[Pristine Clean]

Hi Guys,

I would like some advice on trying to be competitive on contracts that are further a field.

Most of our contracts are very local to us which is how we planned it. It has worked out extremely well. We can alaways cover the sites in question if anyone is ill or on holiday.

I am not talking about miles and miles away. Mosst of our contracts are within 7 miles.

We are looking to expand our teams. Obviously by doing this we will have more feul costs. Because of the increased use in feul we need to include this in the price.

Am I right in thinking that 20p - 25p per mile our vans are diesel.


Now if we quoted for a contract that was say 30 miles travel there and back at 20p we would add £6.00 per day to the quotation.

At 6 days per week thats an extra £36.00 per week. Thats £1872 per year.

So thats feul alone - so how does one become competitive. Local companies that are closer to the job would not have that overhead to take into account.

Also some contract are only for say 1 or 2 hours per day. Some are less like 2 -  4 hours per week.
Its different for one off jobs as you can easily earn from them.

Yes I am aware that obviously at a later date we would try to get someone close in the area. So it would be reduced I guess.

Any advice would be greatfully recieved here. Just trying to be competitve. As I dont feel an extra £1000 or so would make us favourable.

Dave

 

[cleaning-team]

We stick quite religiously in our local area for that very reason - we just won an office contract about 10 miles from our usual cleans and took on a local staff member to do it as it was not feasible for anyone to travel 20 miles per day for 2 hours work regardless of who paid for the travelling costs.

Dont forget when looking at your costs that it is more than just diesel costs you need to consider - there is purchase price, servicing, maintenance, tyres, insurance, tax, MOT (if needed) and so on. I think you will find that 20p per mile is very conservative once you factor in all the other things.

[Pristine Clean]

Hi Cleaning team,

Yes thats my exact same reason we stayed close to base. However we were contacted by a large company yesterday about a cleaning contract.

We went to visit one of their sites today. Is was around the 20 mile mark.

It went well.

And we made it clear very clear that our price was probably expensive to take into account feul, wear and tear on vehicles, tyres and many other factors like travel time etc. Costing was from our base.

They even let us choose the times that would suit us best and luckily we have a contract that we do 3 days a week near by about 10 miles to their site from the site we are cleaning at already.

After explaining everything and giving them the break down in the costings etc we left on our way back to the office. shortly after we received a telephone call saying the contract is signed and in the post and they sent a confirmation email through. 

They said we were highly recomended even though we were alot more expensive they beleive it to be worth it.

They own the building and let some offices out as well. They also at a later date want us to clean the other offices that are let out providing the trial period goes well. So a definate worth while project at present.

Dave

[Adam P]

wow making me very jealous 

goes to show that working hard having high standards does pay off, good luck with the contract though sounds like you don't need it.