I would have added Willi Betz, but their site appears to have been closed down, people may not like them, but we used to get good rates from Spain from them a few years ago
The biggest problem is most loads will be groupage and only load on Friday nights, and then the driver will be expected to tip on Monday in the UK, (they see nothing wrong with doing a full shift after you have finished loading) and then a Sunday night run into the UK.
Rates are only ever worked out when the load is made up and there may be more than one delivery in the UK.
We used to do quite a lot of clothes back to the UK from Spain, mainly delivered to NEXT in the north of England but for the life of me I can’t remember who that was through
Spain can be good one month then no loads the next month, when it was quiet we always used to run up into France for wine from Bordeaux area, that was always guaranteed as a safe back load
GBPub:
Surely if you are going to require a return load to make this job viable, then in my opinion you are undercharging your customer in the first place. My advice if they aren’t prepared to pay a fair rate would be to walk away from it.
so all your loads are paid round trip and you go home empty? whereas in the real world everybody else nowadays has to compete with the big boys who charge per mile or km everywhere and don’t differentiate between outward and return journeys. i wish i worked for you or your boss life would be a doddle no need to load for home just get the customer to pay the empty mileage, result
Sorry, but we don’t run anywhere unless we can afford to come home empty and still make a profit on the job. A return load in our opinion is a bonus not a necessity and no we rarely if ever come back empty.
we do malaga to koln for about 2600 euro, so you would want 5200 to make the job pay where we would reload germany for andalucia for another 2600ish? and you don’t get problems with being undercut by eastern europeans who obviously do it cheaper than everybody else? my gast is absolutely flabbered that in this day and age of backstabbing and undercutting you can afford to price the job to run home empty if need be what with rising fuel costs and tolls
Most removals companies run home empty, we used to on a very regular basis if we didn’t have enough time to get a back load, the rates going down were far higher than General though (up to £15,000 to your neck of the woods) thats for 120 CBM
removals and specialists like low loaders jimti usually run home empty simply by the nature of their well paid outward rates. after all you don’t see lots of removals trucks from flipflopistan parked for days on end waiting for a chance to undercut you
that rate we do for koln was last year 3000euro, then steeltrans from SK put in a rate of 2800, they did it for a few months then a company called pimk from bulgaria undercut them to 2600. apparently we’ve got it back because we can guarantee 2 trucks a week on time and they kept messing up but how long until somebody else takes it who knows? eventually I think I’ll be back on the vans delivering beer the way its going
Helen, you seem like a nice person so let me try to give you some advice. The Madrid area doesn’t export very much. It tends to be a consuming area rather than a producing area. Generally (obviously with some exceptions) you would reload either from the Valencia area or go north to the Burgos and the basque area. No one is going to offer you a cast iron reload at a fixed price for a truck you have not yet sent on a date not yet decided. I don’t know how many trucks you run, but one load a week to madrid is one trucks work for one week how much can you loose ?. If you can get the export load from the UK at a decent rate you are onto a winner. You will almost always find something back and with the strength of the euro against sterling you should be able to make it profitable. Once you have confirmed the export load talk to everyone, you will soon find who will pay a decent rate and work with you on a regular basis. Don’t forget, it’s all about building relationships. Good luck and remember you have to speculate to accumulate.
GBPub:
Only do Euro work, small family business with 4 units. Been in the business for over 40years so must be doing something right. Don’t get me wrong the business is tougher out there than I have ever known it to be. But we stick to our principles and most customers have been with us for a long time.
Well good for you. If only there was that kind of work out there for all of us, everyone would be happy! I agree, you must be doing something right. But there will always be other people knocking at their doors offering cut rates to tempt them to try somebody new, I hope you manage to keep it.
Thank you to Jimti, welshboyinspain and exhaulier for your recent valuable advice and input. And to everybody who has put in their tuppence worth, it’s really appreciated. So far the lines of enquiry I have tried have not been fruitful. It is so hard to break into a new market!
Due to our taking too long to quote a rate they can go with, and our being unable (unwilling) to throw caution to the wind and just go out there, they have awarded the work to one of the big(ish) boys. We think we might get a chance of a load or two if something urgent comes up. So it is not all in vain. We will keep trying for those Spanish loads. You never know, something might go wrong and the loads come back our way , and we hope to be ready for it!
Helen Stevens:
You never know, something might go wrong and the loads come back our way , and we hope to be ready for it!
Next thing, you’ll get a call Thursday 2pm “can you load one tomorrow for Monday delivery”? to which you can reply, “it’s too late to sort a return load out now so it’ll have to be £3,500, sorry”!!
A quick call to Kufstein informing the operator on the Spannish desk that you’ll have an empty trailer in Madrid mid day Monday and I’ll bet you a quid they find you a load within 100km’s. They used to load about 4 or 5 a week at Guardian Glass @ Llodio for the UK which is only a little off route on the way home and normally a decent tip,you will need a ‘sliding roof’ for that though!!
bigr250:
Next thing, you’ll get a call Thursday 2pm “can you load one tomorrow for Monday delivery”? to which you can reply, “it’s too late to sort a return load out now so it’ll have to be £3,500, sorry”!!
A quick call to Kufstein informing the operator on the Spannish desk that you’ll have an empty trailer in Madrid mid day Monday and I’ll bet you a quid they find you a load within 100km’s. They used to load about 4 or 5 a week at Guardian Glass @ Llodio for the UK which is only a little off route on the way home and normally a decent tip,you will need a ‘sliding roof’ for that though!!
