Goaty:
Harry Monk:
I just cannot get my head around this idea that it is not possible to earn money as a small haulier. Iām baffled when folk tell me that Iām on a foolās errand and that they will be amazed if I last the next week/month/year when the only person here who has access to my accounts is me, and Iām quite happy to soldier on.
RobK seems to be the prime example of this. As far as Iām aware, he has absolutely no knowledge or experience of operating a truck but that doesnāt seem to stop him knowing more about it than everyone who ever has. One of lifeās mysteries to me has always been that the less a person knows about something, the more opinionated they are about it.
But thats the whole point of TNUK anit it? 
I donāt get on here much anymore as it always seems to be the same old crap trotted out by the site āexpertsā. Sometimes there are grains of truth in what Special, Curryfart et al have to say but as a rule they make me wince.
Owner driver/operator, call it what you like, doesnāt mean you have to follow the prescribed route of taking the scraps off Joe [zb] Haulageās table and wearing the āSubbyā badge.
Ok, you gotta start somewhere but if you donāt follow that up with effort in terms of securing your own spot hire work, repeat customers, contracts or all of the above, then you deserve what you get.
Dont get me wrong, Iām not saying itās an easy way to become a millionaire but itās certainly better paying than spending your working life paying for Joe [zb] new Jag. Imho of course.
I will say too that once youāve picked up a few of your own customers it gives you one [zb] of a buzz making it all work. If this sounds like too much effort stay on the payroll!
Owner drivers that subcontract for a major haulier are really just lorry drivers that pay their own bills, obviously thereās a lot more to it than that, they have the start up costs, have to keep their head above water and remain in business, recapitalise and replace their assets, do accounts and the rest of it, but really all theyāre doing is driving their own lorry for someone else. Not that thereās anything wrong with that, each to their own and all that. Some even make good money at it and good luck to them.
On the other hand there are true small hauliers, such as yourself, you do some direct work, some secondhand work, you advertise your services and actively seek work, youāre responsible for making sure you have enough work to pay the bills, not leaving your fate in the hands of someone in a traffic office somewhere.
I did a little of both, a bit of direct work, which never paid the greatest rate, but it was good enough, I used to mix that up with secondhand work from various sources, some of that paid better than the direct work. In reality though the only way I went from one truck to more was by working the things 24hrs a day, that way the standing costs were halved per shift, I wouldnāt have lasted 5mins if I had my lorries parked up in 20 quid a night truckstops and paid drivers night out money on top, there just isnāt enough money in the job to sustain that on secondhand work. But my ambitions were different, I never wanted to be an owner driver, I went into business to make money and as much of that as I could, I had to look at things from a totally different perspective, as a driver I like doing long runs, but as a business owner I like short runs that pay well and cost SFA to do, that was the way I thought best.
good or bad 