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Presitge Car Hire

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bashira

Hi Guys,

I am after some advice about starting a prestige car hire business.

I want to hire out prestige cars (4-5 cars to start of with). Currently there is only a few presitge hire companies in my area, but most specialise in normal cars.

I have about £30k-£50k available for starting up.

Do you think its possible to obtain Cars on lease/HP for self drive hire purpose? Does any one know of any companies i can contact.

Also what type of insurance would i require?

Are there any other considerations apart from the business plan, marketing, staff/premises?

Is it realistic to think that any bank will be able to provide some extra finance if i can show them the business plan.

Can anyone help me with the business plan?

Many Thanks
 
I would buy second hand, you can get some very good newish big cars for stupid money.
 
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There are very few companies who do lease for hire frims on your average car let alone prestige models.

The other way round this was that the rental companies would buy the cars and have a guaranteed buyback in 6 months time but this was through dealers and not lease companies.
 
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Hi Bashira

Some of the major car companies will hire prestige cars. It's best to give them a call and find out if this is the case, eg Hertz and Avis, also find out what rates they are offering to see if you can compete in your locality

Once you have worked out your expenses you then can work out how many days per month you need each car out on hire to make a profit.

My personal opinion is that there is money to be made, but only if you find a niche. For example one company hires out classic cars and organises driving holidays, geared towards American tourists.

Anyway, I hope this helps

Jonathan
 
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Yes we organise leasing of all things and contrary to popular opinion yes we can obtain leasing deals for prestige cars and also self drive cars, however thats not the issue here.

You need to get yourself organised with your business plan first and foremost as anyone will want to see this before you talk to them. Get yourself a template one and work through it, and unfortunately yes your insurance is going to be very high, you need to get quotes for the cars you wish to ensure and all other figures in your business then put them together in your business plan.

If you pm me with an email address, I can send you a sample plan for this kind of business so that you can work it through.
 
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Hi

I used to manage a private hire / chauffeur firm. We used to lease Chrysler Voyagers etc from a company called Daimler Chrysler. However, be sure you read the contract very carefully. The costs incurred when we handed the vehicles back for excess mileage / minor damage were very high.

Rebecca
 
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Whilst I wish you well in this enterprise, the odds are against you making it a success. This is an overcrowded sector with a lot of iffy activities. Are you sure this where you want to put your money? Why is no one doing it already? this is a good sign that some one has already looked and/or failed.
 
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Hiring Limo's for Prom Night is becoming a big thing here - however, Prom Night is once a year, hopefully if you've a few schools in the area you'll get lots of bookings, but I would say for only two months of the year.

But there will be other people wanting to hire limo's - that's if you even want to offer a limo in your service.
 
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What are the laws and regulations to setting up a private hire firm that does limousine hire? I think where i live could be a very good market for limousine hire.
Does anyone know what license is required to drive a limo?

Cheers
Jon
 
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bashira said:
Hi Guys,

I am after some advice about starting a prestige car hire business.

I want to hire out prestige cars (4-5 cars to start of with). Currently there is only a few presitge hire companies in my area, but most specialise in normal cars.

I have about £30k-£50k available for starting up.

Do you think its possible to obtain Cars on lease/HP for self drive hire purpose? Does any one know of any companies i can contact.

Also what type of insurance would i require?

Are there any other considerations apart from the business plan, marketing, staff/premises?

Is it realistic to think that any bank will be able to provide some extra finance if i can show them the business plan.

Can anyone help me with the business plan?

Many Thanks
Click to expand...

Any progression with this business?

I know of a few companies that do this already but I cannot paste the URL's yet.

Would love to know how your getting on.
 
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Hi

I'd be a bit wary of this venture, for two reasons - saturation and 'iffy' operators that will be your competitors. I've seen a massive growth of these type of companies (in the loosest possible term), and while it is no doubt a growth industry I would suggest you may struggle to compete, especially if you're running a 100% legit operation and others aren't. In Blackburn, Bolton, Bradford for instance there are already several similar operations - one local kebab shop has an advert for four! - and let's say the business model of one firm I know of doesn't stand up to inspection, namely due to licensing, insurance, ownership issues.
The key thing here is 'hire and reward' - I would urge you to check with the finance provider, as usually insurers and financiers are keen to reap more income from a transport service provider than a regular social driver. For instance, firms that 'hire' vehicles to third parties for income are very likely to be breaching the terms of finance on their vehicles. Speak to a finance/insurance company for a quote on a prestige vehicle for you to use for SDP only, then say you want to hire out to earn income from any amount of strangers and see if they still want to know!

I don't doubt your intentions here, and I'm sure you will do everything above board, but will you be able to face the competition of less scrupulous firms? I'd suggest to do a FULL costing exercise to work out running costs, and then determine how much custom you are likely to get.

One option may be to develop a co-operative, or B2B operation with other firms - depending where you are based, please PM and I'm sure we can talk further on this issue.

Regarding licensing of limos/chauffeurs, that's a massive grey area, for similar reasons as above - there's a lot of rogue operators. In the strictest terms, if you're running a vehicle for private hire (even account or chauffeuring), you will likely need that vehicle to be licensed with the local authority, an operator license, a driver license (both from local authority) and appropriate insurance. At present, a lot of firms are bending the rules somewhat, and the Government have proposals inplace to tighten up this loophole, but as always it's down to ethics and morals I guess.

Again, feel free to PM to discuss further if you wish?

Hope this helps, cheers

S
 
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hi any joy with this? if so please let me know as im interested in doing this too but i wan to concentrate on every day cars and the odd prestige cars would appreciate if any one can advice me on where to get vehicle on contract hire etc so i can rent them out
thanks!
 
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hi if u want some info on this contact me on i have some vehicle available i am from manchester 07599898730
 
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I'm not surprised to see this market seems to be dwindling these days, not just because of the downturn but also market forces.

There seems to be too many 'backstreet' operations trying to cash in on this at one time, but looks like some of these have either moved onto other enterprises or simply been forced out of business.

Guess it's 'horses for courses' really - there will always be customers and providers - but would advise checking everything is order before proceeding with any hires. Are they registered for 'hire and reward' on insurance, what's their liability cover, are they registered with the appropriate licensing body, trade bodies etc.
 
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My cousin has recently binned his prestige hire car business after it failing for the last 5 years. he took out a franchise which may have been a limiting factor, but he struggled with the bookings. he had a lot of money tied up in his vehicle, which do nothing but depreciated very quickly, my advice would be to invest that money somewhere else, as someone else said the market is either saturated or too depresses for luxuries such as mass posh travel.
 
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Bewdy

Sorry to hear about your cousin's business, hope he picks up onto bigger and better things in the future!

Another factor is it's not a level playing field out there, as a lot of the rogue operators do it so cheaply - for obvious reasons - it drops customer's perceptions to an unrealistic level.

We had an enquiry a couple of weeks ago a luxury vehicle for a wedding, for "best price" (clue is in the quotes!). To us, that's a Bentley Arnage vehicle, for two hours (minimum hire). However, the type of money they were prepared to pay was similar to an hour's hire for an 'executive travel' battle bus that someone would go the airport in. In percentage terms, something like 15% of what is a relatively standard rate across the industry.

I'm not bothered that they didn't take the booking, the real concern is they will find someone to match their perceptions (if they hadn't had already). So, it will probably be an uncle's friend's car, driven by their mate who they've bunged some cash to, arguably without adequate insurance cover and certainly not a trained, professional chauffeur.

It all comes down to getting what one pays for, everytime.
 
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