So how are you all coping with

[jonah_1]

Lets deal with points your individually

Rob K:
Because the difference between many owner driver’s (including yourself) and myself is that I was born with a brain and know how to use it .

No comment

Robk:
I don’t sit there scratching my head watching the fuel prices quickly soar to a quid a litre while I’m pulling boxes about for a quid a mile (take a few pence)

Neither am I !

Robk:
and then suddenly decide the best way to solve my problems would be to go out and spend 80 grand on a brand new souped up motor . What a bright idea that was.

Yes it was a bright idea - it’s called investing in the company.
The reason I “souped” it up, as you put it,Is because I wanted to get a vehicle that I can be comfortable “living” in for the next x amount of years.Also I get reliable vehicle which has got a fixed cost so I know how much I’m going to be spending every month over the period that I decided to buy it over.
Thats called budgeting

Robk:
Then after it’s been delivered watch it spend more time in the garage than on the road earning money, believing that Volvo really are interested in keeping their one-man-band owner driver’s happy and will fix it for me , whilst I just sit there losing potential earnings hand over fist and expecting it all to magically right itself one day

Yes because I went into the dealer and ordered the model with the most faults on it.

So I have been unlucky with faults on the truck - hardly somthing you can say is my fault tho is it? As you imply by your comment.

Anyway nearly all the faults have been sorted now that I’ve got decent dealer looking after it.just waiting for a couple of software upgrades to be installed.

Robk:
As for showing you how it’s done, that will never happen because I can see perfectly clearly that the figures don’t add up on paper and that’s even before factoring in any “unexpected” things like breakdowns, accidents etc.

So why if you no interest in being an O/D do you take so Much interest in how we run our Companies?

Robk:
Westerman could instantly see the way the industry was heading and they didn’t waste any time in wrapping the company up. Best decision they ever made.

I shouldn’t be surprised he gave up haulage - With ability to see into the future like that I reckon he’d earn a bundle telling peoples fortunes

Robk:
With the exception of Paul and a few others, the rest of you work for the rate that your customer dictates to you and if you don’t like it, tough [zb], go elsewhere.

I think you’ll find Paul’s rates are set by his customer as well

Oh & I did

Robk:
You try passing on a fuel surcharge to your customer and they’ll laugh at you - lots. Bizarrely though, you just keep taking whatever [zb] they throw at you and continue to run circles round them working for the same fixed rate while everything else in the industry goes up in price which you have to foot the tab for.

That statement just proves you have no idea how I run my company

Robk:
What exactly are you holding out for? The “magical” day when suddenly the rates are going to jump from a quid a mile to a fiver a mile

I thought you said we should be getting 1.50p/m now it’s a fiver the word goalpost springs to mind (like a quid becoming 1.09 I suppose)

Robk:
You’re never going to make anymore money out of it.

How do you that when you dont even know what I’m earning now!

Robk:
All that’s going to happen is you’re going to continue to be squeezed tighter and tighter by rising costs while the mileage rates stay fixed,

Well you’re partly right cost are rising but so are the rates

Robk:
until the point comes when you’re running at a loss where ever you go and eventually you wind up bankrupt and several hundred thousand quid out of pocket.

Well according to you we are now so I’ll do a deal with you now.

If I’m still trading this time next year you give me 1000pound
If not I’ll give you 1000 pound

Robk:
Then you’ll be wishing you took notice of this thread instead of knocking it because “Rob K knows [zb] all because he’s never done it”.

Or bearing in mind my reply above you’ll be wishing you Never started it!

Robk:
Why is it only me that can see it? Are all you owner driver’s blind FFS ?

Maybe because you are wearing blinkers as far as this subject is concerned and only see what you want to see.Enough people who have actually gone and bought a motor have told you that your opinion is wrong yet you insist it is right.
why?

Robk:
O - P - E - N - - - - - - Y O U R - - - - - - E Y E S.

Couldn’t have said it better myself

[paul_b]

“i think you’ll find pauls rates are set by his costomer as well”

alas tis true, i did try telling em i wanted a fiver a mile or forget it, but when they stopped laughing they asked me to repeat what i’d said as they’d forgotten!

[rob_k]

north surrey haulage:

Okay, okay. You win. Do whatever you want; get on with it. I shall take great pleasure in saying “told you so” when the day comes around. It’s only a matter of time. Tick tock.

[tramper]

Rob K:

north surrey haulage:

Okay, okay. You win. Do whatever you want; get on with it. I shall take great pleasure in saying “told you so” when the day comes around. It’s only a matter of time. Tick tock.

