Pls house, I started a registered transport biz with three hummer haice buses.

I got a private park in Yaba and in Ilorin. We have been in biz in the last 4 months.

It has been stories of no passengers, vehicles hanging around, paying drivers and manager

from my purse. I will appreciate if anyone will introduce better routes or accords that will turn

the biz around.

Thanks

Do you want to listen to me, you manager no nothing about the business, If you want to do the transport business,please start from local route, I means within Lagos,I will advice you to sell all the expensive bus you buy and buy vanagon buses,I promised you,you will recover your investment and you will need someone who is into the business not education, someone who know the in and out of the business, Thanks

The thought of selling them came to my mind but on second thought I believe I

have not given it the best shot. I need to give it a further push, possibly trying

other options.

See dont think of selling any of your bus , come to think of this it s your manager that is not doing you good and the drivers , I think you are the one doing BIG OGA , you ve to go there yourself and see what is going on , monitor it and discover the next plan to take , At least good thing will come soon , if u are doing good let me know I can give u more plan on what to do . good luck

I have taken time to check out my manager. I guess the man is trying to get us on our feet.

The corrupt drivers have been weeded out, yet the sale is not picking at all. I BELIEVE THERE WILL BE

ROUTES OUT THERE that will be a little profitable

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I hardly know a thing about the transport business, but I just want to suggest that you may have to lower your prices (bus fares) temporarily. You should advertise your business online on websites such as vconnect, google trader, dealfish, etc. You can also make use of bulk sms and see how it works out. Wish you the best, God bless.

If you ve check your manager as you said then ckeck your park location , do u ve any park there loading your route and how much is the fare price, knowing these you ve to plan the next move by compentent with them by fare price lowing it will encourage the passenge since nobody know your company before and this is what passengers first look at be4 entrying a bus , do this and let see what happen next , gdluck

The mistake in your business is going to start in a private park.

Shelve that arrangment. Go to Peace Mass transit or any other well-known transporter.

Ask them to allow you load your buses at their park when their own buses for a particular route are gone. Most likely they will ask for a share of your profits but it will work out well. It may not even be on an official basis, but for your own protection, discuss with the management and let them tell you what to do.

You may not make the money you projected but at least, this will be a start.

If I was in your shoes I will sell the vehichles before you get stressed out or get an high blood pressure.

Majority of those drivers are useless and criminals, they will run the business down with excuses everyday.

Its either the enginee problem today or they were caught by the police or armed robbery.

kokorunna:

If I was in your shoes I will sell the vehichles before you get stressed out or get an high blood pressure.

Majority of those drivers are useless and criminals, they will run the business down with excuses everyday.

Its either the enginee problem today or they were caught by the police or armed robbery.

How has your post helped the OP? Someone is asking for help and rather than give a thoughtful reply, you just say anything that enters your head without thinking. Help the guy please.

@stagger - Mind your language , I was only giving the guy my advice.


If you don't know how to talk to people, then keep your MOUTH SHUT

Yeah, First of all, let me advice that you dont sell the vehicles. You will still make something out of it. I dont know what is happening at the Yaba Park these days. I tried boarding a Ibadan vehicle at the Park sometimes around October and the bus was not full for more than 4 hours on that day. I had to change route somehow that day.
So I understand that, that could be the situation with your business and so on.
At this point, I will like to advice that you make your drivers and Manager have a sense of belonging in the business. Let them know that you all own it even though, you know you are the 100% owner. Try get good persons to drive.
Use this period as an opportunity, How? You do it be reducing your fares no matter what, then carry out adverts on TV or any other form and specifically tell people how nice your bus is, how considerate and responsible your drivers are, the discount and other incentives you may give for them boarding your bus. Don't be surprised at the turn out.
In the main time, try look for other Parks where people come well to get buses such as Ojota but still stick to your Yaba park and try apply all these things as adviced, there should be a turn around.

Then I want to ask, what routes do you engage in, Lagos to where? Places like Lagos-Abuja, Lagos-PH, and the likes are always a hit.

kokorunna:

@stagger - Mind your language , I was only giving the guy my advice.


If you don't know how to talk to people, then keep your MOUTH SHUT

I write with my fingers, not with my mouth!

