Hi STW’ers

Xmas greetings to one and all.

I need a bit of FB re: which mode of transport to keep/proceed with.

Next year I hope to set up a mobile physiotherapy service; I simply can’t make up my mind as to which vehicle to use? We have a tidy little Audi A2, pleasing to the eye, and an equally pleasing VW T4 van. Now, before the ‘can you tarmac my drive’ jokes begin the van has been re-sprayed and is tidy (it’s not a Max-power machine either).

Which company would you book with if both of the above mentioned vehicles were next to you in a traffic jam?

Honest, no matter how cutting, feedback welcomed.

LT

Whichever one is cheaper to insure for buisness use.

The van will have more flat surface for advertising, but a lot of cv insurers want insure you if its sign written due to the higgher risk of advertising what may be inside.

Which company would you book with if both of the above mentioned vehicles were next to you in a traffic jam?

Neither….

I’d look for my physio through either my Private Health Insurance list of approved (paid for) physios, take a referral or go for a personal recommendation.

Based purely on the vehicle, I’d say A2.

I think Mike is right…..not sure I would book a physio through an advertisement on a vehicle. Just reminds me of mobile hairdressers etc.

But if I had to the A2. You dont want people to think your doing massages in the van!

Insurance on signwritten vehicles is lower cost due to the safer driving employed by them.

For mobile physio I’d suggest a simple car not to appear flash or frivolous. Clean and tidy.

I added business use onto my car insurance – it came down by £2!!

Insurance on signwritten vehicles is lower cost due to the safer driving employed by them.

Dependant on what youre carrying in the back, put anything tradesman based , and they know you have tools, so will do damage or steal vehicle to get them, lots of sign written vehicles driven like mad, but then theyre usually owned by a company not the driver who pays the insurance.

If you do sign up the A2 tell your insurance company. I have learned this from bitter experience.

project I base what I said on experience of many quotes over time. signwriting will usually reduce premiums.

Aye. Theft from vans is pretty much a given – vans are for carrying things, things can be stolen. No clue required as to what they may be, if someone wants to know they just rip the door open for a look.

Theft is a tiny fraction of the risk being insured (and contents is usually a separate policy anyway). Hundreds of pounds worth of tools stolen from a parked van is nothing compared the millions of pounds worth of liability being insured when the vehicle is moving, if having your name, address and phone no written on the van tends on average to make drivers better behaved then that’s a much more important factor when calculating a premium.

Use the car as the van is probably a little large for a physio (unless you use big bits of apparatus, the pilates type for example). The personal trainers around here use combo size vans if they aren’t in a car for comparison.
Company details on the van are surprisingly good at generating interest. I warn our drivers that they are in a vehicle with a phone number on it and I don’t want to receive calls about their driving. So far it seems to have worked.

Lease a brand new T5 sportline kombi and sell the T4.. maybe get some of those magnetic signs so you can swap between vehicles or remove them completely easily

Both are too old. Get something that appeals to your target customer without looking like you charge the earth.

project I base what I said on experience of many quotes over time. signwriting will usually reduce premiums.

can you provide a list of them, as i cant find any cheaper that insure a signed van.Full of tools and locks and sometimes a bike. but thats me and a lot of us tradesmen experiences.

I have no signwriting on my van due to the fact when I went on weekenders with the bike and lot of campsites I visited dont allow/or like vans with writing on the side, dont think it ever harmed me business wise tbh :/

project I base what I said on experience of many quotes over time. signwriting will usually reduce premiums.

Ive never actually experienced that on previous vans with writing on them,could be wrong though 🙂

Thanks for all the FB, I hadn’t considered the lease option or the fact that the A2 would look too old; it really does pay to ask questions.

Many thanks.

Have a cracking xmas and NY

I would never book a physio based on advertising on the side of a vehicle.

Get some magnetic signs then you can choose which vehicle you want to have them on?

Wife runs a Volvo v70 stickered up for her retail business. We’ve had 1 call in 3 years from it.

friend has a mobile chiropractic practice, said clients wouldnt want a stickered up car parked outside their house for the neighbours to see. Gets business from referrals/word of mouth/yellow pages/ad words etc.

sell the A2 and go with a few year old vectra/mondeo ie ‘professionals’ car of a current model shape and a cheap private plate to hide the year or go with a lease car.

FunkyDunc – that is very interesting, why? Clearly, I’ll be setting up a webpage that explains what experience and rehab MO I tend to adopt – this is what the advertising would be geared for – to direct you to more info.

I’m interested as to the psychology behind that statement. Please don’t misinterpret that FD, I’m not attempting to troll, or have a dig; just really interested as your thought process might change my ideas. Is it the unknown, or lack of WOM?

Cheers.

Umm, magnetic signs …like that idea.

RNP: wow, that’s not a good return. So much I hadn’t given a thought to, esp folks not wanting a car parked outside informing the neighbours.

Yeah it’s a smart top end V70 estate and a good friends owns a commercial graphics/printing company so did the artwork/printing. The decals are printed in that 1 way vision stuff usually used on the side of buses so you can see out but not see in, it’s has the talking point with other trades about getting theirs done but literally we had one call whilst heading down to the Spring Trade fair at NEC from someone else in our line of retail.

Thankfully it didn’t cost me anything as it’d be a complete waste of money. Good thing is that it stops people seeing what if anything is in the load area.

Spend your money elsewhere IMHO

Don’t do the magnets, looks cheap and temporary not professional IMHO. You don’t want to look like a get rich quick type of operation either. Low key, professional design, maybe just the website and a brief strap line.

The magnetic sheets leave rust marks after a few months and look cheap. I’ve had vans sign written in the past, but wouldn’t again. I’ve not got enough work from it to pay for the stickers.
Word of mouth, Facebook and Twitter are far better.

Forgot to add, we run a lwb transit as well and havnt bothered with any stickers/graphics – just left it plain white.

Thanks again folks. I guess the first thing we all dive for is Google when looking for anything these days; maybe concentrate our efforts on a healthy web presence.

Sign written cars are a total turn off.

Usually it’s “Earn hundreds working from home!” type advert on a car worth £700.

I’d never book a physio based on an advert on a car or van, tbh, I’d avctively avoid it.

If you use your T4 for camping then you might want to consider that most decent sites won’t allow signwritten vehicles.

Audi A2s have aluminium panels so magnets won’t work.

If you are going down the lease route a Smart would be an option. They’re very popular here as a company car for advertising.The basic premise being they are ugly anyway so covering them makes them look better.