ye, good luck Davey. If you do wanna find the Keyfuels sites then go to their website thingy www.keyfuels.co.uk and click on ‘Sites Nearby’. Good to buy more efficiently with diesel prices as they are.
Ben1:
ye, good luck Davey. If you do wanna find the Keyfuels sites then go to their website thingy www.keyfuels.co.uk and click on ‘Sites Nearby’. Good to buy more efficiently with diesel prices as they are.
Hmmm somebody works for Keyfuels then, where you have to go out of your way to get fuel. 
Been passed MC truck and bus in Lympne a few times and they have older Volvos there for lease, rent or buy. The prices seem to range from like £100 per week. You cant even rent a van for that.
Could you buy a couple of vehicles and rent a couple more, then hand back the rental vehicles and buy replacements when things pick up?
Just an idea, spread the cost a bit?
Good luck with it all.
Ben1:
ye, good luck Davey. If you do wanna find the Keyfuels sites then go to their website thingy www.keyfuels.co.uk and click on ‘Sites Nearby’. Good to buy more efficiently with diesel prices as they are.
After meeting with the Finance company involved I decided against it as the interest rates were extortionate, I found out a couple of months later that it was the right decision as I heard of a number of complaints about the finance company.
Back in 1983 I sat my CPC National followed the following year by my CPC International, intending to start my own transport company.
Now I’m fully aware of the problems within the road transport industry in general, these days, however, I’m currently in the process of talking to a company with the possibility of taking over a fleet of 5 Trucks, consisting of:
1 Merc 1820 Rigid M reg
1 Actros 03 reg (Leased)
1 Actros W reg (IIRC)
1 Magnum N reg
1 Merc Powerliner P reg
Along with 3 x 40 ft Trailers
Only the Actros on Lease would not be owned by me, however, it is the only 44 tonner in the fleet, the rest of the units are 40 ton
All well maintained and obviously with full service history etc.
Obviously they have seen better days, but, they are well looked after and I think only the Rigid is really in need of a paint job along with 3 floor panels in the curtainsider body if anything.
Work is available from past clients of the company, which was forced into recievership after a customer went ■■■■ up owing them £30,000, but unless I can thrash a reasonable deal out by the end of this week it wont be worth starting to run them until the beginning of October, as I think 10 days is a little too much to pay road tax for just to have the vehicles standing in a yard.
The advantage of this move however, would be that any tidying up of the vehicles can be done along with the re-badging of the company name on the sides of the vehicles.
I’m aware of the Road Tax, Insurances, both vehicle and GIT, The O Licence will be requiring a change of company name, however, the address of the O Centre etc is still the same, so an interim licence should’nt be a problem. Service requirements are arranged for the 6 weekly periods along with MOT work etc,
So what I’m after is, any pitfalls that I’ve overlooked, along with which company is the best for Fuel Cards? I aint got a problem with depositing £20k in advance to cover fuel, also, which companies doing the best deal on mobile phones for businesses?
2 of the Drivers and the TM have offered to return to the fold if I take over, on the same terms and conditions they had, I aint been able to contact the other drivers yet.
So do you think I’m doing right? and what have I missed?
Constructive replies only please 
Davey while some fuel companies may ask for you to deposit money with them for a while to get their fuel cards, they will put it in an account that gains interest and give you it back with the interest after a while of doing business with them, others will only require a letter from your bank guaranteeing that their invoices will be paid upto a certain amount. Can’t halp on what cards are best for UK as I only use Euroshell and never buy fuel in the UK anyway.
As far as I can see you have covered most things but remember you will need anough money to see you through for wages, fuel etc until the money starts to come in, which as you well know could be 90 days or even more. If you were going to use a factor this wouldn’t be such a problem though.
As regards the insurance you didn’t mention Public Liability Insurance?
Good luck with it if you go ahead.
One other thing I just thought of, I would consider supplying the drivers with an Hours Guard as it is a great product and will help keep them 99.9% legal, one less thing to give you a headache. 
