pump out price increase!!!!

[gidh]

Whilst mooring my boat on the K&A this weekend my attention was drawn to a BW notice announcing an increase in the cost of using BW pump out stations. Now i know that we are all aware that this was coming, but the reason stated was laughable, it went something like this:

 

'Due to the recent increases in electricity prices, BW has had to increase it's charge for pump out from £6 to £12. Bw are not raising any additional income due to this increase'

 

What a laugh, double the cost, even if the pump out was 5KW, it would use maybe 20p plus the cost of the rinse water and the costs of sewage removal, maybe this might add upto 50p.

 

I would respect something along the lines of:

 

'Due to BW budget being slashed as an outcome of DEFRA mismanagement, we have no option but to increase our income in any way we feel we can get away with. Sorry that it is a 100% increase, but at the end of the day it's better to pay up than having sewage swilling around your boat'

 

Go on lets try and tell it how it is, after all it much less frustrating!

 

Gid.

[RichardH]

See thread

 

http://www.canalworld.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=5931

 

I've not had a reply from BW as yet

[RichardH]

Finally had a reply from BW:

 

The pump out machine is configured to require a 30 unit Ampy card, but this does not mean that they consume 30 units of electricity. They are configured to this value in an effort to reflect the other costs of providing the pump out service, notably depreciation, maintenance, cleaning and effluent disposal. Together, these can equate to well over £10,000 per year.

 

Unfortunately it is not feasible to calculate the average unit cost of delivering the pump out service because we have no means of recovering the full cost of providing the service.

 

We wish to encourage private operators to increase their service provision to boaters since we believe that they can frequently do this more efficiently. Undercutting their prices would run contrary to this objective and our customers have a free choice to use boat yard or BW pump outs.

 

£12.10 is the new price of 30 units of BW’s electricity sold via a pre-payment card in line with statutory regulations covering re-sale of electricity for domestic use, recovering the actual cost without profiteering.

I counter-argued with an explanation that getting your hands dirty and having a race against time is not in line with private operators and suggested that they compromised by increasing the time allowance or halving the number of credits a machine uses but it fell on deaf ears:

 

I am sorry you were disappointed in the last response. For the options you have suggested it would require a recalibration of all machines, something BW is not prepared to invest resources in at this present time.

 

So there we have it folks, double the price, same effort another back door way increasing the coffers.

[WJM]

"even if the pump out was 5KW, it would use maybe 20p plus the cost of the rinse water and the costs of sewage removal, maybe this might add upto 50p"

 

 

That is called the direct consumable - you forgot the direct overhead and the cost of supporting infrastructure. A pump-out facility costs anything from £50k to £70k and has a useful lifespan of 10 to 15 years. £12 for a 20 minute use of such a facility seems about right to my capatalist outlook!

[gaggle]

once again the local elsan point is left unusable because some scum boater has seen fit to use it as a pump out point, filled right to the brim and overflowing it is out of use to all.

if it has to be used as a last resort surely it would be easy enough to ensure adequate flushing to ensure the outfall remains clear, cistern and tap above the bowl make this very easy but the scum responsable must find it to much trouble or do not have the brain power to act responsable.

this is the latest incident and it would seem the cost increase for pump outs may be one factor that makes the scum boaters abuse the elsan points.

so once again the elsan point at burscough bridge is unusable, if you are heading that way take note.