HYG:
I’ve got a 67 plate T on a lease at £385 a week and its hassle free motoring. But for number two I’m going to need it to be a bit cheaper than that so I’m looking at either a 62/63 plate ex-Wincanton-ish premium or the 2yr/£280 a week deal on a 15 plate T. At that point in the market I would rather get a loan for the unit at around 12k and after two years at £133.84 a week I’ll own it outright.
Congratulations on your success as an OD thus far; your cost management to date has certainly been very impressive and is a key component to running any successful business venture!
If you can get a drive for £280 a week – when starting out, why did you not get one of these to drive yourself? Naturally, it is not as luxurious as the T range but purely on a financial basis it would save you £5040 pa?
When you get the second truck on the road, will the driver be subbing or will you look for your own account work?
Thank you for your openness and contributions on this forum to date and good luck!
To take each point in order:
Thank you. Its good to know what everything costs but it can also be a bit of a problem. I have all the information in my head, and if I forget I have it on the laptop on the bunk so I’m always aware of what my costs are up to the minute. Unfortunately it adds a lot of stress during the week because I know that by lunchtime Wednesday I need to have made £500 plus the diesel, so if I haven’t, i start to worry through the end of the week. I sometimes wish I was one of these guys that can leave the admin in the study and just get on with the driving.!
When I ordered the Renault, the 2yr/£280 deal wasn’t being advertised. It is as luxurious, it is a T Range! The other concern was that I wanted a possible path to ownership out of the deal and the Renault Finance offer wouldn’t have offered me that, which is why I didn’t look to change it. The deal I am on is a five year lease with a third year break clause. If I break at three years I can either buy, rent to buy or hand back. The reason the Renault deal is looking better for a second vehicle is that ideally I would want to keep the ‘fleet’ Euro 6 and you cant get an E6 Premium. Part of the go/no go test on a T for #2 will be that if my sums are wrong, can I afford to park it up in the corner for a couple of months at a time and still at least break even.
The biggest lesson I’ve learned doing this is always leave yourself an escape route!
#2 will start out on Barronwood. When I get the VAT back on buying the unit and a couple of trailers I’ll then start sourcing my own work and use the VAT rebate to cover the switch from 7 day to 30 day terms. I’ve got several reasonably warm leads for business out of the ports near me so I should at least be able to get out and get back again using return loads.
Big Truck:
Arguing that why not the brand new Iveco for £308 instead of used truck@ £280■■?
Think the T series be a dam good truck though!!!
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I went to look at the £308 Iveco and found it very cheap in its build quality. I wouldn’t want to arse end a car transporter in it! Now if it were just me, the Iveco would be an option because compared to the Merc I was driving at the time, it was putting an extra £6292 a year in my pocket. But I wouldn’t have felt comfortable asking another driver to be out all week in it.
I’ve always planned on having a fleet rather than just one truck and I have always been of the opinion that you should have no more than two brands in your fleet. If you are sub10 operator it should be all one brand on the grounds that a dealer is going to be living in more fear of you pulling 6-10 vehicles out of his workshop than of you pulling out just the 1 or 2. It gives you a bit more clout and it looks better when you have a row of diamonds, or griffins, or three pointed stars, or anything but DAF badges. (Forgive me lord my Prejudice). So starting out with one brand on a long term deal then switching to another for #2 wasn’t an option in my mind.