Carl Williams:
JAKEY:
Hello Mark , I do not think this year is unusual buddy ,it caught me out a bit ,one job still used me I took the container price down £1 on all 5 and took £200 off the move but they were well cheaper still but client got a better deal and booked us ,for my 330ft containers (same as pickfords ) I get £20 per container per week plus vat but includes insurance ,what are you prices down there ?In the eighties Pickfords took a similar stance. I think they called it variable costing. In busy times they charged full price, with the other extreme being in quiet times running at a loss, taking the opinion that even though a job might make a loss it was contributing towards overheads, so if the van & staff stood idle it would cost the yearly profit more than running at a loss but contributing to overheads. What they didn’t quite understand that companies like ours had nowhere near the overheads that they had plus in the North East prices were always tight as the disposable income was much lower than probably any other area of the country and as I explained at a Banking Association Dinner in about 1984 when people in the South said things were getting tight, that would be what we considered as a good time.
Hi Steve & Carl,
To be totally honest with you Steve I can’t speak for everyone in the South Wales area who are storing in the proper manner…but I know in the Swansea area in the last couple of years you would struggle to get £20 per container…there are certain companies i’m told that are cutting there prices to the Bourne no names mentioned in the same way you are experiencing in your area…but like Carl has mentioned also South Wales is very similar to the North East not of disposable income…prices have always been tight…but it does not help when you have certain big companies cutting prices to ridiculous levels…Thatcher’s baby competition is good…not when the big boys are putting the smaller guys out of business with there price wars…there’s always only one winner.
Regards Mark