Automotive Discussion

Post a Response

Garages Closed from midnight #

Posted by Ian Waring on March 23, 2020, 10:05 pm
Edited by board administrator March 25, 2020, 8:29 am

As above.

Any thoughts please?

Cheers
Ian

Re: GARAGES CLOSED FROM MIDNIGHT?

Posted by keith geach on March 23, 2020, 10:47 pm, in reply to "GARAGES CLOSED FROM MIDNIGHT?"
Keith Geach

At the moment not sure it applies to garages as mots need to be carried to keep the vehicles legal and other work to keep vehicles safe needs to done.
Essential repairs on vehicle at least in most of the country need to be done to allow essential journeys.
Unless the government tell us otherwise, I suppose.

Re: GARAGES CLOSED FROM MIDNIGHT?

Posted by andyhyoung on March 23, 2020, 10:55 pm, in reply to "Re: GARAGES CLOSED FROM MIDNIGHT?"
Andrew Young

Looking at the situation in Italy, during lockdown ,garages/repair services ,plumbing etc are allowed to operate .With minimal personal contact and by appointment only.

Re: GARAGES CLOSED FROM MIDNIGHT?

Posted by Ian Waring on March 23, 2020, 11:28 pm, in reply to "Re: GARAGES CLOSED FROM MIDNIGHT?"

Wonder if parts are going to be readily available?

Re: GARAGES CLOSED FROM MIDNIGHT?

Posted by Ian Waring on March 23, 2020, 11:36 pm, in reply to "GARAGES CLOSED FROM MIDNIGHT?"

Is anybody considering closing for a period of time?

Re: GARAGES CLOSED FROM MIDNIGHT?

Posted by keith geach on March 24, 2020, 8:19 am, in reply to "Re: GARAGES CLOSED FROM MIDNIGHT?"
Keith Geach

Unless we have to close because we are told to or the parts suppliers stop working.
But at the moment MOTs have to be done for key workers.

Re: GARAGES CLOSED FROM MIDNIGHT?

Posted by Russell Davey on March 24, 2020, 9:41 am, in reply to "Re: GARAGES CLOSED FROM MIDNIGHT?"
Russell Davey

Same in France, Spain & the US.

UK confirmation here...

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-52011915

Re: GARAGES CLOSED FROM MIDNIGHT?

Posted by andyhyoung on March 24, 2020, 9:50 am, in reply to "Re: GARAGES CLOSED FROM MIDNIGHT?"
Andrew Young

Just looking at the BBC news this morning, garages are one of the businesses allowed to remain open.

Re: GARAGES CLOSED FROM MIDNIGHT?

Posted by Karen Waring on March 24, 2020, 1:15 pm, in reply to "Re: GARAGES CLOSED FROM MIDNIGHT?"

I have to be honest, I would be very relieved if Ian's (Waring) hand was forced in all this and he had to close.

We had a rather heated debate over, desire to be there for our loyal customers, Ian's health and of course the finances. Unless forced, Ian is very unlikely to shutdown.

The compromise might be (and actually more in line with gov instruction), to only undertake essential repairs.

I hope your decision over health/finances and customer service are easily made!

Best wishes for every ones health and well-being throughout this chaos.

Re: GARAGES CLOSED FROM MIDNIGHT?

Posted by aidan Birley on March 24, 2020, 10:52 pm, in reply to "Re: GARAGES CLOSED FROM MIDNIGHT?"
Aidan Birley

we to are open at moment but only working on essential repairs for key workers (NHS, food chain, vets and other similar essential services)

Local land rover dealer has closed down indefinitely and I tried to order parts off TPS last thing for tomorrow and they refused to take order as parts person did not expect them to be open in the morning!

so I guess parts are going to become a problem!

Aidan

Re: GARAGES CLOSED FROM MIDNIGHT?

Posted by Karen Waring on March 24, 2020, 11:54 pm, in reply to "Re: GARAGES CLOSED FROM MIDNIGHT?"

Lookers are also closed indefinitely, according to their website.

So yes, parts may well be a decider ultimately.

Re: Garages Closed from midnight #

Posted by Peter Warman on March 25, 2020, 8:55 am, in reply to "Garages Closed from midnight #"

Hi Ian

Worrying time for everyone. I am situated on a Business Park which accounts for around 90% of my business. There are 19 units with many in IT so they are now working from home, a few have shut and the rest on skeleton staff, so the work has virtually stopped, so I am self isolating at the workshop

as literally no one around, so the office is getting a makeover (I have had the odd job but well down on usual)

With the government setting up a field hospital at the Excel centre in London for 4,000 people I suspect it is going to get more serious over the next few weeks, so could be even more restrictions, definitely not going to end any time soon

ECP are still delivering at the moment

Many of us like myself have been trading for 40 years plus and can see that all disappearing over the next 6 months, it's heartbreaking and only the financially strong will survive, I cannot see the Government helping out to keep Self Employed / Independents afloat with payments, much too complicated to work out individually (in a short time frame) and certainly open to abuse by the unscrupulous

We just have to stay strong and keep safe, physically and mentally

Peter

Re: Garages Closed from midnight #

Posted by Russell Davey on March 25, 2020, 10:28 am, in reply to "Re: Garages Closed from midnight #"
Russell Davey

This may be of interest to some...

