Thinking of becoming a owner driver help please

[hammer]

daverist:
Hi my only advise is go for it i have leased my truck through mercedes at barnsley i have done my first year very scarey at times got some good work with grove freight who then went bust last week owing me 24k kinda makes your 500 a week take home look good

How can you possibly afford this? 24k must be at least a quarter of your turnover for a year - surely you are financially screwed? There just can’t be anything left in the pot?

Loving the positivity though, after basically being anally raped you’re still advising the lad to go for it.

[big_truck]

hammer:

daverist:
Hi my only advise is go for it i have leased my truck through mercedes at barnsley i have done my first year very scarey at times got some good work with grove freight who then went bust last week owing me 24k kinda makes your 500 a week take home look good

How can you possibly afford this? 24k must be at least a quarter of your turnover for a year - surely you are financially screwed? There just can’t be anything left in the pot?

Loving the positivity though, after basically being anally raped you’re still advising the lad to go for it.

Agree 110%

[mckaysuan_yahoo_com]

is it easy becoming o d could anyone give me some advice on it

[shuttlespanker]

mckaysuan@yahoo.com:
is it easy becoming o d could anyone give me some advice on it

yes, buy all my trucks from me and i’ll even give you the work that they come with

[wheel_nut]

WhiteWhiteWhite:
Keep Pluging away fella,

You have to start somewhere,

My boss started as an O/D in 1992, big gamble to take, Now we have 20 trucks 30 trailers With Our Own Contracts Covering Export & Import all over Western Europe.

I think you need a few things to start,

1, Common Sense
2, Understanding Wife
3, Understanding Bank Manager
4, Reliable Customers Who will pay a good rate for a good service and PAY ON TIME
5, 2nd Driver who can work when you need to have weekend rest.
6, Reliable Kit, (a recent breakdown for me in Denmark cost me nearly £5000 to sort)
7, Luck & lots of it !!!

Hope it works out,

See, this post confuses me, the bit about “my boss started as an owner driver and now has 20 trucks,” and a breakdown cost whitewhitewhite, nearly £5000 to sort out. Another recent post about a driver being caught with illegals and it costing him, or her £4500 each

[rob_k]

Wheel Nut:

WhiteWhiteWhite:
Keep Pluging away fella,

You have to start somewhere,

My boss started as an O/D in 1992, big gamble to take, Now we have 20 trucks 30 trailers With Our Own Contracts Covering Export & Import all over Western Europe.

I think you need a few things to start,

1, Common Sense
2, Understanding Wife
3, Understanding Bank Manager
4, Reliable Customers Who will pay a good rate for a good service and PAY ON TIME
5, 2nd Driver who can work when you need to have weekend rest.
6, Reliable Kit, (a recent breakdown for me in Denmark cost me nearly £5000 to sort)
7, Luck & lots of it !!!

Hope it works out,

See, this post confuses me, the bit about “my boss started as an owner driver and now has 20 trucks,” and a breakdown cost whitewhitewhite, nearly £5000 to sort out. Another recent post about a driver being caught with illegals and it costing him, or her £4500 each

It’s because they’re all full of [zb]. The majority of them can’t even manage to string a sentence together so there’s no chance of them being able to work out some simple math. They just make it up as they go along. Numpties, the lot of them.

[globby_480]

Rob K:

Wheel Nut:

WhiteWhiteWhite:
Keep Pluging away fella,

You have to start somewhere,

My boss started as an O/D in 1992, big gamble to take, Now we have 20 trucks 30 trailers With Our Own Contracts Covering Export & Import all over Western Europe.

I think you need a few things to start,

1, Common Sense
2, Understanding Wife
3, Understanding Bank Manager
4, Reliable Customers Who will pay a good rate for a good service and PAY ON TIME
5, 2nd Driver who can work when you need to have weekend rest.
6, Reliable Kit, (a recent breakdown for me in Denmark cost me nearly £5000 to sort)
7, Luck & lots of it !!!

