i have been on own for about 18 months doing not bad in this hard times about three months ago a lovely guy who i was working for went
bust he asured me he did not know this was about to happen at the end of this me and about 30 companies have lost money to this
guy me i lost 24k the loss hurt us bad certain things have happened since ,my credit has almost gone i could only borrow 5k from the bank
to help me through i went to the bank to explain my position they could not help much but thankfully they charged me about £500.00
quid in charges thank god i told them so now looking at my position after loosing the money i am just hoping to last untill march untill
my truck goes back on lease not sure what to do after that have a good guy now running me if any good ideas or cheap trucks or good advice
will be welcome good luck to us all david.rist@ymail.net.co
Best piece of advice is to drive someone elses truck and take a wage. You lost from one customer as much as many would earn in an entire year. You can’t tell me its worth being an O/D nowadays unless your truck is bought and paid for.
Conor:
You can’t tell me its worth being an O/D nowadays unless your truck is bought and paid for.
Even then, still working for nothing…
I’d hunt the [zb] down and cut his balls off, feed them to him, then his toes, fingers etc…
[zb]!
Any business that goes bust and then claims they did not know it was going to happen is either incompetent or dishonest.
As Conor says, work for someone else, worst ways if you’re monthly paid that is hopefully all you would lose if it the company folds.
The days of the O/D are numbered,even the haulage firms with a few wagons have their backs to the wall.The big operators are squeezing everyone else out of the job.
You could go to his insolvency agent to put in a claim for what you are owed to start with you may get something back but you may have to attend his bankruptcy hearing
Ask a good financial adviser for some advice they dont all take your money ( CAB )
Dave the Renegade:
The days of the O/D are numbered,even the haulage firms with a few wagons have their backs to the wall.The big operators are squeezing everyone else out of the job.
Some of the small building firms I deliver to/do muckaway for are losing work to larger concerns who wouldn’t bother with one house-build jobs or extensions. Apparently, even Tarmac Topmix are quoting for smaller concrete jobs they normally wouldn’t bother with which can only hurt the smaller firms like Tuckwells.
Muckaway:
Dave the Renegade:
The days of the O/D are numbered,even the haulage firms with a few wagons have their backs to the wall.The big operators are squeezing everyone else out of the job.Some of the small building firms I deliver to/do muckaway for are losing work to larger concerns who wouldn’t bother with one house-build jobs or extensions. Apparently, even Tarmac Topmix are quoting for smaller concrete jobs they normally wouldn’t bother with which can only hurt the smaller firms like Tuckwells.
There are half a dozen owner drivers in this area packed it in over the last year,with a lot more looking to get out,they are getting cut out of the job.
What owner driver with any business sense would allow any customer to build up £24,000 worth of debt 
.If any firm wants you to subsidise their business by paying for work on credit then alarm bells should be ringing long before it’s reached that level.Long payment terms are only viable if you’re subbing for lots of different customers over a period to spread the risks.But even then it’s still a big risk.
Carryfast:
What owner driver with any business sense would allow any customer to build up £24,000 worth of debt
I know of someone who took my employers for about £20000. His credit limit was £10000 so I didn’t have that much sympathy for them, someone in the credit dept obviously wasn’t paying attention to his account. TruckeyGar will have a tale to tell on this thread; His ex boss was going well with an influx of new gear, various jobs and all of a sudden things went a bit quiet…
This is the one thing people setting up as owner drivers rarely think about. What if I don’t get paid at all?
Unless you are working for a reputable company that cannot fail and there aren’t that many, i’m thinking DHL, Wincanton and the like, I would really want to be insuring my invoices against non payment.
Smell the coffee laddie! 
Silver_Surfer:
This is the one thing people setting up as owner drivers rarely think about. What if I don’t get paid at all?Unless you are working for a reputable company that cannot fail and there aren’t that many, i’m thinking DHL, Wincanton and the like, I would really want to be insuring my invoices against non payment.
There’s not many owner drivers who would’nt prefer to set up a factoring account and submit all the invoices through that instead of direct.It’s probably worth the rate it costs as 80-90% of the value of the work is better than nothing in the case of non payment by the customers who let you down.
Factoring isn’t the same as insuring invoices against non payment. Factoring companies take 4% odd of an invoice in fees for giving you the money straight away then they wait 60-90 days for the company to pay them. If the company doesn’t pay, you are still liable to repay the factoring company. Factoring comapnies may also provide an insurance service for an extra fee whereby if your customer defaults they will not demand the money back from you.
Silver_Surfer:
Factoring isn’t the same as insuring invoices against non payment. Factoring companies take 4% odd of an invoice in fees for giving you the money straight away then they wait 60-90 days for the company to pay them. If the company doesn’t pay, you are still liable to repay the factoring company. Factoring comapnies may also provide an insurance service for an extra fee whereby if your customer defaults they will not demand the money back from you.
80-90% not 4% of the value of the invoice should include the indemnity against non payment .The way it should work is around 80-90% of the invoice value gets paid then when/if the customer pays up the factoring company forward the rest minus a cut of a few per cent.There’s also usually an annual fee to pay as well.But without cover against non payment the idea would be worthless anyway.Although in the current climate of bank failures there’s the possibility that the factoring company could go broke while the customer does’nt. 
The first thing you should always remember is there are no nice guys in business where money is concerned there are no friends esspecially in transport 90% of them are not worth a toss and being an OD or a driver you are just there to be used or abused they dont get into the position to give away work unless they are desperate or they need someone reliable to cover a job that there own drivers dont like.I have been an OD and tucked up am i bitter ,no its all a part of learning this game so anyone going for it no rose coloured glasses eyes wide open trust no one and put you VAT in a seperate account and also to most companies you are only as good as your previous day.
The firm I work for must be the exception; We can be fairly quiet, yet as soon as an OD wants a load “just to get them to…” our shippers bow down, kiss their arse and give them a load! It’s got better than it was when I started, the old TM used to let the better work go to subbies to keep them on-side, and give the crap to their own drivers. Classic excuses were “I can’t do that I haven’t got an easysheet”, “Can’t do muck I’ve got an alloy body”, “Can’t do that many loads as I’ve got my own work to do later”, the excuses used to be endless… 