Owner drivers help please

UK PROFESSIONAL DRIVERS FORUMS OWNER AND FLEET OPERATORS FORUM (INTERACTIVE)
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Hello folks been directed to this site as it has a wealth of info and support for people and hoping you guys can help me with a few questions it would be very much appreciated,

A quick insight- I am floating from job to job and cannot settle and now got into another job to tide me over till I get this sorted out,when in an employed situation there seems to be alot of jobsworths reporting fellow workers or trying to shaft them every chance they get Boss’s who are very much up themselves IE. look what I got cause you make money for me (I try to work for smaller firms to gain a better understanding of owning a truck)

After a real long think about this and plenty of chats with people and a very long chat with my wife we have decided it is feasible to make every attempt to becoming an owner driver as then everything is down to us and not relying on others so to speak- I would rather not go down the container route personally I much prefer fridge work but guessing curtainside is a bit better to get into to establish things (reckon best thing to do is sub for a company/companies till I get the grasp of owning/operating a truck)

1st question - Is it better to get my wife to do the transport manager course or to try and hire 1 I have heard there are agents that can supply 1 for a monthly fee.
2nd question- The operating centre I have a friend with a small farm and a gate wide enough to put a unit only in and then it would be off road there is no gate and not able to have a trailer in there would this be a suitable place to park the truck (planning on using other peoples trailers so O license would be for truck)
3rd question- been looking at the back pages and also been recommended the likes of Barron Wood Distribution for work has anyone any insight in this company (Money is very tight and working week1 paid week 2 although not recommended by many would be the route I would need to go till i get everything sorted ie 6 months-1 year working this way)

I have full support of my wife and she will be the accountant (she’s done all of that) and invoicing etc I know many say don’t do it you’d be mad but thing is I really love driving trucks and cannot find that 1 job that fits ( had a real good job and fantastic boss and real good work colleagues but recession got in the way and unfortunately the company went under) been trying to find that since then but reckon solo is the way for me to go as in Family run business

Any help/info pointers would be very much appreciated

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Dee if you want to pull a trailer be it your own or not then you need a olicence for 1 vehicle and 1 trailer ,so you will have to show you can park both at you operating centre .

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Thank you Dan seems I am going to have to widen my search and find somewhere else suitable is there a criteria I have to meet or is it just hardstand off road - does it need to be secure parking locked gate etc?

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if your wife is willing to do the Operator CPC for you, then that would be better in the long term for you

your operating Centre, go around some local hauliers to see if they have a spare space in their yard, that would be better than using a farm, as it will already have permission granted from the TC for your type of vehicle to access

try and find work that is NOT from the back pages of the magazines

i have had a vehicle on for Barron Wood, and it didn’t work out very well, BUT, i know others that have got vehicles on there and it is working well enough for them, some have been on there for a number of years now

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Hi Dee, welcome along, help the others to answer your questions, in order, as best I can, this is my two penn’orth…

Dee164580:
1st question - Is it better to get my wife to do the transport manager course or to try and hire 1 I have heard there are agents that can supply 1 for a monthly fee.

It’s around £1,200 to take the Operator’s CPC, or £200+ a month to hire an external TM, so taking the course will pay for itself in six months. Additionally, TC’s really are getting more of a downer on external TM’s all the time so my advice would 100% be to get your wife to do it. Be warned, it isn’t easy though, it’s the equivalent of an NVQ level 3 exam, or an A Level, and you normally do it in a fortnight.

Dee164580:
2nd question- The operating centre I have a friend with a small farm and a gate wide enough to put a unit only in and then it would be off road there is no gate and not able to have a trailer in there would this be a suitable place to park the truck (planning on using other peoples trailers so O license would be for truck)

VOSA would make a site visit. You must be able to enter and leave the premises in forward gear. I don’t think the TC would look very favourably on an application for one vehicle and no trailers, if the vehicle was a tractor unit. If you regularly keep somebody else’s trailers there then I’m fairly sure a trailer would need to be on the licence. You’d have to pay the application fee of £250 when you submitted the application and if VOSA said it was unsuitable then you wouldn’t get it back.