Hope it works out,

See, this post confuses me, the bit about “my boss started as an owner driver and now has 20 trucks,” and a breakdown cost whitewhitewhite, nearly £5000 to sort out. Another recent post about a driver being caught with illegals and it costing him, or her £4500 each

It’s because they’re all full of [zb]. The majority of them can’t even manage to string a sentence together so there’s no chance of them being able to work out some simple math. They just make it up as they go along. Numpties, the lot of them.

only one numpty here and it seems to be you special k,all you seem to know is what you have read and make the rest up as you go along prob thats why your still a agy driver as you aint got a clue and talk bollllllocks

[wheel_nut]

al_P:
i have just read this post and i am actually quite taken back with how rude some people have been , all this guy wanted to know is if it was worth his while in been an owner driver , admitting he knew nothing about what to do as it was his first time in looking into this side of the business , a bit of encouragement or an explanation on why it would be a better idea to wait or stay put in the business he is in would have been better than silly remarks asking if it is a joke post , remember you where once in his shoes!

The question has been asked since Noah was given a couple of pets, the answer hasn’t been found yet. So not to be rude or patronising to Danny, he needs to do some more homework, lots of it, read a lot, listen a lot and make a lot of notes. Rob K has often stuck to his line about Mars Bars, unfortunately he has been proved correct more than once, there are some threads on this forum that will explain, some are still members, some crawled back under their rocks.

In the last 20 or so posts there are many operators who are finding things difficult, fuel, wages, breakdowns, interest rates, lack of work and rising insurance premiums, as well as the fact that the digital tachograph has been used since 2006 whilst the analogue unit has been in our cabs for over 30 years and even longer in Germany. Added to this, the WTD/RTD, road speed limiters, financial standing and much better enforcement and public enquiry have tightened the entry requirements into this industry.

Other posts have mentioned taking a risk and the big boys didn’t start with 600 vehicles. No they didn’t, but they had a much more flexible understanding of the regulations. At risk of being controversial I would suggest that most operators who run a multifaceted organisation did not get there by pure luck or by having shinier trucks than the bloke down the road. It may have helped them recruit the better driver, but what is better? the bloke who could squeeze in an extra Glasgow in the week or the one who washed his lorry every day?

I am interested how the new start with the Mercedes is going to cope with a 24k invoice that wont be paid in his first year of trading. I did it in better times and personal circumstances changed my views. Do I regret it? Hell No, would I do it again? Not in this financial climate, especially not when relying on the trade press and 2nd hand sub contracting. Type European Transport Company into Google and see who comes up, they will load Danny to anywhere he likes, they will even load him back, until Danny gets an invitation from his bank manager to have a chat. The freight forwarders wont worry, they will just wait for the next owner operator to call them. There are dozens of companies that will offer you work, there are dozens of hauliers doing it for nothing, why? simply to keep the payments up.

His boss has a special rate for a hire truck of £400 per week, that is £1733.34 a month or almost £21,000 or you could buy this DAF for half that money and still earn the same amount.

Anyone wishing to become an owner driver, do yourself a favour, follow in Pauls (Repton) footsteps, study the opportunities in your area, talk to a few people who are still doing that work, get some experience of the type of loads you want to carry and do even more sums. Do me a favour and buy a diary, write down every job, including mileage, write down RDC delays and accidents. Make a list of every breakdown, every parking ticket, every puncture or tyre replacement, every gallon of oil and every night out allowance you claim off your boss. Add this to the £500 per week wages which will actually cost him more than that with his Ni contributions.

Dont forget to write down all the fuel & oil you put in over the year, the days you cannot work because the truck is in for its 6 week inspection, a week or so for repair, MOT and we still haven’t looked at a trailer or trailer hire. I think ShuttleSpanker mentioned in another post what the big container companies do to you. I certainly know what the trailer hire companies do.

Come back next June and tell us if it is a viable proposition, there is no rush, after all in 20 years you will be a millionaire

Good Luck. Me, I would stick to the 500quid for now.

