James:
As a caravan park owner myself: see
www.secretgardencaravans.co.uk I offer the following advice:
Approach the caravan park manager first: if you offer to clean his stock caravans / rental fleet / office for free, he might well promote your services enthusiastically.
Don't forget, caravan parks are private property, and you may well need permission from the owner / manager before you go on to the park, and almost certainly before you distribute leaflets (we completely ban any leafleting or canvassing and only allow tradesmen who we have approved on to the park).
You may be asked to pay a commission to the Park (after all, Calor Gas, the Insurance companies and the caravan dealers all pay us a commission), but you may well be able to pay "in kind" (if you make me your approved cleaner I will do the carpets in your office / club / display caravans free) instead.
Caravan Parks are a well organised industry, we all chat regularly at trade association meetings, exhibitions, etc. Get it wrong on one park (like drive your truck-mount over the grass and leave wheel ruts) and you may well find yourself banned from every park in the area.
Don't say "they can't do that to me, it's a free country, I promise you we certainly can: We banned one business for driving on the grass (might sound petty, but it took 3 days work to repair the damage, he then took us to court for "loss of business", we counterclaimed for property damage, we won.)
Get it right, however, and you will find that your name will get passed from Park to Park and much work may come. There are many businesses who specialise in services to caravan parks, many of these become associate members of the trade association BHHPA (look at
www.bhhpa.org.uk and
www.ukparks.com )
With only 43 caravans we are quite a small park, however, we always pressure wash all caravans twice a year (unless the caravan owner does it themself with a sponge and bucket) and that brings us £4000 a year (with a petrol pressure washer fitted to a trailer we pull behind a golf buggy (turf tyres don't damage the grass!)
I know many site owners with upwards of 300 caravans on their parks. Now if they recommend you to their customers, that's quite a few weeks work!
Your truckmount wouldn't go well on my park, like many others we have height and width restrictions (to prevent theft of touring caravans, to keep "travellers" out and to keep the car park for cars) and you would need very long hoses (up to 200 ft) to reach caravans from the car park.
Don't forget, many caravan parks have a limited electricity supply, so a large machine may well blow fuses. You might well only have 6 amps to play with.
If I were aiming to specialise in caravan cleaning (and indeed I am thinking about it) my dream kit would be a Prochem "steempro" in the back of a small van like a Berlingo. Add to this a 3kw petrol generator for power when needed. If I can park right by the caravan, I could leave the "steempro" in the van, otherwise I could trundle it to the caravan. Add extension leads and a sack truck for the generator, and we are there.
Funny enough, I've got a second hand"steempro" and a new generator in the caravan park stores; and I've just given my site warden a new Berlingo to replace his old (but still immaculate) Escort Van. So maybe I now have to go and get some contracts and employ someone to do the hard work!
PS: never say "caravan site", always "caravan park"..... it's like calling a CC a "splash-n-dash"!