I'm not familiar with this vehicle thing but let me give you general idea about it.
Patience is the key, before you touch your precious money you are supposed to introduce to client first LET THEM KNOW. Things will be tight if you wish to compete with well established firm because you will want to attempt things you cant afford, humble beginning is very important like why 3 hummer why not one or two? why hummer sef . Rather than looking at 100 passengers be consistent with five and keep saving the little profit aside then you'll start getting bigger and better.
Matter of fact until your business is a year old assume you don't have a business, keep your day job(or get a part  time job) and save forget the super profit but don't make a loss. This stage is your foundation just pretend you are volunteering for yourself. Within this one year learn and have strategy it is ok to fake it till you make it the money from your other job keep pouring it in your business and although in your mind you know the new project is struggling but make people believe it's not so they believe your product. It is going to be very hard at first but nothing comes easy what can kill is if you quit your day job it is double trouble.
There are days that you will want to quit take a break if you must but don't give up. Secondly if you are a Muslim or christian pray and fast dedicate it to God. Point of my essay humble beginning is important don't brag about being a CEO making millions forget that side you need to build company foundation, its just four month no need to complain yet, this time by June the story will change patient is very important.
Print lots of business card leave it to related companies, befriend people that will introduce others, go on moonfruit.com and build your new company a website select free trial and buy a domain name if necessary, when the site is being edited have a page for service and bookings. Open a fan page on Facebook add your website, add pictures and share to your friends and tag people and let them share too goodluck
i'm a business consultant / accountant i have a business too Business is only great with time

its only four months oga and guess what XMAS/New year is around the corner; this is the high season
you didn't tell us if you are based in the same city or even same country

In the initial stage you are expected to use your capital to keep the business running, you might want to consider selling
one of the vans to keep the business going for another 6months

If you can why don't you take control of one of the Vans yourself for a week, try different parks with that van
leaving the rest to their normal routine


_{chei when did whiteroses become a business consultant,
no be yesterday for this site you enter pompey uni?}

whats pompey uni? i barely come on this site me and one of my sister use this account

Though ppl hav said alot, but there are things I'll like to know from you b4 I culd say anything. Get across 2 me 08039392941. Till then

Dis Guy:

its only four months oga and guess what XMAS/New year is around the corner; this is the high season
you didn't tell us if you are based in the same city or even same country

In the initial stage you are expected to use your capital to keep the business running, you might want to consider selling
one of the vans to keep the business going for another 6months

If you can why don't you take control of one of the Vans yourself for a week, try different parks with that van
leaving the rest to their normal routine


_{chei when did whiteroses become a business consultant,
no be yesterday for this site you enter pompey uni?}

To me this is the advice you should follow, transport is milk cow in Lagos but you get f**ked if you are not involved, Haulage business nearly killed my. I and my friend bought three trailer with flat bed backs (used for bulk cargo and containers) but still retained our jobs in a bank, we lost everything by bros.

the best thing that makes a good business man is knowing when to call the quite, i advise that you sell those buses on hire-purchase to serious drivers, the drivers will be working their ass to pay you, if they default, the agreement will allow you to re-acquire the buses back. You can add up-to 50% the cost of purchasing the bus and spread the payment plan over 18,24 or 36 month depending.

@ Poster I'm heartened by the response people have given you here. It's really nice to see that people here genuinely want to help. Unfortunately having read through these posts i can honestly say none of the responders has ever dabled in the transport business. All the bits of advise I've read here can be summarised into the following

1. Sell Bus ( A joke since you are trying to improve the biz in the first instance)

2. Lower Fares (Another joke as this would mean you run more loss b'cos of overheads and running costs)

3. Advertise ( Impractical & overly expensive considering your scale and general nature of the biz)

4. Talk to the drivers i.e try to make them see d light (LMFAO )

5. Use another park ( There might just be some wisdom here but there are major logistical issues to consider)

Here's my two cents worth: Running a loss in transport biz is a given,even established names "The Young","ABC","Ekene","Peace" etc etc,go through phases when they are unable to balance the books.
I myself am an intermittent entrepreneur when ever I've made some cash in London i come back home and put something on the ground. My experience with this was not fun although i started at a smaller scale than you.

At the stage you are now,you would need to make yourself a regular fixture at the parks during loading times. This is very important!!!! It's abit like any other informal start up. You need to be there for the first few weeks/months. The significance of this is that you'll would know what the average taking "should" be. Importantly they will also know that you know,so whenever there is a decline you can confidently put your foot down.

In summary you've chosen a lucrative but rather challenging line of biz. Unfortunately honesty and reliability in our dear country is as scare as hen's teeth!! But it's possible,just know you'll have to pound the pavement YOURSELF for a little while longer. Good luck mate!