[hh]

Have a go mate. Life isent all about money…(if you want money rob the bank)
Get the cpc. buy a good 05, 6 wheel unit analogue, you can get one about £12000. M.A.N.showing on ebay put it on your house mortgage that way minimum payment. buy your diesel on a credit card, watch for the best prices, pay as little as possible keep your money for cash flow .After all your either going to do this or not, money is only an earthly thing and you can get a job any day. take work off one of the reputable agents or trucking c/o even if the rate is not the best,and always ask for their terms of payment.month over month is enough, dont take 3 month payment loads… you will soon get a direct run daily, then get a night trunk and put a driver on it, thats the max you can do, keep it up for a year before you bye anything else… youll be allright then…
best of luck

[rob_k]

HH:
Have a go mate. Life isent all about money…(if you want money rob the bank)
Get the cpc. buy a good 05, 6 wheel unit analogue, you can get one about £12000. M.A.N.showing on ebay put it on your house mortgage that way minimum payment. buy your diesel on a credit card, watch for the best prices, pay as little as possible keep your money for cash flow .After all your either going to do this or not, money is only an earthly thing and you can get a job any day. take work off one of the reputable agents or trucking c/o even if the rate is not the best,and always ask for their terms of payment.month over month is enough, dont take 3 month payment loads… you will soon get a direct run daily, then get a night trunk and put a driver on it, thats the max you can do, keep it up for a year before you bye anything else… youll be allright then…
best of luck

The advice on this forum just gets better and better… (your excellent post being the exception Malc)

[andy1961]

kage5001:
go for it mate lifes all about taking risks if you dont try youll never know just be prepared to work for it! by the way who do you work for cos im looking for a new job and your job sounds like good money…

Oops! A silly person has entered the arena!

Yeah, life’s all about taking risks when you’ve got nothing to lose. You sound like you haven’t got anything worth losing, so you’re ill-equipped to advise on such serious matters.

PS; Dont tilt your head either way mate - you might lose your pee brain as it exits one of your ears!

[goaty]

Lot of bitter and twisted types on here lately.

Doesn’t matter how much planning and prep goes into it, it’s still a ■■■■■■■ risk

Nowt wrong with a bit of encouragement, although if the op is daft enough to jump in cause another member said “■■■■ it, take a risk”, without first crunching some numbers then they deserve all the ■■■■ misery guts and special K can heap on them.

IMHO !

[paul_b]

heres my opinion for what it’s worth based on 6 years of doing the job, if your thinking about entering the world of owner driving as many have said, do your sums, based on what work you know is available at the time but bare in mind these figures are only a forecast, nothing is garaunteed, the most important thing is to base everything on worst case senario i.e only working ten months a year because of lack of work, down time with repairs, shut downs etc.
what you will almost certainly find once you’ve done the above is that the work that is on offer dosn’t pay enough to warrant a 20k unit and 5k trailer on finance, think of it like this, in any area any where in the uk theres established haulage firms that would take on more work so why aren’t they already doing this work thats on offer? the answer is simply because it dosn’t pay enough, so how are you going to make it pay?
there are options, you can sub off a bigish firm on traction only, i did this for 3 years with an old unit paid for cash and earnt by far and away the most money out of the various work i had a go at by keeping running costs and overheads to a minimum.
some have said it’s a risk starting up which it is but you decide how big that risk is going to be, you can easily buy a unit ready to put straight to work for 6-7k ok it won’t be the prettyist thing you’ve ever seen but it’ll do the job and still leave the door open should you decide it’s not for you, this way you’ll get a chance to feel your way in and see what money can actually be made in your area, same with trailers, rent one for £80 a week with no strings, set up costs can really be very low if you go about it in the right way.
earnings? the vast majority of o/d’s will clear 6-700 pound a week, some will be on more, some on less, the upshot is, your never going to be rich from running a wagon but you can be comfortable but you’ve got to put the graft in, there is no such thing as easy money in haulage thats for sure!
so to cut a long story short,
buy a cheap but well looked after unit
rent a trailer if you need one
sub off a haulage firm (not a freight fowarder)
and see how it goes
most important, don’t make long term commitments on finance for what could be a short term venture!
hope thats of some help to anyone considering having a go.

