Blunder Man:
£12,000 for the privelige of working for Stobbie’s, without going into the obvious pitfalls of this, and if you stop and think they are many potentially bankrupting.
Are you exclusively tied to their work, or can you pick up a better paying load? as you are basically a self employed owner driver (yes?) surely if Eddie’s offer you a load for say £400 and Billy Bloggs offers you £500 for a similar run, are you obliged to take Eddie’s. just wondering.
I would imagine that the £12k includes the £7.7k required to prove financial standing for an O-licence. However - what is the remaining £4.3k for? Assuming that you fuel at ESL depots and this is then deducted from your wedge at the end of each month also everything else is deducted inc RFL,insurance, parking?, elf UNIFORM etc. They also expect the vehicle to be available every day with an approved driver - he will want paying at the end of each weekend and cover his expenses like parking and cleaning his elf outfit for the next weekend. How much would you expect to pay a ‘mate’ for working a weekend? How can their ‘rate’ include parking as this is a variable amount - as you are self employed it would be a tax deductable expense so you would want the receipts.
To the outside world and their customers you appear as a directly employed elf - but you work for your own company so why the uniform? The unit/trailer would be liveried so unlikely you could back haul for anyone else. If there is no return haul from the outposts they will send you (check out the destinations on ‘Sub on-line’!). If they have round trip work it will go to their own vehicles thats an obvious fact of life! You can bet your life the contract is cast iron so if you are caught hauling for anyone else you would be out - don’t forget the vehicles are tracked.
The old saying - if there’s money to be made do it yourself - if not sub it out! I have come across some of the rates ESL pull for (non contract ad hoc stuff) so assuming they cream off 10 - 20% you would be left with very little.
Good luck to anyone that goes for it but I would say deffo don’t put your redundancy money up - they pay it out with one hand and take it back with the other!
I think until someone phones them or meets up with the and gets the full details we will never know what the terms and conditions are.
If i get a chance on Monday will call and see what exactly is the story although have absolutely no interest what so ever as if i wanted to buy my own unit there is plenty of other places i can go to for work and get it.
But i do know from previous experience of running trucks with this deal you dont own the truck so after x amount of time truck goes back to lease company or who ever owns it where as i always found its best to have a deal where you own the truck after x amount of years so after all your payments the truck is yours and when it is you can then keep running it and make more every week (Hopefully) or else sell it and whatever you get for it wether it 5 or 20 thousand that money is your s which makes a nice little bonus even if u were only ending up with a wage every week while you were running it .you still have something at the end.
Would you be running under stobarts licence or would that be too risky for him and each subbie will have there own licence.
It used to be even if u had a credit card with 6k limit (or around that figure) you were fine but think thats changed now it has to be cash in bank.
His money men will have done their maths, it’s not as if they are looking to set people up for a fall and it is still a relatively cheap franchise which, if you’re prepared to put in the hours and work to ESL rules, it will probably provide a decent living for some. If I was younger, single, looking for work and had access to £12k I would certainly not dismiss it out-of-hand.
Foxstein:
Are there any Tarmac O/D drivers on here who could shed some light on the pitfalls etc?
IMO this is clearly where they’ve got the idea from. ^^^
I genuinely think they will be over-subscribed with wannabe owner-drivers . The success of Tarmac and other ‘franchisee’ schemes shows that there is a market for this kind of thing, people like having the backup of a large firm behind them, they don’t want the hassle of finding different jobs for different firms all the time, they won’t have to ring round for insurance quotes etc everythings provided! The biggest draw of all is that they won’t have to wait for their money. Tarmac etc are very canny, the rates are poor but they always pay and always on time and in full. Due to the pressures of cashflow many owner-drivers say that they would rather have 10% off the rate and get paid regularly than work for better rates and have to continually chase money outstanding all the time.
This ESL thins is madness IMO, its not a contract in any normal sense of the word but plenty will go for it you mark my words! And if they did struggle to get O/D’s interested then they might do what Tarmac did and expand the offer to ‘small haulage companies’ with a few trucks. In terms of general haulage, I bet the rates are comparable with the poor rates many are getting so for Joe Bloggs Haulage struggling along with 5 or 6 wagons why not?
nedflanders:
Would you be running under stobarts licence or would that be too risky for him and each subbie will have there own licence.
It used to be even if u had a credit card with 6k limit (or around that figure) you were fine but think thats changed now it has to be cash in bank.
Just read the ad, he will get some to do it , they will get looked after to encourage more drivers to try it,think about it they can not make it pay enough so how is a green od going to make it pay.When the WTD gets in full swing and they start full enforcement it will not be worth a light unless rates go up to cover these extra costs.The bit about you must have a driver to utilise the vehicle when they are busy is frought with danger good drivers are like rocking horse s…and the wrong one will finish you off.I have been at it along time but would not do it again no where near the money for the input or responsibilty involved, before you get your cut there is a line of people with their hands out and the line is getting longer, ad blue,tape stuck round the truck,tolls, euro six,and the bigest one when you put a driver on is co operate manslaughter you go to prison with your driver. Be warned.