What a truly horrible man.

[denis_f]

Rob K:
Okay, okay. You win. Do whatever you want; get on with it. I shall take great pleasure in saying “told you so” when the day comes around. It’s only a matter of time. Tick tock.

So are you going to take NSH’s bet

[fenman]

Well I’ve been an owner driver for over 10 years and I am doing very nicely thank you .

This seems like a case of “ I haven’t got the balls to have a go myself, so I hope no one else is going to succeed “.

I don’t get involved in many discussions on this forum but after reading Rob Ks posts I do think that his general manner is insulting to owner operators.

There is one way to find out what the rates are like out there Rob, have a go.

10 years ago I was made redundant from a job (Lockwood Distribution) running out of Long Sutton. My last years wages was £24.500 and it was a really good place to work. The money on offer from other firms in the area was around 15k, not wanting to drop that much money I decided to buy a unit and trailer that were 4 yrs old.

I went to work for a company who gave me outgoing work, and from day one I found my own loads back. In 10 years I would think that on average I have run loaded probably 80% of the time and have made a very good living, and I don’t make a habit of working Saturdays or Sundays.
I do about 1400 miles a week.
I do 10 loads a week, 5 out and 5 back.
I don’t do my own repairs, I pay a fitter to do that

As far as rates are concerned — if I phone for a back load and the rate isn’t what I call fair then it doesn’t go on my trailer and most of the people I deal with know this.
Example is —I was offered a load the other day and the conversation went something like this.

“Tony, I have got a load to ■■■,can you do it?”
Me- “You know what the next question is “
“Yes what’s the rate”
I was then told what two other fairly big transport companies were doing it for.
I then said well if they can do it for that money, phone them.
“ Well one of them have just gone bust” was the reply.
I said that if he has been doing that job for that rate, that’s probably why he went bust.
I ended up doing the job for an extra £55.

I remember years ago when Tyrers were on Tilbury dock I used to do a lot of work for them. I went in there one day and the manager showed me a letter, it was from City Transport offering to do any work from Tilbury to the Midlands for £50 less than what was being paid, we all know what happened to City Transport.

In my opinion it isn’t the owner driver who cuts rates.

The thing is Rob, don’t knock it until you’ve tried it. If you’re good enough and use your brain more than you use the steering wheel, there is still a good living to be made out there.

It does seem that you would like to say told you so, wouldn’t it be a lot better to be saying-Good on yer for having a go and I hope things go well for you.

I can assure you I work for a lot more than £1 per mile.
My accounts are available for inspection, this will of course involve a fee.

Tony F

[coffeeholic]

Well that’s me finishing on Friday. I told the company today that I have to finish because Rob says I can’t make any money and I can no longer work for £1.00 a mile.

They did seem a little confused and said, “We aren’t paying you a £1 a mile, (which is true I have to admit because I don’t work for a mileage rate) it works out to far more than that.” I just laughed at them and told them they are living in cloud cuckoo land and they should O - P - E - N - - - - - - THERE - - - - - - E Y ES.

They than said what about the money you have made in the last sixteen years? I told them that after reading Robs wise words on here I realised I can’t have made any money.

I’m glad I have seen the light and I’m sure life will be much better from now on, I mean even though he thinks diesel is a ‘quid a litre’ he can’t surely be wrong can he?

Or is it just Rob’s usual disease of hating and having to knock every success or acheivement, no matter how small? Something that you see time and time again across these forums.

Anyone got any idea what I can do next week?

[kitkat]

Anyone got any idea what I can do next week?

Write a book oh you’v done that,

What about make a video oh you’v done that too

Well let’s see,what ain’t you done in a very long time

Ah i know you can give up the easy life driving across the water and come back and do some real work here in the uk,where all the good driver’s are.

[coffeeholic]

kitkat:
come back and do some real work here in the uk

Ok, you’ve convinced me, and indeed scared me.

I’ve changed my mind.

[marcustandy]

I’ve been watching this thread since it was started, with interest. My transport related job is nothing like an OD; I do get to see some of the rates that are paid etc but this is with long established, almost ‘set-in-stone’ contracts and are certainly not in the ‘quid per mile’ bracket. I do, however, suspect that there actually are some OD’s out there running for that figure but they must be the ‘cowboys’ to make ends meet and the sooner they are off the road, the better. (I aplogise to anyone who is making a legal living at £1/mile…but I doubt it!).