[wheel_nut]

I cannot fault much of what paul b has posted, but it wasn’t always like that, it has been a steep learning curve since 2004 I reckon. Paul has been self employed for a long time before these posts so probably was more acquainted with the pitfalls

paul b:
decided after a bit of thought to call it a day,what swayed me was yet another last minute cancellation,this time it was a run to cornwall which was setup to do after i’d done a little 40 mile job to scunthorpe,i’d almost got to the yard to pick up the cornwall load when they rang,the customer had ordered some more tackle which meant it had to go on an artic,something i’ve been hearing all to often lately,these things happen i know but with it being my only booked job for the week it was a bit of a blow.
i don’t know if i was a bit optimistic setting up as a one man band with one wagon with no garaunteed work, probably so,especially as it’s a six wheeler,although the rates are good for the hiab deliveries it’s become obviouse that theres not going to be enough work through the winter to keep the wagon on the road so i’m gona sell it on and dare i say it,look for a job!
i honestly think if your going to be an owner driver then it’s got to be artic unless you can drop on some regular contract work, that is if you need a regular income,the six wheeler crane lorry’s a good earner through spring and summer with everyone wanting paving delivered but winters a different story,unfortunately i didn’t start while july so i missed the boat as far as earning the good money goes so i’ve got very little in the bank to see me through the slack times.
i’ll keep my o’license going and maybe have another go next year but if i do it’ll either be artic or big crane as theres some good money in the heavy lifting.
paul

paul b:
to be fair after thinking about it a bit i probably painted a worse picture than it actually is, yes if i packed up tomorrow and sold the wagon i’d be ten grand down but i am earning “good” money now if you call good money more than you’d earn doing the same job as a paid driver and like i say a lot of mistakes were made purely because i wasn’t clued up enough!
the work you get is the key or more to the point what you get paid for that work, i’ve seen a lot of firms regularly advertissing for o/d’s but in my opinion the rates they pay are not viable unless your feeling very lucky but there is some good work about it’s just a bit harder to find, i personally wouldn’t put a wagon on anything that was less than £1.30 a mile and i’d want plenty of miles to go at week in week out, i know there are lads working at lower rates than that, i just don’t know how they’re doing it.
thing is you don’t know if you don’t try
good luck

You’d do much worse than following pauls threads from 2004 and you may come across several other posts from myself, Rob K, George Funnyfut (RIP) and Jonah, some for, some against, but with some good advice both ways.

[goaty]

paul b:
heres my opinion for what it’s worth based on 6 years of doing the job, if your thinking about entering the world of owner driving as many have said, do your sums, based on what work you know is available at the time but bare in mind these figures are only a forecast, nothing is garaunteed, the most important thing is to base everything on worst case senario i.e only working ten months a year because of lack of work, down time with repairs, shut downs etc.
what you will almost certainly find once you’ve done the above is that the work that is on offer dosn’t pay enough to warrant a 20k unit and 5k trailer on finance, think of it like this, in any area any where in the uk theres established haulage firms that would take on more work so why aren’t they already doing this work thats on offer? the answer is simply because it dosn’t pay enough, so how are you going to make it pay?
there are options, you can sub off a bigish firm on traction only, i did this for 3 years with an old unit paid for cash and earnt by far and away the most money out of the various work i had a go at by keeping running costs and overheads to a minimum.
some have said it’s a risk starting up which it is but you decide how big that risk is going to be, you can easily buy a unit ready to put straight to work for 6-7k ok it won’t be the prettyist thing you’ve ever seen but it’ll do the job and still leave the door open should you decide it’s not for you, this way you’ll get a chance to feel your way in and see what money can actually be made in your area, same with trailers, rent one for £80 a week with no strings, set up costs can really be very low if you go about it in the right way.
earnings? the vast majority of o/d’s will clear 6-700 pound a week, some will be on more, some on less, the upshot is, your never going to be rich from running a wagon but you can be comfortable but you’ve got to put the graft in, there is no such thing as easy money in haulage thats for sure!
so to cut a long story short,
buy a cheap but well looked after unit
rent a trailer if you need one
sub off a haulage firm (not a freight fowarder)
and see how it goes
most important, don’t make long term commitments on finance for what could be a short term venture!
hope thats of some help to anyone considering having a go.

