Recovery Vehicle plan

Considering putting a 7.5 tonne recovery vehicle on road & working for myself. Anyone got any experience of this?

Costs
Operators License
Insurance

Only recently got back into HGV driving after 10 year break. Truth be told I dont want to answer to someone else anymore.

You don’t have to O licence it if it’s just recovery you are doing.(unless you do euro work where they are not happy with that arrangement) If for regular transport as well, then yes needed just as per a regular haulage operation.

Costs, well you can see truck costs easy enough, from £100k plus new, down to a couple of grand at the bottom end.

Insurance, it’s more than just a regular haulage operation, are a few options so you’d need to call around. Think the most I’ve paid was £6.5k pa, the least £1.5k depends on level of cover you need & area of operation, UK only is far cheaper & lots more options than doing EU stuff & if you don’t need high level of cover then obviously cheaper.

Other costs as per regular haulage, but one advantage is if its not on O licence you don’t need a proper yard so a pals farm or your own driveway can be OK, well only the later if you really want to upset your neighbours!

Don’t be tempted to run a flatbed rather than just a spec lift on no mot status, the exemption does not apply to them, despite many dodgy folks thinking it does.

iguana:
You don’t have to O licence it if it’s just recovery you are doing.(unless you do euro work where they are not happy with that arrangement) If for regular transport as well, then yes needed just as per a regular haulage operation.

Costs, well you can see truck costs easy enough, from £100k plus new, down to a couple of grand at the bottom end.

Insurance, it’s more than just a regular haulage operation, are a few options so you’d need to call around. Think the most I’ve paid was £6.5k pa, the least £1.5k depends on level of cover you need & area of operation, UK only is far cheaper & lots more options than doing EU stuff & if you don’t need high level of cover then obviously cheaper.

Other costs as per regular haulage, but one advantage is if its not on O licence you don’t need a proper yard so a pals farm or your own driveway can be OK, well only the later if you really want to upset your neighbours!

Don’t be tempted to run a flatbed rather than just a spec lift on no mot status, the exemption does not apply to them, despite many dodgy folks thinking it does.

Thanks very much. Great info. Plenty to consider

The market is saturated with both one man bands and large operators working on behalf of private individuals, motoring organisations and the motor trade alike. It is one very quick way to the poor house if you are not exceptionally astute with both the work you undertake and management of your cost base.

Trying to secure half sensible staff to cover work 24 hours a day is another big challenge the industry is facing at the present moment along with heavy scrutiny from DVSA after the recent removal of our testing exemptions for both light & heavy under-lifts.

Suggest agency supermarket/parcel trunking for an easy stress free life :smiley: :smiley: :smiley:

Ignore my £100k of above, I dare say you could probably spend it if you really wanted, but tad excessive for a new 7.5t, half that plus the vat area normal, iveco etc.

I would suggest going to 10t or 12t. Not massively more expensive to purchase and run, but gives far more options and much less chance of overloading against running 7.5t.