BSS survey fees rip off

[Stevenet]

I have a quote to to inspect my boat for a BSS certificate of £250. He only lives up the road! 
 

Can anyone advise a survey out with reasonable costs please? I’m in Hemel Hempstead. 

[Alan de Enfield]

24 minutes ago, Stevenet said:

I have a quote to to inspect my boat for a BSS certificate of £250. He only lives up the road! 
 

Can anyone advise a survey out with reasonable costs please? I’m in Hemel Hempstead. 

 

If you want a proper job doing it is virtually a days work, if you want him to simply write out a certificate with no checks that your boat actually complies it is a 15 minute job - you will be charged according to which type of examiner you want.

 

Do you want a boat that is safe, or do you want a certificate simply because you must have one to apply for your licence ?

[ditchcrawler]

But paying £250 wont guarantee you get a better BSS inspection, just that you will pay more.

[MtB]

31 minutes ago, Stevenet said:

I have a quote to to inspect my boat for a BSS certificate of £250. He only lives up the road! 
 

Can anyone advise a survey out with reasonable costs please? I’m in Hemel Hempstead. 

I broadly agree with Alan above. The more carefully the inspector inspects, the cheaper £250 begins to look. And if s/he comes up with a massive list of fail points, £250 will look like excellent value, doesn't the team think?

[Stevenet]

Exactly!

 

It is not virtually a day’s work. I’ve had a few done already so I know. 

[Alan de Enfield]

4 minutes ago, ditchcrawler said:

But paying £250 wont guarantee you get a better BSS inspection, just that you will pay more.

 

You could pay him (say) £50 an hour and if you are there for the examination you can see how many hours he is ACTUALLY working.

[MtB]

On the other hand if it passes in 20 mins…

[Alan de Enfield]

Just now, Stevenet said:

Exactly!

 

It is not virtually a day’s work. I’ve had a few done already so I know. 

 

 

I have done my own pre-examination examination and even knowing where everything is, to do it properly takes about 4 or 5 hours.

 

I had one done (by a BSS examiner) 3 years ago that took 21 minutes from arriving in the car park to leaving thru the marina gates. he came on the boat, said it had a BSSC last time and passed, I can see your CO alarm so here is your new "pass"

[Stevenet]

Bravo 

[jonathanA]

In fairness I think you are quoting extremes Alan.

 

I recently had a bss done by a new to me examiner. He was very clear he expected it to take at least 3 hours for my conventional straightforward boat (simple electrics only gas to cooker etc).

 

I think I paid 170 quid. He was there over 3 hours and I'd say he did a thorough job, clearly knew his stuff from the conversation we had. He did comment that it had been quicker than he expected because I had everything clearly labelled and laid out and he could see everything he needed to easily 

 

I thought that was good value. 

[David Schweizer]

10 minutes ago, Stevenet said:

Exactly!

 

It is not virtually a day’s work. I’ve had a few done already so I know. 

 

Over the years I had eight BSS examinations undertaken on Helvetia, and over those years used used three different examiners, each of whom was a fully qualified Marine engineer. I was present for every examination and can confirm that they were all undertaken very thoroughly, taking something like four or five hours, which taking travel to the boat and completeing the official paperwork, amounts to the best part of a full days work. Like others have asked, do you want to know that your boat is safe, or do you just want a piece of paper?

[Alan de Enfield]

11 minutes ago, jonathanA said:

In fairness I think you are quoting extremes Alan.

 

I recently had a bss done by a new to me examiner. He was very clear he expected it to take at least 3 hours for my conventional straightforward boat (simple electrics only gas to cooker etc).

 

I think I paid 170 quid. He was there over 3 hours and I'd say he did a thorough job, clearly knew his stuff from the conversation we had. He did comment that it had been quicker than he expected because I had everything clearly labelled and laid out and he could see everything he needed to easily 

 

I thought that was good value. 

 

Agreed exceptional value.

 

So not far off my suggested £50 an hour then.

[Alan de Enfield]

2 minutes ago, David Schweizer said:

..............do you want to know that your boat is safe,

 

 

I know I wrote 'the same' but in reality the BSS does not show that a boat is 'safe' (anything but) it simply shows it complies with the examiners interpretation of the BSS requirements.

 

The boat is only 'safe' for passers by and visitors to the waterways, it is not 'safe' for the boat user.

 

After all, this is what the BSS say is the intention of the examination :

 

The Boat Safety Scheme, or BSS, is a public safety initiative owned equally by the Canal & River Trust and the Environment Agency. Its purpose is to help minimise the risk of boat fires, explosions, or pollution harming visitors to the inland waterways, the waterways' workforce and any other users.

 

 

[Slim]

I paid £200 three years ago. (Banbury area). Hemel is within the 'greater London area' for prices so £250 hurts but?..How much would a fully serviced leasure mooring be in say Cowroast. Around here it's about £2700.

