The best advice i can give is listen to your own thoughts ,take advice but do not let nay sayers put you off .One of my goals is owner driver .
Good luck and stay possitive .
Cov:
The best advice i can give is listen to your own thoughts ,take advice but do not let nay sayers put you off .One of my goals is owner driver .
Good luck and stay possitive .
Fair enough then mate.
So just listen to the type of advice that you want to hear, and ignore the rest.
Best of luck with it. ! 
robroy:
Cov:
The best advice i can give is listen to your own thoughts ,take advice but do not let nay sayers put you off .One of my goals is owner driver .
Good luck and stay possitive .Fair enough then mate.
So just listen to the type of advice that you want to hear, and ignore the rest.
Best of luck with it. !
I should have worded it better,
What i should have said ,Take all the advice offered ,But if you listen to the Naysayers you will be in contradiction with yourself.If you have the idea (Many never get ideas )
Then at least go for it.It will not be the end of the world if you fail several times .most winners failed
Several times …
An idea is all it takes .
Cov:
robroy:
Cov:
The best advice i can give is listen to your own thoughts ,take advice but do not let nay sayers put you off .One of my goals is owner driver .
Good luck and stay possitive .Fair enough then mate.
So just listen to the type of advice that you want to hear, and ignore the rest.
Best of luck with it. !I should have worded it better,
What i should have said ,Take all the advice offered ,But if you listen to the Naysayers you will be in contradiction with yourself.If you have the idea (Many never get ideas )
Then at least go for it.It will not be the end of the world if you fail several times .most winners failed
Several times …
An idea is all it takes .
I’m not trying to put the OP off, I’m just suggesting that as he has only just passed his Class C test and has presumably zero experience of the road haulage industry, that it might be a good idea to do a year or two’s apprenticeship as an employed driver before taking on the enormous commitment involved in becoming an operator.
Its a case of weighing up all your options, how much free cash you have for initial outlay for truck/ins and all the various other hardware needed, an operating centre, potential work available and …luck, then decide if you really want to take the gamble. The main thing to consider is if you can afford to lose a bundle of cash if it does go wrong. As ive mentioned, start off on the right foot and do your homework first before any outlay and it’ll go in your favour. Do not however make the mistake of a couple of O/D’s i knew years ago putting their home up as collateral to finance a new venture only to see it all go wrong with the house being re posessed ect. I started out with an old F7 which i paid £3K for, i had it repainted for £500 and bought an old tri axle tilt for a grand, i could have spent more if financed but this i managed to avoid. An operating centre i found for £50 pw and maintenance done by myself and an HGV fitter doing work on the side. I was on the bottom rung of the ladder but gradually worked my way up only buying better trucks as and when i could afford to do so. Obviously these prices quoted have no bearing on todays cost though.Good luck in whatever you decide to do…
AndrewG:
Its a case of weighing up all your options, how much free cash you have for initial outlay for truck/ins and all the various other hardware needed, an operating centre, potential work available and …luck, then decide if you really want to take the gamble. The main thing to consider is if you can afford to lose a bundle of cash if it does go wrong. As ive mentioned, start off on the right foot and do your homework first before any outlay and it’ll go in your favour. Do not however make the mistake of a couple of O/D’s i knew years ago putting their home up as collateral to finance a new venture only to see it all go wrong with the house being re posessed ect. I started out with an old F7 which i paid £3K for, i had it repainted for £500 and bought an old tri axle tilt for a grand, i could have spent more if financed but this i managed to avoid. An operating centre i found for £50 pw and maintenance done by myself and an HGV fitter doing work on the side. I was on the bottom rung of the ladder but gradually worked my way up only buying better trucks as and when i could afford to do so. Obviously these prices quoted have no bearing on todays cost though.Good luck in whatever you decide to do…
Looks as if we both did things very similar Andrew to start with, and that you had luck on your side when you started, as up to a point I did also, in fact I was doing quite well.
