Thanks for the firmer figures. I’ll factor what you have said into my thinking. But as I have said above, finding out these things is what the next year and a half is for, accurate data on the job I am most likely to be doing.
Sent from my SM-G920F using Tapatalk
I`d be looking to pull their trailers to start with, no outlay on your part, a fixed cost also on your part.
This will also help you not to get stuck with kit you can`t use, as you progress up the greasy pole of life 
Different customers require different kit, you will do well to target the “drop & swop” merchants, less hanging about and its their kit that gets a pasting
Big Truck:
Just to give the two guys on this thread who are working the figures so to speak ref becoming an O/D:What was your average mileage rate running for Gregory etc to “really just earn a wage”■■
I know that you wouldn’t entertain the £1.21mile or whatever the big players in the boxes are paying!!![emoji52]
For the first 2-3 years my weekly gross used to be about the same as my weekly km figure, so £1 per km or £1.60 a mile approximately. When the new management took over, they were far more profit-driven and rates for subbies were reduced, this being justified by diesel having become cheaper. It had, but rates were reduced by more than could be justified by cheaper fuel costs and towards the end I was running for around £1.40 a mile. It came to the point where the truck, which was eight years old then, needed replacing and I decided there wasn’t sufficient money in it to justify the aggravation of running a business.
As I said, I had hoped all along to get more of my own work but this never happened, own work is the key to making sufficient profit to make running a truck worthwhile. I don’t regret putting a truck on the road, and I learned a hell of a lot doing it but for me I decided it wasn’t worth the hassle, especially in that my life had changed in other ways too. I now live on my narrowboat for much of the year, that is normally moored in the Midlands where wages for employed drivers are relatively high and as I only really need to work 8 months a year to keep the funds topped up, then that is what I have decided to do.
If the OP does want to put a truck on the road then I’d wish him luck, but I’d strongly suggest he tries to find his own work. At £1.21 a mile, with diesel costing 60p a mile, a 300 mile job only leaves £180 after fuel, out of which he’ll have all of the truck costs to pay before he can draw a wage, 15 hours at £12 an hour on agency work pays £180 without a truck to run.
Stanley Mitchell:
I`d be looking to pull their trailers to start with, no outlay on your part, a fixed cost also on your part.This will also help you not to get stuck with kit you can`t use, as you progress up the greasy pole of life
Different customers require different kit, you will do well to target the “drop & swop” merchants, less hanging about and its their kit that gets a pasting
But if I do eleven months of work with the trailer it’s paid for itself and in the meantime it’s another £400 a month I don’t have to find.
Sent from my SM-G920F using Tapatalk
My opinion on the £1.21 pm-
You can make it work.
Should you? No.
If you work for those rates you have no “buffer room”. You have near enough zero leeway for a rate drop making it a quick decision to wrap it up or virtually be paying to work. And they WILL drop it. Either by less miles one week or just a plain straight forward “take it or leave it”
If you work for these rates YOU will become part of the reason they are so low and another bit of grease to be smeared into the slope of lowering rates as your acceptance of ■■■■ poor rates gives them the opportunity. They will use you up and cast your bankrupt self into the wind shouting “next!”
Basically if you do it, fine, crack on but at least have a bit of self respect and value the service you offer and don’t give it away for pennies.
can someone please hurry up and tell this dude he will make a fortune being a maritime subby with a old premium and a skelly trailer,and to go for it so we don’t need to keep reading this pish…all he wants is someone to pat him on the head and give him the backup that he wants several years in the future…harry monk has basically told it from the horses mouth.be a o/d subby,make a living,be a busy poor man,and have all the greif and commitment that goes along with it,then wonder why every time another 2p goes on a litre of derv,100 subbys pull the pin and go bust as that’s always the last straw for the pittance they run at to sink them.if your lucky,you will scrape a living,but 9 out of 10 arnt so lucky in haulage. diesel goes up…several months later,rates go up a tad(but not to scale)…diesel goes down…next day rates plummet overscale.analogue tacho and a bit of initiative and your quids in,but who would run like that on here… 
dieseldog999:
then wonder why every time another 2p goes on a litre of derv,100 subbys pull the pin and go bust as that’s always the last straw for the pittance they run at to sink them.if your lucky,you will scrape a living,but 9 out of 10 arnt so lucky in haulage. diesel goes up…several months later,rates go up a tad(but not to scale)…diesel goes down…next day rates plummet
As Harry pointed out at 60p per mile fuel costs are the deal breaker.Probably at anything less than around £1.60 per mile.
On that note it’s anyone’s guess how the figure of £1421 to run 3560 miles was arrived at. 
Realistically fuel needs to be no more than a third of your turnover when running an artic on general haulage boxes etc to have enough left over to pay your other costs and draw a decent wage that warrants running a truck over been a driver.
However running on the rates on offer from the usual suspects it’s nearer 50% of turnover. Pay insurance road tax maintenance finance etc the only bit where you can cut is what’s left to pay yourself.
As Harry pointed out at 60p per mile fuel costs are the deal breaker.Probably at anything less than around £1.60 per mile.
On that note it’s anyone’s guess how the figure of £1421 to run 3560 miles was arrived at.
As I explained further up its the actual diesel fill for the last two weeks × the highest price on the fuel prices thread for Friday just gone. The mileage is the actual mileage I did. As I have said, I am writing everything down and running a record as if the truck I’m currently driving was my own.
To Dieseldog. While it may appear to you that I’m looking for rubber stamp approval of the decision to go o/d I’m not. I’ll make the do it decision myself based on my own data. What I’m looking for is practical making it happen advice so that when I have the data and I’ve made the decision I can get it in to action sharpish.
