Hi all. Im new to TNUK. A little about myself new driver to civilian life as i spent 5 years in the Army part of the REME as a tank mechanic going to a fair few places some brilliant some not so good. Left in november 2014 to start working as a mechanic for a landrover dealership, turned out was ■■■■ pay and too much computer and wiring in cars now days compared to the getting hands dirty and oily i liked from days as a grease monkey in the army so left that in may started off driving having gained my cpc card started at a family operated business in leicester driving class 2 n 7.5t doing local and general but felt that it was time to get on to the bigger stuff that id always dreamed of driving since i was a boy of 5. Really enjoying this class 1 driving and i love the fact im almost my own boss and im fairly free to do what i want.
Now to the actual post, its a long way off but i would like some info on what its like to run a unit and trailer and subcontract to someone whether its better to work continental or just in the uk or both.
ive spoke to one owner driver who told me all he did was went to the bank opened up a business bank account pays an accountant once a month for his vat reciepts. However he said he was sole trader and was driving another companies unit and trailer so this is where id like to find more info on how to set up how to get some contacts and better yet what load should i go for.
My thoughts are in fridge work n to do probably 1 week europe 1 off 1 uk 1 off and so forth and i believe that solstor are possibly the company to do something like this with from what ive read on there website.
All help would be greatly appreciated and as i said this isnt going to happen straight away as for one thing i need more experience and certainly a lot more money for me to aquire my o license and vehicle to do all this in.
Thanks again for all the info to be shared this will help my future dreams to happen if i get the info i need
Sam
Welcome along fella,have a read here…
viewtopic.php?f=2&t=128905
clark0338:
Hi all. Im new to TNUK.
Now to the actual post, its a long way off but i would like some info on what its like to run a unit and trailer and subcontract to someone whether its better to work continental or just in the uk or both.
My thoughts are in fridge work n to do probably 1 week europe 1 off 1 uk 1 off and so forth and i believe that solstor are possibly the company to do something like this with from what ive read on there website.
All help would be greatly appreciated and as i said this isnt going to happen straight away as for one thing i need more experience and certainly a lot more money for me to aquire my o license and vehicle to do all this in.
Thanks again for all the info to be shared this will help my future dreams to happen if i get the info i need
Sam
Firstly Welcome to trucknet, if you do a search there are plenty of threads about setting up and being an owner driver and there are quite a few owner drivers and haulage company owners on here. You’ll also see a lot of negative stuff, mostly from people who’ve never been owner drivers, but you’ll alos get a lot of tough advice from those who do know bit about it, just need to read a bit and learn who is who.
The company I work for ( I did the research and costings) looked at putting a truck with Solstor at times when we weren’t using them, but the number just didn’t add up for us. Knowing what they were offering I really doubt you could make living only working for them 1 week in 2.
How was your mate an owner driver, and able to drive someone else’s tractor and trailer? Do u mean he hired them?
clark0338:
Now to the actual post, its a long way off but i would like some info on what its like to run a unit and trailer and subcontract to someone whether its better to work continental or just in the uk or both.
Hi Sam, just to answer this point, unless your name is Pavel or Vladimir (and it seems it isn’t) then I’d forget all about doing continental work. I would love to be doing continental work again but it just isn’t viable these days.
I have a friend who, for over fifteen years has done a regular job once a year taking an exhibition to Barcelona and then bringing it back two weeks later. He has given the client a fantastic, fault-free service for 15 years. This year he lost the job to an eastern European haulier who quoted less for both legs than he did each way.
Until about three years ago, he did a regular trade fair job for the British Council, designed to drum up trade abroad for British companies, until they decided to use an eastern European firm to do the transport because they were half the cost. Personally, I can see the irony in this. 
You have to base your calculations on whether it is possible to make a living doing UK work. It is possible, but only just and even then with some good luck. I’ve said this to other folk over and over again to others, if you have a decent employed job then stick with that.
Cheers muckles thats helpful and im not too sure all i remeber from the chat about the truck was that he used it because it was just a spare truck sitting in the yard so the owner allowed him to run it at his own cost so i guess it was hired thinking about it and thanks for that input harry ill keep that on board
, but hes agood lad lol, i got this job covered for £650 by a polish driver, no co-loading and he was there with in 24hrs even with operation stack on, so i told him to get him book 