From the first post the vehicles are currently used about 8hrs per day?
This looks like they have 4 or more hrs to make money on backloads? But that is far too simplistic. Depending on how far out of your way you go collect and deliver 3rd party loads, and any delays could you end up jeopardizing your core business? If a back load is tying up one of your own, will you have to hire in an expensive contractor to deliver your own stuff?
There needs to be a detailed look at timings to ensure all can work smoothly. Not impossible but needs care.
And if you decide to give bad service to a back load client to give preferential treatment to your core business, don’t expect favours from them later on.
Franglais:
From the first post the vehicles are currently used about 8hrs per day?
This looks like they have 4 or more hrs to make money on backloads? But that is far too simplistic. Depending on how far out of your way you go collect and deliver 3rd party loads, and any delays could you end up jeopardizing your core business? If a back load is tying up one of your own, will you have to hire in an expensive contractor to deliver your own stuff?
There needs to be a detailed look at timings to ensure all can work smoothly. Not impossible but needs care.
And if you decide to give bad service to a back load client to give preferential treatment to your core business, don’t expect favours from them later on.
Good points Frangkais.
We used to backload from the Continent, but gave up doing so (unless for an established outbound customer) because firstly delays meant we were close to letting our main customer down and ended up jumping through hoops to get the job done and losing money instead of making it and the rates were just not good enough to justify.
It’s do-able, but you definitely need to prioritise.
The 8 hrs useage struck a cord with me too. I would be comparing my fixed costs and an estimation of my variable costs with the revenue proposed for the bakery’s deliveries to work out an hourly rate required based upon 8 hrs, for however many working days you assume per annum. That also needing to take account of fluctuating bakery demand. I would then want to see how that looks against my other calculations. Overall it is the bakery deliveries as principal customer which need to produce an operating profit and any additional revenue must be profit and not contribute towards meeting costs.
I can see that it’s been a little while since I posted last on here. On the positive, been a busy year, I’ve 5 artics now with 7 drivers on my payroll. I too am training to become one. Things are going as per plan I’m pleased to say.
One thing I still need advice on, subcontracting. I am a subbie for SBSC which I use for return loads. I have also started the onboarding process for Langdons, EV Cargo, Amazon and just got approved for maritime today. Is there anyone you would suggest I should contact with regards to regular subcontracting work? We come back from Northampton back towards Heathrow 2-3 times a day. Also, I’m finding it hard to get information about rates online. If anyone is trading with any of the companies I mentioned, curious to know what rates they offer currently, and hope I am not wasting my time. Still waiting for my insurers to upgrade my GIT policy to their requirements.