Good luck, Ross.
Wouldn’t that be lovely?! We’ve got a sliding roof, on our lovely 2010 Schmitz, built to our spec. Far as I know we haven’t had a chance to put the sliding roof to good use yet, as pretty much everything seems to go on and off through the back doors, but we’re ready for it!
bigr250:
They used to load about 4 or 5 a week at Guardian Glass @ Llodio for the UK which is only a little off route on the way home and normally a decent tip,you will need a ‘sliding roof’ for that though!!
Good luck, Ross.
just down the road from Fortress Vasco
be prepared for waiting time amd take plenty of straps
Off the topic,i know,i have just the film with Martin Sheen in it,about the 800 km walk from the French Pyrenees,to Santiago,it is worth seeing it,but it is not showing on a larger scale,just google movies to locate it,the cimema had free hot drinks and biscuits,and an outdoor and inside cafe with a bar.
Helen,let us all know how you get on.The movie was called “The Way”,they pass via Pamplona,Burgos and Leon,it take a month to do it,in Burgos a traveling type nomadic person stole his ruck sack with his dead son`s ashes in it.
bigr250:
They used to load about 4 or 5 a week at Guardian Glass @ Llodio for the UK which is only a little off route on the way home and normally a decent tip,you will need a ‘sliding roof’ for that though!!
Good luck, Ross.
just down the road from Fortress Vasco
be prepared for waiting time amd take plenty of straps
No [zb]
38 hours was my record in there You could always guarantee, with a bit of “billy” to hide the movements, to be close enough to a 9 to just grab an hours kip and crack on.
bigr250:
They used to load about 4 or 5 a week at Guardian Glass @ Llodio for the UK which is only a little off route on the way home and normally a decent tip,you will need a ‘sliding roof’ for that though!!
Good luck, Ross.
just down the road from Fortress Vasco
be prepared for waiting time amd take plenty of straps
No [zb]
38 hours was my record in there You could always guarantee, with a bit of “billy” to hide the movements, to be close enough to a 9 to just grab an hours kip and crack on.
wandering in to town can provide stacks of entertainment of the alcoholic kind if you don´t speak Spanish ask for the bar La Viña the owner was brought up in Australia and speaks excellent English, there are a couple of reasonable Chinese nosh shops in town
I think you have sorted a decent job for yourself. A load from Vascoingles out of Spain back to Belgium and then load back to the UK from your customer in Belgium
Wheel Nut:
I think you have sorted a decent job for yourself. A load from Vascoingles out of Spain back to Belgium and then load back to the UK from your customer in Belgium
billybigrig:
38 hours was my record in there You could always guarantee, with a bit of “billy” to hide the movements, to be close enough to a 9 to just grab an hours kip and crack on.
Wheel Nut:
I think you have sorted a decent job for yourself. A load from Vascoingles out of Spain back to Belgium and then load back to the UK from your customer in Belgium
LOL! Could take a while!
It could, but if your star man wants to be an international driver, he must be prepared to stay out at weekends.
Helen Stevens:
38 hours! How do they get away with that?!
How? Easy !
Helen Stevens:
bigr250:
Next thing, you’ll get a call Thursday 2pm “can you load one tomorrow for Monday delivery”? to which you can reply, “it’s too late to sort a return load out now so it’ll have to be £3,500, sorry”!!
A quick call to Kufstein informing the operator on the Spannish desk that you’ll have an empty trailer in Madrid mid day Monday and I’ll bet you a quid they find you a load within 100km’s. They used to load about 4 or 5 a week at Guardian Glass @ Llodio for the UK which is only a little off route on the way home and normally a decent tip,you will need a ‘sliding roof’ for that though!!
Good luck, Ross.
Wouldn’t that be lovely?! We’ve got a sliding roof, on our lovely 2010 Schmitz, built to our spec. Far as I know we haven’t had a chance to put the sliding roof to good use yet, as pretty much everything seems to go on and off through the back doors, but we’re ready for it!
You’ve accepted the load out and committed yourself to the load back.
Now what do you do? Wait, or have you got another backload on standby ?
Undo the curtain buckles on that lovely Schmitz, otherwise the sliding roof is a bugger to slide.
Not always, but almost always.
I ran straight out of the back of my trailer, backwards, quite a few years ago pulling my roof shut.
Just for a change my roof slid easily, so I wanted to keep it going.
It did, so did I, even after running out of floor
(This was before I learned about opening my curtain buckles)
Simon:
Undo the curtain buckles on that lovely Schmitz, otherwise the sliding roof is a bugger to slide.
Not always, but almost always.
I ran straight out of the back of my trailer, backwards, quite a few years ago pulling my roof shut.
Just for a change my roof slid easily, so I wanted to keep it going.
It did, so did I, even after running out of floor
(This was before I learned about opening my curtain buckles)
That sounds a useful tip. I’ll pass that one on to the driver.
If only there was that kind of work out there for all of us, everyone would be happy! I agree, you must be doing something right. But there will always be other people knocking at their doors offering cut rates to tempt them to try somebody new, I hope you manage to keep it.
So far the lines of enquiry I have tried have not been fruitful. It is so hard to break into a new market!
You could always guarantee, with a bit of “billy” to hide the movements, to be close enough to a 9 to just grab an hours kip and crack on. 
How do they get away with that?! 