"Support for businesses that pay little or no business rates
The government will provide additional Small Business Grant Scheme funding for local authorities to support small businesses that already pay little or no business rates because of small business rate relief (SBBR), rural rate relief (RRR) and tapered relief. This will provide a one-off grant of £10,000 to eligible businesses to help meet their ongoing business costs."

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/guidance-to-employers-and-businesses-about-covid-19/covid-19-support-for-businesses

Re: Garages Closed from midnight #

Posted by Peter Warman on March 25, 2020, 11:53 am, in reply to "Re: Garages Closed from midnight #"

Thanks Russell

I don't pay any rates as I am under the threshold, and I own my building, so more fortunate than some, but with no work money saved will soon run low. This grant would certainly help

TPS have just tweeted they are still operating, but phone orders only and will deliver. ECP will also stay open

Peter

Re: Garages Closed from midnight #

Posted by Karen Waring on March 25, 2020, 2:33 pm, in reply to "Re: Garages Closed from midnight #"

I really feel for those garages which are already experiencing the ill-effects of the virus.

We are a very small garage and I must say, at the moment, very busy despite everything. Must stress, 'at the moment'.

But as I have previously commented, it really is a fine balance between risking the virus and looking after finances.

Hopefully, the government will come up with something workable to help those self-employed workers who need it, pronto!

Re: Garages Closed from midnight #

Posted by Colin Hedger on March 29, 2020, 11:36 pm, in reply to "Re: Garages Closed from midnight #"
Colin Hedger

I'm the same as Peter but dont own the building, just paying rent. Any help is appreciated and better than nothing of course but I hear talk of the self employed being paid 80% of their profits, PAYE workers 80% of their normal earnings. Well my profit is AFTER the rent and other overheads have been taken out. 80% would pay my rent and other expenses but there would be nothing left to live on.
Work for me has completely stopped, I've earnt £50 in the last 10 days. The internet is AWASH with ideas on how to stop spending money, so EVERYBODY will be financially hit. I think only the most astute and comfortable will survive.
Sorry to be all doom and gloom but this will NOT be like taking a month off work!

Colin.

Re: Garages Closed from midnight #

Posted by Russell Davey on March 30, 2020, 9:33 am, in reply to "Re: Garages Closed from midnight #"
Russell Davey

Ask your Landlord if he qualifies for the 10k grant. I have a another premises that I rent off a property firm and the landlord is doing all (12 other tenants) the claims on our behalf.

It's in the landlords interest to keep you going after all.

Re: Garages Closed from midnight #

Posted by Sean Connelly on April 23, 2020, 12:29 pm, in reply to "Re: Garages Closed from midnight #"

Hi everyone,

Difficult times for us all

I would recommend anyone able to, to claim their business grants now. My local council has paid me out for the two properties/businesses I have. One we own the property and the other we rent but usually pay the rates (but currently get small business rates relief for both).

Our landlord for the rented property has very kindly offered to waive one months rent when I explained our situation (we closed from 1st April) even though we had some work including Taxi testing as our staff were very concerned about catching the virus and I have a duty of care to them.

All my staff are furloughed and have just submitted the first claim for wages on Monday when the new website went live.

I have contacted all my service suppliers to see what they can do. Workwear & dust mats supplier won't charge us for rental whilst we're closed. An IT company I use to look after web & SEO stuff cut their charge by a two thirds. Waste collections have stopped. I took the time to reassess my advertising and have reduced that significantly with BT, Thomson Local but Yell are a bit more difficult. We were out of contract with BT for phone & internet, so opted for some new deals with them and again made a useful saving whilst increasing two standard ADSL connections to Fibre.

Hopefully we will have enough money in the bank to pay our fixed overheads for 3 months but I hope we can partly reopen sooner than that. I can probably make some further savings if need be but certainly don't want to borrow any money.

Time will tell. In the mean time hope you all stay safe and well.

Regards

Sean

Link: Macclesfield MOT & Service Centre

Re: Garages Closed from midnight #

Posted by Colin Hedger on April 25, 2020, 11:43 pm, in reply to "Re: Garages Closed from midnight #"
Colin Hedger

I, like many self employed people have always been the master of my own destiny and was wondering how I was going to survive.No ones ever handed me anything before.

Having heard of the small business grant, I thought 'I wont get that' then the 80% of the last three years self employed profits 'I wont get that' either.
Well, with no effort, I was contacted by my local council and with minimal form filling was given the 10k small business grant - very grateful . A few days later I decided to stop tidying the workshop and give something back.

I am now offering NHS and key workers FREE LABOUR on their essential car repairs. No catch or inflated parts prices, just my normal parts mark up. I've never been so busy (12hr days)and have so far carried out about £2000 of FREE work in the last 2 weeks. Probably made £150 per week on the parts.

My thoughts are that
1/ Its nice to give back
2/ Get some good will and meet some other kind people
3/ Get some positive feedback and some good reviews
4/ Might get some proper paying customers when all this is over, already had some people saying they will use me in the future.
5/ If I get the 80% self employed profits (which looks promising) then, coupled with the £150 parts profit, I might just survive financially!

The only downsides are the pisstakers who want me to fit their own clutches for free with warranty, the scrappy old wrecks who need muliple repairs with minimal parts and massive amounts of labour and the people pretending the car is theirs when its actually their brothers.

I hope someone up there sees this as payback for some of the not so good things I have done in my life!

Stay safe

Colin.

« Back to index

[ Automotive Discussion ]