Any thoughts anyone
top cat leek:
Any thoughts anyone
Listening to all the Bollox that exudes from the ESL threads I should think that the offer is well “over subscribed” and they will be politely turning away those that have failed to secure,at this time, what must be one of the finest opertunities to be your “own boss” and be able to earn an adequate and substantial return on your investment.I’m sure it will not be long before the “lucky” Frachisees will be posting details of their extemely “good fortune” on these threads,I do hope so !! Cheers Bewick.
Some of them need to learn how to drive before buying trucks the 1 that passed me tonight in the roadworks must have thought hed bought the road as well as he wandered between 2 lanes almost pushing me into the barrier totally oblivious,he did look very smart though in his green uniform even though his gut was hung out of the front of it and he obviously wasnt born under wedlock 
Their not desperate just whole page adds in the tabloids & only £12,000 deposit.
Good luck dreamers if they cant make them pay how are you going to.
ESL lorries are exempt from rules in road works unless their lorries are under 6’ 6’’ or 7.5 ton
Cheers Rich
You are not applying are you Dennis ! I am afraid to inform you that you will be unsuitable as you are only a lorry driver ( like quite a few of us ) so you will be unable to understand or decipher bull excrement and this will mean you are unable to carry out what is required. 
cheers Johnnie 
P S you are better spending the twelve quid on a half bottle of malt
This isn’t really a new story , I’ve known at least 3 small - medium hauliers who have run trucks in ESL colours, none of which are still in business !! what is strange is that because they are now the uk favorite haulier 
they are advertising in the sun rather than CM ! you would think they would just do a press realease which is a free ad or may be there will be a spin off series on CH5 Stobarts “the next generation” !
top cat leek:
Any thoughts anyone
Yes, thoughts of barge-poles and no contact spring to mind…
sammyopisite:
You are not applying are you Dennis ! I am afraid to inform you that you will be unsuitable as you are only a lorry driver ( like quite a few of us ) so you will be unable to understand or decipher bull excrement and this will mean you are unable to carry out what is required.
cheers JohnnieP S you are better spending the twelve quid on a half bottle of malt
Nice one JT,only you could reduce the capital required from £12000 to £12 quid!! But you have probably,quite rightly,digested the ESL prospective fully and have come up with a more realistic figure (£) with which to “chance your arm” to become an ESL Franchisee!! No doubt you would have better investment opertunies ( only just !) to use the remaining £11,988 including the purchase of a case or two or three of decent Scotch !!Cheers Dennis.
So if we were to put aside all the ES bashing and go back to the serious part of the OP, which is the thoughts on wether or not the offer is a sustainable business for someone who may be interested in dipping their toe into the O/D kind of work? is the franchise a reasonable way for someone to learn the ropes or is it a complete rip off?
Would going it alone be a better way, i.e. buy own unit and find own contracts etc etc.
I know the majority of the feedback will be to leave it all alone but surely this recession/downturn is not the demise of the UK haualge industry as we know it?
To be fair, you would almost definintely make a decent drivers wage out of it but the whole point of going Owner Driver is to make a good old shilling more than that.
If I had £12k burning a hole in my pocket, I wouldn’t be spending it with ESL.
Can you imagine how many muppets they will have applying for it though from the ad in the Sun.
We had the same system in the 70s where Vic Wild of the Wild Group tried to do the same to all of us drivers. It was not for me, even though i was a C P C holder, i took the other route and bought my own units and started subbing for Carmans --Brit European and made a good living for 5 years before eventually driving for them for 14 years from the Zeebrugge office. Vic Wild offered ,very much the same package to all of us at the time including unit - trailers -tax - insurance - and supplied all our work, taking a SMALL percentage for his trouble . It left even less profit than we earned as drivers doing the same work with the same lorry. Bestbootees will confirm this ,for Ian was there at the same time as this was going on.He will tell what a crazy deal this turned out to be. So this is not a new idea, as suggested. My advice to anyone with £12,000 to spare is , tuck it under the matress for a rainy day.
Did A1 transport of Leeds have some sort of scheme in the early 90’s, I seem to remember when I did my CPC course it was full of A1 drivers doing their CPC’s.
