for those of you that were brave enough, and have set up on your own, how long did you contemplate the idea before actually taking the plunge, and how much research did you do beforehand?
also, how long were you an employed/self employed driver, before setting up your own business.
ta.
For me it was a case of enough is enough after being laid off for the third time, decided to stand or fall on my own account.
Worked as employed driver for years also did some office time as planner.
Research was a case of going through all the data collect while employed. From this i knew how much it would cost to operate. Set up end of 2009, pulling containers out of southampton.
Lots of people said don’t do it and to be honest it can be hard but make a fair living and am happy.
Would not go back to being employed for double the dosh.
I started thinking about it around a year ago, because I wasn’t having any luck working for other people and I wasn’t earning any interest on my savings so I thought I could put them to more productive use.
I sat the Operators CPC course last November and took the exam in December and I was moving towards the idea by the day, although it still wasn’t fixed in stone until around April, when I applied for my O licence, and I started trading on 1st July.
I was researching all the while, both in the real world an on here, where I asked questions about everything I could think of, and received enormous help for which I’ll always be grateful.
I had been driving a truck since 1986 as an employee, apart from a spell away when my boys were born, when I was a minicab owner driver, something I had also done before I took my HGV test. This was helpful experience, in fact my accounting was far more complicated as a minicab driver because of the far higher number of payments I received, around 600 a month as opposed to one a month now.
Will it work out? I really don’t know. I’m earning a reasonable living and I’m enjoying it despite the aggravation.
I found that whilst my earnings were comparable to being directly employed, the reductions in tax, NI, phone, house/office costs more than made up for the lack of earnings. Some cynics may say that the main contractors dishing out the paltry rates rely on the OD using those savings to supplement their incomes, but personally l don’t care where the money comes from so long as it ends up in my account eventually.
Points of advice:
1 Get the best accountant you can afford, he’ll save you more than his fee.
2 DO NOT EMPLOY YOUR MATES !!!
3 You will pay out a lot of money on your truck, you can either pay the depreciation on something new(ish) or in repairs on an older one, it will work out nearly the same.
4 Make sure you get any personal mortgages or loans sorted out before you go sef employed. Once your on your own they won’t touch you with a mucky stick.
5 Don’t be tempted by the 700 hp flim flam. Get a no frills workhorse
6 Make sure you have funds to survive for 4 months minimum, better 6 if you can. It will take that long before you get regular income.
7 DO NOT EMPLOY YOUR MATES . . . . . . or thier wives !
Good advice above, but I would modify it by saying "Don’t go self-employed, set up a Limited Company and employ yourself as an employee on PAYE. Pay yourself £600 a month so you aren’t liable for income tax or NI. Pay yourself as much as possible in other ways, for example I lent my company the money it needed to start up and my company is currently repaying this to me at £2,000 a month- loan repayments are tax-free 
Anything you buy for the business is off-settable against tax, a pressure washer, a ladder, a bottle of Fairy Liquid. If you take your girlfriend out for a meal, make sure you ask her at least one question about business, even just to ask her if she prefers red lorries to yellow lorries, then it’s a business meeting and off-settable against tax.
Then, if you ever want a mortgage in the future, you can ramp your wages up to £3,000 a month for a few months, pay the income tax and NI that this will entail and as a high earning employee the bank will give you a mortgage.
Being in business is a whole different ball game and you have to learn how to play the system while remaining totally within the Law.
So is it better being a Limited Company and employing yourself or being a Sole Trader when you go self employed in general?
I’ve just decided to go self employed but not as an owner driver…
Harry’s advice is spot on.
Limited company, £675 per month tax free.
Go to HMRC website and look what items are tax deductable, make sure you buy all your goods and services so they fall into one of the categories, Branded workwear(Nike, Addidas), Work boots(Timberland/CAT etc.)
Get a receipt for your breakfast/lunch/dinner and stick that in too.
Claim business mileage at 45p per mile for 10,000 miles then 25p/m after that. Make sure you go to a “trade fair” or an “auction” every week to get your mileage in.
