WDF - Pickup and Delivery

[carylrich1]

Hi folks,
I just have to start by saying it is so nice to have a place to go where there are people doing exactly what I'm doing and can relate! thank goodness your here! I just started doing pick up and delivery in my area. the closest competitor in this area is about 20 miles away. I just had an apartment complex call that is in the process of building a laundry room in the building and it will not be ready for another month or two. They have rented units and have decided to pick up the tab for their tenants for the pick up and delivery service. Since they are right down the street from me I took $3.00 off each apartment for them and now I was wondering if I should take an addition 5% off for an order of ten or more apartments since they are all right there and I am making a great profit. I know I am only going to have them for a month or so but I am thinking that the reference for further accounts would be good and I am hoping that the tenants will like having someone else do their laundry(like me!) They already said they would be glad to have the tenants leave the laundry in the main office if they would like to stay with us. Do you think im giving the store away and in essence saying "hey I was so overpriced that I can cut this much off" or do you think it will be a good gesture that goes a long way? Any thoughts or experience with this? This is my first big account and I dont want to blow it.
Thanks, Caryl and Rich

[Monarch]

Suggest you see the notes under "FUEL SURCHARGE" before you get too excited about this.

http://coinwash.com/mb/showthread.php?t=4913&highlight=FUEL+SURCHARGE

[DuboisLaundry]

I don't offer pickup and delivery
well I have delivered towels and sheets to one guest ranch a few times, but I was taking my dog to the Lake near them anyway.
oh, and the restaurant 2 doors down sometimes I walk their aprons and rags to them, usually bring back lunch!

[Mungo Spike]

Caryl & Rich ... I have a large pickup/delivery service, and my opinion is that you've already got the business, so I would concentrate on providing great service rather than more discounts.

If the quality of service is outstanding, your customers will stay with you with or without discounting; if the quality is poor, a 5% discount isn't going to persuade them to stay.

Good luck ... Mungo

[carylrich1]

Mungo,
This is exactly what I was hoping to hear! Are you finding that it is worth it with the p/u and delivery? I think the fact that I am the only one doing this at this time makes it a great thing for us, still not sure how to focus the marketing I get to thinking about the target market and the message and get stuck because it is so broad. I also dont have a model to go buy so im kind of blazing the trail here. Exciting though and i really love working with people. just need to gain more confidence in my pricing and not second guess it or feel afraid that someone isnt going to like it... i know i cant please everyone. Thanks for your thoughts.
Caryl and rich

[Kitty]

I can't see discounting the p/u delivery unless it is at a certain minimum and within a certain range of your laundry, if any discount is considered it should be for first time users for a certain period of time only. But this is my thoughts on the marketing of the services.

Ways to market services are simple.

Window advertising, word of mouth and your local paper will provide you with the best advertising of your service as well as you and your employees. Toot your horn every chance you get and train your employees to pitch your services to potential customers in their everyday life outside your store as well as inside your store and you do the same.

THe P/u and delivery WDF service is a high demand all conviencence service, it is a frivilous service. One that should demand a high return and not accept anything less as it is not worth providing the services for less!

Kitty

[Mungo Spike]

Pickup and delivery is definitley worth it if you follow several simple principles:
1) Set up routes so that you're picking up 15-20 orders at a whack (and delivering another 10, maybe), as opposed to making a one-only run for somebody staying at a hotel.
2) Get credit card information before you accept accounts. After processing orders, hit the credit cards yourself, rather than waiting for your customers to pay on their own.
3) Be selective. Don't take customers who have to be there when you pickup/deliver; dont' usually take customers who insist on paying cash (cuz they have to be there when you deliver). Don't take customers who are too far away from the previous delivery or the next delivery (You decide what 'too far' means to you). Don't take customers whose pickup/delivery takes more than 10-15 minutes for the driver to execute .. unless those customers are willing to accept a surcharge (somebody has to pay for the driver's time ... even if it's just yours).
4) Set up an alliance with a drycleaner so you can pickup/deliver drycleaning and laundering with your WDF. The profit increase is substantial.
5) Charge a fuel surcharge ... something I wish I had started a while ago. I just started charging $.50 per pickup/delivery, but that's probably too low.
6) Pickup/delivery means you're aiming at customers who live outside the typical 2-3 mile radius of most laundromats' customer set, so advertise accordingly ... yellow pages, radio/TV, internet, church bulletins, community newsletters, flyers in apartment buildings ... you decide.

Pickup/delivery is definitely profitable if you stick to your 'rules.' I now turn away more business than I accept ... one unexpected benefit is that I was able to cut back my yellow page advertising!

