Looking into financial feasibility of getting (buying or leasing) a van for members to use. Who would be interested? If there’s interest I’ll get some quotes etc. and figure out how it might work financially, just exploring the idea still at the moment.
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If terms of a proposal I think we need more information. As in state the case / need for one. How often will we use it. I think that will make a clearer more informed decision on our route if it’s seen as useful.
If: Ild recommend hire. To keep servicing down and reliability up.
Be worth checking if there is a zip van (other companies are available blah blah) close by the space.
A good van isn’t cheap to buy and running costs on a cheaper older higher milage vehicle would be high with less reliability. Parking?
That’s buying and rental. The third chose is long term rental. Potentially most cost effective but only if we get our moneies worth - this would only really be true if it was used a lot I think. As in its OK to pay a premium to hire a van for a day if you don’t hire very often compared to paying less per mile but never using it and paying every single month.
I think we need to look at how often and the case for first.
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ok I really, really like this idea
Would pretty much solve a lot of the concerns about storage. Would make furniture projects much easier for everyone. And be hugely enabling for a lot of members for a lot of other various things and I think that’s what the space is about.
but:
-any idea how insurance and liability would work ?
-don’t vans cost way, way more than the most expensive machines we’ve considered buying ? or we get a second hand banger. But that would still be several thousand quid. And a lease would be several hundred a month.
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If its feasible I think its a great idea!
Get some sign-writing on her and its also a good marketing tool…
OK, financial questions / concerns noted - but save this for when I have concrete numbers to share.
This thread is just about a show of interest 
- three plus me so far?
As the Makerspace is a business we should technically be covered with insurance in a similar way any other business would with company vehicles I would assume… but I am no expert in the matter. As long as those who would use it sign the dotted line and have a valid licence…
I say, no, use the Zipcar van around the corner
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Duly noted Fred, thanks for your input.
I’m imagining it would work exactly like that. Company I work for leases vans and hires part time staff that they then get insured on those vans. I will ring up same providers / companies and get quotes, come back with figures. I think it could be fairly cost effective, compared to other aforementioned van hire companies. But we’d need an optimal number of people to sign up, so will figure out what that is and report back. But if zip van can do it…
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Don’t understand how we could compete with the zip car method and using the Lambeth business discount on access.
We not a hire company and should focus elsewhere?
No harm looking into the idea right? Doesn’t cost the space anything to get quotes and make a comparison.
We aren’t hiring the van out to the public… it would just become another tool in our toolbox that is available to our members.
Having access to a van sounds like a great idea (although, what do I care, right?)
I’ll be surprised if Zipcar van isn’t 1/10th of price or less, and is easy to quantify, but let’s get figures.
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For individuals a zipcar volkswagen transporter is £10 per hour or £11 on the weekend. £89/£105 for 24 hours and there’s a reduced £29 rate for overnight use between 6pm and 9am mon-thu. On top of that you have to pay at least £6 a month for membership and that will give you an allowance of 60 miles a day.
Not sure what the business discounts are though. How would that work? Would any paying member be able to use a zip car van through a shared makerspace subscription or something? And then book using their own credit card?
As far as I know there is a “business” account so more employees of the same company can rent the vans… but it all gets charged on a single credit card…
I’m really in favour of this idea but we need to research properly… with this our way of “let’s get it and try” can’t work I think…
What happen of the can get damaged? How we keep a log of users? Just a couple of questions to throw in the hat!
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I think it will be very expensive and more space is more important than a van and any additional recurring costs put us further from that goal.
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Another possibility is a business account with one of the rental companies… you get some good discounts as an account holder for cars, wonder if it works with vans… I’ve used Hertz and Enterprise for this, Enterprise do more vans though…
Courty
In my (admittedly small) experience of looking at this kind of contract, the discount is usually on the assumption of a minimum amount of hire in the year, which we may or may not be able to guarantee.
Another thing… a transport would be dead useful during construction…
For getting materials and hardware on the spot…
For moving around rubbish…
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I’ll make some calls today, make a spreadsheet.
We can get most materials delivered, if we’re organised.
And there isn’t really anywhere to move rubbish to. Minimum charge at local dumps are approx £75
Plus it’s actually illegal for a business to move rubbish without a waste carriers license. Although this is not exactly enforced!
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