45p per mile eh ? I know blokes on here who are takinng a 44 tonner out for that, never mind the Ford Focus ! Tee Hee. 
thankyou all very much, much appreciated.
very much in the thinking stage at the mo, and if it were to happen, i think it would be 2 years away yet.
i’ve been an employed hgv driver since 1993, so have done a reasonable amount in that time, but certainly don’t know it all.
ltd would be the way to go, as would a good accountant it seems. makes sense, if i had a load to get from the uk to the centre of madrid, i wouldn’t ask an accountant to do it 
luckily, have no loans/credit cards, but due to an “interesting year” the savings are very low.
would use the 2 years i’m thinking its going to take, to build up a decent wad of savings again, and ask lots of questions, and do lots of research.
bling motors are not my thing, i like a good sized cab, and clean and tidy inside and out, but lightbars and frilly curtains are not for me, (lightbars and fuel economy) 
the daft thing is, i do have a decent job as such, but as others have stated, i’d rather regret the things i do do, as opposedto the things i don’t.
thanks again all.
Look through past threads on here, particularly ones I started since about this time last year where I started seeking advice about the whole thing, and further threads where the idea was evolving and I asked ever more probing questions, trucks, fuel cards, operating centres, maintenance contracts, the works. I received some very helpful advice on here, and as I said, I’ll always be grateful. But ask your own questions too, you’ll receive mixed answers about any question you pose, but that’s what a forum is.
People will try to deter you, and who is to say that they are in the wrong? It is very stressful when things are going wrong, especially when you get a run of bad luck, as happens to everybody. You will need a lot of money behind you, I would say £30,000 as an absolute bare minimum and one thing is for sure, it will cost you more in the early days than you had budgeted for.
I set my little business up in such a way that I could get out at any time- no long contract on the truck etc- and that gives me peace of mind, as I could pack it all in tomorrow, sell the truck for a couple of thousand less than I paid for it and still come out ahead, with a CPC and DCPC paid for, as well as having acquired lots of tools and equipment etc which will come in handy around the house for the next 20 years.
But meanwhile, I have to be honest, I am enjoying the whole experience enormously, I’m far happier than I have been for a long time and far more motivated to work hard. It’s like a grown-ups version of having your very own train set, you can just do things pretty much how you choose, and as Baz said, you stand or fall on your own.
Good luck if you choose to do it and if you have any more questions then just ask.
nice 1 thanks H
i was following your posts before and found them very interesting, i think the idea was already in my head back then.
its a thing thats always niggled away at me, but have always talked myself out of setting up, but, well you know there comes a time.
i know there is a massive amount to learn, but nothing ventured, nothing gained.
the driving, the going here there and anywhere, and the professional approach don’t scare me at all, its what i’ve done for 20 years, and like to think i do it well. tools scare me, i’m useless, and this is a concern from a cost point of view. red tape and legislation. doesn’t scare me too much, i was pretty bright at school, got all my exams etc, so know that i can learn that side of stuff without to much bother, just got to learn to re-apply my brain again i guess.
that 30k you mention, what does that cover? i’m really at the early stage of thinking this out, but don’t want to miss anything.
does that cover tractor unit, cpc, money in bank, re o’licence, and money in bank for the initial period before the money actually starts to come rolling in.
i think if i’m honest, it will take me 2-2 and 1/2 years to save 30k, but at least that gives me time to do all the proper research, number crunching and so on. plus 2 and a half years of asking seemingly stupid questions on here
like you say H, its a forum, so there will be the yaa’ers and naa’ers but i’ll pick the sensible stuff out of this as i go.
like most on here that have made the move, i’ve alway worked my plums off for others, perhaps its time to be abit brave, and look at it a slightly different way.
as a side note. baz, were you parked up thurs night at thebottom of the a12?
as a side note. baz, were you parked up thurs night at thebottom of the a12?
Not me mate.
As for the amount of cash it depends on how you are going to fund the truck and maybe trailer. I bought an 04 at the start of 2010, spent a good few pounds on it but as Harry pointed out doing it that way gave me a bail out position.
Just sold it on and now have a 2008 Maggy on finance so a bit more committed! I went containers because (a) I could get the work (b) the payment terms are better than some other work though the rates are lower, this however does teach one how to be careful with costs. Cash flow and planning cash flow is critical I had a good deal of grief with the Traffic Commissioner for having insufficient funds after my first six months trading. Any help you can get with administration is worth its wait in gold as when your wheels start turning you can become consumed with the trucking and lose focus. Any data you can gather while working as an employed driver will be useful.
