Whats the crack with this 2yrs experince shite

UK PROFESSIONAL DRIVERS FORUMS THE UK PROFESSIONAL DRIVERS FORUM (INTERACTIVE)
21

Wheel Nut:
I would be interested in the rates this operator is getting, the one who can afford to pay 2 drivers enough money for 3 weeks while only getting 2 Italian round trips done. that is not counting the driver taking a legal 24 hour break after 6 shifts regardless of the weekend ban or by being held up in an oft held midweek religious holiday.

Load up UK ship out get tipped Italy or wherever load up back again tip UK.Ship straight back out again but using the other driver while the first one has some time at home until the next return run when the second driver gets his time off

Or better still with the drivers who work for 6 weeks while the other sits on his fanny for 4 weeks.

But maybe 6 weeks on 4 weeks off would make that job great?

Exactly what he said :wink:

The same as the rate he’s getting for one driver doing both runs.He also won’t get more than 2 return runs to Italy in 3 weeks anyway.It’s all down to how much money the drivers need/want to earn and how the runs can be scheduled but the fact is it is’nt me who’s trying to find,and losing,decent drivers who’d rather do London multi drop than run a top spec wagon on a 6 weeks on 3 days off and 6 weeks on rota.I’d be quite happy to work as an owner driver on a 4,000-6,000 miles per month basis.I’m not out to make a million and I’ve spent the best years of my working life earning a lot less than £1,500 per month to run around 2,000 miles per week.I reckon that I’d be getting more than that to run less miles and park the wagon up while I’m having a rest at home for a week or two per month.

22

Carryfast:
The same as the rate he’s getting for one driver doing both runs.He also won’t get more than 2 return runs to Italy in 3 weeks anyway.It’s all down to how much money the drivers need/want to earn and how the runs can be scheduled but the fact is it is’nt me who’s trying to find,and losing,decent drivers who’d rather do London multi drop than run a top spec wagon on a 6 weeks on 3 days off and 6 weeks on rota.I’d be quite happy to work as an owner driver on a 4,000-6,000 miles per month basis.I’m not out to make a million and I’ve spent the best years of my working life earning a lot less than £1,500 per month to run around 2,000 miles per week.I reckon that I’d be getting more than that to run less miles and park the wagon up while I’m having a rest at home for a week or two per month.

The only way to have two men running on one lorry is to either, double man it (shell suits optional) or have it on day/night work with each driver doing a shift, you could alternate them between day & night shifts, or maybe doing international by getting the main driver to do yard-wherever-yard & have a ‘part time’ driver tip & reload in the UK, anything else wouldn’t work very well, not enough money in the job to pay a driver to sit at home for a week or two at a time.

Any notion that you have of running 4-6000 miles per month as an owner driver & parking up for one or two weeks is pure fantasy mate, you’d need to be running at 2 pounds per mile to make that possible.

23

newmercman:

Carryfast:
The same as the rate he’s getting for one driver doing both runs.He also won’t get more than 2 return runs to Italy in 3 weeks anyway.It’s all down to how much money the drivers need/want to earn and how the runs can be scheduled but the fact is it is’nt me who’s trying to find,and losing,decent drivers who’d rather do London multi drop than run a top spec wagon on a 6 weeks on 3 days off and 6 weeks on rota.I’d be quite happy to work as an owner driver on a 4,000-6,000 miles per month basis.I’m not out to make a million and I’ve spent the best years of my working life earning a lot less than £1,500 per month to run around 2,000 miles per week.I reckon that I’d be getting more than that to run less miles and park the wagon up while I’m having a rest at home for a week or two per month.

Any notion that you have of running 4-6000 miles per month as an owner driver & parking up for one or two weeks is pure fantasy mate, you’d need to be running at 2 pounds per mile to make that possible.