I agree with and have used a lot of the principals shared by Paulb. just one question though, why wouldn’t you use freight forwarders as a source of work ?

[rob_k]

Goaty:

paul b:
heres my opinion for what it’s worth based on 6 years of doing the job, if your thinking about entering the world of owner driving as many have said, do your sums, based on what work you know is available at the time but bare in mind these figures are only a forecast, nothing is garaunteed, the most important thing is to base everything on worst case senario i.e only working ten months a year because of lack of work, down time with repairs, shut downs etc.
what you will almost certainly find once you’ve done the above is that the work that is on offer dosn’t pay enough to warrant a 20k unit and 5k trailer on finance, think of it like this, in any area any where in the uk theres established haulage firms that would take on more work so why aren’t they already doing this work thats on offer? the answer is simply because it dosn’t pay enough, so how are you going to make it pay?
there are options, you can sub off a bigish firm on traction only, i did this for 3 years with an old unit paid for cash and earnt by far and away the most money out of the various work i had a go at by keeping running costs and overheads to a minimum.
some have said it’s a risk starting up which it is but you decide how big that risk is going to be, you can easily buy a unit ready to put straight to work for 6-7k ok it won’t be the prettyist thing you’ve ever seen but it’ll do the job and still leave the door open should you decide it’s not for you, this way you’ll get a chance to feel your way in and see what money can actually be made in your area, same with trailers, rent one for £80 a week with no strings, set up costs can really be very low if you go about it in the right way.
earnings? the vast majority of o/d’s will clear 6-700 pound a week, some will be on more, some on less, the upshot is, your never going to be rich from running a wagon but you can be comfortable but you’ve got to put the graft in, there is no such thing as easy money in haulage thats for sure!
so to cut a long story short,
buy a cheap but well looked after unit
rent a trailer if you need one
sub off a haulage firm (not a freight fowarder)
and see how it goes
most important, don’t make long term commitments on finance for what could be a short term venture!
hope thats of some help to anyone considering having a go.

I agree with and have used a lot of the principals shared by Paulb. just one question though, why wouldn’t you use freight forwarders as a source of work ?

I also can’t fault what Paul has said. Pretty balanced really and not the usual rubbish that O/Ds come out with saying how brilliant it is and how you should mortgage your house in order to raise the funds to buy truck/trailer etc.

Not using freight forwarders surely doesn’t require any explanation Goaty. Even the most stupid person could see the main problem with that without needing it pointing out. Please, engage some brains yeah.

[paul_b]

perhaps worded that wrongly, i should have said vet the freight fowarder before you get involved, as we all know there are a lot of unscrupulous people involved in haulage, “trust nobody” isn’t a bad veiw to take when it comes to money, having said that there are some good setups out there, i had a few months subing off of swanshaws amongst others, ok the rates weren’t great but the money hit the bank every week without fail, no problems at all and i can only have good words for the owner and the lads in the office.
i allso had the misfortune of dealing with some that clearly, at some point weren’t going to pay what they owed simply because i had found out how little they were making on a load, if you’ve got two or three working in an office plus the head, all needing a wage + profit something has got to give and it’s always the subbie who’s actually done the work who gets shafted.
at one time i wanted to post a list of forwarders to avoid, based on my own experiences, but those that run this site wouldn’t allow it, which is fair enough but i made a point of pm’ing anyone asking about so n so.

[paul_b]

Wheel Nut:
I cannot fault much of what paul b has posted, but it wasn’t always like that, it has been a steep learning curve since 2004 I reckon. Paul has been self employed for a long time before these posts so probably was more acquainted with the pitfalls