Good luck ... Mungo

[soapboxmary]

There are numerous apartment buildings in my area. Senior housing as well as other. I am ready to market to these locations. What have you found that works in getting apartment management to work with this endeavor? They will need to agree to providing central location for their residents to leave their laundries for pickup and delivery.
Are there any personal success stories out there?

[Kitty]

First, IMO you are treading on anothers territory. Apt complexes have laundries, either owned by the establishment or leased by an outside company. Your suggestion will be to take a portion of their business into your establishment. Not sure they would take kindly to your thinking. Even though your P/U and delivery is a service and different from the self serv sector it could cut into their coin revenue.

In addition to you marketing direct to their clientelle, remember the CLA has also hired a national PR firm to also capitalize on the apt complex customers that are currently doing business with their apt laundries. Management will not want their customers swayed from their grounds to another establishment. However, if the management does keep up things and doesn't care you may have the luck in taking them.

I can't imagine any apt complex taking responsibility of a drop off location.

[pete f]

There are numerous apartment buildings in my area. Senior housing as well as other. I am ready to market to these locations. What have you found that works in getting apartment management to work with this endeavor? They will need to agree to providing central location for their residents to leave their laundries for pickup and delivery.
Are there any personal success stories out there?

I think you will need door to door service.. I will agree with Kitty on this point. Granted, neither of us has actual experience in the market you suggest, it is our own gut feelings, well my gut and her whatever.

[Kitty]

OMG, I have to stand up, Pete agreed with me again.

[carylrich1]

Hello there,
I too have just started pick up and delivery and I had an apartment complex call me because there are units that are still being built and some that are already rented and construction on their laundry facilities fell behind just as the new tenents were starting to move in. They tried the drop off service and that worked for one day until they realized they had to lug it all. It was at the beginning of August that they said theyd need the service for one month, but in talking to here this week she said mid Oct. We pick up Mon, Wed, Fri and this schedule seems to be working good. They also said they thought this was a great service to offer their residents and they would be happy to allow the tenents to drop their bags at the office and I could pick them up. Hopefully this was a good way for the tenents to try my service and really enjoy the fact that they have not done laundry for the last month. The company is paying for their laundry as their construction fell behind. So I guess it does happen and boy, will I be sad when this is over but I am already starting to look around, as there are plenty of mill buildings being renovated in my area, so maybe you have this kind of situation in your area. Good luck ! You can do it!!!!
Kind regards,
Caryl

[dzender]

First, IMO you are treading on anothers territory. Apt complexes have laundries, either owned by the establishment or leased by an outside company. Your suggestion will be to take a portion of their business into your establishment. Not sure they would take kindly to your thinking. Even though your P/U and delivery is a service and different from the self serv sector it could cut into their coin revenue.

In addition to you marketing direct to their clientelle, remember the CLA has also hired a national PR firm to also capitalize on the apt complex customers that are currently doing business with their apt laundries. Management will not want their customers swayed from their grounds to another establishment. However, if the management does keep up things and doesn't care you may have the luck in taking them.

I can't imagine any apt complex taking responsibility of a drop off location.


Kitty .... what in the hell are you talking about?

Do you honestly think that the top load washers and 15 pound dryers the landlord is providing adequately serve the tenants?

Just how do they wash their comforters, blankets, etc in that equipment? If they are handicapped, just how do they do their everyday laundry in that "ADA Compliant" equipment?

CLA itself said at Clean Show the biggest competition to coin laundries are landlord provided facilities. So you are just going to bow down to this imaginary power called a "landlord" that could quite possibly turn into a niche market for this operator?

You want to wait for CLA to introduce a "marketing plan" aimed at apartment residents? How many of these residents do you think will see this advertising? Moreover, how many of these tenants who actually do see the advertising will react to it?

Give me a break! This is business. Your liberal nonsense is showing in this matter. With your line of thinking, I'd welcome you as a competitor to my market any day.

I personally cater to the apartment managers in the area and take over 40 of them to lunch on a quarterly basis. They all know that their water isn't hot, their equipment is crap and their tenants deserve better. We're continually giving them marketing materials for my laundry to distribute in their move-in packets to new residents and in return posting their apartment listings on our message board.

Christ lady, before you go spewing about the "poor helpless landlord", learn the market and remember that your business is first and foremost!

[Mungo Spike]

I do pickup and delivery at about a dozen apartment buildings. We pickup and deliver most orders at the front desk - management holds the laundry for those customers. Other apartment-dwellers leave their laundry outside their apartment doors or give us keys to their apartments. In several cases the building management requested flyers to distribute to the residents or post on their bulletin boards.


I ran into only one situation where another company had exclusive rights to provide laundry service in an apartment building - no one else could advertise or provide service. In yet another building, a company bought exclusive rights to market their service in the building, but anyone else could provide service if requested by a resident.


