We only ran for two end user clients from the UK to and from Malaga each way with a full tank of different product . It was a fantastic set up …shame when one went ■■■■ up due to something changing and it was going to be a one way load only , So we gave it up sadly . It broke my heart to have to go back to normal work and single cab work and less money !
newmercman:
Multi drop is nearly always better for a one man band with a normal unit and trailer and even more so if you had an EEC book and could drop off on the way down and pick up on the way back, I did that a few times when things were quiet after Xmas and in August. A load of groupage from Italy with drops in Paris and Bruxelles on the way home, the money wasn’t fantastic, but it saved sitting around waiting for somebody to find enough freight to fill a trailer.
I can’t comment on the international aspect of being an OD but I have been an OD on UK work for 30 years and local work is almost without exception the most profitable and multi drop especially so with the right firm, can be hard work though.
best money earner for us was timework running from alcan to the docks, no fuel used sat around for hours earning. it was almost like being an employed driver.
matamoros:
newmercman:
Multi drop is nearly always better for a one man band with a normal unit and trailer and even more so if you had an EEC book and could drop off on the way down and pick up on the way back, I did that a few times when things were quiet after Xmas and in August. A load of groupage from Italy with drops in Paris and Bruxelles on the way home, the money wasn’t fantastic, but it saved sitting around waiting for somebody to find enough freight to fill a trailer.I can’t comment on the international aspect of being an OD but I have been an OD on UK work for 30 years and local work is almost without exception the most profitable and multi drop especially so with the right firm, can be hard work though.
I’m only talking international to help Carryfast get in the mood for pushing his Dinky toys around the kitchen floor.
I totally agree with you on the local work, there’s definitely more money to be made that way.
newmercman:
I’m only talking international to help Carryfast get in the mood for pushing his Dinky toys around the kitchen floor.I totally agree with you on the local work, there’s definitely more money to be made that way.
Probably simple market economics because less people want/ed to do it because it’s boring and for many defeats the object of starting up on their own.While any rate that isn’t based on the simple formula of tonne/miles run,as opposed to what is effectively an hourly hire charge,can only be a type of market distortion and confirmation of that fact.
Defeating the object? For some maybe, but I got into owning lorries to make money. I was already running over the water, so I never needed to buy my way in to that and when I was doing it you could still make a few quid.
I have never charged by weight/distance as it would only be a one way street. If you wanted a higher rate for heavy loads then they’d want to poke your eyes out if it was a light load.
My favorite way to charge for local work was a day rate plus miles over a specific distance and hourly after a set number of hours.
Mind you that was with my own customers and you couldn’t do that with work from the back pages of the magazines.
Speaking of local work I managed to get into gas a pipe laying contract with a co in 85, it was 7 days a week for about 3/4 months., my mate driving at weekend for me.
Good rated paid by hour, most of time spent in compound waiting for right combination and order of piping, and free meals on site.
The little fuel I used was free as I knew the lad on the fuel bowser on the site but even the site foreman authorised it so in a way it was legit, and nobody gave a ■■■■ anyway.
A couple of years on that and I would have been made.
newmercman:
Defeating the object? For some maybe, but I got into owning lorries to make money. I was already running over the water, so I never needed to buy my way in to that and when I was doing it you could still make a few quid.I have never charged by weight/distance as it would only be a one way street. If you wanted a higher rate for heavy loads then they’d want to poke your eyes out if it was a light load.
My favorite way to charge for local work was a day rate plus miles over a specific distance and hourly after a set number of hours.
Mind you that was with my own customers and you couldn’t do that with work from the back pages of the magazines.
+1
Exactly, I started up primarily to make money, not drive round in a blinged up truck and spend my life in the truck doing the ‘glamorous’ distance work.
Opposite to you nmm all my work was per tonne with different rates for different radius…minimum cap load of 19 tonne also did about 2 trucks a day 6/7 days a week on hourly rate very lucrative but this was all with my own contacts over about 20 years …
newmercman:
Defeating the object? For some maybe, but I got into owning lorries to make money. I was already running over the water, so I never needed to buy my way in to that and when I was doing it you could still make a few quid.I have never charged by weight/distance as it would only be a one way street. If you wanted a higher rate for heavy loads then they’d want to poke your eyes out if it was a light load.
