Would You Use, And How Much An Hour Would You Pay

[Tektrader69]

for the use of a hoist in a workshop.

Workshop would have benches, air, tranny lifts, jacks etc etc

Degreasing station

You supply your own tools, but other specialist tools would be available to hire on site.

Quality Oils, lubes, coolant available in bulk on site at good prices

Would you use this? and approximately how often?

[MrStabby]

I'd probably use it a couple of times a year, but only on weekends and i'd want say 6am to 10pm access. Maybe $200/day max?

[R31Nismoid]

I'd be doing my own oil changes instantly. Issue is as stated, the timing of it.

After hours say 6pm-10pm or weekends 8am-6pm would be ideal.

Mon-Fri B/H too many are working and thus it wouldnt be a viable option.

Also the issue of workcover, insurance and everything else i think would be such an arse ache it would pump the cost up too much.

I mean an oil & pad change for instance won't take too long (couple hours). So $25/hr maybe?

Gonna be hard to make any money even with half a dozen hoists @ that rate.

There is also an issue of "what if something goes wrong" like you are changing manifold and snap studs, you can't just up and leave the premesis. You could end up waiting 2-3 days and all of a sudden its a $600 adventure where you could've just paid a workshop $600 to do it for you and you could be working for 3 days

[leer34]

^^^ exactly right..i love the idea behind it, but it has a lot of issues that would take a bit of considering. i would imagine insurance would be a nightmare..people running into problems and going past there allotted time. would make it next to impossible to have multiple bookings per day...id probably say a bit more than 25 and hour maybe more towards 35 coz u would have a lot of expenses to make up, but if its not affordable enough people wont bother and just get a mechanic to do it.

[Truffles]

I really do like all these ideas with initiative, but unfortunately they're all thrown out in good faith. There's so many logistical issues that would make it A) Too hard to make a profit or B) Too expensive to get any clients.

Not being a mechanic personally, few things I have done on my car have gone as smoothly as I wanted to. For example: The last time I changed the turbo on my R32, I unknowingly sheared the oil feed pipe. Lost 4 litres of brand new motul oil and had to order new braided lines. I just let the car sit in the garage in the mean time. Couldn't do that with this proposal. If I'd only booked 4-5 hours for a turbo change, I'd be in trouble.

Unless you can offer a really good deal then people will either do it in their garage because it's cheaper or take it to a workshop because it's easier.

[Tektrader69]

I actually founbd a guy in Perth that has already set up.

His charge scales are pretty reasonable

first hour $55

second hour $44

third hour $33

fourth hour $11

fifth hour $11

sixth hour $11

seventh and eight hours Free

overnight car storage is $22

hours in excess of 8 are changed at $22/hr

Looks quite good.

I would expect that the open hours would be weekends 8am till 9pm, weekdays 12pm till 9pm or subject to bookings

Sort of like Internet Cafe hours.

Provided the equipment is well maintained and adequate instruction is given prior to use.

And a disclaimer is signed by the user. I think the public liability issues can be covered.

Thinking further along. Best to provide a full tool kit for each station.

Interested in your comments. Keep em coming.

Suggestions??

Edited March 31, 2011 by Tektrader69

[R31Nismoid]

I think $187/day per car is a flawed business model

Lets say 5 hoists (so a reasonable shop size) $930/day, and that is absolute income with everyone doing an overnight as well. So realistically it'll be less, far less.

Rent, insurance, initial fit out, repairs/downtime, staff cost to man the joint... You'd take 5-7 years before you come close to getting your money back as you are not selling anything or have any supplemental income.

Ok if you already owned the premises or something.

Location is a major issue i think for most - and anywhere half central in Vic will cost you half an arsehole

[PM-R33]

Good idea in theory as many others.

However in reality it really isn't feasable.

[Birds]

I had the idea of doing basically this sometime last year...sat down and had a decent think about it...as has been said, the insurance / public liability is the biggest nightmare. No indemnity form will get you out of someone suing you for injury on such a worksite, and to be honest I wouldn't want to work in an environment where thanks to someone else's douche baggery / carelessness, I couldn't recover damages for my injuries or property. If you've ever worked in a workshop before, you will know that cars do not go on and come off hoists just like that...shit happens, A LOT. You would have to restrict work to minor DIY servicing, or you will end up with a car on the hoist for over a week. Not to stop you from pursuing it, but just to give you some critical things to address before you even look at the pricing side of things. If you can pull it off, more power to you...because there is certainly a market for it...just like DIY car washes...and there wouldn't be many places like this around...but there's a good reason for that, and it's not because no one has thought of it before. One tip with entreprenurial pursuits like this...don't ask people what they will pay and then work out what costs you can budget into that. Budget all the costs including your expected turnover and THEN ask people if they are willing to pay that

[bubba]

I actually founbd a guy in Perth that has already set up.

His charge scales are pretty reasonable

Yeah it's called M'mmmates place or something. I haven't used them (as I have access to a mates workshop) but by all accounts that I have heard, it's quite a nice setup, reasonably priced, all tools provided at each workstation with specialist tools available behind the counter. The guys are very helpful and they also have things like an engine building clean room, spray booth etc.

[Truffles]

Yeah it's called M'mmmates place or something. I haven't used them (as I have access to a mates workshop) but by all accounts that I have heard, it's quite a nice setup, reasonably priced, all tools provided at each workstation with specialist tools available behind the counter. The guys are very helpful and they also have things like an engine building clean room, spray booth etc.

It is definitely feasable. But it's something that needs an immense thought process to nut out all the possible "unknowns", since it's not a common business plan.

