Welcome Peroni, and fair play to you. I went the O/O route in 2000 but after weighing up pros and cons and risk v reward I opted for vans doing European fast freight reasoning that turnover was vanity and profit was sanity, and made an extremely comfortable living from that until the EE guys in vans with sleeper pods decimated that market. Hey ho, back to employed driver it was then. No regrets though.
Re the Renault Premium; I have a mate who’s a very level headed Notts guy who lives near Retford and he has consistently bought lorries such as Premiums that badge snobs won’t touch, and he’s bought them cheaply reasoning that they are merely a tool to do a job and he makes a very comfortable living doing empty pallets nationwide.