Davey go for it if you feel that there is a chance for success, as for the fuel cards many of the card companies are offering deals but you cannot beat the visa or meastro (access) company cards as they give you only the pump price.
Have you thought about salaries for the drivers and TM? company liability insurance? and what rates to stick at for the existing customers?
Let us know how it goes and just shout if you need any help thats what we are all here for to help each other
I would think davey is allready covered for public Liability Insurance with his own company insurance! unless of course this is a seperate enterprise!
As a driver I know it is sometimes a right pain in the arse but I would think bunk fuel like keyfuel and others would be cheeper! If i have it right you agree to buy so much fuel in advance and pay for it then get it from outlets as you need it!
I was presuming this was a separate enterprise Ian, but if not it would no doubt change the premium to include the new venture on the existing policy?
The Reason I never mentioned the Public and employers liability is because we already have that in place having traded for 4 years now, it’s a common policy built into our business insurance.
We use Barclays Factoring for the business so adding the customers we would be hauling for is no problem, wages etc are also took into account, by holding cash in a seperate account for the transport side, I’m reckoning on something like £20,000 for emergencies. As using factoring will give a regular weekly income to the business, the problem we currently have is the timers are a 2 monthly thing, where the customer stocks up, then waits 2 months before re-ordering, but when they order, the Value is high, but your left living off that for 2 months then back to square one. Taking on the Transport will give a more regular income, but unfortunately more regular outgoings as well 
As for the Hour Guards Coffee Of course they’ll have one, along with a ruddy big picture of them on the back doors of the trailers, company advertising for nowt Lol
The only thing that I can see that hasn’t been covered is that VOSA will want to see cash reserves for the maintenance of the vehicles. But I think you have already answered that.
Best of luck.
Davey Driver:
As for the Hour Guards Coffee
Well with the insurance sorted, the factoring sorted and the Hours Guard sorted looks like you are ready to go.
One other thing though is to check if anything you will be carrying will be under CMR rules, you don’t have to be taking it in and out of the country for it to fall under CMR, because if it is the GIT insurance is different because of the higher liability per tonne under CMR conditions as opposed to RHA conditions,
Once again good luck and keep us posted on how it goes, would be interesting reading for sure.
Can`t offer any advice, Davey, but would like to wish you luck in your new venture
Regards
Trev
I would think bunk fuel like keyfuel and others would be cheeper
We use Keyfuels at our place,as well as bunkering facilities,using the same card, at our yard 10 miles away,and don’t generally have a problem
The only downside,and it’s not from Keyfuels themselves,is a number of garages,have recently decided to impose a 1.5p per litre surcharge on top of the price.We have a list of such garages to carry with us,and anyone using said ■■■■ Turpin garages,is subject to disciplinary action.
Whatever the outcome,good luck Davey.
Ken.
Good luck davey hope it works out mate ps need a driver give me a shout
we have a fuel pump within the depot davey and it works perfectly,i suppose it would depend if your vehicles will be returning to depot at night or would they be away through the week. 
the only guys that have fuelcards is the europeon drivers who only put enough fuel in truck to get them to dover,then they fuel up over the water on the same sort of card that coffee has got.
i hope it all works out for you and i wish you every success for this company takeover,good luck and keep us posted.
ps,i hope you will be chargeing the drivers for the hour guard £1 per week from wages ain’t that bad
Shoot Davey, you need a rigid driver in the new year? Don’t care too much about the age of the truck, so long as it’s a sleeper, and i get plenty of miles…
Another thing I thought of this morning Davey is some kind of breakdown cover?
Funny enough Neil I was thinking of the likes of ATS for tyres, but never give it a thought about breakdown 
I never thought of it at first Davey as I’m covered Europe wide through my lease contract with Volvo and I’ve never had to actually call them out yet in nearly 8 years but I drove past a broken down truck early this morning, with the fitter in attendance (it was a Scania of course ), and a little lightbulb went off in my head. But then that is why you asked for advice because between all of us I’m sure we will cover everything in the end. 