I’ve not put any great deal of thought into this, just a daydreaming kind of thought. But would this offer be a great way ahead for a partnership between 2 drivers, i.e put in 6k each and then run the wagon 24/7ish (loads/work dependent). Obviously only 1 name being on the contract, but generally a father/son, husband/wife or 2 close mates or any other type of combo could make ESL offer not too bad a deal and possibly a decent earner.
Compared to some franchises that come about when there is a recession, this sounds like a fair deal.
We all know that you won’t make a fortune being an owner driver, but with a decent accountant and a reliable driver for holidays and weekends you could make a reasonable living.
If you read it properly, £12000 grand is cash flow, not what you pay to Stobart, they cover parking, uniform and so on. You don’t need your o-licence, just a cpc, fuel is bunkered and Stobart have their own tankers delivering bunker fuel so will get it cheaper.
Stobart have a reputation to keep, how would it look to the stock market if they brought all these franchisees in board just for them to fail.
Yes Stobart are looking to save money, so they ate doing it by reducing their salary and pension outlay, very clever if you ask me.
They have the work, they have the vehicles, if I had £12000 to spare and no family I would go for it.
Hay1908:
I’ve not put any great deal of thought into this, just a daydreaming kind of thought. But would this offer be a great way ahead for a partnership between 2 drivers, i.e put in 6k each and then run the wagon 24/7ish (loads/work dependent). Obviously only 1 name being on the contract, but generally a father/son, husband/wife or 2 close mates or any other type of combo could make ESL offer not too bad a deal and possibly a decent earner.
Thoughts?
Yes, my son has thrown that one at me as he is quite interested. I’d put up the initial cash & act as the relief driver though we wouldn’t run it 24/7. He’s not long held his class1 so for him it would be a great way of getting the experience. Think he’ll apply just to find out the information so if I find out more details I’ll post back.
Hay1908:
I’ve not put any great deal of thought into this, just a daydreaming kind of thought. But would this offer be a great way ahead for a partnership between 2 drivers, i.e put in 6k each and then run the wagon 24/7ish (loads/work dependent). Obviously only 1 name being on the contract, but generally a father/son, husband/wife or 2 close mates or any other type of combo could make ESL offer not too bad a deal and possibly a decent earner.
Thoughts?
Yes, my son has thrown that one at me as he is quite interested. I’d put up the initial cash & act as the relief driver though we wouldn’t run it 24/7. He’s not long held his class1 so for him it would be a great way of getting the experience. Think he’ll apply just to find out the information so if I find out more details I’ll post back.
Cheers Tallyman, I would be interested in knowing how he gets on as I’ve now got my old grey matter working out other permitations as to how this could work as an earner
HAY that is a good way to go to keep the vehicle fully productive,I dont see how they can run on stobart licence though,this would mean if you were to put say a firman on your truck and he broke the rules stobart would also carry the can I think.
fuse:
HAY that is a good way to go to keep the vehicle fully productive,I dont see how they can run on stobart licence though,this would mean if you were to put say a firman on your truck and he broke the rules stobart would also carry the can I think.
Totally agree and there are probably loads of other pitfalls an holes in my ‘outside the box’ thoughts. i.e. as per there advert “Franchisee must drive the vehicle for the majority of the time and be able to put suitably qualified drivers on at peak periods, weekends, holidays etc” is a very vague statement as it does not stipulate as to how long majority is? 1 driver (the franchisee) drives for 56 hrs in the week and the other (your business partner ) does 55.5 hrs. That in my eyes is the franchisee doing the majority.
I do await some more of the finer details of the contract and/or other peoples thoughts and observations. Like I said initially, its purely just a daydream kind of a thought and after being armed with the right info and plenty of discussions amongst SME’s it may even become a venture worth a punt or it will remain as a dolly daydream.
. The success of Tarmac and other ‘franchisee’ schemes shows that there is a market for this kind of thing, people like having the backup of a large firm behind them, they don’t want the hassle of finding different jobs for different firms all the time, they won’t have to ring round for insurance quotes etc everythings provided! The biggest draw of all is that they won’t have to wait for their money. Tarmac etc are very canny, the rates are poor but they always pay and always on time and in full. Due to the pressures of cashflow many owner-drivers say that they would rather have 10% off the rate and get paid regularly than work for better rates and have to continually chase money outstanding all the time.
) does 55.5 hrs. That in my eyes is the franchisee doing the majority.