Dee164580:
3rd question- been looking at the back pages and also been recommended the likes of Barron Wood Distribution for work has anyone any insight in this company

Somebody had a go at it, I’ll leave him to give you the word from the horse’s mouth.

Dee164580:
(Money is very tight and working week1 paid week 2 although not recommended by many would be the route I would need to go till i get everything sorted ie 6 months-1 year working this way)

Recipe for disaster to be honest mate if you need to start out like that. What if the clutch fails in the first month? Or the alternator? Or the starter motor? It’s amazing how easily you can pick up a £1,000 bill out of the blue.

But, if you want to do it, I wouldn’t try to put you off. I earn a reasonable living at it, not a fortune by any means. It just sounds like your idea needs a re-think here and there.

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thank you shuttlespanker that is a very good help I will search local hauliers and ring round (might even be able to get some work out of it)

Yes wife will do the operator course but was unsure whether it would be better to hire 1 first see how we get on before doing the course but suppose after 3-4 months it wouldv’e paid for itself anyway

the issue for me is the waiting time on return funds as my budget is very limited to start with and I know I should hold out till I have a bigger budget but that realistically could take a long time hence looking at the work week 1 paid week 2 type of places and really don’t want that to be where I end up fulltime just a sort of stop gap to get monies in and built a little enough to support 3 months running (guessing that would take the 6 months - 1 year if i’m lucky

any input is very much appreciated I know I don’t know it all and this is not just a floating dream so I want to get it right and have a good foundation to build on I know alot of the senior owners have had to learn it all themselves but we can all see how hard and tight the industry is getting especially with the guys from other countries etc and thats why I hope that the industry can help out new starts with the information they have gained guidelines for a better word many thanks

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thank you Harry I know the recipe I have is not perfect and needs tweaking and very much appreciated for the advice it’s given me a fair bit to work through and also think about, was thinking of the lease programme with R&M but after reading earlier posts think that may be a bad idea so going to have to sit down with the wife and work on a financial plan that can cover till revenue comes in

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Mate. No. You’re far better off finding work at a decent firm. I don’t mean to ■■■■ on your hopes and dreams

But unless you can get decent sub contract work (like Harry) or you’ve welded yourself into a niche (like muck spreader) then you’ll likely find it’s ■■■■■■■ hard work for little more than a decent firm would pay you in wages and ten times the risk and worry.

Not to mention the debt (I assume this isn’t an all cash venture with a bloody great big pile of cash for breakdowns and the like)

As always with these threads if you do decide to go for it I wish you the best of luck

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Which area of the country are you from?

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I know exactly what your saying Tom and do have a good understanding of how tight things are in the industry and your right I don’t have a rich backing with money to burn and understand the risks I will be taking there is alot about the owner driver side of things I need to learn and or understand but looking about the good firms have good drivers and they are going nowhere so in my view solo is the way to go but if things get tight I can always park it drive for someone build up and run it on again presumably ( not what I want to happen more of a worse case scenario) my experience is in general haulage curtains and fridges and have a hard working ethic just need the chance to put it into practise properly if you get me many thank all input is appreciated

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I live east midlands (Alfreton)

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Dee164580:
thank you Harry I know the recipe I have is not perfect and needs tweaking and very much appreciated for the advice it’s given me a fair bit to work through and also think about, was thinking of the lease programme with R&M but after reading earlier posts think that may be a bad idea so going to have to sit down with the wife and work on a financial plan that can cover till revenue comes in

I can tell you have your heart set on this, so do it.

Honestly, do it. it’s always the things you bottle out of that you regret in later life, not the things that you did, even if those things didn’t quite work out how you planned.

