Vehicle Image

[geoff]

Thats one seriously old Suzuki jeep

 

Wow they never even had petrol back then,must have been propelled flintstone style!

[33bk]

ha ha i have just brought a sj awell to keep the fuel costs down on the truck!

 

the last company i worked for they changed there vans round evey 3 years 2 sprinters,2 vitos and a 7.5 ton lorry . custom paint,alloys the works on these vans . personally i thought it just put people off . becasue they thought he was just charging to much .

 

but them thats how he did it and it worked for him .

[Pat Ferrett]

She's my baby . Never cost me more than £70 for an mot cheap tax, cheap to insure and best of all cheap on petrol:thumbup1:

[doobin]

Cheap on petrol?? I had a 1.3 SJ, may as well have had a V8 landy!

 

Slow, rusty, noisy and uncomfortable.

 

But the dogs danglies offroad!

[Pat Ferrett]

Cheap on petrol?? I had a 1.3 SJ, may as well have had a V8 landy!

 

Slow, rusty, noisy and uncomfortable.

 

 

 

50 mph is fast enough! As for uncomfortable! I try to think of the violent shaking as an all over body massage

[kernowstu]

Ask your customers - until 2 years ago I was using a 1994 VW LT35.

 

In 6 years Nothing broke on it! It was slow but always reliable. Only problem was tin-worm on the edge of some panels.

 

For the last year I owned it I asked customers about the appearance factor.

The overall view was..

If you turn up in what looks like an old wreck you may appear to be one of the 'travelling' fraternity, but at least you will not be expensive.

If you turn up in a gleaming crew-cab tipper with lots of shiny bits you may be seen as 'obviously charging too much' - but maybe doing a better job?

 

It depends on the customer - some don't care about the truck - ususally they care about YOU and your attitude.

 

I usually use my land rover when I go out quoting so they don't see the van till we do the work. Over the years we've had tons of repeat business and loads of enquiring neighbours (they ask for a card while you're there - then phone you after you've finished the work and they've spoken to your customer).

 

A decent van is undoubtedly better than a nail - you feel better driving it, but its YOU and YOUR WORK that matters the most.

 

Go for something you are happy with running/maintaining - then you can relax and enjoy the work.

 

i agree apart from the quote about the travelling fraternity ie their trucks are all NEW:biggrin:

[log supplier]

imo, a new van might look nice, but at the end of the day its not the van thats cutting the trees down or doing the work. its a work horse that gets you from a to b and removes all the rubbish.

as long as its kept clean and tidy and not full of holes, jobs a good one:thumbup1:

[Jamie @ Acer Trees]

Having bought the mog very recently we have turned a few heads locally and private local jobs have picked up ! Saves me the 100 mile round trip to London which I'm tiring of !but generally a straight looking clean vehicle + chipper is all you need no oil patches on customers driveways lol

[ad15]

first impressions count,, impossible to NOT notice your vehicle,,,nothing brand new, but nothing old and tatty,

I find a 5 year old D3 does very well,,get alot of comments from customers too,

[Ian C]

I have a 53 plate tipper, nothing fancy but not a nail either, fast and good on fuel. Like others have said first impressions and all that, the other thing is though if you HAVE to run around in an old nail you not charging enough, i dont see why i should have old or knackered stuff, the business should be able to pay for reasonable gear.

 

2 years im changing mine again for something like an 08 truck.