Thinking of buying a 3 ton van or something similar and going self employed around northwest any tips or heads up please thanks
keepthefaith:
Thinking of buying a 3 ton van or something similar and going self employed around northwest any tips or heads up please thanks
Yes, if you want to make it pay, refer to 3 fifteens and 2 thirteens as a short week
Long hours and high overheads.
Definitely easier work out there.
I tired it ages ago with transit.
insurance back then because your a courier was about 150 a month.
can join courier exchange .for a monthly fee
lots of companies list jobs especially cargo2go.
you ring give em a price. but be warned these days theres a lot of people at it and compnays will haggle want things doing as cheap as possible.
I found putting adds on gum tree etc man and van was getting a fair amount of work doing tip runs helping people moving furniture plus is cash in hand .
but yeah its hard work and need to be on the ball have a brain. be organised as you have to always chase companys for payments…
if you don’t chase them up they wont pay you.
I did it for 4 years with a lwb transit but eneded up taking up a full time job offer.
No chance these days the EEs have ruined that game as well
I did it for a couple of years before I got my HGV. I found there wasn’t money in it if you do it properly (and Courier Exchange used to require proof of documents).
Between Cx, motor insurance for carriage of goods and public liability and goods in transit insurance, I need to clear at least £200 a month before profit. Then there’s fuel (the Jumbo used to do about 35 mpg). When I started, I could charge £1 per loaded mile (I would never dual load; one customer, one load) but I saw people advertising at 30p/mile.
If you’ve got the ability to pick up backloads, yeah that’ll help but you can forget about mega-money.
IIRC there’s some talk of tacho’s in 3.5t in the near future, so that’ll stop the 19 hour runs to Aberdeen and back on 90 minutes sleep.
Freedom great, ringing for jobs not (for me). I made a point of invoices being emailed/posted out same day and I got lucky in that I only had to chase a couple - one for months though.
Bear in mind the initial cost of the van is going to be a chunk; can you make that back? Lots of companies wanted under 3 year old, unmarked white when I did it.
Check the costs mate, my instinct is it won’t pay.
Les Shoes:
keepthefaith:
Thinking of buying a 3 ton van or something similar and going self employed around northwest any tips or heads up please thanksYes, if you want to make it pay, refer to 3 fifteens and 2 thirteens as a short week
What is he supposed to do the rest of the week?
Chris C70:
I did it for a couple of years before I got my HGV. I found there wasn’t money in it if you do it properly (and Courier Exchange used to require proof of documents).Between Cx, motor insurance for carriage of goods and public liability and goods in transit insurance, I need to clear at least £200 a month before profit. Then there’s fuel (the Jumbo used to do about 35 mpg). When I started, I could charge £1 per loaded mile (I would never dual load; one customer, one load) but I saw people advertising at 30p/mile.
If you’ve got the ability to pick up backloads, yeah that’ll help but you can forget about mega-money.
IIRC there’s some talk of tacho’s in 3.5t in the near future, so that’ll stop the 19 hour runs to Aberdeen and back on 90 minutes sleep.
Correct it won’t pay
Freedom great, ringing for jobs not (for me). I made a point of invoices being emailed/posted out same day and I got lucky in that I only had to chase a couple - one for months though.Bear in mind the initial cost of the van is going to be a chunk; can you make that back? Lots of companies wanted under 3 year old, unmarked white when I did it.
Check the costs mate, my instinct is it won’t pay.
keepthefaith:
Thinking of buying a 3 ton van or something similar and going self employed around northwest any tips or heads up please thanks
Do a proper business plan including researching how much competition there is locally and how much they’re charging and then you’ll get an idea of whether it’ll pay or not.
All I’ll say is there are so many around me doing it they’re grubbing for runs on Facebook and offering rates which won’t even give them minimum wage.
Years ago I spoke to someone doing abit for TNT he used to run his own ■■■■■■ doing small stuff but it was so cut throat and very long hours it was not worth the trouble.
With the long days and call outs any time day or night he made less than the minimum basic hourly rate.
Don’t bother , I’m on Ford transit forum and one member has said stuff it doing multi parcels , sold his van , took his cat C and now drives tippers
I ran a van as well but got out 4 months before City link went pop
Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk