Harry Monk:
Rob K:
iguana:
I did it 12yrs ago & I’m still going.Could I earn more as an employed driver in a good gig? Certainly, do I want to do that- no.
Food is on the table, bills are paid, it’s not easy but I’m happy enough.
And right there is the reason why haulage rates are on their arse because you’ve got ODs quite happy to drag pallets around the country for buttons. Not bothered about actually making any money, just so long as it brings in enough for a bit of bingo money for the wife to keep her off my back.
Not really Rob. I ran my own truck for five years and made more than enough to make it worth my while.
How do you substantiate it being “worth my while” when in another thread you said :
Harry Monk:
Did I make a lot of money running a truck? No, not really, more like a wage I suppose.
You went through all the hassle of setting up a business, applying for an O-licence, securing the funding (granted, you already had it from your divorce - few have that “luxury”), searching for and sourcing a vehicle of questionable reliability, operating centre, work, then all the paperwork and red tape setting up insurances, breakdown cover, 6 weekly inspections and all the driver and vehicle compliance BS you have to do for VOSA and at the end of it all you cross fingers that the company pays you in 30 to 90 days time and doesn’t do a moonlight flit in interim and also hope you don’t get a blow-out or the engine go pop which would wipe out any profit you’d made. All this for a PAYE driver wage? So what’s that then - £500-650 on a good week after everything paid and deductions? 
How is that in any way, shape or form “worth my while” when you can set up as s/e or go on the agency and earn that in 3 days without any of the hassle? Walk in, pick up keys and paperwork, do delivery, ring in, pick up collection, drive back, drop trailer, hand in keys, get time sheet signed, go home, go to pub and have money in your bank account the following Friday. No hassles - as soon as you walk out of the t/o you switch off from ‘work’ mode and don’t return to it until you walk back in the next time you work. As an OD when you get home you fire up your computer and add your figures to your spreadsheets, do some invoicing, spend a bunch of time opening the stack of business related mail and then when you’re done you start worrying about that odd noise the truck was making earlier in the day and whether you should get it looked at before it strands you on the hard shoulder of the M1 throws up a £5k repair bill, £1k for the wrecker and £5k bill for the carriageway clean up and resurfacing after the truck dumps the contents of its engine across 3 lanes. And then the wife returns home empty handed having blown all the bingo money you gave her.
In your opinion that is “worth my while”? No, no it really is not and anyone that has even an ounce of sense can immediately see that. The ones that can’t see it are the ones wearing the blinkers that only see their name on their door and entire contents of the Kelsa and Alcoa showrooms rolling around in their eyelids because they’ve always wanted the glory of having their own truck since they were 5 years old. That counts for around 98% of ODs on the roads today.
When you can do a grand a week as a s/e driver with ease (more if you don’t mind doing weekends) without any hassles then to make being an OD worth your while you’d need to be doing minimum £1500 a week net for all the hassle, time and headaches that you have to deal with. How many of you ODs are doing £1500+ net week in week out? I’ll bet they can be counted on one hand.