Higster
New Member
Now the Cowes Water Taxi service is only running Sat & Sun (as apparently no one uses their boats Mon-Fri from the 1st Oct!), how do all the sailors who like to go to their boats on a mid river pontoon on a Friday get there?
Cowes Water Taxi Service
- Thread starter Higster
- Start date
prv
Well-Known Member
In their tender?
If I had a boat on a mooring, even if there was a water-taxi that I could regularly use, I would not want to not have my own transport as an alternative.
Pete
Fantasie 19
Well-Known Member
..no idea, but there seems to be two or three options here???
http://www.cowesharbourcommission.co.uk/water_taxis
Higster
New Member
We have a tender we keep at the folly and this is our normal mode of transport mainly due to the cost of the water taxi service. One weekend of taxi fees pays for a years worth of tender storage! But now imagine you want to get to or from your boat after 17:30 Mon - Fri, but do not want to use your tender, it appears there is no service after 17:30, (OK you may be able to pre-book something but have not tried that yet).
I also find it bizarre that there is no service after 18:00 on a Sunday even in the summer months, but it runs until 23:00 Mon to Friday, apparently no one uses their boat on a warm Sunday evening, but do so mid week.
I also find it bizarre that there is no service after 18:00 on a Sunday even in the summer months, but it runs until 23:00 Mon to Friday, apparently no one uses their boat on a warm Sunday evening, but do so mid week.
anoccasionalyachtsman
Well-Known Member
It's 17:00 on weekdays, 18:00 on weekends on the Hamble.
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I can think of many harbours where there is no taxi service at all, so even a limited one is a bonus, surely.
dunedin
Well-Known Member
Not just many harbours, perhaps many entire countries don’t have any water taxis. Are there any in Scotland, for example?
Very much a luxury not an essential for most people
ShinyShoe
Well-Known Member
Findhorn Marina?
MedinaView
Well-Known Member
It's an atrocity in Cowes. All these years Sally Water Taxi ran an all year round service, even running over Christmas, and Cowes Harbour Commission funded the Folly which resulted in Sally going out of business and Folly holding the monopoly of the river.
If you look at the options CHC give you on their website now they are all the same eMail address and companies house confirms that they are all the same company (partners).
I have mentioned this on a number of threads now as living in East Cowes and owning a boat on the river, we were really stuffed by this decision to give the monopoly to a company that is money driven unlike Sally who were service driven.
If you look at the options CHC give you on their website now they are all the same eMail address and companies house confirms that they are all the same company (partners).
I have mentioned this on a number of threads now as living in East Cowes and owning a boat on the river, we were really stuffed by this decision to give the monopoly to a company that is money driven unlike Sally who were service driven.
Topcat47
Well-Known Member
This decision had to done by a pen pusher who never used the river. You couldn't rely on the Folly taxi to get from the folly pontoons tot the pub, never mind anywhere else in the river....
MedinaView
Well-Known Member
Not exactly a massive surprise, but as reported on Facebook yesterday, after CHC removing all competition on water taxis in Cowes and giving it all to the Folly, it now appears that the Folly Waterbus is up for sale.
https://www.facebook.com/ALLNEWSPOT....1073741828.1543900115881437/1972185616386216
https://www.facebook.com/ALLNEWSPOT....1073741828.1543900115881437/1972185616386216
ganter
Well-Known Member
And you have to put up with Andy moaning about the World at large!
anoccasionalyachtsman
Well-Known Member
Other way round, he has to put up with me doing that.
brman
Well-Known Member
So if I read that right they make a turnover of £40k and that has to support all their running costs and salaries of two people plus adhoc summer labour.
Is that really a viable business or do they need to put their prices up?
Fantasie 19
Well-Known Member
Gross profit £19000 on a turnover of £40K - he can't be paying them much?
MedinaView
Well-Known Member
Cash business. 
brman
Well-Known Member
Doesn't look like it. I suspect that the only salary showing is one full time staff, owners income and possibly temporary staff costs might be mopped up in dividends and admin costs.
It is interesting that net profit is not quoted, perhaps because it will not look good to a perspective purchaser?
ganter
Well-Known Member
Love Andy - and yes, quite right.
Too long spent in his company and you think; "I'll do the red and greens out past Hamble Point, and throw myself overboard. Being Solo there won't be a MOB procedure as such."
Too long spent in his company and you think; "I'll do the red and greens out past Hamble Point, and throw myself overboard. Being Solo there won't be a MOB procedure as such."
MedinaView
Well-Known Member
It looks like Cowes Harbour have seen the error of their ways after 2 years of giving one terrible service the monopoly of the whole of Cowes.
ShinyShoe
Well-Known Member
14 days to produce a bid... mmm..
So either you already have a boat in the area and can make an offer, or you'd need to work through all the economics, cost up a boat, staff, running costs like fuel etc and assess potential demand and then submit your proposal...
Feels like there is a reason they didn't get other offers previously!
Back of a fag packet maths:
Max 12 pax (the most you'll be able to carry with a commercially endorsed PB2) - taking 10 minutes to get to where they want to go off load them and 5 minutes to the next uplift and so on you could transport a maximum ~50 pax / hour if the demand was there.
If you are charging them £2.50 a journey thats £125 /hr of income. Sounds OK. But you will be using a fair bit of fuel in that hour (?£15-20). Plus staff costs (£10 + overheads). If you were that busy I suspect you need someone to handle bookings separate to the driver (£10). If you go online Uber Like - you can add 2.5% card payments to your costs plus costs of online. I reckon you'll be lucky to be getting 50% of your revenue as "profit" and that is at maximum capacity.
If you need to provide the same level of service at off peak you might average 3 pax an hour, 2 journeys. Fuel costs will be less, but not proportionally. You could reduce booking staff, but you still need the boat helm to be available (£10/hr +). and your income could be as low as £7.50!
So how do you make this pay?
Could you set up an Uber arrangement? So you book through "Uber4Boats" and the buyer bids for what is available. At peak times you pay even more...? But then more operators can join. Would need regulation to control cowboys.