It’s not fantasy that I’d have been earning £8,000 per month (before fuel and overheads) on just uk night trunking even at £1 per mile if I’d have been lucky enough to have been using my own unit to pull the artic trailers with instead of theirs and it certainly would’nt have taken around £6,500+ per month out of that for the fuel and overheads,leaving me with what I earn’t for that as employed,even though the government is trying to make it that way.4,000 miles at £1 or even 90p per mile work it out for yourself but it’s my bet that it won’t take more than £2,500+ out of that to run the motor for those 4000 miles over the month leaving me as much as or more than I was earning as employed to run 8,000 miles per month.That is unless the rates are down to 50p per mile now then that would be a different matter it would be cheaper to stay at home for the whole month.I just hope that they don’t put diesel up to £10 per gallon because then even sitting at home all month would make a loss on the job.

24

Carryfast:
It’s not fantasy that I’d have been earning £8,000 per month (before fuel and overheads) on just uk night trunking even at £1 per mile

But it is fantasy that you actually make a profit that’d give you a wage more than the weekly amount for a single person on Jobseekers.

if I’d have been lucky enough to have been using my own unit to pull the artic trailers with instead of theirs and it certainly would’nt have taken around £6,500+ per month out of that for the fuel and overheads,leaving me with what I earn’t for that as employed,even though the government is trying to make it that way.4,000 miles at £1 or even 90p per mile work it out for yourself but it’s my bet that it won’t take more than £2,500+ out of that to run the motor for those 4000 miles over the month leaving me as much as or more than I was earning as employed to run 8,000 miles per month.That is unless the rates are down to 50p per mile now then that would be a different matter it would be cheaper to stay at home for the whole month.I just hope that they don’t put diesel up to £10 per gallon because then even sitting at home all month would make a loss on the job.

BWHAHAHA.

Running costs:
Per mile:
Tyres: 7p per mile (assuming no blowouts)
Diesel: 45p per mile (working on 80p/l ex VAT and 8MPG)
Maintenance: 6p per mile.

So that’s 58p per mile taken out of that £1 per mile before you even get to the fixed costs

Daily costs:
Road Tax: £3.28 per day.
Insurance: £12.32 per day
Loan repayments for unit (£48k loan - 5 years): £35
Overheads (office, admin, parking, operating center, phones etc) £100 a week minimum
So that’s £1568 per month just for the wagon to sit there without even turning a wheel.

So working on your 4000 miles a month, you’ve got:

£2320 running costs
£1568 fixed costs

So that’s £3888 to run a motor for 4,000 miles a month leaving you £112 for your wages FOR THE MONTH, not per week assuming your upper end of £1 per mile.

Even at 8000 miles, you’re still looking at total running costs of £6208 per month for a perfect month with no blowouts or breakdowns or repairs needing doing - not even a blown bulb, so that £6500 per month for overheads that they’re taking off you isn’t too far off the right figure is it? So 8000 miles at £1/mile running all your own kit leaves you £1792 per month/£413 per week before tax/NI for wages for ragging your backside off and that’s assuming a perfect month as even a single blowout will see you £250 down. So for doing 8000 miles per month, working a 60 hour week, you’d take home £300 per week.

And you reckon its still worth it at 90p per mile? Maybe its a good job you don’t run your own motor. As for 50p per mile, you’d be bankrupt in no time. Can’t even do a run in a Ford Transit and make a living at 50p per mile.

Its people like you too stupid to do the maths and believe that you can make money out of £1 a mile AND ACCEPTING £1/mile RATES that’ve screwed it up for everyone else, leaving haulage in the mess its in.

HERE’S A CLUE: It costs more to run a wagon than the fuel you put in.

