Business owners.. How far are you based from your area of work?

[Cordata]

Hi all,

 

I currently live in a flat, and rent a garage for all my equipment.

 

It's a pain and I'd like to move out of town so I can have proper space for everything, maybe a small bit of land to have a yard setup.

 

The problem is the commute in to busy high population areas - the further away, the cheaper property & land is, but then I have a long commute and fuel costs getting my truck & things there and back.

 

Does anyone live out of town and commute a fair distance, and can you offer your perspective on how far is too far, and what your costs are being based in the countryside?

[Mick Dempsey]

What town are you in at the moment?

Edited July 2, 2023 by Mick Dempsey

[Excels1or]

Based in Glasgow, I commute 30 minutes my brother is 45 minutes to our yard which is on a farm. We pay £300 PM for space that would easily be 4 times that amount in the town. The great thing about being out in the country is there's no one poking their nose into your business, the farms manned 24 hours so its secure. The farm also has telehandlers that we borrow for loading chip/wood and we buy cherry diesel direct from the farm. We keep all equipment locked in ISO containers.

 

Most jobs are around 20-30 minutes from the yard as we're close to motorways.....the commute can be a ball ache but I'd never go back to renting yard space in a built up area.

[Ty Korrigan]

I've a high Google rating locally.

I live in a rented house and operate out of an attached garage with my other kit kept on a local farm.

75% of our work is within 15kms

20% 15kms-30kms and 5% second home owners mostly over 100kms

I find the further away a client, the more likely it is they have already called several others closer and so are just fishing for the lowest price rather than the reputation and quality of service.

One day I'll move out of town to a place we own some 25kms away but need to domicile the business in town first.

Moving will add 50kms per day for the truck and an hour to the day not to mention quoting travel and time.

Edited July 2, 2023 by Ty Korrigan

[Sviatoslav Tulin]

I would say stay closer to clients, time is precious, better spend time with friends and family than in a truck seat.I spend about 2 hours per day driving in average .If I pricing something close to me I usually very competitive let’s say 20 min driving instead of 2 hours it’s like short day🤩