There’s a good chance that I might be needing a couple of trucks to transport about 14 +/- marine engines (approx 3 ton each) from Bamffshire to either Suffolk or Kent so can anyone give me a ball park figure to work from. Tnx in advance.
I sometimes get my own work from Guildford to Aberdeen and vice-versa and I charge £1,300.
Do you have something to run back with Harry ?
Last time I took a load up there I backloaded mineral water out of Highland Spring at Blackford, last time I ran up there to collect it I took newsprint to D C Thompson at Dundee on the way up. I’d have to say that you could probably get it done for half of my price by Mr Betz etc.
Yes but my price for the engines will include the transport costs but not at a backload rate so just looking for the max i could reasonably bung on the top, get it done at a backload rate … and goodoh all the more for me 
Grand at the very minimum
In my simple mind,about £1.40 per mile plus a fuel surcharge on top.
Then add goods in transit insurance for damage or theft.
Harry Monk:
I sometimes get my own work from Guildford to Aberdeen and vice-versa and I charge £1,300.
Jesus H, you ain’t under cutting anyone is you? Lol. Go for gold.
Bout a grand I’d want for that minimum. Ah hell, just call it £1300.
Silver_Surfer:
Harry Monk:
I sometimes get my own work from Guildford to Aberdeen and vice-versa and I charge £1,300.Jesus H, you ain’t under cutting anyone is you? Lol. Go for gold.
Bout a grand I’d want for that minimum. Ah hell, just call it £1300.
Will undercut you both £1299 
Silver_Surfer:
Jesus H, you ain’t under cutting anyone is you? Lol. Go for gold.Bout a grand I’d want for that minimum. Ah hell, just call it £1300.
It’s exhibition work, which does pay quite well but I’ve known the people for over 20 years and have done numerous jobs for them over the years as an employee. An exhibition stand may take 9 months to build, and the cost of attending an exhibition can easily be £250,000+ so they don’t tend to chance shaving a few hundred quid off of the rate. I have heard some real horror stories about people who have gone down the cheap route, including one where an exhibition stand was smashed to matchwood when it had 20 tonnes of groupage loaded on top of it by Stanislav or Pavel or whatever his name was.
It does also take half a day to load and half a day to unload, so that has to be factored in.
But for a general palletised load, I’d say a grand was a fair price.
You can sometimes save a lot by splitting it into two legs getting someone to get it to somewhere in the north of england and someone else to move it further south.
toby1234abc:
In my simple mind,about £1.40 per mile plus a fuel surcharge on top.
Then add goods in transit insurance for damage or theft.
As they are each about 7ft x 4ft x 5ft high and weigh about 3 ton each I think it’s highly unlikely they would get pinched, until they arrive at their final destination which is Cameroon and there anything is possible
Harry Monk:
I sometimes get my own work from Guildford to Aberdeen and vice-versa and I charge £1,300.
prior 1998 Pontypool /inverness £1200 what the hell is the matter with haulage…
cliffystephens:
Harry Monk:
I sometimes get my own work from Guildford to Aberdeen and vice-versa and I charge £1,300.prior 1998 Pontypool /inverness £1200 what the hell is the matter with haulage…
Yes, I completely agree Cliffy, I was earning more as an employee in the mid-1990s than I do now as an OO. Crazy, isn’t it, but that’s the way the job has gone. The worst thing ever to have happened to the UK road transport industry was when the Berlin Wall came down.
Basically what has happened is that firms like Stobarts, and I am not criticizing them,have changed the market.
In the old days firms would quote on a round trip basis and a backload was a bonus. Now the big players have negligible empty running miles and can quote more competitively for primary loads, no such thing as a backload rate anymore, they are all backload rates.
Oh and the jobs well and truly bolloxed as well!!
I was saying theft,if the trailer was stolen if it was dropped.
Or the truck and trailer stolen with the cargo inside.
In the old days I used the Headlight magazine to find backloads but now with the tinterweb and exchange sites there’s always some numpty who will do it for peanuts …
All wise words.
We sold a large double wardrobe to a lady in London and she got it picked up in ■■■■■■■ and delivered in London for £30-00. 
Blimey, reckon I’ll be on locals a while longer yet then.