25

Conor:

Carryfast:
It’s not fantasy that I’d have been earning £8,000 per month (before fuel and overheads) on just uk night trunking even at £1 per mile

But it is fantasy that you actually make a profit that’d give you a wage more than the weekly amount for a single person on Jobseekers.

if I’d have been lucky enough to have been using my own unit to pull the artic trailers with instead of theirs and it certainly would’nt have taken around £6,500+ per month out of that for the fuel and overheads,leaving me with what I earn’t for that as employed,even though the government is trying to make it that way.4,000 miles at £1 or even 90p per mile work it out for yourself but it’s my bet that it won’t take more than £2,500+ out of that to run the motor for those 4000 miles over the month leaving me as much as or more than I was earning as employed to run 8,000 miles per month.That is unless the rates are down to 50p per mile now then that would be a different matter it would be cheaper to stay at home for the whole month.I just hope that they don’t put diesel up to £10 per gallon because then even sitting at home all month would make a loss on the job.

BWHAHAHA.

Running costs:
Per mile:
Tyres: 7p per mile (assuming no blowouts)
Diesel: 45p per mile (working on 80p/l ex VAT and 8MPG)
Maintenance: 6p per mile.

So that’s 58p per mile taken out of that £1 per mile before you even get to the fixed costs

Daily costs:
Road Tax: £3.28 per day.
Insurance: £12.32 per day
Loan repayments for unit (£48k loan - 5 years): £35
Overheads (office, admin, parking, operating center, phones etc) £100 a week minimum
So that’s £1568 per month just for the wagon to sit there without even turning a wheel.

So working on your 4000 miles a month, you’ve got:

£2320 running costs
£1568 fixed costs

So that’s £3888 to run a motor for 4,000 miles a month leaving you £112 for your wages FOR THE MONTH, not per week assuming your upper end of £1 per mile.

Even at 8000 miles, you’re still looking at total running costs of £6208 per month for a perfect month with no blowouts or breakdowns or repairs needing doing - not even a blown bulb, so that £6500 per month for overheads that they’re taking off you isn’t too far off the right figure is it? So 8000 miles at £1/mile running all your own kit leaves you £1792 per month/£413 per week before tax/NI for wages for ragging your backside off and that’s assuming a perfect month as even a single blowout will see you £250 down. So for doing 8000 miles per month, working a 60 hour week, you’d take home £300 per week.

And you reckon its still worth it at 90p per mile? Maybe its a good job you don’t run your own motor. As for 50p per mile, you’d be bankrupt in no time. Can’t even do a run in a Ford Transit and make a living at 50p per mile.

Its people like you too stupid to do the maths and believe that you can make money out of £1 a mile AND ACCEPTING £1/mile RATES that’ve screwed it up for everyone else, leaving haulage in the mess its in.

HERE’S A CLUE: It costs more to run a wagon than the fuel you put in.

There’s always more than one way of doing the maths.There’s plenty of owner/operators out there who are’nt paying £100 pw to run an ‘operating centre’.You can forget a 48K loan (if you could even get one) for the cost of a reasonably decent unit as around half that would probably buy one with some warranty on it from a main dealer and buying it outright saves on any finance payments and leaving £25,000-£30,000 in the bank brings in nothing in interest now.Insurance £100 pw,road tax more like £30-40 pw not £20 for a unit last time I looked admittedly a while ago.That all still leaves enough out of a £2,000 run though for me and the rest of the overheads which that 2,000 miles would need spent.As for ‘taking home’ £1,200 per month for running 8,000 miles that would actually be more (a lot) than I actually got for doing it as employed.As for that rate of £1 per mile it’s not my fault as they’ve been that way for years and if I could get £2 per mile I would’nt be stupid enough to accept £1 and I’ve never even started up yet and all the odds are always going to be against a new start surviving it’s first months.There’s one thing which matters as much as rates and overheads and that’s luck.However if it does’nt pay so what I’d have lost the depreciation on the unit over those few months and the premiums which I could’nt get back from the insurance company but all of the ones who have survived had to take that chance in the beginning.It’s a tough world out there.

26

Carryfast:
There’s always more than one way of doing the maths.There’s plenty of owner/operators out there who are’nt paying £100 pw to run an ‘operating centre’.

So they have no mobile phone bill, they don’t have a fax so they can’t send or receive invoices, they don’t pay for any parking whatsoever?

