While I’m sat here waiting for my trailer to get fixed, I started thinking.
What do you need to become an owner driver?
1here do you start?
Is it worth it these days?
Do you need an certain amount of money in the bank first Or can you start with a bank loan?
And what are the pros and cons of being an owner driver?
I have heard stories even with the credit crunch of owner drivers becoming very sucessful.
You will get mixed views on this, however it is something I am considering.
In order, you need an Operators Licence, for which you will need to prove your fitness to operate vehicles (i.e. no serious truck related convictions), an operating centre, a maintenance contract, you will need to give undertakings about the way you will operate and you will need a CPC (or to hire somebody who has one).
You will need to show £7,700 in the bank for the first vehicle and you will need to show that you have had access to these funds for three months. (this amount is actually £8,100 at the moment but is coming down from January).
You will apply for an Operators Licence and this will take 8-9 weeks to be approved, or not as the case may be.
In reality, you will need to be able to fund the running of the vehicle until the first money comes in. Diesel at £1000 a week isn’t cheap. Banks are not over-keen on lending at the moment.
I know several people who earn a decent living doing it, but nobody who expects to become a millionaire doing it.
I think with a lot of help you’ll struggle to make it…ask the (company)tarmac lads… when tarmac unloaded there fleet
the drivers was asked to become owner drivers with all the help they needed… there was a garage on hand with a
mechanic ( at a price) your work was there the fuel was on tap (stopped from you monthly pay) but many fell by the
wayside. when it was time to replace the lorry there was’nt enough money in the kitty to buy new…there was’nt any
insulated bodied second hand lorries and the bad side chassis had changed and a body swap was out of the question.
this happened in the 80s when fuel was also cheaper…
Remember too that you have to be a salesman, accountant, transport manager and planner as well. No one will come knocking on your door asking you to work for them - you will have to be on the phone to everyone you know in haulage, and many you don’t, looking for work.
Like many others I considered it but my feeling was that you need a ‘bread and butter’ contract under your belt before you even start looking at trucs and finance.
AND NO BRAIN 
Always help in becoming a O/D
very lame attempt at getting Rob K posting again 
I got within a hairs breadth of doing this some 25 or 30 years ago, O licence the lot, never did it though and still not sure if i did the right thing or not…well when my ex cleared off just after i knew i’d done the right thing in that way…less to take, but you always wonder.
Luckily managed to get into some well paid but hard work over the intervening years, so probably as well off and without the headaches.
I’ve known many OD’s and small hauliers and when things are going well they make a decent living, but it only takes the odd company going bust on you or a few serious expensive problems with a truck and that can knock even well established hauliers for 6.
Small haulier i know with about 5 motors hasn’t had a month recently without 3 or 4 grand repair bills on one or the other of the motors and he’s a canny blighter, specialist work and specialist trucks and trailers they ain’t cheap and maintaining them isn’t either.
Now is not the right time, serious downturn coming, watch this space.
tt3641:
I have heard stories even with the credit crunch of owner drivers becoming very sucessful.
and thats exactly what they are, stories
very sucessful ? no chance 
the pleasure of being your own boss ? yes
making enough to have a comfortable lifestyle ? probably 
tt3641:
While I’m sat here waiting for my trailer to get fixed, I started thinking.
What do you need to become an owner driver?
1here do you start?
Is it worth it these days?
Do you need an certain amount of money in the bank first Or can you start with a bank loan?
And what are the pros and cons of being an owner driver?I have heard stories even with the credit crunch of owner drivers becoming very sucessful.
there are two ways of doing this.
option 1
you need to get a cpc at a cost
you need to have £20,000 pounds to show the dot that you are financialy viable.
you need to buy a truck and mayby a trailer.
you need to pay for fuel for anything from one month to three.
give up your weekends to maintain the truck.
you,ll do three months work for a company and then they go bust
all the paper work and the hassle will drive you mad.
option 2
get a loan of £20,000
send it to me i,ll ■■■■ it all up and smoke it all.
that way you,ll only loose £20k and at least one of us will be happy .