I think the most practical option would be for an existing workshop/mechanical shop owner. Running the workshop as normal during the day and hiring out equipment/workspace at night. From say 6-10pm on weeknights and 8am-6pm on weekends.

The only problem is having each party clear the space when their day/night ends. As well as the massive hours/staffing requirement for the shop.

There's plenty to think about; like how to handle bookings, customer car problems, storage. Would you source aftermarker parts for customers cars to increase profit?

Could additional mechanics be sourced for customers to pay for help/supervision?

I think the way it would work is that customers use the service to do all the 'shit kicking' jobs on their cars (oil changes, sparkplug changes, unbolting/bolting parts together) and then pay for a mechanic to do the technical parts. It could be a win win situation, with the customer paying less if they do labour at the shop themselves and the mechanic being able to take on more jobs as they're spending less time completeing tedius tasks. However, all of this probably only exists in a perfect world.

[Tektrader69]

Thanks for the input. Lots more to think about I expect.

[Thelen]

I think the most viable way of going forward is along the same lines as a group buy. IE, you get 10 blokes with stuff to do, then just rent out the shop for the day and they can do as much/little as they want in that time, but come next morning at 8am all the cars had better be gone.

That way you'll A) have more people around to do things/help if shit goes south, B) a baseline income so no worrying about consistency, C) something else probably.

Anyway, if you had 4 hoists that'd give everyone at least 2 hours up on one, which should be ample enough.

Insurance and such of course is another issue, but I'd think a standard waiver would hold.

[Galois]

Personally, I'd struggle to justify spending $55 to make an oil or plugs change slightly easier. If it was a bigger job then for sure.

That said, EVERY time I go to do something for the first time I find myself wishing I just conveniently had a hoist I could use. Esp for things that take a bit more time (such as everything first time round).

[simpletool]

Super idea for high density areas!

Problems with people not cleaning up could be helped by:

1. Clearly stating the requirements and documenting workspace before/after (a fixed camera/s per workbay could help with this...and also be used for any mis-use/insurance situations).

2. Taking a refundable "clean-up" deposit

3. Having access to chemicals and items for clean-up and disposal.

You could vary rates depending upon time of day/days of the week so that 9-5pm Mon-Fri is cheaper. If pre-booking works (which would be hard) then a computer could reward those who pre-book and use the service at low usage times (an algorithm could be used for this that reflects business costs. Kinda like Kogan.)

With everything you need in one place this could really catch on as costs of tools, getting rid of oil and having a hoist is awesome! Still not sure this will work well.

It could definitely work if you bring a mate and 2 of your work on the car to cut the times down. Then hiring a work place would be VERY handy, especially if you can store the car if something goes wrong.

If I was to change all my brake lines then using a hoist would really help. Apart from the actual hoist though I'm not sure what else is handy? But I'd be happy to pay $50 - $60 for 2 hours.

Edited April 12, 2011 by simpletool

[TerribleOne]

Dunno if it will ever work, i dont like other people wandering around my shop.

I've seen stuff like this get waaaay out of control if its not supervised.

[Pal]

for some pics of mmates place, heres there facebook page. ive actually been here and its very well layed out. with the bar/eatery there is becoming a bit of a meeting spot for car clubs as well.

http://www.facebook.com/pages/MMates-Place/154671114583576?sk=info

[Cowboy1600]

I reckon this is a seriously good idea.

I would defo use it. I have ZERO space to work on cars/bikes at home. I'm soon to tackle an engine swap on my bike and it's going to be an absolute cnut of a job. Laying on gravel on the side of a hill trying to stop bolts rolling down the driveway can root a boot. If I could pay a couple hundred bucks for the use of a clean, equipped workshop for a day I would do it in a second.

I used to have access to just such a thing but unfortunately my mate has recently moved to Tassy so I no longer have such a workshop. I also like the idea of it not being someone's workshop where they are trying to conduct business around you. Purpose built for me to come and work on my vehicles.

Setup wouldn't be outrageous. You can lease a 500m2 commercial building for <$40k pa . Get a couple of 4 posters and a couple of 2 posters for ~$20k. Tools will set you back $10k for 5 well equipped 200pc Kingchrome boxes + an assortment of speciality tools. Add another $15k for compressor, hoses, hand cleaner, degreaser bath, air blaster, bead blaster, die grinders,and all that kind of stuff. Another $5k for a spray booth (doesn't have to be fancy, just an air tight, filtered environment). $5k for a cafe with coffee machine and some lounges.

Insurance isn't as difficult as it would seem. the whole "insurance killed the radio star" is bollocks.

So setup is ~$60-$65k. You only need yourself and maybe one other part -timer running it. Turnover would need to be in the vicinity of $200k which I don't think would be too difficult to achieve, especially if you tapped the car club vein and set yourself up as somewhere to hang out as well as get work done.

[iseekool]

I'd go a simple setup.

Have one near a place with food.

Bookings must be made online, with calendar style system.

6 hour blocks from 6AM to 6PM

12 hour block from 6PM to 6AM

24 and 48 hour blocks available, more days are negotiable.

Unplanned garage overtime is double rate (eg when the person stays longer than the time they booked).

$100 upfront cleaning bond - Will be returned once garage has been deemed clean.

No tools provided - BYO

Garage will have the following:

2+ hoists (more hoists the better)

free wi-fi - people have online instruction manuals/books

benches

parts washer

compressed air

oil and fluid disposal

plenty of lighting

vac and cleaning equipment

[Galois]

It depends on pricing though. Can you really make it profitable without getting above 50% of the price to get something done professionally (I know, "professionally" can vary a fair bit hence why so many people here do tasks themselves)