[Stevenet]

What I am offended about is that these costs are unregulated and we do not have choice but to get it done. After all it’s a boat MoT. 
 

The CRT are complicit. Why don’t they introduce tier levels!

[MtB]

51 minutes ago, Alan de Enfield said:

I had one done (by a BSS examiner) 3 years ago that took 21 minutes from arriving in the car park to leaving thru the marina gates. he came on the boat, said it had a BSSC last time and passed, I can see your CO alarm so here is your new "pass"

 

How much did it cost?

 

There are 167 pages in the examination manual including 82 pages of core checks to be done. There are typically two checks to perform on each page so that makes 164 checks to consider. If we imagine it takes five minutes to consider each check and investigate in full detail if necessary, that adds up to 820 minutes.

 

That's 13 hours, so one might speculate that any inspection taking less than that has had a few short cuts taken. 

 

 

 

[ditchcrawler]

29 minutes ago, Slim said:

I paid £200 three years ago. (Banbury area). Hemel is within the 'greater London area' for prices so £250 hurts but?..How much would a fully serviced leasure mooring be in say Cowroast. Around here it's about £2700.

To put it in context my grand daughter has a flat in London,  She had bit of a flood and a plumber charged her £900 for 3 hours to tell her it was the landlords problem

[Alan de Enfield]

7 minutes ago, MtB said:

How much did it cost?

 

 

I can hardly remember what happened last week let alone 3 years ago.

 

I think it was £175 so about £525 an hour (excluding travelling time) which is probably a bit above average for the 'Midlands'

[magnetman]

Anyone remember Buster who used to do BS tickets over the phone? 

 

I quite like fast inspections and getting the CRT off one's back. 

 

Right approach to what is after all called the BS scheme. 

 

 

[David Mack]

1 hour ago, Stevenet said:

I have a quote to to inspect my boat for a BSS certificate of £250. He only lives up the road! 
 

Can anyone advise a survey out with reasonable costs please? I’m in Hemel Hempstead. 

So how much do you think it should cost, to cover the time spent doing the inspection, the inspector's travel to and from the boat, the fee he has to pay to the Boat Safety Scheme for every certificate he issues, and to contribute to the costs of the training he has to undertake to qualify as an examiner?

In your case his travel costs might be low, but for the next job he might be driving an hour or more each way.

Edited June 17, 2022 by David Mack

[David Schweizer]

51 minutes ago, Alan de Enfield said:

 

 

I know I wrote 'the same' but in reality the BSS does not show that a boat is 'safe' (anything but) it simply shows it complies with the examiners interpretation of the BSS requirements.

 

The boat is only 'safe' for passers by and visitors to the waterways, it is not 'safe' for the boat user.

 

After all, this is what the BSS say is the intention of the examination :

 

The Boat Safety Scheme, or BSS, is a public safety initiative owned equally by the Canal & River Trust and the Environment Agency. Its purpose is to help minimise the risk of boat fires, explosions, or pollution harming visitors to the inland waterways, the waterways' workforce and any other users.

 

 

 

I accept that statement, but in my case, I actually knew the examiners through my connections as a volunteer Captain of a Charity Trip boat. Each of them spent some time asking me questions, which I assumed was to discover how well I knew, and looked after the boat, they also offered suggestions and advice on  safety issues which exceeded the remit of the BSS. Being quaIified Marine Engineers, I was also able to use them to undrtake the every four year survey required by my Insurance Company, but not at the same time as the anniversary dates did not coincide.

[GUMPY]

At the end of March I paid £220 to a very nice inspector who was  based in Hemel to do my BSS for this he drove to Northamptonshire spent a few hours on the inspection completed the "paperwork"  then drove home. I was very happy with the service. Sadly he retired at the begining of April

 

2 hours ago, Stevenet said:

I have a quote to to inspect my boat for a BSS certificate of £250. He only lives up the road! 
 

Can anyone advise a survey out with reasonable costs please? I’m in Hemel Hempstead. 

 

Have you thought that he/she may have priced it high as they don't want  to do your boat

 

[MoominPapa]

1 hour ago, David Schweizer said:

Like others have asked, do you want to know that your boat is safe, or do you just want a piece of paper?

I'm perfectly capable of inspecting my boat to determine if it's safe, so I just want the piece of paper to give to CRT; the cheaper the better.

 

MP.

[MtB]

33 minutes ago, Loddon said:

At the end of March I paid £220 to a very nice inspector who was  based in Hemel to do my BSS for this he drove to Northamptonshire spent a few hours on the inspection completed the "paperwork"  then drove home. I was very happy with the service. Sadly he retired at the begining of April

 

 

Have you thought that he/she may have priced it high as they don't want  to do your boat

 

 
 

I wondered about that too. Or given the attitude telegraphed in the thread title it might have been the boater putting him off, rather than the boat.  

[Stevenet]

I just requested a quote for a BSS survey. Unless you and he are snowflakes I don’t see how that can be taken the wrong way