridge visits anyway.

If cost was not prohibitive I would certainly be interested in at least an annual visit.
 
I have no need for this, but it's a very interesting idea.

Take a look at Gallagher load bars; from a quick read, it looks as if you could build your own mobile weighing system from a couple of load bars, a platform, a display device and a cable, and a few steel plates to anchor the load bars while weighing.

Those Gallagher load bars are described as not having any "rubber mounts to delaminate".

You will probably need to specify the accuracy of your measurement. Compared to using a tape to estimate weight, how much more accurate would you want this to be, to justify the extra cost?

The legal aspect is interesting, too.

As you're not selling something that you are weighing on your device, I don't think that the weights and measures act is applicable. But you'll need to research whether your device needs some kind of certification by a metrologist, to be able to justify your accuracy claims.


Calibration should not be too difficult, you could even carry around a 25kg and a 50kg weight with your mobile platform and calibrate in-situ.
 
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