ok so ive gone and done it and started the ball rolling as in getting my o licence and setting out on a life of misery and toil as an od , suppose ill have to get use to the taste of mars bars now 
the problem is which truck ?
through personal choice and experience ive narrowed it down to either a magnum or volvo fh globbey both 4x2
both will have to be about 5 yrs old as start up costs are heavy as you know , so which is going to be the most reliable ? if i go for the volvo it would have to be a left â– â– â– â– â– â– as i really dont like the cross cab access but the magnum i can walk across easily this is for paying tolls and stuff ,
so let the arguement begin 
left â– â– â– â– â– â– volvo just a better truck than the renault and your steering wheel is on the right side for across the water
can’t give an opinion on the wagons but have you looked at buying a left ■■■■■■in spain or france? don’t know the ins n outs of registration etc but i’m sure i read an article not so long ago about some operators doing it and saving big money in the process, might be worth looking into?
apart from that theres a left â– â– â– â– â– â– erf ecx olympic on truck trader site that looks very cheap. 
You will probably be able to get a 3 year old Magnum for the price of a 5 year old Volvo and a 2 year old ERF/Foden for the same 
Price up a full list of parts i.e filters/light lenses/air bags/brake shoes between the three and you should find alot of difference.
Keeping PLENTY left in the bank after you first get on the road is THE most important thing when first entering the world of the O/D 
Best choice for me would be an XF95 space or super space cab!!
Not offering any advice at all, but just saying, I had a Magnum on a '96 N, 420TI
Great truck to live in, but cost me loads in repairs. I’ve got a Volvo FH12 Globetrotter, '98 0n an S, at present. The driver seems to like it, not sure I’d want to be out all the time in it, as I find it a little cramped, but maintanence wise, it’s cost me very little.
i think that it might be a very good idea to get the work first, look at the trucks already doing that work and follow suit.
if your planning to buy a left â– â– â– â– â– â– then your probably planning to do international work, check the rates and payment terms when you budget for your start up.
about £40,000 should be enough to run one truck until you get your first pay cheque for the work you have done.
£40,000 
whats he working on 200 day payments?
do believe he’s already got the work, the rates and the payment terms sorted and is just looking for the right wagon.
paul b:
£40,000
do believe he’s already got the work, the rates and the payment terms sorted and is just looking for the right wagon.
based on worst case scenario.
90 day payment terms (most companies are 90 day from end of month of invoice making it 120 day really).
but let us say 90 days.
£1000 per week fuel cost
£250 per week truck rental
£150 per week insurance
£200 per week euro tolls
£100 per week trailer rental
there will be other bills too that he has to pay - perhaps even ferries, tyres, maintainence/repairs, euro breakdown etc plus normal living wages.
£500 per week all in.
over 90 days that equates to £26k without any hold ups in payment or extra costs for other required spending along the job.
i don’t think i’m too far out at 40k if he intends to do euro work unless the company he plans to work for is going to supply fuel cards, toll cards and ferries too.
i have also looked into this and 40k is what i would require to feel safe to start up.
it’s better to be safe than to have to go begging to the bank manager for another 10-15k because your customer hasn’t paid you yet and your struggling to carry on without that extra 10 or 15k.
johnny:
90 day payment terms (most companies are 90 day from end of month of invoice making it 120 day really).
Most companies? Personally speaking I don’t deal with anyone who pays on those terms. My terms are 30 days from date of invoice, which is usually ignored, as most pay 30 days from month end, therefore worst case senario is 60 - 65 days. I coundn’t survive on 90 days terms.
think you’d have to be incredibly trusting to work on a ninety day basis, that a hell of a lot of money owed!
i know several owner operators working on 90 day payment terms for a massive european company with yellow trucks that keep taking over more and more companies, one of them has told me that if he were to quit now and wait for his money it would equate to over 85k he is owed for 2 trucks.
he was down to his last few grand when he got his first paycheck from the big company running yellow trucks and was in the office on a daily basis at the time begging for what was owed or at least some of it and all the time they were asking if he would put more trucks in.
this all happened several months ago and my mate is now secure - he gets his payments on a regular basis now but they still hold about 85k of his cash flow.
the bigger the company the harder the terms and the longer they take to pass back what they owe.
thanks for all the replies
johnny can i just say , i wouldnt work for anyone on a 90 day payment term
i have been an od before and understand the ins and outs of this
likewise i think your figures are a bit out ,
to start with i am being paid on return as i have the work lined up already ,
£200pw tolls , where are you going ? i know my routes and it will be £100 pw
£100 pw trailer rental ? is that for a fridge , my work is for a euroliner ,£ 50pw
£150 ins , ive sorted mine out a lot cheaper than that , the ferries are paid for in the rates
tramper , thanks for the info thats just what i am looking at the real running costs , i am deff leaning towards the volvo
paulb if you want to run europe in an erf can i watch
i didn’t say i’d do it, i merely sugested you might.
