[Paul Evans]

Whilst mostly doing domestics,
I look from a custies point of view, on my own standard lounge 1 hour from pulling up to drive away. at my price (irrelevant). Whilst I have been out with a truckie on many occasions (he does a good job no different to me ) But your domestic customer see he is only 20 mins.
This is where they look at value for money,

Shame they don't realise his greater outlay.
Its all a perception of value for money.
If joe blogs is on £10-£15 a hour, see you take 3 x that in 20 mins.  they think surely
is that value for time spent.

This is all from a custie view. What are tour thoughts (domestic not big commercial )

[davep]

Simon G will be along in a minute 

[Paul Evans]

Simon G will be along in a minute 

Dave

Think Simon does the massive ships that need the titan power,
if he does domestics along the way all well and good. I have a feeling is cream maybe on the ships.

[Mike Halliday]

To start....... the concept of what is value for money is a personel thing, we cannot say what another person considers to be value for money we can only project our own values onto them.


But....

To me that is the only downside to using a truckmount, (even more so as a 2 man team) we can do work remarkably quickly, so customers could think they are not getting value for money.

We try and combat this by making thier whole cleaning experiance a major event when we leave they know something big has happened.

[Paul Evans]

Mike

That is all I was saying there is a downside, Perceived value for money.
the truckie is in and out on a lot of jobs.
The portie has time to engage with there custies,

just my opinion

If I had loads of big commercials sure this would change.

[David Ware]

You could argue the perceived side from customer is that bigger machine is doing a better job. Other factors is customer can get on with there normal daily routine quicker.
David
ps just perceived 

[stuart_clark]

Paul
I have big commercials mate ! 56 stores this month alone but would I buy a truck mount ? No of course
 Not ! What would be tne point ? No truc k mounter could cleane as quick as me doing what I do and cleaning the carpets that ive always done on a regular bassis,  
what Truck mounters will never tell you how much they spend on petrol and serviceing, ask jamie pearson what the running costs of his machinery is ? Next to nothing ! The odd belt off a cimex and thats it

[Simon Gerrard]

I can say with some degree of certainly that value for money has absolutely nothing to do with time and has everything to do with quality. A lot of customers perceive additional value having a very impressive TM on their drive and when they get a fabulous job done they don't give a monkeys how long it took.
I don't know of any average lounges that you can do in 20 mins which is what I think Paul was suggesting his truckie mate can do.
Paul is right not to want a TM as he may not have the volume to justify one, which is fair dinkum.

Simon

[Simon Gerrard]

Stuart,
Running cost of a TM 4%
Servicing costs, oil, air & oil filter, spark plugs.
What's expensive about that?
Oh and an hourly earn rate? Well it's got three figures to it.

I've got a Cimex too and know exactly what you mean about LM costs, but we are talking about two completely different systems, each of which has advantages over the other.

Simon

[stuart_clark]

Simon my hourly rate today mate was  £155.56 and no costs apart from some cleaning solution ! I think it was £ 10.21 inc vat and lets say you earn £1500 per week thats £60 on petrol alone ! Over 3 thousand quid a year mate , but I doubt the petrol costs are only 4% as i  know a very large  cleaning company in newcastle with 6 truckmounts and there petrol costs are much higher than what you are quotating
P S   simon you obviously dont use your Cimex machine very oftern ! As you wouldn't bother  with a truckmount  as you would know you could clean a lot more poroductive and much more cost evective with a cimex, even on cruise liners  its not all about cfm and water mate ! Lol

[peter maybury]

Whenever this topic arises what the portable users fail to understand I that most truckmounters have progressed from using portables in the first place. In most cases it is professional pride in wanting the best tool for the job. If you are going into customers with a portable then customers will not say certain thing that they would say to a truckmounter, so you can only see the one side of the coin.
We hear the comments such as the last guy only had one of those electric things. So your opinions are also going to be one sided.
Truckmounters will normally have portables and encap as well.
If I jut used low moisture systems there are  a lot of jobs that I would not be able to take on because the system I just not effective enough in the first place and as a genuine person I am unable to effectively sell an ineffective system.
As Jamie will tell you himself there are areas on jobs that he will extract because of the soil conditions.
Having a selection of equipment allows you to service a much broader customer base with the confidence and the knowledge that you can provide the right system for each individual circumstance.
I am not as selective in my marketing as somebody who just has one system so can just advertise without having to target specific customers.
Anybody with any knowledge of the industry and training will understand that there is not one tool that is right for every situation and it is swings and roundabouts. Many of the jobs that I encap will have greater chemical costs than the fuel that I would burn using a truckmount , I am happy to have the choice in the first place. A truckmounters nightmare is having to use a portable as you are constantly questioning whether the bloody thing is working properly as the power is so so inferior to what we are used to using.
It took me about 10 year to understand the benefits of a truckmount and my biggest regret is the failure to make that understanding earlier, as I was biased myself.
A truckmount certainly changed my business and also a lot of my customers perceptions.
Those that see things as an us an but d them situation are wrong, we have just progressed, but are just thankful that we do not need to use the portable as often, it is jut a reminder of how life is so much easier truckmounted.