Good luck ... Mungo

[JSVLaundry]

Hey All,

I was offered a laundry route from a neighboring store (not really a competitor as he is too far) that is being closed down. The close down is due to the landlord not renewing the lease so that he can delelop the lad to medical offices or something.

So this guy has his route for sale. He states that he makes approx. $2,100 per month (gross) in pick up & delivery. He wants around $4,500 for the route.

How would I go about justifying that price? Is there a formula to follow.

I would assume that the income is inflated a bit & I would also assume that some customers wouldn't come over to me.

As for my store, I built an extension w/ (2) double & (2) triple wahsers & (2) dryers only for pick up & delivery, but I never got it going. So I have the space, I would need a driver & vehicle for this.

I would like any comments on this possible deal & what I would need to get this set up w/ a driver & tips on keeping these & getting more customers

How much do I pay the driver?
Does the driver wash the clothes as there is a separate room for this service that wouldn't interfere w/ the main store?
Would Monday's & Thursday's be enough for the scheduling?

My main headache was how do I get pick up & drop off customers w/o a driver & how do I get a driver set up w/o a costomer base?

Thanks

[WhatwasIThinkin]

pick-up and delivery is a great business but a huge pain. Getting good help is tough. Pile on that the liability and vehicle issues. I do it in Suffolk county and it is a best if you are in the store a lot.

[DaveLevenson]

I do a very small pickup/delivery volume for commercial accounts only. (It's hard to connect with residents when they're at home, these days.) I pay my attendants a per-call bonus for each pickup or delivery. They make the stops on their way in and out of my store at the beginning/end of each shift, as part of their commute. They process the work along with other WDF work during the shift. It works for me, but it probably doesn't scale up very far.

[Aromaz]

If you want a route start your own. Routes have no monetary value, unless it comes with signed contracts.

[Silent Roo]

I sold off one. The price is fair.

Ask him to document. If he will not offer him a % of the profit in payment for a year equaling more than 4500. ie if 2100 is what it produces he gets 450 a month for 12 months. If he is not willing to do that it may be overinflated. If it is priced right and you grow it you still have money and less outlay in the front end...

Gross depends on number of stops and type of work. It is important to know cost assumptions. Labor will be your biggest cost. The cost of production will be small as it is an additional cost. Figuring a cost of $1 a pound that means it is 2100 lbs a month or 500 lb a week or 100 lbs a day or 4-5 loads of laundry. Figuring your utility cost is simple from there. What does it cost you to run a 25-40 lb machine and your dryer?

Labor will be the killer. 4-5 loads is 1-2 hours worth of work (in the hotel industry) However pick up and delivery will be the deciding factor. having a person working 20 hr a week dedicated to this and you will lose money. If you already have attendants and it becomes part of their responsibilities it can work very well, as you are already paying them to be there.

[rmathome]

How does a pick up service work profitably? I have read in some places where laundromats add that as a service - picking laundry up from customers, doing a w/d/f and then delivering it to them.

Even though youd have to service just a small area, even if you had just 20 loads youd have to have someone driving all day just to pickup and drop off.

The driver would have to make $100 for the day. Plus your paying for the car/van.

How is this service structured to make money?

[Palmyra Jim]

I am moving forward with an offer on two locations that support themselves +24K if I replace one of the part time employees (25 hours a week). I am looking to develop dry cleaning drop off and pickup (there isn't any in the town where one is located. I have thought about pick up and delivery for both dry cleaning and laundry within a 3 mile radius also.

My plan is to pay for a full time attendant with the wdf and dry cleaning as soon as possible and then expand services for greater revenue. If anyone would be willing to share service agreements and contract that would be great!!!

I am curious if there is experience out there on these models...
(hope you don't mind me piggy backing on your thread!!!)

Jim

[fishmanz]

I have a pick up and delevery service too. If you bring in your laundry to the store for drop off, it's .90 per lb with a 10 lb. minimum. To have pick up and delevery I charge $2.00 per lb with a 20 lb minimum.

To pick up and delever is 2 trips back and forth plus the cost of the actual wash plus paying your staff to do the work. BAH, It isn't worth it for anything less than $40.

[Palmyra Jim]

Sounds about right. It isn't worth it unless I get paid.

Who are the best target market for pickup and delivery? What advertising works. For those of you who have delivery how have you found your clients? Any help appreciated.

This is getting interesting as the possibilities expand!!!

jim

[evi]

My laundromat is not in an area where WDF would benefit. People who may want this service goes to a more prestigious area. So if people won;t come to me why not go to them? Has anyone been sucessful in offering pickup/delivery routes of WDF laundry? Are people now ready to take advantage of this type of service?