On the front cover of this week’s Commercial Motor, there is a very beautiful truck.
It’s a brand new 750bhp Volvo FH4, it has had a subtle but professional paint job, light bars fitted, a personal number plate etc. It looks lovely, but I’m guessing this would have cost at least £120,000 and probably nearer £140,000.
Yet inside CM, it says this- bottom right.
How on earth can you make container haulage pay with this business model? Why on earth would you spec a 750bhp engine to pull containers in what is a relatively flat and small country? I wouldn’t be able to make container haulage pay with a truck which is bought and paid for, how on earth can you do it with £4,000’s worth of finance to pay every month? This is a genuine question, I just cannot get my head around the economics of it.
This country isn’t flat… I seen these guys run from Immingham on a daily basis. Everything they have is top of the line. XXL FH’s, Gigaspace Actros’s, V8 Scania’s etc. Most have green LED’s on them so you can see them coming a mile off, more so at night. Still, would love to work in one.
Harry Monk:
On the front cover of this week’s Commercial Motor, there is a very beautiful truck.
It’s a brand new 750bhp Volvo FH4, it has had a subtle but professional paint job, light bars fitted, a personal number plate etc. It looks lovely, but I’m guessing this would have cost at least £120,000 and probably nearer £140,000.
Yet inside CM, it says this- bottom right.
How on earth can you make container haulage pay with this business model? Why on earth would you spec a 750bhp engine to pull containers in what is a relatively flat and small country? I wouldn’t be able to make container haulage pay with a truck which is bought and paid for, how on earth can you do it with £4,000’s worth of finance to pay every month? This is a genuine question, I just cannot get my head around the economics of it.
I also agree Harry. King runs loads of Scania V8’s all smartly finished and when you look at the average container rate it does take some adding up.
Radar19:
This country isn’t flat… I seen these guys run from Immingham on a daily basis. Everything they have is top of the line. XXL FH’s, Gigaspace Actros’s, V8 Scania’s etc. Most have green LED’s on them so you can see them coming a mile off, more so at night. Still, would love to work in one.
Its not the horsepower so much as the MPG that matters more. If you’re doing Immigham to Manchester all the time it may be better to have something that can go over Windy Hill like its not there than one spending quarter of an hour climbing up it at 40MPH foot hard down.
Radar19:
This country isn’t flat… I seen these guys run from Immingham on a daily basis. Everything they have is top of the line. XXL FH’s, Gigaspace Actros’s, V8 Scania’s etc. Most have green LED’s on them so you can see them coming a mile off, more so at night. Still, would love to work in one.
all but two have green LEDs, the golden griffin is white and also OO 07 RNK thank you for ask! Richard doesn’t suffer fools gladly
muckles:
Must be money laundering, or eccentric multi millionaires who love buying big flash trucks.
Beat me to it. Laundering . Joking aside, I’ve no experience at all of running a lorry. Yet reading the owner driver posts I can’t see how the hell, they aren’t running a large weekly deficit. Would the mileage rate on boxes even cover the weekly payments? It must work whatever they’re doing
they will have the work direct so will have top dollar on it,
ive done my maths and working for 2 companies, (none of the normal lot) containers do add up, its all down to who you pull for, and sometimes pay to just park up and ring out of the blue to get a screamer
Conor:
Its not the horsepower so much as the MPG that matters more. If you’re doing Immigham to Manchester all the time it may be better to have something that can go over Windy Hill like its not there than one spending quarter of an hour climbing up it at 40MPH foot hard down.
Immingham to Manchester ■■ conorworld is a very small place
Conor:
Its not the horsepower so much as the MPG that matters more. If you’re doing Immigham to Manchester all the time it may be better to have something that can go over Windy Hill like its not there than one spending quarter of an hour climbing up it at 40MPH foot hard down.
Immingham to Manchester ■■ conorworld is a very small place
+!
conorworld is indeed a small place where your journey to work and home again is almost the same distance as your trunk.but,there no need to panic as now the uk truck indistry has researched into the new prototype semi auto driver aptly named as ROBOCONOR…roboconor comes into start his shift,theres no need to do anything other than to insert robofinger into tachohead ( same style as the terminator tart)and automatically it will transfer all rules and regulations apertaining to agency trucklaw instantly.roboconor can drive for up to 30 mins non stop and to safeguard any parking on the hard shoulder etc,it will then start looking for safe parking for a quick 45 thus safeguarding your company any vosa style strikes .roboconor has the technological expertise to go all the way from start to changeover point and back again stopping only if its too windy or the snow is too heavy,and will automatically pull over somewhere safe for another 45,or if its raining,it can immediatly call for the standby heliopter to airlift it back to base,automatically registering it as other work.so long as roboconor can complete its allocated shift in a 15,then there will always be backup capacity to alow it to drive another hour to get home again before taking at least 3 weeks off to recharge and be waiting on standby for that fri nite emergency callout 9 hour shift.roboconor is the driver of the future ,and before long there will be masses of unemployed tosco/stobrat type drivers on the dole wondering what hapened to their braindead but otherwise cushy number.the companies will save milions,the roads will be safer,and the hospitals will be empty of rta accidents .surely this is the future,and the end of uk trucking as we know it?
I’ve seen one bloke say he can’t make the work pay and another who says he does very nicely,and that was pulling for the same firm as a subbie…
One thing I do know with containers is it seems to pay more doing locals than doing the distance.
or eccentric multi millionaires who love buying big flash trucks. 
the golden griffin is white and also OO 07 RNK 
