So rgt1973 Did you go for it, its been 18 months now since your question. Are you a wealthy OD or small fleet owner now ? Or are you “head above water” ?
Or as I suspect driving for someone else and glad to be doing so.
Would love to know and the reason why you chose your career path.
Are you sure 3 wheeler its 18 months ,I thought it said 31 may 2013,sorry if iam wrong.
Dan Punchard:
Are you sure 3 wheeler its 18 months ,I thought it said 31 may 2013,sorry if iam wrong.
You are CORRECT…i just looked at his joining date rather than the date of the post, Must have been a senior moment, or the drugs from yesterday !
But I would still like to know ?
All money is good,but its not so much as make a living but can you make a profit to keep you going in the tough times 
Rob K:
Ignore chavsdad. He’s just some clown pulling containers out of Teesport for buttons
well thats news to me, i dont even own a skelly 
anyone can make a living.making money is hard. 
Making a living is OK but whats the point of just making a living if your working your socks off doing around 2000 miles per week and not making a profit.
You can make a living doing that sort of milage working for someone else without any hassle of upkeep etc etc
If this helps
I became an OD 6 months ago after owning and selling another business.
I turn over an ave of £1980 a week £450 for fuel, £60 tax & Insurance
Maintenance for past 6 months has cost £1240 = £50 a week incl tyres
I paid for the truck outright though I consider £400 a week towards truck reasonable
I could therefore take £1000 a week
My aim is to buy another truck probably late 2014 then 1 a year
Game on, I think you get negative comments from people who have either failed or are scared of competition.
Nice one Muckspreader, it’s great to see a positive response.
muckspreader you seem unsure with your figures as to turnover or take,also you cant repay yourself £400 per week towards initial cost,what about income tax,vat, insurances and national insurance etc.you seem to have been lucky with maintenance costs up to now.who is going to drive the other trucks you may get and how much do you think a driver will cost you.tread carefully mate. 
Muckspreader:
If this helps
I became an OD 6 months ago after owning and selling another business.
I turn over an ave of £1980 a week £450 for fuel, £60 tax & Insurance
Maintenance for past 6 months has cost £1240 = £50 a week incl tyres
I paid for the truck outright though I consider £400 a week towards truck reasonableI could therefore take £1000 a week
My aim is to buy another truck probably late 2014 then 1 a yearGame on, I think you get negative comments from people who have either failed or are scared of competition.
or people with more than 6 months experience .
I will reply on Boxing day
MERRY CHRISTMAS
Reading your figures muck spreader I’d say your running a van or 7.5 tonner or a specialist job as your cost don’t quite look like general road haulage ones ,therefore your figures don’t really help anyone wanting to know if they could make a living.
think it was a vac tank type work, rate per hr not many miles covered.
Goaty:
Rob K:
Ignore chavsdad. He’s just some clown pulling containers out of Teesport for buttons yet thinks he’s on a good craic. All the OOs with brains packed up shop years ago when fuel was rapidly heading towards a quid a litre. It’s only the clueless numpties that know nothing else that still slog their guts out at it believing that “it’ll get better soon” and think that the £500 a week they’re left with each week is a good income for running a truck.Special! The cyber-■■■■ taker! Any closer to imparting any of your valuable experience as a haulage mogul yet?
I’ve just had a look, Rob K hasn’t posted since August. It is a bit of a shame because he could make some sensible points when he chose to, although this “You can’t make money as an owner-driver” thing did seem to be a bit of a bee in his bonnet.
But then Rob was one of the fiercest opponents of satellite navigation for many years until the day he actually used one whereupon they instantly became the best thing since sliced bread. Ditto Renault Premiums I seem to recall.
Perhaps he would have a similar Damascene conversion if he ever found the wherewithal to launch “Knapptrans” onto the transport scene?
Maybe there has already been a Knapptrans 
The easiest reply is yep I run a vac tank & jetter
I didn’t realise that that doesn’t make me a proper OD,
oh well maybe I should have spent £10k and subbed to another company or maybe it’s that kind of OD that then sits here moaning or failing.
As many on here will say is traction only you will struggle at best either find your own work or specialise 
I read, researched, took 5 years to actually do it.
As I have previously said if I were to undertake traction only I would look at specialist like scrap or bricks/timber
What’s got anything to do with not being a proper o/d?,well done for running / driving a lorry with out getting tangled up in the rat race.
There seems to be a lot of weekend wheelchanges on this thread. Do none of you have tyre accounts?
To the OP.
In short, start up by subbing from another outfit if you must. Keep the jobs local and many. Don’t rest on your laurels. Get your thumb out and talk to potential customers. Talk to other hauliers too. A job taken on, on a spot hire basis will pay more than a full time subby can achieve.
All very general and there are exceptions to it. If you’re only doing it to get your name on a truck and intend to sub off “Eddie Winaritime” then most of the above aggro will be yours. We’re all different I agree. But before you start I’d think long and hard about why you want to and what you want to achieve.
It is ■■■■■■■ hard at present and there’s no sign of it improving any time soon. Best of luck.
I have been having a nagging thought these past few months that it may be worthwhile doing something like this:
Getting down the local Renault dealer and picking up an ex-Nobbies Premium. Thoughts behind this is that they are all 3ish years old, well maintained and tend to have a full recon by Northampton before they come off hire. They ain’t what we would call luxury, Privilege cabs at best but they have everything you need to do the job, including ADR kits if you buy the right one.
Question 1: How much do you reckon something like this would set me back
Pick up an old flatbed or curtain sider for your own work.
Sign up with the likes of Fowler Welch or Freshlinc. They are a fair way from me but I have contacts in Lincolnshire that would allow me to base there at weekends which will cut down on the empty mileage. They pay £2500 a week for a subbie, who rarely needs to pay for parking because you pull the curtains on their site at Spalding. Diesel used will be around, (at current prices) £1000 a week. R & M budget at £250 a week because while things break they wont break every day and £500 a week in my pocket should leave a fair bit going into the bank.
Do a deal with a local company to buy their empty pallets and once a month you clear them out. It may take a day to do, but if you shift four loads of pallets in that day, you take in £10,000. Pay them a pound a pallet will knock you down to £7000 ish, but that £7000 will more than pay for your HP on the truck and help to build the kitty.
Is that all pie in the sky? Or could you make something like this work. I know set up costs would be fairly big, especially given my age with the insurance but a startup loan from a bank, based on a reasonable business plan should help to cover these costs.
After that the plan would be clear the loan, stack away enough to run for a quarter without taking in any money at all, then start saving for the brand spanking new Renault T/Merc Megaspace with all the options. The big rule for me would be that once you got the first truck on chit, never buy assets if you cant buy them outright.