Part of the reason for the low profit is a lost day 1 due to collecting and the first fill of diesel which won’t pay back until the last fill.
Sent from my F8331 using Tapatalk
nsmith1180:
chaversdad:
Not having a go mate but if i dont know what the load pays before it goes on the trailer then it doesnt go on , end of, you cant run a business not knowing what you have made until someone tells youIts the problem of the job I am currently on. I cant say I’m particularly happy about it either. Now I’ve got a hang on the way that things are priced I’ve estimated last week and can say that over 10553km in month 1 I’m on to make £567.67 profit after all running costs, standing costs and my salary.
It’s nice (or not) to mess around with the calculator and work things out, you have all these little columns for this and that, projected expenses and all the rest of it, but in the real world it’s a waste of time.
I like to keep things simple, I have one bank account for my business and one for personal, no savings accounts for maintenance, taxes, depreciation etc. I just make sure I’ve got at least six months of expenses (personal and business) in the bank and never worry about it when I have a bad week, or even a bad month. I get 6monthly P&L statements as anything less is just a waste of time, you just drive yourself mad worrying about the bad weeks, which always happen.
The best philosophy for making a profit is to spend less than you earn, keep it simple and concentrate on the things that you can control and forget the stuff you can’t and it’s a lot less stressful.
Sent from my SM-G930W8 using Tapatalk
I’m a data driven person newmercman. I can’t relax if I haven’t updated my spreadsheet and don’t know how my business stands. I also can’t plan to run the future if I can’t forecast income and expenditure.
Even as a one man band I set myself targets on fuel economy etc to improve my performance because when I put #2 on the road I can’t expect my drivers to put up with targets and monitoring I won’t put up with myself. From day 1 I planned in having a fleet, so from day 1 I’m reporting and analysing like I have a fleet.
Sent from my F8331 using Tapatalk
I add my diesel up at month end and my invoices just out of interest ,as for anything eles stuff that 
Punchy Dan:
I add my diesel up at month end and my invoices just out of interest ,as for anything eles stuff that
Man after my own heart 
nsmith1180, each to their own, if you feel comfortable doing things a certain way then that’s the way you should do them.
Admittedly I do have a rather laid back approach, it works for me, I did the spreadsheet thing when I first got into computers, I loved it but found I was spending a lot of time on them and they didn’t really tell me anything I needed to know. The only number that I concentrate on is the one that’s left after everyone has extorted all they can from me, if that’s black, not red, I’m happy [emoji3]
Sent from my SM-G930W8 using Tapatalk
Punchy Dan:
I add my diesel up at month end and my invoices just out of interest ,as for anything eles stuff that
I don’t even do that…either it feels right of it doesn’t!
For you guys who have been running the job for many years you probably pretty much know if a job is profortable or not, but if you’re new surely you really need to keep a close track on costs to make sure you’re covering them before it becomes to late and you find yourself in trouble.
This is what happened to the last company I worked for, but that was an engineering and R&D company, so maybe more complex than haulage. They didn’t keep a close tracked on the expenditure of each project and therefore couldn’t tell where the money was going and found themselves with some serious financial problems, not help by a finance director who thought she could increase profit by reducing the price of the work to increase sales, but hadn’t taken into account some of the hidden costs, so they got more work, but made a bigger loss, she was sacked.
Saying that you can get bogged down in data in minute detail and miss the bigger picture, many years ago I worked for a haulage company where 4 of us were subbied to another company, the boss kept complaining that normally only 2 of the 4 trucks made a decent profit, wasn’t always the same trucks, so not down to the drivers. What we told him was to look at the job as a whole, as there was a mixture of work some less profitable as others and it was shared out, so if he took 2 trucks off he wouldn’t get 2 trucks making more money, but one truck making better money than the other as they shared the work round.
muckles:
For you guys who have been running the job for many years you probably pretty much know if a job is profortable or not, but if you’re new surely you really need to keep a close track on costs to make sure you’re covering them before it becomes to late and you find yourself in trouble.
You are right, but I didn’t even do that at the start. 
I stuck with my little mantra of driver wages + diesel needs to be 50% of what I charge.
Sometimes I’m surprised I’m still in business 
muckles:
For you guys who have been running the job for many years you probably pretty much know if a job is profortable or not, but if you’re new surely you really need to keep a close track on costs to make sure you’re covering them before it becomes to late and you find yourself in trouble.Saying that you can get bogged down in data in minute detail and miss the bigger picture.
You hit the nail on the head there Muckles. It’s about spotting problems before they happen. I’m glad to say that my mountain of data has paid off too, I projected week 4 earnings almost on the nose because I can looksee at what other jobs for the same client are paying.