You can forget a 48K loan (if you could even get one) for the cost of a reasonably decent unit as around half that would probably buy one with some warranty on it from a main dealer and buying it outright saves on any finance payments and leaving £25,000-£30,000 in the bank brings in nothing in interest now.Insurance £100 pw,road tax more like £30-40 pw not £20 for a unit last time I looked admittedly a while ago.

I can tell. Perhaps you’d care to tell me where all these super low interest rates are. And whilst you could buy a second hand unit, you’ve still got to find the money.

That all still leaves enough out of a £2,000 run though for me and the rest of the overheads which that 2,000 miles would need spent.As for ‘taking home’ £1,200 per month for running 8,000 miles that would actually be more (a lot) than I actually got for doing it as employed.As for that rate of £1 per mile it’s not my fault as they’ve been that way for years and if I could get £2 per mile I would’nt be stupid enough to accept £1 and I’ve never even started up yet and all the odds are always going to be against a new start surviving it’s first months.There’s one thing which matters as much as rates and overheads and that’s luck.However if it does’nt pay so what I’d have lost the depreciation on the unit over those few months and the premiums which I could’nt get back from the insurance company but all of the ones who have survived had to take that chance in the beginning.It’s a tough world out there.

Unbelievable. How did you even get a CPC?

27

Is this relevant to what is being discussed?
Becoming an Owner Driver from roadtransport.com

28

Conor:

Carryfast:
There’s always more than one way of doing the maths.There’s plenty of owner/operators out there who are’nt paying £100 pw to run an ‘operating centre’.

So they have no mobile phone bill, they don’t have a fax so they can’t send or receive invoices, they don’t pay for any parking whatsoever?

You can forget a 48K loan (if you could even get one) for the cost of a reasonably decent unit as around half that would probably buy one with some warranty on it from a main dealer and buying it outright saves on any finance payments and leaving £25,000-£30,000 in the bank brings in nothing in interest now.Insurance £100 pw,road tax more like £30-40 pw not £20 for a unit last time I looked admittedly a while ago.

I can tell. Perhaps you’d care to tell me where all these super low interest rates are. And whilst you could buy a second hand unit, you’ve still got to find the money.

That all still leaves enough out of a £2,000 run though for me and the rest of the overheads which that 2,000 miles would need spent.As for ‘taking home’ £1,200 per month for running 8,000 miles that would actually be more (a lot) than I actually got for doing it as employed.As for that rate of £1 per mile it’s not my fault as they’ve been that way for years and if I could get £2 per mile I would’nt be stupid enough to accept £1 and I’ve never even started up yet and all the odds are always going to be against a new start surviving it’s first months.There’s one thing which matters as much as rates and overheads and that’s luck.However if it does’nt pay so what I’d have lost the depreciation on the unit over those few months and the premiums which I could’nt get back from the insurance company but all of the ones who have survived had to take that chance in the beginning.It’s a tough world out there.

Unbelievable. How did you even get a CPC?

Like most people who’ve got one I got my CPC by sitting the exams which really are just based on common sense with lots of the typical unwarranted bureaucracy which affects road transport thrown in for good measure.My question is if you’re right then how is it that there are owner operators out there who’ve managed to start up on exactly the type of rates and with those overheads which you seem to find so unbelievable??.Because it’s my guess that with your way of looking at things a large percentage of the British owner operator sector would never have got off the ground and on it’s feet?.It’s a fact there are operators out there running an international operation at rates of around £1 per mile and those rates have been like that for years if you don’t believe me check for yourself with the numerous freight forwarders and companies who use sub contractors .In reality the CPC is like the driving tests for trucks it does’nt always relate to the real world in which there’s always been more capacity than work just like real world road conditions often don’t realistically relate to everything in the driving test theory books.By the way Rog the issues of trying to get a new start owner/driver operation off the ground is one which is relevant to any new driver who should at least be given the information as to the possibilities,opportunities and the probable chances against the survival of such an option.