Fleet Pricing: Help/Suggestions

R

reflex7346

New member
I just gained a new client who will have me wash the exterior of his 26ft delivery trucks once per week.



He had mentioned that he may want to have each truck waxed once per year. Do you think I should charge per foot ? Do any of you do vehicles such as this if so what is your pricing matrix



Thanks



Robb
 
If all the trucks are in the same condition then try to do a demo and time yourself. Or give him a discount on one and then you will have a time frame. Make sure that you use the best sealant possible as it will make your wash jobs easier. If he has six or more trucks i would build a price for him - pay for 5 full price and get the 6th free, or something like that. Personally i would not try to rip him off, but i would make sure that i would have a little extra built in for the unexpected.
 
Yes , I think you would probably want to charge per foot. That is how most pricing is for boats and RVs.



Just estimate your total time and multiply that time by your usual hourly rate. For example, if you usually detail an average size car for $160 and it takes you about four hours then your hourly rate would be about $40 per hour.

Let's say that 26 ft truck is going to take you six hours, so based on your established hourly rate( $40), you would need to charge $240 per truck(4 x 6 = $240) . In this example I would round off detailing a 26 ft truck to $10 per ft. So for this example the price would be $260.



Personally, I would not get involved with offering discounts on this type of commercial work. After all, the truck makes the owner money and if that person wants a clean truck then in most cases they will be willing to pay the price. You would be smart not to offer any discounts.
 
These jobs suck but will keep food on your plate. Since the guy isn't sure what he wants just charge him by the hour at least to start, and tell him nobody pays to wax trucks since 1960, we have sealants now. Talk him into sealing twice a year it will be easier on you. DO IT IN APRIL, TRUCKS ARE A BEAR TO CLEAN IN SUMMER AND IF YOU ARE A DETAILER BY TRADE THIS IS WHEN YOU GET OTHER WORK TOO. If you charge by the hour you can get him to buy the equipment if he doesn't already have it. Also have him purchase the sealant in 5 gallon jugs. Tell him this will keep the price down. This way if you don't like it, you wont be out the scratch, fleet brushes wont do you any good on passenger vehicles. Try to convince him to keep the washing materials on site! Say they're to bulky to carry around or whatever works. I did a company of ice cream trucks, it's a little silly to charge by the foot for washing, no offense. It isn't that much extra work from small truck to big truck believe it or not. You just have a long soft self sudsing brush and bust it out quick. Nobody is going to pay you a lot of money to wash his damn fleet. If your ridiculous in your charging, he will just go hire a laborer and put him on the payroll. Nobody pays 40 an hour, 250 a truck, to wash a truck once a week, lol. Trust me, I was a truck driver before I was a detailer. Main thing is to negotiate with the guy and justify yourself. The guy isn't looking for perfection hes looking for price, trucks get dirty very quickly. No reason for him to pay out money to wash a truck that is dirty the next day. Should only take about half an hour to an hour per truck. Wash, rinse, squegee, NEXT. I tell you the truth, I would never do this again. No money in it and it's a pain. If your detailing business isn't big enough to support you think about a second job. Try it out but don't be afraid to walk away after you find out how much work for piddly pay your getting. Remember, you are your best asset, think about self preservation. One thing, you will get employees interested in your work if you network, it could led to them bringing you their personal cars, just make it known fleet details are nothing like personal car details. Good luck buddy, sorry if I'm a little negative but been there done that. Washing the vehicle is the worst part of detailing, and that's what fleet management is, a glorified wash boy.
 
Burlyq said:
These jobs suck but will keep food on your plate. Since the guy isn't sure what he wants just charge him by the hour at least to start, and tell him nobody pays to wax trucks since 1960, we have sealants now. Talk him into sealing twice a year it will be easier on you. DO IT IN APRIL, TRUCKS ARE A BEAR TO CLEAN IN SUMMER AND IF YOU ARE A DETAILER BY TRADE THIS IS WHEN YOU GET OTHER WORK TOO. If you charge by the hour you can get him to buy the equipment if he doesn't already have it. Also have him purchase the sealant in 5 gallon jugs. Tell him this will keep the price down. This way if you don't like it, you wont be out the scratch, fleet brushes wont do you any good on passenger vehicles. Try to convince him to keep the washing materials on site! Say they're to bulky to carry around or whatever works. I did a company of ice cream trucks, it's a little silly to charge by the foot for washing, no offense. It isn't that much extra work from small truck to big truck believe it or not. You just have a long soft self sudsing brush and bust it out quick. Nobody is going to pay you a lot of money to wash his damn fleet. If your ridiculous in your charging, he will just go hire a laborer and put him on the payroll. Nobody pays 40 an hour, 250 a truck, to wash a truck once a week, lol. Trust me, I was a truck driver before I was a detailer. Main thing is to negotiate with the guy and justify yourself. The guy isn't looking for perfection hes looking for price, trucks get dirty very quickly. No reason for him to pay out money to wash a truck that is dirty the next day. Should only take about half an hour to an hour per truck. Wash, rinse, squegee, NEXT. I tell you the truth, I would never do this again. No money in it and it's a pain. If your detailing business isn't big enough to support you think about a second job. Try it out but don't be afraid to walk away after you find out how much work for piddly pay your getting. Remember, you are your best asset, think about self preservation. One thing, you will get employees interested in your work if you network, it could led to them bringing you their personal cars, just make it known fleet details are nothing like personal car details. Good luck buddy, sorry if I'm a little negative but been there done that. Washing the vehicle is the worst part of detailing, and that's what fleet management is, a glorified wash boy.
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I second Burlyq. I've been detailing for a couple years now but officially registered as a business last year. Some jobs aren't worth the money even if you need that money. I would be selective in the jobs and not get desparate. Try to focus on a target market. I specialize on BMW's here in Toronto as 90% of my client base are Bimmer owners, the remaing 10% are imports & domestics. I concentrated on marketing in specific market and built my network from there. If I wash a buddies Bimmer, I tell him, if you can get me another Bimmer I give you a discount on your next package. But I only do this if they come to me with the full detailing packages not wishy washy exterior washes. It works, cause its an incentive as well and both parties benefit. See my sig links. Good luck buddy. Just be patient.
 
