A bit of market research

[mat13]

Remember when you got your first 4x4? When you weren't very confident? When you didn't know many people in the scene but still wanted to get out there?

Would you have paid for someone expirienced to take you out in a small group greenlaning? Offering informal tuition, navigation help and advice on treading lightly and also being there to recover you if you need it (for peace of mind more than anything).

Basically this is something a friend and I are looking at setting up in the peak district and I just wanted to know what you guys would think would be a fair price. I was thinking around 35 quid for a full days laning.

Cheers guys

[pugwash4x4]

www.4x4adventures.co.uk does something much the same already down in the southwest- haev a look at their "drive round days ".

You need to do it somewhere private where you can make the place a bit more interesting!

[rhinochopig]

No. Off I went in the middle of winter in a freezing fog on my own and without any tools to extricate myself.

After discovering that the Landrover does indeed have some limits - mainly ground clearance ones. I spent five very very cold hours doing the following:

• 10 - Covering myself and the vehicle in mud as I tried to burrow my way to the centre of the earth,
• 20 - Jacking up each corner of the vehicle on a wobbly bottle jack balanced on a piece of ally heat-shield I hadn't got around to re-attaching trying to pack stuff under each wheel
• 30 Goto 10.

I eventually managed to free myself and drove home for a hot batch, lesson well and truly learned.

It's character building I tell thee.

[JCW]

mat13 said:

Remember when you got your first 4x4? When you weren't very confident? When you didn't know many people in the scene but still wanted to get out there?

Would you have paid for someone expirienced to take you out in a small group greenlaning? Offering informal tuition, navigation help and advice on treading lightly and also being there to recover you if you need it (for peace of mind more than anything).

Basically this is something a friend and I are looking at setting up in the peak district and I just wanted to know what you guys would think would be a fair price. I was thinking around 35 quid for a full days laning.

Cheers guys

I think it has legs, but you may need to reappraise your target audience. Practically, you can't really take out more than four at a time (excluding yourself) so I'd up your package price to £45.00 to at least gross £180.00 per day and then I'd look at marketing it towards people who wouldn't normally take their 4x4 off road and perhaps don't even realise that its legal to do so.

The issues you'll need to consider are:

• Marketing costs - DMs, advertising, word of mouth etc
• Insurance - not sure of the implications here? Public liability perhaps?
• Maintenance costs - fuel, damage etc
• Environmental - if you utilise the same lanes, then you'll make yourself unpopular with someone.

Goody luck, anyway.

[il ritorno uno]

I have paid someone to take me out and I am an experienced green laner. I don't have the time nor the inclination to follow a map or researching an area prior to travel so me and a few mates often pay someone to take us out around Wales. Going rate is £50 per day and we usually do a weekend. There are quite a few people around that do it though.

[waterwonder]

I'm thinking about getting my first 4x4 primarily for offroading. I'd consider paying for a guide/casual tution. However I would want to go somewhere I couldn't easily find on google etc.

If I can liken it to being a ski guide. There is small Market for showing daft ppl who can't read a piste map around the resort. However the money is in the guides who can take you off piste and show you all the good stuff that your average joe would never find, or would never dare try without a professional.

Apply a similar philosophy and I think you maybe have a market.

[mat13]

That's the sort of thing I'm thinking, places like stanage edge can be tackled by a standard 4x4 if you have someone who knows the lines, and no the easiest lines are not obvious at first glance.