By way of an experiment after reading some more replies here the other day, I went looking for available loads on the www; I didn’t sign-up to any particular sites, especially if they wanted a fee, but just looked and looked…

…within 10 minutes I had found 5 loads (Mon-Fri) for either flat/tilt/curtains from Hull (near to my ‘home town’) to Essex for £1.33 per mile! Granted, it took me 45-50 minutes to find return loads for this imaginary vehicle to the Hull-ish area and the average rate for the return journey’s was going to be £1.21.

Rob, I know this wasn’t the £1.50 to £2.00 per mile that you said it should be but neither was it £1.00 per mile. My point here is that, in no time at all, I could find those loads on the www, without signing-up to any of the main ‘services’. Surely any OD with half an ounce of noggin would do that?? I just don’t see these guys ever running at a quid.

[carl]

correct me if im wrong but ownerdrivers in theory could run at a lower rate than large hauliers as there overheads should be less as theres only one of them so that says to me that as long as they are making a goodliving for themselves and there family to live on whats the problem with them running for this fabled pound a mile .im sorry rob but its the big boys that cut the rates and they also dictate them its a well known fact that the big firms with warehouses charge less because they make it up on storage costs any ownerdriver worth his salt will endevour to run loaded at all times as its him/she that benefits.when i worked for a couple of medium to big companies i lost count of the times i ran back empty from as far a field as kent somerset and even scotland once now how many o/ds would do that.

[rob_k]

I’ve give you a good example. Stobbard’s and Irlam’s do very nicely indeed from the Coca Cola contract. Over the time they’ve had it umpteen “small hauliers” have tried to undercut them to get in but all that happens is that Stobbard’s and Irlam’s drop the rate through the floor and run at break-even point or perhaps even at a loss for a short period until those that are trying to undercut them [zb] off and then they put them back up to normal rate (in very simple terms).

Basically there isn’t enough work for the amount of wagons on the road so “small hauliers” are resorting to desperate measures to try and get some decent paying work, like Coke. You can’t knock Stobbard’s and Irlam’s for doing what they’re doing - it’s plain business sense.

Meanwhile, new start-up owner driver’s are coming along and offering to do the work elsewhere for 63p per mile and they’re actually serious, it’s not a joke.

Sorry, but on the whole I think the big boys have got it wrapped up pretty nicely and if left to it, they will slowly up the rates on their own but whilst ever there are “small hauliers” and owner driver’s sniffing around trying to get their foot in the door at their 63p per mile then the big boys will keep dropping the rates to cost to keep them out.

[tramper]

[zb] me! Coffee hold the lift! I’d better get out of this game too, the rates are dropping again! It’s 0.63ppm now!!!

small language edit

[paul_b]

HOLD THE LIFT?
we better charter a bus at this rate!

[coffeeholic]

Right that’s me, Tramper and Paul. Anyone else.

Your ideas get even stranger Rob, now you are buying into the ‘Stobart Stories’ as well.

On no, I’ve just noticed you are talking about a different company, my mistake.

[flatbedman]

me & the mrs took over a bankrupt firm of 3 clapped out iveco tractors doing traction 10 years ago, we sold 2 of them straight away & ran the other night & day, 3 years later we traded it in for a 3 year old iveco, a year after that we bought a 2nd truck, a scania 142, in 2000 we bought our 1st new truck, a scania 124 420 topline, which is sadly no longer with us, last november we bought a new r series 420, & to replace the 4 series we just bought a 2nd hand 03 reg volvo fh12 460 globetrotter xl, id say were doing ok, bills get payed we have a family holiday every year, we run 2 cars, yes we work for our customers rates but we have a good relationship with them & we do ok, we could always do better, but were doing ok, what we dont need are idiots telling us were all doomed when the idiot concerned aint got a clue!!

paul

[paul_b]

how about this for a plan?
instead of us all chucking ourselves off the nearest cliffe, we all club together and on monday, simply withdraw our services from the market place for a week? not only will this see an unpresidented rise in rates, the likes of wich has never been seen before, the knock on effect will mean by friday afternoon at the latest all company drivers wil be on fifteen quid an hour, minimum, we then return to work in the darkness of the early hours of the following monday and the job, as they say, “is nicely sorted”!

[denis_f]

Coffeeholic:
Right that’s me, Tramper and Paul. Anyone else.

63ppm

got any more room in that bus

[coffeeholic]

OK, four of us for the ‘O - P - E - N - - - - - - Y O U R - - - - - - E Y E S Mystery Tour’ so far, we still have room on top though.

[fenman]

I don’t know where the 63 pence per mile comes from, this post is getting more ridiculous by the minute.You had better reserve a seat for me on the bus