Peter

[clive ware]

Ive been truckmounting for 20 years and have  an lm system and high powered porty as well. I dont know any truckmounter who would choose a high powered porty over a tm unles he absolutely had to which is the case for me.
I did a flat 5 floors up last week and had already planned to take my porty up the lift but when I realised I could park pretty much underneath the flat I packed my porty away and chose to use my tm. Porty is used at a very last resort.
There are also certain situations where I would use lm over tm but these are also few and far between. I do quite a lot of nursing homes and a hospital. I`d rather use lm on these carpets and with the hopital. do so on the ground and first floor which are never that bad as they have them cleaned every 4 months but the top floor which gets pretty marked can only be cleaned with the tm as lm just will not work on it. I`ve tried everything on it - encap, dry fusion, texatherm etc. 

[gwrightson]

I first started cleaning carpets porty was my machine ,not because of choice but because of affordability in setting up , I spent a little time with M.H. in the early days learning the ropes , of course Mike been a tm owner I was in awe at the system and cleaning time on the job, how ever been a porty owner I was one of the owners always defending the porty v tm debate  on here and other forums, why ? when I knew the capabilities and speed of a tm, I was in hindsight defending my working methods using a porty when infact I knew dam well a porty did not come near to a tm in performance and earning potential,,,,,,,,,,, simples.

When the opportunity arose to buy a tm at the right money and after a little advice from my mentor I took the plunge , how my thoughts changed , I see all the same arguments by porty owners now, I understand their defensive mode, some will see the light one day m some will carry on with all the old reasons not to, and some will sit back hoping for the day they get one, I can hear the bullets now , but be honest ,stop looking for ridiculous reasons as to why you should not have a tm.

Running costs are minimal, I use red diesel both for running machine and burner,  yes I do have the odd problem like a coupling breaking perhaps m but nothing that hasn't been solved normally within 3 to 4 hours down time. and yes I have had to spend getting on for 1k recently on a new cylinder head and servicing other things whilst the tm was out of van, I can live with that, knowing it should last me for quite a while longer now.

PRICE   for time spent at a customers, well I used to be embarrassed by the time it took to clean a room , I felt a little guilty about the rate it so much easier and faster, not any more ,I justify my charge and time spent in home by informing the customer when surveying, explain why so quick, and why so much better, (ouch, remember I am selling, not discussing with a porty cc )  and vast majority are more than happy with the benefit of faster drying times, and amount of time in the home getting the job done.
My been there, done it, tried it opinions.
geoff
 
When I first purchased a tm a number of years ago now,

[clive ware]

Got to use my porty on first job this morning 5 floors up!!

[Simon Gerrard]

Simon my hourly rate today mate was  £155.56 and no costs apart from some cleaning solution ! I think it was £ 10.21 inc vat and lets say you earn £1500 per week thats £60 on petrol alone ! Over 3 thousand quid a year mate , but I doubt the petrol costs are only 4% as i  know a very large  cleaning company in newcastle with 6 truckmounts and there petrol costs are much higher than what you are quotating
P S   simon you obviously dont use your Cimex machine very oftern ! As you wouldn't bother  with a truckmount  as you would know you could clean a lot more poroductive and much more cost evective with a cimex, even on cruise liners  its not all about cfm and water mate ! Lol

I've got two TM's, Titan 875 and a Max 450D. The Titan runs on lpg is costs us 4%. The Max runs on red diesel which costs even less.
We do a very wide cross section of carpets from domestics to  filthy pubs and restaurants (a Cimex would be a joke in these situations), right up to cruise ships which specify the TM system because here are other elements to consider within the spec. The objective for a professional carpet cleaner is to be in a position to clean ANY carpet in ANY location, regardless of age or condition. In order to be able to do that you need more than one cleaning option, which is why most carpet cleaners have a range of systems at their disposal and not just one, just a mechanic has more than one spanner.
Case in point in the picture. A carpet in a pub that hasn't been cleaned - ever and is filthy. Would you choose LM for this, or RX20 and a TM. If you've only got LM then you don't have a choice and the choice is never made on cost. So you burner a few litres of fuel, so what! As long as the job is done right, who cares.

Simon

[Len Gribble]

Clive

Hope the lift works; do you get the water from the bin store? All that up and down just for water and duping! Use a TM it more efficient in the long run

[gwrightson]

Got to use my porty on first job this morning 5 floors up!!

Never mind ,  by time you have dragged that up the stairs, tm would have had it done . 

geoff

[Simon Gerrard]

Clive,
You need the exercise, so even if the lift is working you should hump it up there

[stuart_clark]

How many carpet cleaning companys are they in the uk ? I dont know the figures but I bet less than 10 % are truck mounters !  And you never get an honest answer from debates like this as no truckmounter wants to acept that his high powered portable could do just as a good good job as his high power truck mount, I know a lot of carpet cleaners including myself who has previously owned a truck mount who is more than happy to use a high powered porty  and certainly run a very profitable business  and never dream of using a tm,  I went to a job in north yorkshire last friday, a new customer to me but had used a local carpet cleaner with a truckmount previously, I wont mention names as I think the guy comes on here, but the customer was not impressed with his machine, all she kept going on about was how incredibly noisey the thing was  and how he had just done an ok job but nothing spectaculer,
also he had managed to shrink her £2000 persian rug, funilly enough she had'nt noticed the damage as it was rucked in the middle

[stuart_clark]

I think I would only ever consider another truck mount is when I am old and decrpepid like you Simon
as I will have dificulty lifting out my high powered porty from my van !

Only joking Simon ! Lol