paul b:
decided after a bit of thought to call it a day,what swayed me was yet another last minute cancellation,this time it was a run to cornwall which was setup to do after i’d done a little 40 mile job to scunthorpe,i’d almost got to the yard to pick up the cornwall load when they rang,the customer had ordered some more tackle which meant it had to go on an artic,something i’ve been hearing all to often lately,these things happen i know but with it being my only booked job for the week it was a bit of a blow.
i don’t know if i was a bit optimistic setting up as a one man band with one wagon with no garaunteed work, probably so,especially as it’s a six wheeler,although the rates are good for the hiab deliveries it’s become obviouse that theres not going to be enough work through the winter to keep the wagon on the road so i’m gona sell it on and dare i say it,look for a job!
i honestly think if your going to be an owner driver then it’s got to be artic unless you can drop on some regular contract work, that is if you need a regular income,the six wheeler crane lorry’s a good earner through spring and summer with everyone wanting paving delivered but winters a different story,unfortunately i didn’t start while july so i missed the boat as far as earning the good money goes so i’ve got very little in the bank to see me through the slack times.
i’ll keep my o’license going and maybe have another go next year but if i do it’ll either be artic or big crane as theres some good money in the heavy lifting.
paul

paul b:
to be fair after thinking about it a bit i probably painted a worse picture than it actually is, yes if i packed up tomorrow and sold the wagon i’d be ten grand down but i am earning “good” money now if you call good money more than you’d earn doing the same job as a paid driver and like i say a lot of mistakes were made purely because i wasn’t clued up enough!
the work you get is the key or more to the point what you get paid for that work, i’ve seen a lot of firms regularly advertissing for o/d’s but in my opinion the rates they pay are not viable unless your feeling very lucky but there is some good work about it’s just a bit harder to find, i personally wouldn’t put a wagon on anything that was less than £1.30 a mile and i’d want plenty of miles to go at week in week out, i know there are lads working at lower rates than that, i just don’t know how they’re doing it.
thing is you don’t know if you don’t try
good luck

You’d do much worse than following pauls threads from 2004 and you may come across several other posts from myself, Rob K, George Funnyfut (RIP) and Jonah, some for, some against, but with some good advice both ways.

i’d totally agree with that, this forum is priceless to anyone who’s thinking about it and who’s prepared to spend a bit of time going back through the posts to see the high’s n lows of the job, what’s very rare these days is to see people being honest about their mistakes but if you go back you’ll see myself, shaun and a few others being open about where we went wrong and where it went right.

[goaty]

Rob K:
Not using freight forwarders surely doesn’t require any explanation Goaty. Even the most stupid person could see the main problem with that without needing it pointing out. Please, engage some brains yeah.

Special, I think you’re getting your Clearing Houses mixed up with your Freight Forwarders, yeah

I’m not sure how it works in your neck of the woods (as your not prepared to enlighten us as to what it is you actually do, that gives you such an elevated position over us mere O/D’s, to dispense your jealous vitriol), But where I do business, a clearing house is basically a haulier without any trucks, that keeps the fat of the job and passes whats left onto the unwarey or ■■■■■■■ stupid.

A Freight Forwarder, at least the ones I do business with manages the movement of goods from A to B, generally involving 2 different countries.

Even Clearing Houses can be a useful source of work as long as they’ve been thoroughly checked out first.
(As I insure my invoices this little saga is done on my behalf anyway.)

So, smart arse my question is valid, why avoid Freight Forwarders

[rob_k]

Goaty:

Rob K:
Not using freight forwarders surely doesn’t require any explanation Goaty. Even the most stupid person could see the main problem with that without needing it pointing out. Please, engage some brains yeah.

Special, I think you’re getting your Clearing Houses mixed up with your Freight Forwarders, yeah

I’m not sure how it works in your neck of the woods (as your not prepared to enlighten us as to what it is you actually do, that gives you such an elevated position over us mere O/D’s, to dispense your jealous vitriol), But where I do business, a clearing house is basically a haulier without any trucks, that keeps the fat of the job and passes whats left onto the unwarey or [zb] stupid.

A Freight Forwarder, at least the ones I do business with manages the movement of goods from A to B, generally involving 2 different countries.

Even Clearing Houses can be a useful source of work as long as they’ve been thoroughly checked out first.
(As I insure my invoices this little saga is done on my behalf anyway.)

So, smart arse my question is valid, why avoid Freight Forwarders

You’ve got into way too much unnecessary detail. The simple facts are that they (both) take far too much of the wedge and that’s why they should be avoided. Of course, you could prove me wrong by providing details of those forwarder’s that are offering good enough rates to make a decent profit on. Once again, I won’t hold my breath though!