Just thought I’d ask this one to run along side the other topic, has there ever been a time in the recent past (you define recent) when being an od or maybe 2 or 3 trucks was worth it (define worth it). I’ve heard plenty of stories some from peeps I tend to believe and quite a lot from peeps I would not believe. Over to you.
cury:
Just thought I’d ask this one to run along side the other topic, has there ever been a time in the recent past (you define recent) when being an od or maybe 2 or 3 trucks was worth it (define worth it). I’ve heard plenty of stories some from peeps I tend to believe and quite a lot from peeps I would not believe. Over to you.
You’ve first got to take into account that most of us who started in the industry knew at that time that it is’nt the type of job where you’ll get rich doing it wether owner driver or not unless you’re lucky.Having said that probably owner driving in the 1970’s and 1980’s on International work payed much better than being an employed driver on uk work.
I’d agree with that CF. Several friends were in that game in those days & were quite happy with their lot.
Given the cost of capital equipment, fixed & variable operating costs, I’d say you’d need at least double the rates of those years today, but they are a barely more.
cury:
Just thought I’d ask this one to run along side the other topic, has there ever been a time in the recent past (you define recent) when being an od or maybe 2 or 3 trucks was worth it (define worth it). I’ve heard plenty of stories some from peeps I tend to believe and quite a lot from peeps I would not believe. Over to you.
Yes. But that was before VOSA started having barbies on every street corner. 
Thought we might get a mix of answers. Used to drive with a bloke that had been in the middle east gang, been all the way to iraq and back, all places inbetween. I know at one point he was running 3 wagons, don’t know if it was on that work, but he never had a bad story, whether he was glossing over all the rubbish I don’t know.
A lot of the larger companies started out as owner drivers and found a niche.
John Mann
Cavewood
Derek Linch
Norman Lewis
J W Cousins
Chris Bennett
Mike Taylor
Dozens of others who have grown into large companies or been incorporated into larger ones
Indeed. If you can find a contract as a sole haulier with a manufacturing company or work in a unique sector, you’ll do far better than scratting a living off general taking whatever comes along.
We made money running abroad because of two things, firstly, a trip to Italy/Spain/wherever, meant you had a full weeks work guaranteed, but secondly to do that work in a week you had to run bent, on paper you can do a, say, Milan round trip, but when you factor customs clearances and ferries into the mix it has to run like clockwork to be done, clockwork and transport do not often appear in the same sentance, so we were all running around getting the job done, pulling strokes here and there, nothing silly and fortunately at that time the law wasn’t too bothered, if you got a pull a quick ‘coffee’ soon saw you on your way again. Even then not many O/Ds were making a fortune, most were running older tackle, some enhancing their pay packets by using funny coloured diesel, none of them were getting rich though, that’s why when the law started becoming ‘less flexible’ British trucks stopped going over the water, the Eastern Europeans then filled the gap because they could afford to run around for two balloons and a goldfish thanks to all their EEC grant money 
Personally I made the best money running around locally, doing direct work for a few customers, always having something on the back that paid me and never giving most of my revenue back to the fuel companies just so I could punch up and down the road every day 
simple answer is there was and there still is, with a bit of luck, being in the right place at the right time, knowing the right people etc it’s always been possible to drop on something that pays very well, how long it lasts is the thing but there will be lads out there now, making good money, but their not going to come on a public forum and give any details, that would be daft!
nothing has actually changed, in theory if you could make it pay ten years ago with the right work, then you could it make pay now, it’s finding that work when theres thousands of others looking at the same time.
as has been mentioned niche work is the key, for instance IF you could find regular work for a rigid it will allways be more profitable than running an artic, hiab work, fridge or even multidrop steel can all pay good money, not a fortune but a good living but starting from scratch with the financial outlay involved is and always has been very difficult.
paul b:
IF you could find regular work for a rigid it will allways be more profitable than running an artic, fridge can pay good money, not a fortune but a good living but starting from scratch with the financial outlay involved is and always has been very difficult.
