RENTING A GPS

[N6784N]

I am planning a small business to rent GPS units complete with WX/radio, echarts WX antenna and audio interface to pilots who only have a need for the full package on long xcountry flights to keep from having to pay for the GPS updates and monthly payments for WX/radio. Does anybody agree with me that there is a need for this? if you think you would take advantage of the service tell me what GPS would you most want to rent and if you disagree with the service, tell me why you dont think it will work. thanks for any input

 

jeff

[Piloto]

With the way the economy is now I think you will be better off renting caskets, people are dying for them. With the new public health plan there will be a higher demand for them. Most people can't afford purchasing a casket. There is no liability and its a miracle if a customer complains. You can include a GPS so they know their way to heavens.

José 

[mooneygirl]

Hi Jeff

I think your idea is a good one.  We purchased a slightly used 396 for our cross-country trip to OshKosh for Airventure in 2008.  Within one day of having it, in my mind, it paid for itself. I suppose my concern might be how long it would take for someone to become familiar with the unit. There might be online tutorials that would be necessary.

Would you have any liability if, let's say, the terrain warning failed and someone crashed?

My opinion would be the 396 would be the best unit.  I do know what the antennas can be the weak link, and do not like to be moved too much.

Are you thinking about a daily or weekly rate?  Kudos to you.  I wish you every good thing!

 

 

[N6784N]

Quote: mooneygirl

Hi Jeff

I think your idea is a good one.  We purchased a slightly used 396 for our cross-country trip to OshKosh for Airventure in 2008.  Within one day of having it, in my mind, it paid for itself. I suppose my concern might be how long it would take for someone to become familiar with the unit. There might be online tutorials that would be necessary.

Would you have any liability if, let's say, the terrain warning failed and someone crashed?

My opinion would be the 396 would be the best unit.  I do know what the antennas can be the weak link, and do not like to be moved too much.

Are you thinking about a daily or weekly rate?  Kudos to you.  I wish you every good thing!

 

 

[N6784N]

I agree with you that GPS moving map pay for themselves but my idea is for pilots that think like I do would keep the gps they have without having to pay continueous monthly bills and fly local with their personal gps units but when they want to take long trips which is only maybe every few months to just a couple of times a year that is a good idea to have weather onboard and maybe the radio if they get baord like me. I am looking into the terms of service because I really dont want to have to pay for somebody else mistakes.  I have the 396 and like it and will probably have it as a rental but I also plan on maybe a cheetah, 696 and av8tor that has all the bells and whistles. I will be doing weekend rentals and monthly rentals I think. I have been doing alot of research on my part becuase I really wanted the G500 but after doing the pro/con list I really cant justify it so I would rather have a unit that doesnt cost so much to support updating and no real ability to upgrade the unit when more software comes on the market. I really really want weather and radio in the plane but since I only fly long distance every so often I just cant justify the 50 + dollars per month that could go into savings or better yet feed my kids. I actually thought of this idea when I was laid off 6 months ago and tried to find a company that would rent packages like this but nobody does so hopefully I have come up with a good idea.

 

[carusoam]

Jeff,

Consider that a similar business plan works for AVIS.  I often rent cars and before I carried a portable GPS, I would rent a portable GPS at additional cost to whatever the car retal fees were.

Eventually I bought the one that is appropriate for me (garmin, believe it or not), and I stopped renting quickly.

You might consider who your customer really is.  Direct rental to customers renting airplanes, aircraft owners, or FBOs that are renting out the aircraft and possibly subletting YOUR GPS package.

You might get interesting feedback from your local FBO and flightschool.  They might be helpful, they might be your competition....  (I imagine some rent headsets and GPS already along with chart sales and candybars)

Ideas from the top of my head...Good luck.

- Anthony -

[Piloto]

I don't think the numbers are there for a minimum profit:

If you take the rent rate for a $150K C172 at $150/hr based on this the rate number for a $1000 GPS comes to $1.00/hour. If you decide to rent by day; a $20K car rents for $40/day based on this for a $1000 GPS that comes to $2.00/day. To make any reasonable profit you will have to get a large customer pool by mail, since the pilot population density looking for this is not as high as for those looking to rent a truck. I still think the casket rental is a better deal.

José

  

[Parker_Woodruff]

You'd have to FedEx overnight a GPS in general.  I think most people would rather just fork over $360/year for XM or pay for it when they need it if that's an option.

 

I just think the initial costs would be too much for anticipated demand...but I could be wrong.

Figure out how much it costs per cycle ($30 database, $30 charts, $30 weather) (~$100/month).  So you'd be looking at charging $50 to 2 people for 2 trips per cycle just to cover your operating costs.  Plus FedEx overnight to take advantage of the pilot population.

 

I think when people see a figure that's going to be $50-$150 for a rental, they'll just want to buy their own unit.

[Buster1]

I like the idea...need to think on it some.

[ErickR]

This is interesting as I was wishing someone had a gps to rent, when I needed to fly my (new to me) plane across the country to get her home. I ended up being able to borrow a 496 from someone.

Take your time and do some market research... Maybe you could purchase just a couple and give it a try. Then if the demand isn't there you could always sell them for a minimal loss.

 

[N6784N]

I think your right and I'm sure the market will be people needing a GPS when they buy a new airplane or rent airplanes but to get all of our costs down. I have already been in touch with XM and they told me themselves that we can have XM weather on two (2) GPS units. it's time to start buddying up and split the cost.

[hokiepilot]

I looked into this same business model not too long ago.  I did a lot of research and after looking at different scenarios, talking to the local FBO/pilots, and crunching all the numbers, it just didn't seem viable.  There's actually a company that tried to do this a while back and also found out that it wasn't profitable.  Their website is (was) http://weatherent.com.

 

[67M20F]

To bad sounds like a good idea, maybe you could just be the distributor to some schools, like the one in SLC they have alot of planes I think around 15 that they rent out to a club, thats were I would be looking anyway.

[N6784N]

Yep I think I figured out that it won't work. I think it's a good idea on paper but not so much in real life. I might buy a few  and advertise using only free adds later on but I don't expect it will go past that.

[mjc]

I've seen a couple of outfits try to do this, but using a rent-to-own model, such as http://www.factorygps.com/.

I've also heard of FBOs renting GPSes to their customers like they rent headsets, such as http://flflight.com/rentals.php.