Coming back on the ferry last night from Ireland (belfast to liverpool) I spoke to two older Northern Irish OD’ s. …both with big Scania’s. 6x2 and they were running with their own trailers to the Uk for £1.42 per mile ! FFS why bother…then he said he was lucky to get this as he knew of guys working for £1.10. He is averaging probably 4 days a week work but its slowly improving.
The job is knackered. Glad to be out of it if this is what its come to!
Working for someone is double DONALD DUCKED! 
imagine the rate slashing 20 years ago to get work 
the race to the bottom is nearly COMPLETE! 
guess who’s coming next year? 
be ok if sea miles counted
big boots:
be ok if sea miles counted
Especially if you counted the up and down swells as well…but alas not, the older of the two was in his sixties and said the only reason he was continuing with work was he could not sell the unit for anything like what it was worth at present !
Job is knackered but not knackered enough that they can’t afford to run big Scanias.
I packed up nearly 4 yrs ago as od best move i made dint go bankrupt just sacked it still miss being own boss tho but much better off and relaxed
Conor:
Job is knackered but not knackered enough that they can’t afford to run big Scanias.
Conor, if you can run anything capable of doing 44T work with a triaxle flat for that money and have a good living please explain how to the rest of us. As I cannot even think he is breaking even sometimes.
The poor sod bought it when times were better and is now stuck with it !
i think it is called “being a busy fool”.
hope things look up but i can’t see how.
I sussed this in 1991
3 wheeler:
big boots:
be ok if sea miles countedEspecially if you counted the up and down swells as well…but alas not, the older of the two was in his sixties and said the only reason he was continuing with work was he could not sell the unit for anything like what it was worth at present !
he could sell it for what it’s worth, but not for what he thinks it’s worth
stevieboy308:
he could sell it for what it’s worth, but not for what he thinks it’s worth
He probably meant that he couldn’t sell it for enough to clear the finance, the equivalent of having negative equity in a house. This does force a lot of hauiers, large and small, to carry on until the bitter end rather than just selling up and getting out.
stevieboy308:
3 wheeler:
big boots:
be ok if sea miles countedEspecially if you counted the up and down swells as well…but alas not, the older of the two was in his sixties and said the only reason he was continuing with work was he could not sell the unit for anything like what it was worth at present !
he could sell it for what it’s worth, but not for what he thinks it’s worth
Well I suppose thats true, but if you wanted to buy one in that condition from a dealer with all its toys I bet the difference would be upwards of £10 k. Unfortunately.
3 wheeler:
stevieboy308:
3 wheeler:
big boots:
be ok if sea miles countedEspecially if you counted the up and down swells as well…but alas not, the older of the two was in his sixties and said the only reason he was continuing with work was he could not sell the unit for anything like what it was worth at present !
he could sell it for what it’s worth, but not for what he thinks it’s worth
Well I suppose thats true, but if you wanted to buy one in that condition from a dealer with all its toys I bet the difference would be upwards of £10 k. Unfortunately.
yeah but that’s alway going to be the case, you’re paying for dealer facilities, come back, piece of mind etc
So after diesel he’s on 67 pence in his sky rocket for every mile he rolls. You’d have to knock out a few miles per day to pay for a Scania & fridge trailer! That’s not even talking about the red in the fridge or probably white 
. No wonder there’s so many illegal fuel plants over.
Golden…
£1.42 and £1.10 
. When I had my own motors I was getting £1 a mile, and that was in the 80s when diesel was about 35p a litre,…ok, it was direct work granted, but £1 to £1.42 in 25yrs .
I reckon you are right it is ■■■■■■ ed if that is what o/ds are on today I don’t know how (or why) they do it.
It can’t be that bad, on my run upto cardiff tonight nearly every truck I’ve past is an od running a fairly newish top of the range motor with shiny wheel trims & light bars everywhere!.. & many I struggled to pass in the merc sprinter & I was empty
I had a blinged up Scania and the monthly finance was about 15% of the turnover. But there is always hope, that a newer truck will use a little less fuel and break down less, pushing the owner into the hard-achieved realm of profitability. I was almost signing the papers on a new volvo to trade in my thirsty scania, when I decided to just sell the scania end of.