Keep us posted.
cheers.
as i’m sure you lot already know there are so many variables.
woke up at stupid o’clock this morning, so just randomly started looking at trucks for sale, then tyres, trailers etc, etc there is an awful lot to take in. think as much research as possible is a must, i feel a steep learning curve coming on 
chilistrucker:
cheers.
as i’m sure you lot already know there are so many variables.
woke up at stupid o’clock this morning, so just randomly started looking at trucks for sale, then tyres, trailers etc, etc there is an awful lot to take in. think as much research as possible is a must, i feel a steep learning curve coming on
That’s exactly right, look into anything and everything you can as you go along, think about what you want to do and what your longer term aims are, look at past CPC papers, getting your own CPC is probably the first real step you will take and it will be the first time you lay out money, look at various Operating Centres, and weigh up their pros and cons, look at maintenance, do your costings as best you can.
Above all though, know what work you will be doing, what the rates and payment terms are and credit check anyone you are thinking of trading with.
chilistrucker:
that 30k you mention, what does that cover?
Your biggest expense will be 9 weeks of diesel at around £1,500 a week, so that’s £13,500. You’ll need to maintain a a minimum of £7,700 in the bank to satisfy the TC so we’re up to £21,200 already. CPC, advert in the paper, Operator’s Licence, down payment on the truck, advance yard rental, first insurance instalment, first two six weekly inspections, VED, a tyre or two, a breakdown or two, blah blah blah blah blah.
One thing I will add is that If you buy a wagon on Hire Purchase you need to find all your VAT money up front as it cannot be built into the finance.
Unless you do a Lease Purchase.
xfmatt:
One thing I will add is that If you buy a wagon on Hire Purchase you need to find all your VAT money up front as it cannot be built into the finance.
And it’s worth timing VAT registration so that the quarter-end occurs soon after paying the VAT on the truck, in other words register for VAT two months before you plan to buy the truck, so that you get the VAT back within a month or so of laying it out, rather than having to wait four months for it.
the kaiser:
I found that whilst my earnings were comparable to being directly employed, the reductions in tax, NI, phone, house/office costs more than made up for the lack of earnings. Some cynics may say that the main contractors dishing out the paltry rates rely on the OD using those savings to supplement their incomes, but personally l don’t care where the money comes from so long as it ends up in my account eventually.
Points of advice:
1 Get the best accountant you can afford, he’ll save you more than his fee.
2 DO NOT EMPLOY YOUR MATES !!!
3 You will pay out a lot of money on your truck, you can either pay the depreciation on something new(ish) or in repairs on an older one, it will work out nearly the same.
4 Make sure you get any personal mortgages or loans sorted out before you go sef employed. Once your on your own they won’t touch you with a mucky stick.
5 Don’t be tempted by the 700 hp flim flam. Get a no frills workhorse
6 Make sure you have funds to survive for 4 months minimum, better 6 if you can. It will take that long before you get regular income.
7 DO NOT EMPLOY YOUR MATES . . . . . . or thier wives !
why not your mates 
when ive worked for friends before ive always been conscious off that and tried to go the extra mile to help them out.
I’d sayyou’re in the minority JD. I’ve had 3 mates on for me. 1 i “sacked” the other 2 were mutual but only 1 of them are still talking.
Fair warning. 
jessicas dad:
the kaiser:
I found that whilst my earnings were comparable to being directly employed, the reductions in tax, NI, phone, house/office costs more than made up for the lack of earnings. Some cynics may say that the main contractors dishing out the paltry rates rely on the OD using those savings to supplement their incomes, but personally l don’t care where the money comes from so long as it ends up in my account eventually.
Points of advice:
1 Get the best accountant you can afford, he’ll save you more than his fee.
2 DO NOT EMPLOY YOUR MATES !!!
3 You will pay out a lot of money on your truck, you can either pay the depreciation on something new(ish) or in repairs on an older one, it will work out nearly the same.
4 Make sure you get any personal mortgages or loans sorted out before you go sef employed. Once your on your own they won’t touch you with a mucky stick.
5 Don’t be tempted by the 700 hp flim flam. Get a no frills workhorse
6 Make sure you have funds to survive for 4 months minimum, better 6 if you can. It will take that long before you get regular income.
7 DO NOT EMPLOY YOUR MATES . . . . . . or thier wives !why not your mates
once worked for a mate, it was ok but i wouldnt do it again, it changed the friendship forver and now rarley speak