caravan - mobile servicing and delivery

Oct 2, 2010
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I am considering starting up a business which will deliver caravans for owners who have either bought them on ebay etc. OR who wish to have them taken to a particular site but do not have the time or towcar to do so , as well as offering mobile caravan service.
I am interested to find out if there is a demand for this type of business
 
Apr 20, 2009
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Think that could be a tricky one, would you really want to tow something that is being sold on an auction site, the new owner of the van may/will be a novice, they wont know if the van is road worthy, and no will you unless of course you charge them for a service before you hitch up, Are you a qualified service engineer ? Do you have the right/ neccasary insurance ?
Sorry to be negative but just my thoughts
Kev
 
May 21, 2008
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Mobile service engineer is a good prospect but you will need to invest in NIC EIC training and electrical regs and GAS SAFE registration. Basically you need to be competent at electrical, gas and basic engineering fitting skills.
I may well be teaching you to suck eggs, but having looked at this myself, the training and registration fee's would take considerable time to re-coop. Probably hence why your trying to get extra income via towing. But to do that you must have the correct insurance for the tow car and public liability for the trailer. To be honest some of the trailers on the famous auction site are realy death traps on perished tyres.

Oh BTW if you think Job center plus will help with training fees, your gona be in for the usual suprises. I've been through that and all our training groups in Herefordshire and unless you've got deep pockets and a stash under the floor boards, your out of luck.

So as per usual you're on your own as far as start up financial and education funding help. The banks might listen, but I expect their offerings will be cost prohibative too.

Sorry to sound so negative but after that if you get there then you have done it your self.

Good luck with your plans.
 
Jun 20, 2005
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In the words of the song "There'll be trouble ahead"!
1. If you intend towing someone else's caravan for a fee you will probably need to have an insurance policy to cover all damage caused to the caravan whilst towing. That policy will be very expensive.
2. It will be your sole responsibility to ensure the caravan is safe for road use.
3. Your own motor insurers will probably load the premium on your own vehicle.
4. Others have tried the delivery type business so you could ask them, see the small ads.
5. Caravan servicing is a multi discipline , gas , 240 / 12 volt electrics, chassis , habitation , carpentry etc all requiring qualified / certificated levels of skill.
6. Add to this the costs of regular educational updates, and own vehicle and specialist tools.............
If you are still convinced this is an option for you why not seek advice from The Mobile Caravan Engineers Association
www.mcea.co.uk

Best of luck and sorry if all this sounds negative.
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Parksy

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Nov 12, 2009
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Hi Kev
I'm sorry to add to the negativity but if you google 'caravan towing services' you will see that this looks like a crowded competitive market.
If somebody bought their caravan from an online auction site the chances are that they wouldn't have bundles of cash to chuck around on having it towed by sombody else. There are some good caravans on auction sites (as well as some real sheds) but you are looking at the bargain basement end of the market in reality.
You might be better off contacting local caravan dealers to see if they could offer any solutions because you'd probably make more money selling caravans rather than towing potential wrecks up and down the motorways if you really wanted to work in the caravan industry.
 
Oct 2, 2010
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many thanks for all your contributions, they have provided the necessary reality check.
I have been in touch with the mcea with regard to the training requirements for caravan servicing , my only problem being that the courses run at times I am not able to attend ( i'm currently employed in education so only have school holidays available) so I am having to look at possible ways round this ?
I was aware of issues with regard to insurance etc. but it is always good to be reminded of these things.
once again many thanks - does anybody have anything else to add ?
 

Damian

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Mar 14, 2005
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If you are seriously considering Mobile Servicing as a serious job change, then expect to have to spend out at least £10,000 to set up the business, with training, tools, courses, vehicle, spares etc, plus considerable ongoing costings to get fully qualified.
The MCEA course is a VERY BASIC starter course, and is just the very fine tip of the amount of work you will have to do to become fully competent BEFORE you can touch a caravan.
Even then, you will only be able to work on vans which are out of warranty as to maintain warranty you MUST be a NCC Approved Workshop,which is not easy to get and costs a LOT of money to do it.

With regard to having to be NICEIC and Gas Safe,that is not accurate, but you will get all the correct information from the MCEA.

With regard the collection and delivery of other peoples vans,,,,,,,,forget it,,,,it is a minefield of problems which, believe me, you do not want to get involved with.
 
Oct 2, 2010
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many thanks for all of that, it is really most useful and certainly food for thought .
I am interested to know if your final comments re.collection and delivery are borne out of personal experience - please feel free to tell me to mind my own business if you do not want to go into any detail.
once again
MANY THANKS
 

Damian

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Mar 14, 2005
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Yes they are from personal experience,and that of colleagues that I have dealings with, and it really is not worth getting involved with that side of things.
Typical example is you collect a van and despite you not having any problems towing it, the owner then finds all kinds of dents, scrapes bits not working etc etc etc and blames you.
Unless you photograph every part of the van prior to touching it,and check out if everything works, you have no way of denying it was you.
Typical,you go to collect a van and find that it is unroadworthy and you will not tow it,,,,you foot the bill for the diesel and time you wasted as the owner refuses to pay you.

Typical,you collect a van in good faith , only to find it has been stolen when pulled over on the way back.

You have no way of knowing if the "Owner" you are dealing with is genuine or not, whether the van is actually theirs or not, and whether the van is roadworthy or not.
 
May 21, 2008
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Call it being balidgerant, but that is what contracts are for.
smiley-laughing.gif

I have a website for my business with several tick boxes and comments boxes for customers to authorise work on a poultry shed on a farm. Could you just imagine us being sent to the wrong farm and demolish a building or cut 5ft fan holes in the roof. Trust me, in the good old days of verbal instruction it has been done.
You would need a simlar contract facility either electronically or paper driven. Generally unless it is a roadside breakdown where the original tower would be present, you would have a couple of days to post 1st class mail. I'd even chuck in a prepaid self addressed envelope. A couple of quid dotting the i's and crossing the T's would save embaracement of being asked to tow a hot van. Plus I'd have my camera at hand to start the photo album of damage limitation.
Almost safer to paint white lines on the M25.
The mobile caravan engineer by us is fully approved and able to do warantee work. By virtue of his business being mobile, he doesn't want to get lumbered with a factory unit for a workshop, he leaves that to the Bailey swift dealership he left the employment of. The replacement of panels is farmed out to them. 90% of his work is annual servicing and static van repairs. So as long as you cut your cloth to suit you could be in for a nice little earner.
It's better to go into the lions den with your eyes wide open
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Jan 26, 2009
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Also, to pile on the agony, if you are going to be doing training in an unrelated field to your current employment you will not be able to claim the costs of training as an expense of the business. HMRC only allow further, continuing professional development against tax not training or development for a change of career. Sad but true.
 

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