When the silly WTD starts to apply to ODs I think it will kill it, unless you can work all year and plan your work well in advance you may end up not able to work when there is plenty then plenty of time but no work, you may say put a driver on but good drivers are like hens teeth I just park mine up then I know it is how I left it.I would not do it again.
fuse:
When the silly WTD starts to apply to ODs I think it will kill it, unless you can work all year and plan your work well in advance you may end up not able to work when there is plenty then plenty of time but no work, you may say put a driver on but good drivers are like hens teeth I just park mine up then I know it is how I left it.I would not do it again.
good drivers are not like hens teeth, there are plenty of self employed drivers out there that will work for the right money and look after your truck.
What about becoming an owner/driver with a 3.5 tonner ? I’ve seen a fair few about lately, I don’t know what the start up costs are with that not too much surely, and how much a mile could you charge 
What I mean is they are not sat at home waiting for a phone ,call ,you may get those good ones with forward planning ie when you take hols ect but unless you have planned work it is not easy to get a good one ,bearing in mind if you pick the wrong one in may finish up with a large bill or worse prison.
I’ve been an owner driver since 2005 .First day I brought my truck I didn’t have a days work and thought what the he’ll have I done,phoned a few people I new and managed to get going.It was very hard lots of sleepless nights chasing work and money owed.I fell looky 3 years ago permanent contract not written though and have been ok since apart from a few big bills and the late paying sometimes,but if this contract ends it’s over no more chasing for work and getting shafted by strangers for just 850 quid plus the diesel you put in to do the job.I’ve also learned though lie never drive for anyone else because the job we do is going backwards ( pay,working conditions,fines transport managers etc ).If anyone wants to do it get a contract first and be ready for the worst good luck 
.
fuse:
When the silly WTD starts to apply to ODs I think it will kill it, unless you can work all year and plan your work well in advance you may end up not able to work when there is plenty then plenty of time but no work, you may say put a driver on but good drivers are like hens teeth I just park mine up then I know it is how I left it.I would not do it again.
WTD already applies to owner drivers fuse, ive just gone limited, so obviously had to apply for another o licence, the TC had a wobbler when he saw i was a director, transport manager, driver, he asked me how i could possibly fit all this in an average 48 week.
He withheld granting my licence, until i could satisfy his concerns that i could adhere to the WTD, i had to resign as a director, making my wife sole director , write a detailed spread sheet of a typical working week, and when he did finally grant my licence, he put on a condition that after 6 months, he wants to see that i am complying to the WTD, fat chance of that, what planet do they live on, if i want to work 65 hours a bloody week, without breaking any tacho laws, then i will do!! 
globby 480:
AND NO BRAIN
I knew I was missing something
Personaly I think that this is the Absoloute right time to become an owner driver !! Because if you can make it pay in today’s climate you will make it in the future.
You could invest the £20,000 (or more) in an high interest account and get a 6% return or invest it in haulage and , if you are lucky get a 2% return…
Also don’t do general try and specialise in something…Get a good contract and be prepared to work …long and hard!!!
Good luck.
There again you could invest your 20k in carbon cedits, bamboo, teak, a house in Detroit, many more investment market options, and pull upwards of 18% off it.
Driveroneuk:
There again you could invest your 20k in … a house in Detroit
Now you are having a laugh.
Here’s pics of a hundred abandoned houses in Detroit.
Now, you could probably pick up any of these once-beautiful houses for £20,000 or so but there is a reason for that. The population of Detroit has fallen from 2,000,000 in the mid-1990s to 800,000 now, and more houses like these are abandoned every day. If ever there was a city that was finished, it is “Motor City”. You might make a return on your “investment”, but you would have to live to be 200 to see it.
there are two types of owner driver.
your sucess will depend on which type of owner driver you choose to be.