I’ve got a HGV class 2 licence and a friend of mine has a truck he could give to me and i’ve been wondering if i could work as self employed for certain firms but which firms? where to look?. Any idea what google terms i need to use to discover such vacancies? any recruitment agencies? Am tired working long hours for little pay and i would like to go my own way.
Cheers all!
Well things wont really change that much. You’ll still be working fir little pay and doing long hrs and absolutely no job security
What your proposing is driving the truck on his olicence while you effectively lease the truck and authority off him. You cant do this im afraid it illegal.
He could find the work for it and operate the using you as a selfemployed driver. But he would still be responsible for everything. Or you could get your own olicence
What am looking is suppose I own the truck where would I look for jobs? any good agencies?
Give what youve replied id go away and think very hard and really look into weather this is something that’s for you. Agencies are for driver only owner drivers find there own work have you looked in to what is required to get an olicence and how much you need to run the truck for upto 3 months before you get your first cheque in if your very lucky it’ll be 30 days from invoice. I think you really need to sit down and work out some costings insurance for the truck, goods in transit , public liability, insurances to start with then there’s tyres breakdowns inspections 6 weekly, operating centre costs to name a few and that’s all before you pay yourself a wage.
With respect but I would rather we stick to my original question. Where do people who have trucks find jobs? any pointers? Please stick to this.
Archetype:
With respect but I would rather we stick to my original question. Where do people who have trucks find jobs? any pointers? Please stick to this.
Same as with any other business - you hunt for your customers.
The other points are relevant. You can’t just rock up to a yard with your truck and tout for business. Not legally anyhow. You need an O Licence, and relevant insurances.
Find the work then get the truck, not the other way round, I know you don’t like what you are hearing but every other post is correct, if you don’t know where to find the work forget getting a truck.
getting the work is not always the problem, getting paid is the thing you need to be careful with; It is not beyond the realms of possibility to get in with a company that appears to have excellent work with excellent rates, then after a month you learn they settle invoices after 90 days, then when you have worked your ■■■■ off for 3 to 4 months, are borrowed up to the hilt for diesel, tyres and repairs the payments don’t arrive, then you arrive one day and there is a padlock on the gate and they have went bankrupt. Same bloke has probably opened the same operation a few miles away under another name with a nice new range rover parked outside. It is a differ ant company though so you are getting nowt.
it is a horrible cut throat world out there, be very very careful who you get involved with. Don’t get me wrong it can be good, and there is (or at least used to be) good money to be made, I done OK in self employment and i’m now retired in my 50s, but be warned there are a lot of very big sharks out there.
out of curiosity what type of lorry have you got, flatbed, box, tipper ?
Archetype:
With respect but I would rather we stick to my original question. Where do people who have trucks find jobs? any pointers? Please stick to this.
Sorry but alix776 is right. If you don’t even know how to do this fundamental thing and you don’t even know that agencies don’t work like that where you provide your own truck as well then you’re the wrong person to be self employed and if you do do it you’re on a fast track to bankruptcy. You quite clearly do not have a CPC because business and finance are two of the things the CPC course covers so what would you intend to do about getting an operators license? And as has been said, you can’t just roll up with a truck with tax and insurance and a MOT on it and get work, there’s a whole lot of other stuff you require in order to be able to carry out business as a road haulage company. One of the things you need is either actual funds or proof of funds equivalent to several thousand pounds in order to even get an O license. You hardly strike me as someone who is going to have several thousand pounds on hand in addition to the money needed to get this off the ground.
Why would someone who runs their own truck tell you, a competitor, where to find work?
Thanks for the information guys. It all gets clearer. It seems there is no “easy” way of making money if you own the vehicle.
Could you tell me what do you think about haulageexchange.co.uk ? Anyone has experience with them?
The OP is hell bent on going ahead 
Archetype:
Could you tell me what do you think about haulageexchange.co.uk ? Anyone has experience with them?
You’ve heard the expression race to the bottom? All that happens is you compete to drive the price down. Probably can get away with the odd job from there if the rest of the work is Ok, but to base a business on it, is a big no.
Archetype:
Thanks for the information guys. It all gets clearer. It seems there is no “easy” way of making money if you own the vehicle.Could you tell me what do you think about haulageexchange.co.uk ? Anyone has experience with them?
There is a small clique of members who get the best paying work. The rest of the work is effectively backload money and barely covers fuel let alone any other costs. And before you say “well I can earn £450 doing this run from Dover to Glasgow on there but it’ll only cost me £300 in fuel and take 10hrs so I’m making £15 an hour” no you’re not. You’ll have dead mileage costing you £5 for every 12 miles for the distance to get to the collection, dead mileage running from the drop to your next job or back to base, you’ll have the cost of the tyre wear, road tax, the insurances, your servicing, your MOT, trailer hire or loan repayments for one etc all to be deducted from that £150 left over after fuel. At a quid per loaded mile you’d be lucky enough to draw minimum wage.
If you’re relying on haulage exchange, courier exchange or any other of those type of sites for business you’ll go bust.
You’re still going to need a CPC, an O license, an operating centre, all the required insurances and several thousand pounds in provable reserve funds.