I used to live in rural Ireland for about three years. Those who live there know that the only way of getting around is driving. Some people like walking or cycling. These two later options are dangerous because the roads are extremely narrow. Back to the cleaning industry, it was really hard to get cleaners to come and do cleaning. Most cleaning companies just said we are not servicing that area and they cut off.
Transport problmes make it difficult to serve rural Ireland
It was not until l was involved with the cleaning business that l learned why it was like that. The first issue is the transport one. Regular cleaning is usually done by cleaners who do not drive. In cities cleaners can easily walk, cycle or take a bus to work. In the rural areas one must drive. Even if you drive the job has to be regular and last more hours for cleaners to commit. In most cases households do not like to commit to cleaning companies. They forget to some of us its a job which keeps food on our tables.
The time factor
The second issue is that it takes a lot of time on the road for cleaners. In most cases the time taken travelling is equal or more than the cleaning time. Most small cleaning companies do not pay for the travelling hours but the actually work. You can't really blame them, the profits margins in the cleaning industry are very narrow. To the cleaners it is pointless to spend such a long time on the road.
Client apathy
In our company we tried to get around all these problems by charging a bit more for rural addresses. We wanted to cover for transport costs and the time lost travelling. It did not work. The clients never got over it and to prevent problems we just stopped servicing rural Ireland. There were some people who were prepared to bring in the cleaners but it was something we have already lost interest in .
I hope that in future the government provide reliable public transport in country roads. That will help a lot and people can receive cleaning services at reasonable rates.
