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Boat mover daily rates?


noddyboater

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Ball park figure should be about £80-120 a day plus travelling expenses from one or both ends. ..expect a 10 hour day minimum for this....(do know of one chap charged 4 weeks to go from Whilton to Frouds Bridge!!).

Ensure skipper has own insurance and is covered for rivers etc if these are part of the journey.

Captain Pegg and Paul J and Nigel Carton on here are fully covered and do a good job, ....and are all busy!!

Edited by matty40s
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11 hours ago, matty40s said:

Ball park figure should be about £80-120 a day plus travelling expenses from one or both ends. ..expect a 10 hour day minimum for this....(do know of one chap charged 4 weeks to go from Whilton to Frouds Bridge!!).

Ensure skipper has own insurance and is covered for rivers etc if these are part of the journey.

Captain Pegg and Paul J and Nigel Carton on here are fully covered and do a good job, ....and are all busy!!

I wasn’t aware of the above. Seems a reasonably rate to me to be honest. 

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Some charge more, (and want feeding fee as well(do they not eat when not working?), some insist on you paying for an additional crew member to do locks!!

It's a fairly fluid market, with lots of operators, some insured, some not, some who think speeding along on someone elses boat is brill,  choose carefully, cheapest is probably not best, however, most expensive probably isnt either!

 

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1 hour ago, matty40s said:

some insist on you paying for an additional crew member to do locks!!

 

On wide canals, a lockwheeler on a bike could possibly double the rate of progress I'd have thought, so I'd be happy to pay for one if there are a lot of locks on the route. 

 

 

 

 

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I'd think this is a tough time of year to start, especially if based in frozen North. The word of mouth needs a boost: making phone contact with brokers and marinas, followed up with some nice little leaflets might be a good strategy.

I think you'd need budget £100 per day plus the cost of transport to and from your home base. 

You could offer engine servicing before setting off, that gets cash in to your account on day 1. My fear would've getting prompt payment, chasing up for money is a nightmare. Make a prompt payment discount to stop this. Not so easy when dealing with companies, but add on £100 cover the 28 days legally allowed.

 

 

 

Edited by LadyG
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I plan based on a 12 hour net cruising day using CanalPlan defaults and use a day rate that equates to something close to minimum living wage with an allowance for genuine expenses such as travel. I build that into the rate so I may win or lose but I don’t reward or penalise people because their boat may or may not easy for me to access by nothing more than circumstance.

 

I am sometimes assisted by my son and I share my fee with him. Food is at my own expense.

 

Only when I’ve been asked to do work on major rivers do I explicitly price for a second person on safety grounds and that person is also directly employed by the client. So that’s all up front and understood from the outset.

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I have knowingly only encounter 4  professional boat movers working, two were taking as much care as the owners would with the boats. One was an obnoxious one who commented "I don't close lock gates I am a professional boat mover" The other one thought he was on holiday, I don't know if he was charging by the day.

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1 hour ago, matty40s said:

This was the key that started it up.

s-l400 (1).jpg


I moved a boat earlier this year that I had to start with a screwdriver across the starter motor contacts for three days. I must point out that it is was after encouragement to do just that from my client to get it moving.

 

It transpired it had some form of home made immobiliser that had thrown a fit.

 

You’ll be well aware how some boats respond to being removed from their shore supply after a few years of not moving.

 

Edited by Captain Pegg
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I wonder whether the rates quoted, would cover the cost of providing, holiday pay, sick pay and a pension worth having in one's retirement.  Then there is professional insurance, training, and certification that you might need, accountancy fees, and general admin.  Or is it just a hobby.

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47 minutes ago, Peanut said:

I wonder whether the rates quoted, would cover the cost of providing, holiday pay, sick pay and a pension worth having in one's retirement.  Then there is professional insurance, training, and certification that you might need, accountancy fees, and general admin.  Or is it just a hobby.

Accountancy fees and general admin costs.....I suppose you pay a butler to do your ironing as well....😁

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46 minutes ago, Peanut said:

I wonder whether the rates quoted, would cover the cost of providing, holiday pay, sick pay and a pension worth having in one's retirement.  Then there is professional insurance, training, and certification that you might need, accountancy fees, and general admin.  Or is it just a hobby.

A hundred quid a day wouldn't cover any of the above,  and that's before you take away basic food allowance. 

The only professional boat movers I've encountered (who've openly said that's what they were doing) have been on the river Trent in flood conditions, taking risks with someone else's boat that I wouldn't be happy with. 

If they have insurance to cover such trips I suppose it's fair enough, but still a risk.

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No, I don't do ironing, but if you have a worthwhile business, you need an accountant, and doing your books, arranging work, ordering stuff and the like takes work time.  Most people like to get paid for their work, that is in a worthwhile business.

 

If you spend your life in employment, then you will never realise the true costs of employment and of running the business.

 

Noddyboater is right, the fee quoted is derisory, it sounds like a hobby, or “pin money,” not a business.

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17 minutes ago, noddyboater said:

A hundred quid a day wouldn't cover any of the above,  and that's before you take away basic food allowance. 

The only professional boat movers I've encountered (who've openly said that's what they were doing) have been on the river Trent in flood conditions, taking risks with someone else's boat that I wouldn't be happy with. 

If they have insurance to cover such trips I suppose it's fair enough, but still a risk.


Putting someone else’s boat in danger isn’t professional. (I know that’s your point).

 

I happen to be heading toward a major river at present. I have established with the client where the reference point will be, what the information to be used will be, and on what conditions I will proceed onto the river and on what conditions I will moor the boat in a secure safe haven, and where that will be.

 

Tomorrow is decision day and the client knows the rules.

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28 minutes ago, Captain Pegg said:


Putting someone else’s boat in danger isn’t professional. (I know that’s your point).

 

I happen to be heading toward a major river at present. I have established with the client where the reference point will be, what the information to be used will be, and on what conditions I will proceed onto the river and on what conditions I will moor the boat in a secure safe haven, and where that will be.

 

Tomorrow is decision day and the client knows the rules.

 

The risk being not enough water in the major river, I presume? 

 

 

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7 hours ago, MtB said:

 

The risk being not enough water in the major river, I presume? 

 

 

 
That may be closer to today’s reality but the point is you can’t commit to an absolute date - or perhaps not leave enough flexibility in your own diary - to cope with the fact that river levels may compromise safe navigation. If you take a job on at two weeks notice you can’t predict accurately what will happen.

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11 hours ago, Peanut said:

No, I don't do ironing, but if you have a worthwhile business, you need an accountant, and doing your books, arranging work, ordering stuff and the like takes work time.  Most people like to get paid for their work, that is in a worthwhile business.

 

If you spend your life in employment, then you will never realise the true costs of employment and of running the business.

 

Noddyboater is right, the fee quoted is derisory, it sounds like a hobby, or “pin money,” not a business.

It has long been a rule of thumb that the cost of employing a person is 2.5 - 3 (even 4) times the gross wage rate.

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On the other hand 'one man businesses' tend not to have that level of overhead to bear, as the one man does his own book keeping, admin etc. Certainly he needs to put some aside to cover holidays and time off and sick pay, and a myriad minor overheads the average PAYE bod never has a clue even exists. 

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