Sent from my SM-G920F using Tapatalk
Carryfast:
dieseldog999:
then wonder why every time another 2p goes on a litre of derv,100 subbys pull the pin and go bust as that’s always the last straw for the pittance they run at to sink them.if your lucky,you will scrape a living,but 9 out of 10 arnt so lucky in haulage. diesel goes up…several months later,rates go up a tad(but not to scale)…diesel goes down…next day rates plummetAs Harry pointed out at 60p per mile fuel costs are the deal breaker.Probably at anything less than around £1.60 per mile.
On that note it’s anyone’s guess how the figure of £1421 to run 3560 miles was arrived at.
Harry said 60p per KM carryfast not per mile!!![emoji6]
Sent from my SM-J500FN using Tapatalk
Big Truck:
Carryfast:
dieseldog999:
then wonder why every time another 2p goes on a litre of derv,100 subbys pull the pin and go bust as that’s always the last straw for the pittance they run at to sink them.if your lucky,you will scrape a living,but 9 out of 10 arnt so lucky in haulage. diesel goes up…several months later,rates go up a tad(but not to scale)…diesel goes down…next day rates plummet
As Harry pointed out at 60p per mile fuel costs are the deal breaker.Probably at anything less than around £1.60 per mile.
On that note it’s anyone’s guess how the figure of £1421 to run 3560 miles was arrived at.
[emoji52]
Sent from my SM-J500FN using Tapatalk
Big Truck:
Carryfast:
dieseldog999:
then wonder why every time another 2p goes on a litre of derv,100 subbys pull the pin and go bust as that’s always the last straw for the pittance they run at to sink them.if your lucky,you will scrape a living,but 9 out of 10 arnt so lucky in haulage. diesel goes up…several months later,rates go up a tad(but not to scale)…diesel goes down…next day rates plummet
As Harry pointed out at 60p per mile fuel costs are the deal breaker.Probably at anything less than around £1.60 per mile.
On that note it’s anyone’s guess how the figure of £1421 to run 3560 miles was arrived
Sent from my SM-J500FN using Tapatalk
Big Truck:
Carryfast:
dieseldog999:
then wonder why every time another 2p goes on a litre of derv,100 subbys pull the pin and go bust as that’s always the last straw for the pittance they run at to sink them.if your lucky,you will scrape a living,but 9 out of 10 arnt so lucky in haulage. diesel goes up…several months later,rates go up a tad(but not to scale)…diesel goes down…next day rates plummetAs Harry pointed out at 60p per mile fuel costs are the deal breaker.Probably at anything less than around £1.60 per mile.
On that note it’s anyone’s guess how the figure of £1421 to run 3560 miles was arrived at.
Harry said 60p per KM carryfast not per mile!!![emoji6]
Disregard my last!!![emoji28]
Sent from my SM-J500FN using Tapatalk
Harry Monk:
If the OP does want to put a truck on the road then I’d wish him luck, but I’d strongly suggest he tries to find his own work. At £1.21 a mile, with diesel costing 60p a mile, a 300 mile job only leaves £180 after fuel, out of which he’ll have all of the truck costs to pay before he can draw a wage, 15 hours at £12 an hour on agency work pays £180 without a truck to run.
Big Truck:
Disregard my last!!![emoji28]
Ironically I’d be the first person to support anyone planning on starting up as an owner driver having reached the conclusion myself very early on that it’s probably the best option.While it’s obvious that container work will be an essential part of the mix in the source of work in that regard.
Unfortunately Harry has hit the nail on the head regarding the effective financial unviability of the present fuel cost v rates regime.Which is why now in retirement,with no chance of realising the dream,I’m campaigning for the idea of trucks being able to use red diesel so others might. 
Carryfast:
I’m campaigning for the idea of trucks being able to use red diesel so others might.
The trouble with that idea is that if trucks were allowed to run on red diesel, rates would be cut accordingly.
Harry Monk:
Carryfast:
I’m campaigning for the idea of trucks being able to use red diesel so others might.The trouble with that idea is that if trucks were allowed to run on red diesel, rates would be cut accordingly.
They’d probably fall.But I’m going by the idea that with such a massive game changing reduction in fuel costs demand for road transport would increase to a level which would hopefully in large part,if not more than,offset the equivalent downward pressure on rates.IE there’d arguably be enough room in such a reduction in costs to not only provide for lower rates for the customer but also increase demand for road transport as a result and leave some room for the operator.Thereby reducing capacity and also hopefully creating a net reduction in the burden of fuel costs v rates for the operator.While as it stands punitive fuel costs are just having the effect that the government wants in the form of too many trucks looking for too little work and what work there is being almost economically unviable to take on.With just a revolving door of naive hopeful owner drivers taking it on then inevitably having to give up the economic struggle of trying to make the numbers add up.Ironically in this case with it being container work where the government sees the biggest threat,to its policy of shifting freight from road to rail,given that much more road transport friendly trading environment.
In the grand scheme of things rail freight is negligible in the problems of low rates in haulage.
kr79:
In the grand scheme of things rail freight is negligible in the problems of low rates in haulage.
It would be fair to say that the road v rail argument is one of the main reasons for the punitive road fuel taxation regime levied on road transport.
While that politically driven issue is disproportionately much larger in the case of the container transport sector with potentially more direct competition between the two modes.Nor is it any surprise that sector is one of the worst affected by the issue of fuel costs v rates.While as I said container work is one of the essential options for owner drivers with any loss of viability in that sector obviously being reflected in creating more capacity across the board.Caused by od’s looking for other remaining opportunities.Which probably partly explains how Harry’s previous sector has gone from a more viable £1.60 pm to £1.40 pm caused by the downward pressures of people looking for an escape route from £1.20 pm type rates.Possibly with the win win of easier trunking type work with more and better paid miles in the job v what’s left of the dregs of the container sector after rail has taken a large chunk of the distance work in the job.