shared a load of sleepers with a lad down to cambridge in the week who used to do spain regular, reckoned he picked a trailer up from stockport for velencia on sunday afternoon and was back and tipped with his backload for friday dinner, he didn’t mind admitting he used to run over, but is that really possible?
shared a load of sleepers â– â– ? did they mind
sunday night down to boat ,off monday morning , 2 shifts down to valencia legal , thats tuesday night , tip and reload same place which i have done a couple of times , ( although one of them was san miguel factory so i couldnt run until next day as i had dinner there which was more liquid than dinner )
back to boat 2 shifts , thursday night , off boat friday morning tip on way home jobs a goodun
now that don’t sound bad, is the tunnel an option to save a bit of time or is it to expensive to consider?
got to admit i can see the appeal of the job, set off sunday knowing what you’ve got in front of you for the week, get it done and you’ve earnt your money.
johnny:
i know several owner operators working on 90 day payment terms for a massive european company with yellow trucks that keep taking over more and more companies, one of them has told me that if he were to quit now and wait for his money it would equate to over 85k he is owed for 2 trucks.he was down to his last few grand when he got his first paycheck from the big company running yellow trucks and was in the office on a daily basis at the time begging for what was owed or at least some of it and all the time they were asking if he would put more trucks in.
this all happened several months ago and my mate is now secure - he gets his payments on a regular basis now but they still hold about 85k of his cash flow.
the bigger the company the harder the terms and the longer they take to pass back what they owe.
the only question i can ask is why?
i don’t know anyone who works or pays on ninety days, point being if your an o/d or a small operator why would you take on work on those terms? the rates would have to be extremely good even at sixty days to even tempt me!
the thing is you can’t pay for anything on sixty or ninety days so why take on work that pays on that basis? all your doing is financing a job for someone else to make money out of.
on thirty days you can actually run a wagon from scratch with very little outlay, to me, the less you gamble the less you can loose if it all goes wrong.
porky, you have a PM!
paul b:
johnny:
i know several owner operators working on 90 day payment terms for a massive european company with yellow trucks that keep taking over more and more companies, one of them has told me that if he were to quit now and wait for his money it would equate to over 85k he is owed for 2 trucks.he was down to his last few grand when he got his first paycheck from the big company running yellow trucks and was in the office on a daily basis at the time begging for what was owed or at least some of it and all the time they were asking if he would put more trucks in.
this all happened several months ago and my mate is now secure - he gets his payments on a regular basis now but they still hold about 85k of his cash flow.
the bigger the company the harder the terms and the longer they take to pass back what they owe.
the only question i can ask is why?
i don’t know anyone who works or pays on ninety days, point being if your an o/d or a small operator why would you take on work on those terms? the rates would have to be extremely good even at sixty days to even tempt me!
the thing is you can’t pay for anything on sixty or ninety days so why take on work that pays on that basis? all your doing is financing a job for someone else to make money out of.
on thirty days you can actually run a wagon from scratch with very little outlay, to me, the less you gamble the less you can loose if it all goes wrong.
i wouldn’t do it either and i begged my mate to put just one truck in to begin with and see how it went but you just can’t tell some people or some people just know better.
i get the impression that he likes the security offered by a big company, it’s not my business so i don’t have any input into what he does, he appears to ok now and has even changed form renting to buying so maybe the worrying over the finances was worth it.
it takes all sorts i suppose.
porkifer:
thanks for all the replies
johnny can i just say , i wouldnt work for anyone on a 90 day payment term
i have been an od before and understand the ins and outs of this
likewise i think your figures are a bit out ,
to start with i am being paid on return as i have the work lined up already ,
£200pw tolls , where are you going ?i’m spending over £100 per week just doing germany, as you said peages i imagined italy or spain which would put you into the £200 area return.
i know my routes and it will be £100 pw
£100 pw trailer rental ? is that for a fridge , my work is for a euroliner ,£ 50pwa fridge is about £140 plus added insurance due to the higher cost of replacement, £80 is about the going rate for a nearly new euroliner so if your paying £50 then it’s a good deal or it’s a old trailer.
£150 ins , ive sorted mine out a lot cheaper than that ,
thats good too, you must have had a very good record the last time you ran trucks. most people who start up are hooked to around £7500 per year per vehicle which equates to just less than £150 per week.
the ferries are paid for in the ratestramper , thanks for the info thats just what i am looking at the real running costs , i am deff leaning towards the volvo
paulb if you want to run europe in an erf can i watch
the only thing to add is all the best with the venture, i take my hat off (if i wore one) to anyone that would go into this business as an o/d in the current climate, having just finished 4 years driving for a subby to MAT transport i can say with all honesty that it certainly came as a big surprise to everyone when they said they were in financial difficulties.
even more of a surprise when nobody wanted to take it over or even cherry pick the business.