Go on, buy a truck. You know you want to! :wink:

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lol Harry I do but not going to run out and buy 1 without speaking to those in the know and getting as much advice as I can possibly get first I know it’s very hard to do if it was easy everyone would be at it my search for a good quality job working for another has seen me travelling to Preston and Burscough now with me living in Alfreton thats a fair trek just to drive a truck and this is the reason I believe in order to carry on doing the job I really enjoy doing I need to go solo (with wifes support of course )

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You just need an o-licence for what you are actually operating from those premises. Trailers are a strange one as there is no financial requirement and plenty of big fleets of just trailers with no o-licence at all. If you aren’t operating a trailer from there I can’t see you need it on the licence unless there’s some strange VOSA rule I’ve missed.

VOSA don’t visit every site a licence is granted for but you should probably assume they might.

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Vosa are going to want to see available funds (proof of financial standing)before approving an application.

transportsfriend.org/pdf_fil … inance.pdf

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Own Account Driver:
You just need an o-licence for what you are actually operating from those premises. Trailers are a strange one as there is no financial requirement and plenty of big fleets of just trailers with no o-licence at all. If you aren’t operating a trailer from there I can’t see you need it on the licence unless there’s some strange VOSA rule I’ve missed.

VOSA don’t visit every site a licence is granted for but you should probably assume they might.

Are you really an own account driver ? To pull a trailer with a rigid or a unit you have got to be licensed for 1 vehicle and 1 trailer ,you will need a operating centre you can park the whole lot at ,this does not matter if you own the trailer or not ,and when out on the road the condition of the trailer is down to you Dee ,when you get stopped in a vosa check they will know if your licences has a trailer on it ,and I would think they would make you leave it there too if not .

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Dee164580:
(Money is very tight and working week1 paid week 2 although not recommended by many would be the route I would need to go till i get everything sorted ie 6 months-1 year working this way)
Any help/info pointers would be very much appreciated

Because of above I would seriously stay away,
you need a sizeable amount of “coin” in your business bank account or own savings to start up as O/D :exclamation: :exclamation: :confused:

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Amazing that nobody has
Mentioned to do it as a ltd
Company , dont give any personal guarantees, that way if it gets too much youncan just walk away

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Ive donr some work for barronwood as an owner driver with a motor without a lot of finance and baring a few major breakdowns you will make a living same as any of the firms who advertise in the trade rags or doung ferry trailers.
They offee quick payment and fuel cards etc so you tend to get stuck in a rut where you have to stick at that kind of work.
IMHO theres no point in been an owner driver unless you can earn significantly more than an employed driver but it suits others its personal choice.
You need to be licenced for a trailer even if pulling a rented or ferry trailer and your operating centre needs to have avalible space for what your licenced for.

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Dan Punchard:

Own Account Driver:
You just need an o-licence for what you are actually operating from those premises. Trailers are a strange one as there is no financial requirement and plenty of big fleets of just trailers with no o-licence at all. If you aren’t operating a trailer from there I can’t see you need it on the licence unless there’s some strange VOSA rule I’ve missed.

VOSA don’t visit every site a licence is granted for but you should probably assume they might.

Are you really an own account driver ? To pull a trailer with a rigid or a unit you have got to be licensed for 1 vehicle and 1 trailer ,you will need a operating centre you can park the whole lot at ,this does not matter if you own the trailer or not ,and when out on the road the condition of the trailer is down to you Dee ,when you get stopped in a vosa check they will know if your licences has a trailer on it ,and I would think they would make you leave it there too if not .

Sure there are licences with more units than trailers on them. I’m sorry I cannot see why this should be the case or why you need to apply for a licence for something you are not operating from those premises.

  1. Operating centres
    Your operating centre is where your vehicles are normally kept when not in use. When you apply for an operator’s licence, you’ll be asked to give the address of your proposed centre(s) and information about the numbers of trailers and vehicles you will keep there.