mucker85:
I’m thinking of doing something similar but with coaches. Between 3 of us we could keep 2 coaches working all the time pretty much. We will each have a financial commitment so the incentive is there to work.
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I’ve never been involved with PSV’s or whatever they’re called these days but
can you hire a coach like you can hire a truck and, if you can, do you need
an Operator Licence ?
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Yes, opps license sorted. one of the 3 of us is already an owner driver and has 2 o licenses. The coaches will be nearly new, leased over 4-5 years and then replaced with nearly new again.
Dieseldoforme:
I would demand priority service from any bent Manager.
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Your only a priority until you get out bid or he gets found out
I have known many managers in and out of transport take a back hander for work, its all right when YOU have the work, but when someone outbids you you lose the work, do you cry and snitch or up the bid? Either way you either lose the work or he loses the job = You have no work.
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Yes - it was really tongue in cheek.
I’m too honest to get myself involved with out and out corruption but
I’m sure that we could “oil the wheels” with an occasional pie and a
pint in the local hostelry, without any brown envelopes changing hands.
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mucker85:
Yes, opps license sorted. one of the 3 of us is already an owner driver and has 2 o licenses. The coaches will be nearly new, leased over 4-5 years and then replaced with nearly new again.
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Good Luck with your venture !
In the meantime I’m looking at what Hill Hire have to say, or rather,
Ryder who have taken them over.
I’ve seen a group of agency drivers team up and form their own consortium, then go in and try to undercut on the very same contract everybody was working on and earning a very healthy wage from, it didn’t end well for them, lots of in-fighting and back stabbing resulted in some of them losing everything they had.
Rentadent:
I’ve seen a group of agency drivers team up and form their own consortium, then go in and try to undercut on the very same contract everybody was working on and earning a very healthy wage from, it didn’t end well for them, lots of in-fighting and back stabbing resulted in some of them losing everything they had.
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That’s the problem. They need to be a special breed.
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Can the four of you find enough money up front to put in the bank to satisfy the conditions of your Operator’s licence? About £10,000
AND to run the vehicle for the four months until the first invoice gets paid by the supermarket? difficult to guess at because mileage etc unknown, but hazard a guess at between £24,000 and £33,000
AND for each of the four of you to meet your own domestic expenses? about £15,000
Nice idea… but you need to get the costings right. Remember your truck will not be productive 24/7. In your opening proposal you have already have 6 hours a day when the truck will not be productive. It it is not moving it is not productive.
I was told many years ago by an accountant the reason why so many fail at self employment is because they get the charge out rate wrong. In you plan you would be productive 18 hours a day. So you need to base your cost on half that i.e. 9 hours average per day. Why so low? Once you taking talking to customers and prospective customers and other things you can not charge to someone into account (3 hours sitting at a RDC) you will find that on average that is all the productive time your truck will have.
Good luck I hope you and your business partners make a success of it
cav551:
Can the four of you find enough money up front to put in the bank to satisfy the conditions of your Operator’s licence? About £10,000
AND to run the vehicle for the four months until the first invoice gets paid by the supermarket? difficult to guess at because mileage etc unknown, but hazard a guess at between £24,000 and £33,000
AND for each of the four of you to meet your own domestic expenses? about £15,000
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Yes - raising 100+ grand in cash would not present us with any problem at all.
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chris140472:
Nice idea… but you need to get the costings right. Remember your truck will not be productive 24/7. In your opening proposal you have already have 6 hours a day when the truck will not be productive. It it is not moving it is not productive.
I was told many years ago by an accountant the reason why so many fail at self employment is because they get the charge out rate wrong. In you plan you would be productive 18 hours a day. So you need to base your cost on half that i.e. 9 hours average per day. Why so low? Once you taking talking to customers and prospective customers and other things you can not charge to someone into account (3 hours sitting at a RDC) you will find that on average that is all the productive time your truck will have.
Good luck I hope you and your business partners make a success of it
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I don’t know where the 18 hour productivity comes from.
chris140472:
Nice idea… but you need to get the costings right. Remember your truck will not be productive 24/7. In your opening proposal you have already have 6 hours a day when the truck will not be productive. It it is not moving it is not productive.
I was told many years ago by an accountant the reason why so many fail at self employment is because they get the charge out rate wrong. In you plan you would be productive 18 hours a day. So you need to base your cost on half that i.e. 9 hours average per day. Why so low? Once you taking talking to customers and prospective customers and other things you can not charge to someone into account (3 hours sitting at a RDC) you will find that on average that is all the productive time your truck will have.
Good luck I hope you and your business partners make a success of it
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I don’t know where the 18 hour productivity comes from.
It would roll 24/7.
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Well 2 12 hour shifts. In 12 hours you can do 2 lots of four and a half hour driving which makes 9 hours a shift or 18 hours in 24. Yes you can do the extra hour a few times a week but not every day. To get nearer to 24 hours you would need to have 9 hour 45min shifts hand over the truck and out it goes again but then you would need more drivers.
It is not going to run 24/7 on work out of supermarket RDCs. Even at the most basic level you are not gong to get 24 chargeable/productive hours out of a day. You will potentially lose 1/2 hr a day simply refuelling it twice. Another 20mins to 1/2 hr for each driver to log in and out of the tacho and do a walk around. How long waiting for the load or delivery notes to be ready? How long at the delivery store because there are two other vehicles in front of you? etc. etc.
Saturday afternoon/early evenings are dead at most RDCs. The RDCs generally have a much lower requirement for Agency drivers on a Thursday which means there is less going out for delivery.
chris140472:
Well 2 12 hour shifts. In 12 hours you can do 2 lots of four and a half hour driving which makes 9 hours a shift or 18 hours in 24. Yes you can do the extra hour a few times a week but not every day. To get nearer to 24 hours you would need to have 9 hour 45min shifts hand over the truck and out it goes again but then you would need more drivers.
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OK - I see what you mean, 18 hours drive time per day.
Well, several store deliveries could be made during that time and any
delays would be charged for as demurrage. The next trailer would be
ready and waiting at the RDC so no delays there !
If these big outfits can do it with all their overheads and time wasting
staff then we can do it with a dedicated selection of hand picked drivers !
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Its not the Supermarket you would work for, it’s their contractor (ie Wincanton, Nobbies, K&N etc etc)
What RDC work would you be doing? delivery to stores more likely?
Which of the four would do all the paperwork / invoicing? would they therefore have to do less driving? would their share of the take change?
How would you cover 6 week inspections, MOT, servicing?
If Driver A runs 2 hours late, does Driver B take over and only 10hrs to keep Driver C on his shift or do 12hrs and Driver C then starts late and so on… if Driver B does less hours, does he get less pay?