If you want to do multi drop or hiab just stay with the agencies and forget taking all the risks of running your own wagon.But if only they’d let us pull 45 foot trailers with a rigid by using a dolly instead of a tractor unit then you could also do some decent long distance work when you’ve got bored and zb’d off with doing the local zb. 
newmercman:
We made money running abroad because of two things, firstly, a trip to Italy/Spain/wherever, meant you had a full weeks work guaranteed, but secondly to do that work in a week you had to run bent, on paper you can do a, say, Milan round trip, but when you factor customs clearances and ferries into the mix it has to run like clockwork to be done, clockwork and transport do not often appear in the same sentance, so we were all running around getting the job done, pulling strokes here and there, nothing silly and fortunately at that time the law wasn’t too bothered, if you got a pull a quick ‘coffee’ soon saw you on your way again. Even then not many O/Ds were making a fortune, most were running older tackle, some enhancing their pay packets by using funny coloured diesel, none of them were getting rich though, that’s why when the law started becoming ‘less flexible’ British trucks stopped going over the water, the Eastern Europeans then filled the gap because they could afford to run around for two balloons and a goldfish thanks to all their EEC grant moneyPersonally I made the best money running around locally, doing direct work for a few customers, always having something on the back that paid me and never giving most of my revenue back to the fuel companies just so I could punch up and down the road every day
It’s ironic that you ended up running long distance work in North America instead of being a London Cabby though. But you’re going to be upset when I join all the Poles but I’ll do the job for just the goldfish or the two baloons not both and if they match that I’ll just cut the rate again to one baloon.
Carryfast:
newmercman:
We made money running abroad because of two things, firstly, a trip to Italy/Spain/wherever, meant you had a full weeks work guaranteed, but secondly to do that work in a week you had to run bent, on paper you can do a, say, Milan round trip, but when you factor customs clearances and ferries into the mix it has to run like clockwork to be done, clockwork and transport do not often appear in the same sentance, so we were all running around getting the job done, pulling strokes here and there, nothing silly and fortunately at that time the law wasn’t too bothered, if you got a pull a quick ‘coffee’ soon saw you on your way again. Even then not many O/Ds were making a fortune, most were running older tackle, some enhancing their pay packets by using funny coloured diesel, none of them were getting rich though, that’s why when the law started becoming ‘less flexible’ British trucks stopped going over the water, the Eastern Europeans then filled the gap because they could afford to run around for two balloons and a goldfish thanks to all their EEC grant moneyPersonally I made the best money running around locally, doing direct work for a few customers, always having something on the back that paid me and never giving most of my revenue back to the fuel companies just so I could punch up and down the road every day
It’s ironic that you ended up running long distance work in North America instead of being a London Cabby though.
A cabbie, no thanks, I never said I enjoyed the local work, just that I made more money at it 
I much preferred puching back and forth to Rome or wherever, I even made good money from that by doubling up on loads (without either a B train or Scandinavian style wagon and drag 
) but it became easier to earn money doing locals, so local I went
newmercman:
Carryfast:
newmercman:
We made money running abroad because of two things, firstly, a trip to Italy/Spain/wherever, meant you had a full weeks work guaranteed, but secondly to do that work in a week you had to run bent, on paper you can do a, say, Milan round trip, but when you factor customs clearances and ferries into the mix it has to run like clockwork to be done, clockwork and transport do not often appear in the same sentance, so we were all running around getting the job done, pulling strokes here and there, nothing silly and fortunately at that time the law wasn’t too bothered, if you got a pull a quick ‘coffee’ soon saw you on your way again. Even then not many O/Ds were making a fortune, most were running older tackle, some enhancing their pay packets by using funny coloured diesel, none of them were getting rich though, that’s why when the law started becoming ‘less flexible’ British trucks stopped going over the water, the Eastern Europeans then filled the gap because they could afford to run around for two balloons and a goldfish thanks to all their EEC grant moneyPersonally I made the best money running around locally, doing direct work for a few customers, always having something on the back that paid me and never giving most of my revenue back to the fuel companies just so I could punch up and down the road every day
It’s ironic that you ended up running long distance work in North America instead of being a London Cabby though.
