Set up a car park. Advice needed please?

carrie81

Thanks.
The current car park is £6 a day. I'm sure there are more expensive car parks out there but I think that is expensive and there are no cheaper options anywhere near. I thought if I charge £3.50 a day that would be low enough to entice drivers to my car park but enough to make a decent amount a day. Of course I'd have to review at that cost once I knew the price of my land.

lincroft1710

You would definitely have to pay rates. Land which will accommodate 50 cars with access and entry/exit won't be cheap, neither will surfacing (you can't just park on grass, in winter it would be a mudbath) and close to rail station and possibility of planning permission will all jack up the cost.

What do you estimate your start up costs to be?

claire16c

Dont suppose you live in Wokingham do you? Sounds just like the situation near the train station there. Anyway Id definitely pay to use your car park if so haha!

pogofish

For planning permission, I would hazzard a guess that it would be a lot easier to get permission on any brownfield or derelict land. Or even a temporary change of use for an unoccupied building with space for parking.

Also have a shufty past the parking board to see the sort of disreputable tactics used by parking operators and do your best to avoid being taken in by them. In fact you would probably get a lot of good advice if you are intent on conducting your operation with integrity.

Tiddlywinks

50 cars at £3.50 over 50 (5 day) weeks (not 52 as Christmas will be slow for commuting) = £43,750

Initial outlay: Land purchase / planning process / ground preparation (not advisable to leave just grass mud) / marking out bays / Building hut / insurance / entry and exit system

Ongoing costs: Tax / business rates for land / ground and equipment maintenance / ground clearance equipment for snow etc (otherwise no customers) / insurance / finance charges (if any)

Issues for consideration: Public safety, what chance of new competition, holiday cover for you, emergency call-out for equipment failure

londondealer

Carrie no advice from me but just wanted to wish you the best of luck. I love people like you.

elsien

Someones just done it by me, except it wasn't a field, it was a brownfield site - old building that had been bulldozed then filled in, so the ground was pretty solid and he hasn't had to lay anything down. I'm guessing he's renting the land from the original owner. It's close to the town centre so he's doing a 2 hour and a daily rate. At the moment he's manning it himself, and according to the local paper once it gets going he's going to be looking at some sort of solar powered barrier, or something. I don't have the local paper to hand but the solar power bit stuck in my mind. It doesn't seem to be taking off particularly quickly though - seems to be one of those things that takes people a while to notice even with the local advertising, but looking at the very basic set up at the moment the only costs are likely to be his insurance etc and time.

rev_henry

Tiddlywinks wrote: »

50 cars at £3.50 over 50 (5 day) weeks (not 52 as Christmas will be slow for commuting) = £43,750

Initial outlay: Land purchase / planning process / ground preparation (not advisable to leave just grass mud) / marking out bays / Building hut / insurance / entry and exit system

Ongoing costs: Tax / business rates for land / ground and equipment maintenance / ground clearance equipment for snow etc (otherwise no customers) / insurance / finance charges (if any)

Issues for consideration: Public safety, what chance of new competition, holiday cover for you, emergency call-out for equipment failure

If its kept simple with just a hut at the entrance and those spike things on the exit then no need for fancy ticket machines or barriers.

Sounds a good idea in theory.

elsien

Just found the link I was looking for - it's a solar powered pay and display machine he's thinking of getting, so that would still leave the monitoring aspect of it.

Owain_Moneysaver

Unless the land is very close to the station a lot of commuters will prefer to save time and park at the station, especially when the weather gets worse.

It's often possible to purchase parking at a station using a credit card at the ticket office, so you may want to get a card machine linked to a mobile phone. Also although the daily rate for parking may be high, season ticket holders may get free or discounted parking.

If you could get permission to sell coffee that would be an attraction.

Finding land is going to be your main obstacle (and the council can impose conditions such as widening highway entrances at your cost when granting permission) - once you have the land and permission there are parking management companies that will do all the rest, supply signage and machines and have periodic inspections.