Hi All
Like so many of you I am planning to grow my business. We currently offer landscaping and maintenance, VAT registered and I employee two guys.
I have got a swb Vauxhall vivaro van, ifor Williams P6 trailer with cage sides and recently swapped my car for a double cab navara pickup. I purchased the pickup to allow me to carry odd bits around, finish jobs on my own while the guys go else where and tow the trailer whilst still having something nice enough for evenings and weekends.
Currently we are managing with the vehicles but due to the variety of work we have but often find we have too much waste for the van and trailer (either in volume or weight) or would benefit from being able to collect a ton or sand/soil or a 9ft concrete fence post to get a job finished without delay.
So moving forwards I think I have a number of options
1. Add a bigger trailer to the fleet. 8x4 either cage side or cage side tipper? In the region of £1500 used up to £4000 new.
Pros. Retains value. No additional costs.
Cons. Often limited space at customer properties.
2. Add a tipper van to the fleet. Single cab to maximise weight we can carry or double cab and convert the back seats to a tool locker for security. Again with or without cage sides. £10,000 ish for a five year old.
Pros. better for tight access
Cons. Will depreciate, insurance and general running costs are high.
I am sure other members have spent many hours weighing up the options so interested to hear the results.........
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Replies
If you replace the vivaro with a tipper other than outlay I cant see the running costs being particularly higher. Sure worse on fuel higher tax higher insurance but it's not too much and the added efficency of a tipper will quickly outweigh that. You'll also get the tipper into 99% of places you got the vivaro (I find mostly as someone with a LWB High roof van I am more limited by height than length for access to jobs). Can your staff that drive that van pull a trailer of 750kg? An 8x4 is not that large a step up from a p6 as it is so you're not going to be getting that much more waste into it than you already were.
Personally I'd go for a Double cab cage sided tipper.
Security with trailers can be a headache, you need a good place to store it and lock it up. So that's worth a thought. If you are going for a trailer go for a 10 by 5. You could try a trailer and if it doesn't work for you sell it after a few months you won't loose anything!
We take away a lot of scarify waste for almost 5 months of the year and use a L4H2 citreon relay (4m load length). Takes a huge volume, and good with handling the odd bulk bag of material. Rest of the time have the added security of a panel van for machinery etc. Not a fan of trailers for domestic customers as access / parking would often be an issue.
Not been the most reliable van / poor garage back-up however. It's on lease, and will go for the equivalent peugeot boxer or L4 transit when replaced