As for the bigger picture it’s handled. I’ve got two big boxes on the front page of the spreadsheet. Running Profit and net profit. Running makes sure that I’m covering my running costs, net makes sure that I’m covering my standing costs too. Both are conditionally formatted, green for good news, red for ohhhhh bugger.
Sent from my F8331 using Tapatalk
I’m in no position to tell anybody the best way to run their business, my experience of this is to keep costs within a budget and find savings where possible or to put together the costs for a years transport requirement as part of a bigger quote and maybe the odd quote for a one off transport job.
I personally like to know the costs, but I know others who just have an average figure and put that in the quote, but then as a whole years transport budget can come to less than cost of carbon brakes for a season, getting the transport cost wrong by a few percent isn’t really going to blow the budget.
albion:
muckles:
For you guys who have been running the job for many years you probably pretty much know if a job is profortable or not, but if you’re new surely you really need to keep a close track on costs to make sure you’re covering them before it becomes to late and you find yourself in trouble.You are right, but I didn’t even do that at the start.
Sometimes I’m surprised I’m still in business
But for the first so many years and depending on what you are doing and how you have repairs and such done you’ll be making huge amounts of one off spends ,20 yrs in this yr iam still buying workshop equipment and probably got more kit than most workshops and fabrication shops .
Whereas my ‘workshop’ kit is some spanners, screwdrivers and spare bulbs. I would really like my own workshop, but unless I ever get to a much bigger size firm, then it’s not for me. Not being a mechanic/fitter, it would never have been cost effective to me.
It’s actually interesting to see what people view as important to the running of their business. I like to own a vehicle, I don’t like R&M contracts, I would rather rent premises than own, in short anything that isn’t a truck or driver, I don’t invest in it. It’s my way of keeping it simple. Not saying any rights or wrongs, just everyone needs to know their own personal philosophy and gear the business so that all your. decisions are working towards the same aim. Mine means my mantra worked for me, along with being very simple. To this day I wouldn’t have a clue about spreadsheets.
Mantra complely knackered when I started so much double manning!
Harry Monk:
What would your best advice on finding work? Oh, might sage.
Well, when I started, I was hoping to be able to pick up exhibition and roadshow work, something I had a lot of experience of doing. And I had subcontracting in place to fill in the gaps. Bread and butter with some jam.
About the time I put in my O licence application, I spoke to a long-standing friend who was doing this type of work. He said “At the moment it’s still all British trucks doing it, but the first time anyone uses eastern Europeans, they’ll all start doing it”.
Well, guess what? In the time it took my O licence to come through, he did an exhibition in Amsterdam and said “There are eight Polish trucks here”, and at the next one he said “half of the trucks here are eastern European”, and within another month he was virtually the only British driver left on the job. Then my O licence came through.
So I did the subbing for four years, but there wasn’t enough more in it to make it any more financially rewarding than working as an agency driver, with a lot more aggravation. VATman, bank manager, accountant, VOSA blah blah blah. Every Saturday morning a mountain of mail to open and deal with. As I’ve said before, I don’t regret running my own truck and I learnt a lot from it, I just decided it was time to move on to a new chapter, which has been the ever-evolving story of my life really.
I don’t know what advice I could give you about sourcing highly paid work, because if I knew that, then I would be doing it myself, but I will wish you the best of luck with your venture and whatever you decide to do. I will honestly try to answer any question you have, but I can only repeat that the long-held answer to the question “How do you make a small fortune in haulage?” is “Start with a large one”.
Best of luck.
Good morning.
Apologize in advance for such a welcome 1st post but something need to be clear out here straight away. Regardless of the date of the OT - Poland its not, never been, and never will be an Eastern European Country !!! Compare Poland to Romania or Poland to Slovakia its like compare Scania to Isuzu, or Volvo to DAF. There is and always be a gap betweeen their Countrys. It is offence, and I did feel offended 
Btw I hope its time to re-fresh topics like this as the situation we live in has changed.
Most of the freelances went back to their origin, Poles back to Poland etc.
Not cuz of Brexit, all because Sterling as an Currency is weak !
Polish driver earning £500-£700 a week was something to consider back in days, when the £1k give them 7k zlotys.
Now when UK wages been frozen for last 15 yrs that 500-700 a week give the Polish bloke same wages as he can get back with Family same £1k only gives him £4,5 k right now
Anyway, back to the OT. One think Im not actually used to its your response, advice, recomendation, general dissbelieve etc.
Im on the stage of getting O licence and rental truck (no trailer).
I may will fall, but without a fall none of us will ever get up !!!