I then made the mistake of adding another truck, naively thinking I would make twice as much 
, then another, and another 2, got to about 6 until I was at the stage of brand new house in a select area, Jag, 2 hols abroad every year etc etc, and as flash as they come. 
Then things started to go sour, the 80s recession kicked in with all the effects. AND my main customer and source of work went bust, owing me a ■■■■ fortune
.
In hindsight I should have went back to one truck but thought I was clever enough to ride it, as I said Flash.
I went in deeper, long long story upshot was business gone, house gone, …but managed to keep the wife 
Never been a drama,queen or a defeatist, so I just dusted myself down, adjusted my lifestyle, eat a bit of humble pie, (well a lot actually) and got a job…with a bit of grief in between.
So your experience is a bit different to mine which is why you are positive about it with your advice…and I aint !
Cov:
robroy:
Cov:
The best advice i can give is listen to your own thoughts ,take advice but do not let nay sayers put you off .One of my goals is owner driver .
Good luck and stay possitive .Fair enough then mate.
So just listen to the type of advice that you want to hear, and ignore the rest.
Best of luck with it. !I should have worded it better,
What i should have said ,Take all the advice offered ,But if you listen to the Naysayers you will be in contradiction with yourself.If you have the idea (Many never get ideas )
Then at least go for it.It will not be the end of the world if you fail several times .most winners failed
Several times …
An idea is all it takes .
It depends how many thousand he can afford to lose in those ‘‘Several times’’ of faliure does it not, especially in the case of the o/p who comes across (being kind here) as a bit naive to say the least, and most definitely, by his own admission, inexperienced in the harsh world of dog eat dog UK road haulage.
For some just one of those faliures is exactly what it is you say…‘‘The end of the world’’ in terms of home, livliehood, marriage, and all the rest of it…thankfully it was not the case for me.
Have you actually thought this through at all mate.
With only having a class2 perhaps look a franchise with cemex Hanson etc
Personally I’d have to say that you’d be nuts to try going it alone before you know whether the industry is for you and as an operator you would need to know what part of the industry would suit you best. Without having tried a few sectors you’d be flying blind.
And on top of that, with not having put the driving regs into practice, compliance would be a massive ball ache, with what I would imagine to be steeper penalties.
My advice to you is put yourself out there and find a job. One will turn up if you stick at it. After I don’t know, 3-5 years under your belt, then come back and reevaluate whether you want to step out alone.
I’ve been in the industry 3 years now, always fancied the idea of running a motor or two for myself but I’m in no contemplating it for a couple more years at least.
Whatever decision you make, best of luck. Just look before you leap.
robroy:
[quote="AndrewG
Looks as if we both did things very similar Andrew to start with, and that you had luck on your side when you started, as up to a point I did also, in fact I was doing quite well.
I then made the mistake of adding another truck, naively thinking I would make twice as much
I too also thought about adding another truck at one point Rob as i couldnt cope with the work but decided to sub out what i had and just take a small cut instead. I think adding more vehicles is another very big step with diminishing returns having to pay another wage ect. I didnt realise you had your own business with 6 vehicles, must have been quite a ball ache at times i would imagine, i still baulk at some of the bills i have each month, especially the fuel bill at 1400 litres to brim the tanks… 
… 
best words i can give you, if you have just past your test dont even think about it, you will have bumps in your 1st year and the last thing you want to do is bump your own truck,
Whatever happened to that scheme that Stobbies tried to hawk out, about 4 yrs ago, where you bought one of their trucks and they give you the work.
Was anybody daft enough to tr…I mean did anybody have any success with it ?.. and is it still going?
robroy:
Whatever happened to that scheme that Stobbies tried to hawk out, about 4 yrs ago, where you bought one of their trucks and they give you the work.
Was anybody daft enough to tr…I mean did anybody have any success with it ?.. and is it still going?
Never knew they did that,apart from the obvious ones, what were the catches/terms of that?