New Business: Wheelchair Ramps

random.stranger

Hi All,
I am an engineer, I have been searching for a new business idea. An occupational therapist has suggested to me that there may be opportunities in making permanent/semi-permanent metal wheelchair ramps (fixed ramps for access to buildings).

I thought I would post here to see if people would like to share their opinions of what is currently available, their preferences between metal/concrete/fibreglass/other ramps, how they decided on their current solution & if they found them to be expensive?

Any thoughts, tips, suggestions or ideas for improvement on what is currently available would be most welcome.

Please feel free to PM if not comfortable posting.

Thanks for your time.

Mental Mickey

random.stranger wrote: »

Hi All,
I am an engineer, I have been searching for a new business idea. An occupational therapist has suggested to me that there may be opportunities in making permanent/semi-permanent metal wheelchair ramps (fixed ramps for access to buildings).

I thought I would post here to see if people would like to share their opinions of what is currently available, their preferences between metal/concrete/fibreglass/other ramps, how they decided on their current solution & if they found them to be expensive?

Any thoughts, tips, suggestions or ideas for improvement on what is currently available would be most welcome.

Please feel free to PM if not comfortable posting.

Thanks for your time.

I think there is already a company who provides this? Promotability, I think is their name??

SerialComplaint

There may be a gap in the market about providing temporary ramps to rent or hire. These would range from small ramps to get up one or two steps, to fitted ramps to get access to stage areas at conferences.

random.stranger

Mental Mickey wrote: »

I think there is already a company who provides this? Promotability, I think is their name??

Thanks for your replies. The person I was talking to was giving their opinions based on their experience of the UK market. I was told that there were people providing wheelchair ramps, but the market was extremely uncompetitive several years ago for both custom & modular ramps.

Looking through promobility's website they appear to have made some very tidy custom built ramps.

I was investigating developing a business manufacturing a system of modular ramps similar to what promobility offer as Semi-permanent ramps, but more of a long term solution, made out of metal rather than fibreglass.

http://www.promobility.ie/component/k2/item/25-promobility-semi-permanent-ramps

A system similar to the stepless ramps supplied by enable supplies:
http://www.enablesupplies.com/subCategory.php?subCategory=56

So, I realise I am not proposing anything earth-shattering here, I would really like to know what people's experiences are of what's on the market & how expensive they have found them.

If the market is as uncompetitive as I have been lead to believe, it may offer an opportunity for me to build a business with modest resources.

SerialComplaint wrote: »

There may be a gap in the market about providing temporary ramps to rent or hire. These would range from small ramps to get up one or two steps, to fitted ramps to get access to stage areas at conferences.

Thanks SerialComplaint, that sounds like a nice area to get into. If the business was viable, I would certainly be interested in offering short term rentals.