Could there be a clue in that they are making all these redundances but on the other hand wanting drivers to hand over cash for the privillage of doing these very same non profit making jobs,but i bet there`s quite a few starry eyed people out there who would love their very own Stobart motor,just think you could name the motor whatever you like how about Eartha Kitt well thats rhyming slang for what you will be in if you buy 1… i thought all ESL motors were leased
I’ve read that this offer by “fast eddie” is similar to a Tipper/Mixer franchise !!! No way is it the same animal,as a tipper usually runs out of one quarrie/tarmac plant, A to B back to A empty.The tipper operation is the simplest form of haulier franchise and unfortunately can therefore be controlled in minute detail by the quarries,which of course it is.However,what “fast eddie” is offering is a nationwide multi customer opertunity ( if opertunity is the right word !).No matter what size a haulage operation is,or grows to be,you always have certain jobs or loads that are a dead loss as regards making any profit.But in order to keep the good traffic you must “grit your teeth” and haul the ■■■■ !!!Well IMO “the fast one” has finally “tumbled” it and is looking to create two distinct fleets,the first company owned and operated,the second O/D Franchisees.Guess which fleet will be running on the intensive minimum empty running higher revenue traffic ( If that is possible within the “fast eddie” group!) and which fleet will have to haul all the hitty/missy crappy traffic and pay a price to do it as well ?Without spelling out all the advantages to “the fast one” and the host of disadvantages to the “Frachisees”,at a stroke the performance of the “company” fleet has been dramatically improved and “the company” is still managing to earn a good few £ out of the crappy traffic that until they managed to “sell the Franchise idea” was actually losing them money.Obviously this is just a rough outline of one opinion based on many years within the transport industry and no doubt someone will hold an equal ,and opposite opinion to me !! Interesting though to see what eventually transpires with the O/D thingy !! Cheers Bewick.
Well, basically there are two possibilities.
1). The trucks are very profitable but Eddie Stobart Ltd do not feel that it is morally correct to make so much profit in these times of austerity and therefore benevolently wish to share their little gold mine with others, in order to bring a cheery smile to their children’s faces, or
2). Something else.
Harry Monk:
Well, basically there are two possibilities.2). Something else.
Trying to find a way of making the figures,of buying/running a brand new,expensive fleet of units,to pull trailers,in a third world economy at third world rates,that could be pulled by something much older and cheaper more suited to a third world,de industrialised economy,than (what should be) the advanced,developed,industrialised,mature first world one that the costs of the newer (now redundant) units are designed (and costed) for,add up 
. 
It doesn’t matter what’s up front pulling it you need to be ruining on fresh air to make it pay at the moment
kr79:
It doesn’t matter what’s up front pulling it you need to be ruining on fresh air to make it pay at the moment
Which probably means that the Ethiopian road transport industry has more chance of survival than ours does.
kr79:
It doesn’t matter what’s up front pulling it you need to be ruining on fresh air to make it pay at the moment
No doubt it’s similar to the Maritime deal, £1.15 a mile when it costs 75p a mile in diesel, leaving a whopping £80 for doing a 200 mile trip and all you have to do is pay the truck finance, O licence, insurance, tax, maintenance, parking and tyres out of that £80 and the rest is all yours to do whatever you want with!
I started as a Franchise if you like, I got forced into “owner driverism” by My then boss T F Harrington, it was something He’d done before at His previous firm which was a partnership, this was in the 80’s & I was only a teenager, I was lorry mad & used to have the privilige of being allowed to drive real lorries as a teenager, but only locally Anyway I digress. The idea behind it was to buy the lorry off Him & your fuel, He’d tax it & insure it etc & you just worked like a dog, a few of us did this, His logic was that if you worked for yourself you’d work harder & get more done & thus earn Him more buy more fuel & on it went, It got Me started & it was 25 years ago, I’m the only trading OD from Harringtons plan thats left being a haulier, but it worked for Me.
I had an evening up at a Stobart yard a few months back, in fairness to Stobart its some operation He’s running, I was impressed, good trucks, premises & facilities, I saw the screens which maybe I should’nt have stating the % of empty running, ppm of each truck & tbh it did’nt look too bad to Me in fairness, It depends on what your being charged & if your getting all the big fleet discounts I guess for your insurance, fuel etc etc as to what you’ll earn, I must point out that they where loaded 80% of the time to average what I’d want as a ppm figure to be loaded 50% of the time but then I’m sort of wanting a big wage from one motor not out of a fleet if you see what I mean. But in all honesty if you want a big shiny truck & to have all your work found for you & basically just take your money then have a crack at it, I think I’d just spend the 12 large on an old unit & take my chances on general but I’m maybe biased.