A cabbie, no thanks, I never said I enjoyed the local work, just that I made more money at it
Until you found out that long distance work in an even bigger rate cutting environment than here is actually better after all as is the American way. But at least that confirms that bigger payloads are the way to make it pay when the rates have been cut as low as they can go like they’ve been here considering the fuel cost differences. It’s just that 13 tonne+ axle weights are likely to really zb off vosa so a Scandinavian drawbar outfit it’s got to be.We’ll leave the B trains where they belong over there if they can find enough drivers for them who prefer them to A trains.
Carryfast:
paul b:
IF you could find regular work for a rigid it will allways be more profitable than running an artic, fridge can pay good money, not a fortune but a good living but starting from scratch with the financial outlay involved is and always has been very difficult.If you want to do multi drop or hiab just stay with the agencies and forget taking all the risks of running your own wagon.But if only they’d let us pull 45 foot trailers with a rigid by using a dolly instead of a tractor unit then you could also do some decent long distance work when you’ve got bored and zb’d off with doing the local zb.
i actually meant heavy lift hiab work where your getting paid by the hour rather than by the mile, not builders merchant crap.
paul b:
Carryfast:
paul b:
IF you could find regular work for a rigid it will allways be more profitable than running an artic, fridge can pay good money, not a fortune but a good living but starting from scratch with the financial outlay involved is and always has been very difficult.If you want to do multi drop or hiab just stay with the agencies and forget taking all the risks of running your own wagon.But if only they’d let us pull 45 foot trailers with a rigid by using a dolly instead of a tractor unit then you could also do some decent long distance work when you’ve got bored and zb’d off with doing the local zb.
i actually meant heavy lift hiab work where your getting paid by the hour rather than by the mile, not builders merchant crap.
If you’d rather spend more of your time as a mobile crane operator than being a driver it’s propably better to get trained as a crane operator and earn as much doing that employed paid by the hour.But even those zb builders merchant agency hiab jobs are paid by the hour not by the mile anyway.But I think newmercman proved by voting with his feet that actually doing the job of being a long distance truck driver,which most/many of us entered the industry to do, beats local zb work,or in fact any type of other job regardless of wether that other type of job has some tenuous link with driving a truck or not.
Carryfast:
paul b:
IF you could find regular work for a rigid it will allways be more profitable than running an artic, fridge can pay good money, not a fortune but a good living but starting from scratch with the financial outlay involved is and always has been very difficult.If you want to do multi drop or hiab just stay with the agencies and forget taking all the risks of running your own wagon.But if only they’d let us pull 45 foot trailers with a rigid by using a dolly instead of a tractor unit then you could also do some decent long distance work when you’ve got bored and zb’d off with doing the local zb.
Id imagine you could make a lot more with a hiab either rigid or artic than a bog standard artic doing traction as theres less competition thats why people might want to set up on there own to make money rather than tell everyone down the pub they are off to istanbul in there truck but making sod all.
kr79:
Id imagine you could make a lot more with a hiab either rigid or artic than a bog standard artic doing traction as theres less competition thats why people might want to set up on there own to make money rather than tell everyone down the pub they are off to istanbul in there truck but making sod all.
Allow me to introduce…Carryfast, our resident lunatic
newmercman:
kr79:
Id imagine you could make a lot more with a hiab either rigid or artic than a bog standard artic doing traction as theres less competition thats why people might want to set up on there own to make money rather than tell everyone down the pub they are off to istanbul in there truck but making sod all.Allow me to introduce…Carryfast, our resident lunatic
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There’s probably less competition because no one wants to spend all day zb’ing about working around the houses and building sites etc as a crane operator instead of driving a truck somewhere .The idea of which seems to me to defeat the object of bothering to start out in the industry to start with.But it’s good to get a different perspective from an ex pat Brit who’s zb’d off across the Atlantic to run long distance over there when you could have been getting very rich over here zb’ing about locally with a six wheeler with a zb crane on the back, instead of running all over North America amongst those rate cutting yanks who are doing traction work over there,making ‘almost’ ‘sod all’.But just wait until O Bama taxes diesel at the British rates for ‘environmental’ reasons then you might get to be coming home again to do some much better paid local zb work.