Any work that is easy to get on, you’ll only be earning a driver’s wage from running your own truck, if that. Running around for £1.30-£1.50 on traction, tramping on crap work is nuts if you ask me. Far better off getting a decent driver’s job without the inevitable oh no moment.
Although one chap on here runs at £1.50 out loaded and back empty so effectively £3 per loaded mile with his own trailer for one customer so I can kinda see that’s ok. He could back load it if he could be arsed. Ms explosives ran at £5 per loaded mile, she could back load the trailers if she wanted too, which is the holy grail that most people will never see.
My best rate when I was doing it was £2.80 per mile with my own double deck box trailers doing two drop and swaps of 250 mile total per shift. Light work, loaded both ways. The truck was double shifted 6 days per week all year round.
One way work has the added problem of if there’s enough work to keep you running all year round, less so with traction although they can still drop you if it goes quiet.
You need to lease rather than buy unless you’re minted as when trucks start to go wrong it can cost a fortune.
If you can get on something decent that the masses can’t get on is the only reason to start on your own in my opinion but as Jean Luc Picard says, “All good things come to an end.”
Luck is the deciding factor in how long the gravy train lasts, so the question then is, are you feeling lucky?
Well having read all the comments, I think that maybe you are now still at square one!!!
So many Fors and Against, at the end of the day, if you really want to give it a try, then just go for it, BUT!!!
Keep it simple, only buy a tractor unit, NO Trailer, because at this stage you have no idea what type of trailer you need,
and of course, you have no customers, So it looks like traction only pulling trailers for between £1.30 to £1.50 ppm.
Have a very close look at your costings and if your figures say that you can make a profit with you driving, then give it
a go for 3-6 months and then re-evaluate your position, if not very good then sell up and lose a small amount or just carry on?
In the meantime, whilst you are working, you should make contacts with suitable companies whom would be interested in using
your services etc, and then you can buy a trailer to suit the type of work being offered.
Yeah slowly making my way forward
I’ve made couple of enquiries and have possible work lined up will need a courtainsider to make it worth while i think with back loads etc but like you said i will take it slow and make sure im not loosing money but i have a set mind on makeing it work no easy way out just hard work and aim forward at all times
KWN86:
Yeah slowly making my way forward
I’ve made couple of enquiries and have possible work lined up will need a courtainsider to make it worth while i think with back loads etc but like you said i will take it slow and make sure im not loosing money but i have a set mind on makeing it work no easy way out just hard work and aim forward at all times
Id be looking to hold off until at least Easter time, as everybody Im dealing with or speaking to, are pretty paranoid about January & February 2020…
KWN86:
Yeah slowly making my way forward
I’ve made couple of enquiries and have possible work lined up will need a courtainsider to make it worth while i think with back loads etc but like you said i will take it slow and make sure im not loosing money but i have a set mind on makeing it work no easy way out just hard work and aim forward at all times
Id be looking to hold off until at least Easter time, as everybody Im dealing with or speaking to, are pretty paranoid about January & February 2020…
Thats roughly my idea the o licence wont get through untill than anyways
KWN86:
Yeah slowly making my way forward
I’ve made couple of enquiries and have possible work lined up will need a courtainsider to make it worth while i think with back loads etc but like you said i will take it slow and make sure im not loosing money but i have a set mind on makeing it work no easy way out just hard work and aim forward at all times
Id be looking to hold off until at least Easter time, as everybody Im dealing with or speaking to, are pretty paranoid about January & February 2020…
Thats roughly my idea the o licence wont get through untill than anyways
The next problem you may encounter is nobody in a position of power will “talk” about anything until the job gets back on an even keel, so be prepared for their “sat on hands” stance, until they get the nod from above…which could take an age, as the “powers that be” are quite gutless nowadays…
I run traction only for a local haulier and have a flat day rate plus mileage. This tends to translate to around 1.70 per mile laden/unladen.
We have two low loaders of our own which are kept occupied mainly with ‘own account’ loads for another part of the business but also do ad-hoc work. I have always priced work for these using what I was taught on my TM CPC course; standing costs, fixed costs etc plus profit. For short/local work I have an hourly rate.
7 year old paid for unit, one newish trailer, one very old one. Occasionally hire a curtain sider.
Personally found general haulage/traction work worth doing very hard to come by, unpleasant to organise, poorly paid and generally stressful.
Not going to be retiring soon but plod on OK. Currently pondering if it’s worth the aggro/expense/complication of changing units just to be able to go into the LEZ next year.
As others have said, if you can’t find a niche, it will be hard to make any money. They, (niches) are out there, but not easy to find.
Only advice I would give you on rates is to not take work if your fuel cost will be more than one third of the rate offered.
I know it’s a bit of a broad brush, but it’s worked well enough for me for forty plus years.
Best of luck anyway.