Lol, I agree with christyles. I have a general detailing business but it seams the top quality cars end up being 90% of my business. Last two details were bmw and mercedes with another mercedes on the books to start this week. Here's a tip, get fancy car salesmen in your hip pocket, they will make your business thrive. Yes you will have to do their cars for free but it's worth it. Detailing new cars are easy and lucrative, all you have to do is keep them up. Also, the fancier the car the easier it is to milk I mean service your client. These clients even tip me in advance a lot of the time, cool?
 
Burlyq said:
Lol, I agree with christyles. I have a general detailing business but it seams the top quality cars end up being 90% of my business. Last two details were bmw and mercedes with another mercedes on the books to start this week. Here's a tip, get fancy car salesmen in your hip pocket, they will make your business thrive. Yes you will have to do their cars for free but it's worth it. Detailing new cars are easy and lucrative, all you have to do is keep them up. Also, the fancier the car the easier it is to milk I mean service your client. These clients even tip me in advance a lot of the time, cool?
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New cars... easy cash. And once you have your clients marked, they come back cause they trust you with their $50K+ vehicle plus gratuities like what BulryQ said.
 
Robb,



Providing professional detailing services is not about making easy money. It is all about filling the need that someone has for the services that you offer. Whether you offer to just wash this clients' delivery trucks or completely detail them; it is all about meeting the needs of your client.
 
I just don't take commercial business. They want too much for too little and expect you to drop everything else for them. I have tote the note lots calling me every month or so wanting me to detail cars for $60 each. No way am I going to do that. Why turn down full priced business? When I mentioned this to one guy, he said he could give me 5-10 cars a week to do, which, as I explained to him, would cost me $300-600 a week in full priced business. Same thing with fleet work. A company wanted me to wash their 15 passenger vans for $15 each. He figured since he had 5 of them that was a fair price. I told him for vans those size it would be $40 each for a wash. Most of these people just have no idea what the market rate is but they sure aren't going to pay it.



If you decide to take this job, the only way to wash those trucks quickly is with a pressure sprayer and water deionizer so you don't have to towel them dry. Also, check your local laws, if you use more than 2 gallons of water to wash a vehicle, you may have to recycle the water. You will have to price accordingly. Just don't expect them to accept the offer.
 
Scottwax said:
I just don't take commercial business. They want too much for too little and expect you to drop everything else for them. I have tote the note lots calling me every month or so wanting me to detail cars for $60 each. No way am I going to do that. Why turn down full priced business? When I mentioned this to one guy, he said he could give me 5-10 cars a week to do, which, as I explained to him, would cost me $300-600 a week in full priced business. Same thing with fleet work. A company wanted me to wash their 15 passenger vans for $15 each. He figured since he had 5 of them that was a fair price. I told him for vans those size it would be $40 each for a wash. Most of these people just have no idea what the market rate is but they sure aren't going to pay it.



If you decide to take this job, the only way to wash those trucks quickly is with a pressure sprayer and water deionizer so you don't have to towel them dry. Also, check your local laws, if you use more than 2 gallons of water to wash a vehicle, you may have to recycle the water. You will have to price accordingly. Just don't expect them to accept the offer.
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Good points Scottwax. Choose your target market. I think mirrorfinishman

misintrepreted me when I said "easy money". Sure... why bust your balls for chump change... I mean if you like working very hard more than required for extra unpaid hours, and you like trucks, then you know the answer.



I, on the other hand, love working on Bimmers with a passion, and just because most Bimmer owners here in Toronto are either too busy or lazy to do their own clean up, I get the business. Most times, these cars seem like they rolled out off the stealership lot with hardly anything to do. But yet I still give the full service paid for I just enojoy it cause I'm a bimmer owner myself. TARGET MARKET, can't stress enough.



Lots of detail shops here, or so they claim, but they are mostly express clean up shops... so there is a definite lack of true detailing shops in which I have exlplored and currently controlling the E46 market for the most part.



If you need help with an actual pricing structure on how I decided to charge certain businesses/accounts/clients, feel free to email me at chris@premierdetailing.ca :wavey Cheers.



good thread. I like threads like this.
 
I have changed my mind about doing this fleet account. The guy was too demanding/cheap (Only wanted to pay $20.00 per vehicle for full body wash on a 26 foot box truck)
 
robb7346 said:
I have changed my mind about doing this fleet account. The guy was too demanding/cheap (Only wanted to pay $20.00 per vehicle for full body wash on a 26 foot box truck)
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All I can say is good for you for re-evaluating the situation. Patience...
 
robb7346 said:
I have changed my mind about doing this fleet account. The guy was too demanding/cheap (Only wanted to pay $20.00 per vehicle for full body wash on a 26 foot box truck)
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Not only would I have also turned that down, but I might have kicked him in a certain spot for such an insulting offer. ;) :lol
 
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