No CPC or O Licence is required for vehicles which are rated below 3.5 tons, these are also exempt from Tachos, however, if you were using say a 3.5 ton GVW Movano fully loaded and then put a trailer on the back, this would then bring it under Tacho Regs as it now exceeds the 3.5 ton GVW.
Personally I would say start small with a 3.5 tonner, then once you’ve mastered the business getting decent contracts apply to the Commissioners for an O Licence, to use 7.5 tonners upwards, you will need a CPC holder, however, that can be overcome using a CPC holder agency until you obtain your own, I myself have stood as a TM for a couple of mates to let them get their business up and running until they passed the CPC themselves.
I cant remember the exact amount required in the bank now but believe its around £6,000 per vehicle required to cover maintainance etc, and must have been in the bank for around 3 to 6 months, but I may be wrong there.
A full servicing schedule has to be supplied to them, but this could be just a contract with a local garage carrying out services at no more than 6 weekly intervals, also required is a centre where the vehicles need to be parked, and the premises would need to be covered by Planning Permission to be used as a parking area for HGV’s
Insurance, well you could use 3rd party fire and theft, but it’s your decision, however, Goods in Transit would be required to cover yourself for any theft, or accident involving loss of goods etc, we pay a percentage of the value per year for what we import, I think last years charge was something like £400 to cover £350,000 worth of goods from the far east, but a good insurance broker would be able to come up with a tailor made package for you which includes vehicle property and transit insurance.
Another thing to bear in mind is that most companies dont like paying up within 30 days, so to cover yourself make sure you have sufficient funds to cover wages and fuel and repairs etc for at least 2 months.
If the above has not deterred you then good luck, you are determined