New tipper driver questions

UK PROFESSIONAL DRIVERS FORUMS OWNER AND FLEET OPERATORS FORUM (INTERACTIVE)
1

Afternoon all,

I was wondering if you guys could help me out. Im on the verge of buying a tipper. I have approx £15.000 available to me which, looking at those for sale, will get me something approx 10 years old.

I currently work for a firm in a different role who are absolutely crying out for new drivers, the work they have has been way to much for what they can compensate and the company is growing incredibly fast, I know because I manage a huge part of it.

The question im asking, we currently outsource ALL haulage to other haulage firms, we hire in Artic Tippers, 8 Wheel tippers, 4 Wheel tippers, Grabs and Flatbeds/curtainsiders with mechanical offloads.

The lorries we need most are 8 wheel tippers.

So basically, I can almost GUARANTEE ill have at least 5 loads per day, every single day as I can allocate the work myself to my own lorry.

What sort of overheads am I looking at in order to ensure this works? Like I mentioned, I have the benefit of having the work there and available, I just need to make sure itllw ork before I put in such a huge investment.

So im not a driver myself, i’ll have ot hire a driver to work for me while I stay in my current job to ensure the workload. The plan is to get the lorried paid for by itself, then look at another lorry, then getting work for itself selling aggregate as opposed to hauling for others. So one would haul, one would be used for my own customers unless quiet it would haul for others also.

Heres my costs that i’ve thought of;

Driver
Lorry costs (if i do it via finance)
Fuel
Tax
Insurance
Repairs

Obviously its quite vague as im not 100% clued up on it. Roughly what would I pay, insurance and tax on an average 8 wheel tipper? And am I right in thinking they get approx 7 mpg?

If I can get rough figures, I can work out how much it’ll cost me to do the work against how much I will be paid for it, if it covers my overheads then im going to jump into it.

Thanks for your help and if theres anything else i’ve missed please drop me a message or mention it on here as i need all the help I can get at the moment.

2

Hi

Sorry, but this time I’m going to be very negative.

You say you have 15k available to you. This is nowhere near enough. You dont mention O licence. Just for this you will need to show access to £7400. You will need all of your £15k for working capital - so you have nothing to buy your vehicle and you’re already over £7k down.

You will need to add IRO £250 - £300 for a Transport Manager, assuming you aren’t qualified.

It is possible to earn a living out of one truck, but the model you suggest where you employ a driver means that he will earn the living and you have the grief.

From the information given, this is a non-starter.

Pete :laughing: :laughing:

3

Also 6 weekly checks,somewhere to store the truck,cover incase the driver is sick or on holiday,book keeping,punctures.just a few i can think of

4

MrMonster:
I currently work for a firm in a different role who are absolutely crying out for new drivers, the work they have has been way to much for what they can compensate and the company is growing incredibly fast, I know because I manage a huge part of it.

I do support people who want to run their own trucks, after all it’s what I do myself. But I would have to say that a ten-year-old tipper is a recipe for disaster. Maybe the company should buy some trucks and then employ drivers to drive them?

5

Peter Smythe:
Hi

Sorry, but this time I’m going to be very negative.

You say you have 15k available to you. This is nowhere near enough. You dont mention O licence. Just for this you will need to show access to £7400. You will need all of your £15k for working capital - so you have nothing to buy your vehicle and you’re already over £7k down.

You will need to add IRO £250 - £300 for a Transport Manager, assuming you aren’t qualified.

It is possible to earn a living out of one truck, but the model you suggest where you employ a driver means that he will earn the living and you have the grief.

From the information given, this is a non-starter.

Pete :laughing: :laughing:

I thank you for your reply. This is exactly why i’ve signed up to this. For information like that that I would never of been aware of without asking. I assume an O license is necessary to run the company even if I am not going to be driving the vehicles at any point myself?

My basic idea, and this is very, very rough by the way.

Daily earnings of £450, and costs including a driver of £375. Meaning everyday I make £75, which will be put away to ensure if there is a breakdown that it can be paid for. This will be put away for approximately 2 month so we’ll have a steady £3000-4000 in the bank for breakdowns or unforeseen cashflow problems. I’ll then look to increase the value coming in daily by looking at obtaining my own customers to supply material to instead of doing pure haulage as I can then look to make £150 per day and up and up. The idea is to stay small enough to be able to deliver promises to customers to make them come to me and not get to a point where the customer book is so large im letting customers down as we are subbing out the haulage.

In response to the question from Harry Monk. the company I work for is very old school and doesnt see a need in buying trucks when they can do without the hassle by subletting the haulage. The problem with that is the workload is outgrowing our available hauliers and we cannot physically grow without more. Hense where I come along. If they wont jump on the opportunity then I will.

Supply and demand, the demand for the haulage is there, and I will begin the supply.

I just need to learn everything I possibly can in order to ensure im prepared to make the correct judgement on whether to go ahead or not

6

I cannot see why they are struggling to find tippers to hire when most firms are struggling to find work.what part of the country are you in? :open_mouth: :confused: :slight_smile:

7

MrMonster:
the company I work for is very old school and doesnt see a need in buying trucks when they can do without the hassle by subletting the haulage.

You sort of answer your own question with this one statement. Don’t you think that if it was as easy as you may think then why would they think there’s any ‘hassle’ involved.
I’m not one of the many here who will shoot down anyone who want to be a owner driver but it does seem you haven’t investigated fully what’s Involved.
Maybe ask to visit one of the firm’s you currently sub out to and ask a few questions to see just what’s Involved.

8

Harry Monk:

MrMonster:
I currently work for a firm in a different role who are absolutely crying out for new drivers, the work they have has been way to much for what they can compensate and the company is growing incredibly fast, I know because I manage a huge part of it.

I do support people who want to run their own trucks, after all it’s what I do myself. But I would have to say that a ten-year-old tipper is a recipe for disaster. Maybe the company should buy some trucks and then employ drivers to drive them?

Unless you get lucky and find a motor thats been looked after by an o/d or old school small firm a 10 year old tipper will require a good few quid spending on it to get it up to scratch plus maintence costs will be a lot higher than say something like what harry does.