I have been toying with a few ideas lately of different ways to get more work. I’m think of going down the self employed route and was wondering what your opinions of this are?
I know its slow out there as I have been on the agencies for the past 6 weeks and not had a full week yet. I have made a few contacts in the last few weeks and always created a good impression (so I’m led to believe anyway) and was wondering if its worth approaching owner drivers and companies alike. obviously the more people approached/contacted the better chance of work.
what are the pitfalls of doing this apart from the obvious of the tax and NI contributions being done by yourself? what are the good and bad points?
all input welcome apart from the miserable gits who are just going to slag me off for thinking about it.
The biggest issue is finding enough work all year round. Big companies who might keep you working use agencies almost exclusively and small companies don’t usually have enough work to need to employ outsiders. Six of one half a dozen of the other…
That’s the thing if the agency can’t find you enough work how are you going to be able to find enough to keep you going.
Pm Jessica’s dad he is self employed.
I’ve never done agency or worked for a firm that’s even used agency drivers and I’d imagine most owner drivers or small firms will have a mate or maybe an old employee who has retired to cover odd days or holidays.
kr79:
I’ve never done agency or worked for a firm that’s even used agency drivers and I’d imagine most owner drivers or small firms will have a mate or maybe an old employee who has retired to cover odd days or holidays.
you would be surprised how many companies i have worked for have said they use self employed drivers over agencies, (once they know the driver) as it saves them about £1-£2 an hour, if you work that out on average at 65 hours a week
1 Week = £65-£130
1 month=£260-£520ish (depends how many weeks in that month)
12 months=£3380-£6760
to a big company thats not much of a saving but to a small haulier or a OD £65 a week is £65 a week.
kr79:
That’s the thing if the agency can’t find you enough work how are you going to be able to find enough to keep you going.
Pm Jessica’s dad he is self employed.
because obviously the agencies have a lot more people on their books than just you and some of them are higher up the list than you, so when they get a call if that higher up the list driver has work, you get the call, if he doesn’t have work you don’t get the call. if you’re self employed you get the call, you either take the work if you can and are happy to or not.
44 Tonne Ton:
The biggest issue is finding enough work all year round. Big companies who might keep you working use agencies almost exclusively and small companies don’t usually have enough work to need to employ outsiders. Six of one half a dozen of the other…
To be honest 44tt around here (pompey, fareham, southampton) it is mainly smaller hauliers that you can approach, especially if you say you will do short notice call outs if available.
there aren’t that many BIG companies as such, we have the likes of the container boys but after my ‘lie down’ a few weeks ago pulling a box i would rather stay away from containers for now.
Cant give much advice Lee, except to say I have just become self employed as a sole trader. I am waiting to hear back from the tax office, but I registered online about a month ago, so believe I will be paying £2.65 a week NIC upto around £7,500(ish) and then 9% NIC on earnings after that.
I had business cards printed, with all my contact details on a card with a unit ‘faded’ in the background so it is quite obvious what I do, and have handed a few of these cards out and am getting a very positive response.
I have to come clean and say that I am lucky to be on a pension that ‘just’ covers living expenses (as long as I live on Lidl beans ), so I dont need to earn a living wage, just a wage to make living more comfortable, and consequently only charge £10 an hour for my services (from the time I enter the yard to the time I leave), so I am quite a lot cheaper than agency.
The firm I was going to go back to, cards in, was only paying £6.60 an hour, so I am quite happy at a tenner.
I am also claiming everything in the world I can against tax . . not sure how much I will get away with, but for example today I bought a new flask to replace my leaky one, and a new bluetooth earpiece to replace a broken one, and I am going to attempt to claim for both of them.
Give it a good coat of thinking about mate, and get as much advice from whereever you can glean it. Good luck.
i also have a pension but living in the south east (and having an expensive wife) it covers the rent but at least we wont lose the house if it all goes ■■■■ up.
still only toying with the idea at the moment but i have a very good lead on a possible full time job with semi decent pay and a good bunch to work for so i will see what comes of that first before i make any decisions.
ref the bluetooth and flask, you should be able to claim it back as business expenses, dont forget to claim for you phone bills (home and mobile) and also some of your electricity charges. and to pay your secretary/helper but do it under the tax threshold.
), so I dont need to earn a living wage, just a wage to make living more comfortable, and consequently only charge £10 an hour for my services (from the time I enter the yard to the time I leave), so I am quite a lot cheaper than agency.