My favorite way to charge for local work was a day rate plus miles over a specific distance and hourly after a set number of hours.
Mind you that was with my own customers and you couldn’t do that with work from the back pages of the magazines.
The tonne side of the equation being a given which effectively just leaves miles and/or by the hour.It seems obvious that the only reason that anyone would pay more by the hour to more than compensate for running less miles would be a case of supply and demand.IE less people wanting the time based compensation for running the less miles.
Which as I said isn’t surprising bearing in mind the mindset of many drivers including myself for wanting to do the job.IE going to different places over numerous different terrains and environments and by definition long distances. 
As for arguably more profitable local work because of an hourly based rate compensation ( bearing in mind that a day rate is just another form of time based charge ) as opposed to earning arguably relatively less doing a distance type job.The analogy would be why bother being a truck driver.When starting up as a mobile crane operator/driver,amongst other examples of non mileage rate based jobs,would probably pay more. 
We are losing sight of the OP here, if you’re asking if you should go for it Carryfast my answer is an emphatic NO.
You are confusing the hard reality of business with daydreams of international superstar trucking. There was a time when that was possible, but you missed the boat on that one a long time ago.
A successful owner driver is not a lorry driver, but a businessman that drives a lorry to provide a service to their customers.
newmercman:
We are losing sight of the OP here, if you’re asking if you should go for it Carryfast my answer is an emphatic NO.You are confusing the hard reality of business with daydreams of international superstar trucking. There was a time when that was possible, but you missed the boat on that one a long time ago.
A successful owner driver is not a lorry driver, but a businessman that drives a lorry to provide a service to their customers.
From my point of view it’s something which I gave up on long ago in which even more reasons would stop me now than then so it’s not a question that’s relevant to me.I’ve just tried to provide the OP with the pros and cons.Probably Harry’s example being the only one in favour.
With on balance fuel costs probably having long ago stopped the economic viability of starting up.In addition to that,as I’ve said,is the obvious loss of the uk and international distance sectors to the East Euro and rail freight competition.Which at best would obviously even make your preference,regards more local work,a case of probably too many operators looking for too little work.
If I was starting out over there again, there’s only one thing I would do and that is buy a good strong flat trailer with twist locks (PSK) this would give the ultimate flexibility. Plenty of work around for that kind of outfit. Not many people want to do, or even can do flatbed work, it’s the closest thing to a niche market with limited outlay.
newmercman:
We are losing sight of the OP here, if you’re asking if you should go for it Carryfast my answer is an emphatic NO.You are confusing the hard reality of business with daydreams of international superstar trucking. There was a time when that was possible, but you missed the boat on that one a long time ago.
A successful owner driver is not a lorry driver, but a businessman that drives a lorry to provide a service to their customers.
+1
newmercman:
If I was starting out over there again, there’s only one thing I would do and that is buy a good strong flat trailer with twist locks (PSK) this would give the ultimate flexibility. Plenty of work around for that kind of outfit. Not many people want to do, or even can do flatbed work, it’s the closest thing to a niche market with limited outlay.
Good flats are pretty hard to come by at the minute, plenty of chop downs about but proper flats are commanding crazy prices
chaversdad:
newmercman:
If I was starting out over there again, there’s only one thing I would do and that is buy a good strong flat trailer with twist locks (PSK) this would give the ultimate flexibility. Plenty of work around for that kind of outfit. Not many people want to do, or even can do flatbed work, it’s the closest thing to a niche market with limited outlay.Good flats are pretty hard to come by at the minute, plenty of chop downs about but proper flats are commanding crazy prices
The main local/medium distance work which I did with a flat was really just limited to overhead loading jobs which mainly consisted of structural steel for the construction/building industry and paper reels.That was with a stripped down tilt which was left as a tilt most of the time doing the usual side loaded jobs just like a curtain sider.
On that note I’d have been happy to earn a bit less by leaving out the flat jobs which might have paid well for the guvnor but were zb work for the driver.While adding container capability would probably fit in with the description of too many operators looking for too little work considering the shift in much of the container traffic to rail.
‘If’ I was starting up and didn’t mind doing local work I’d probably go back to where I started with a multi lift rigid doing bulk refuse/tipper and plant haulage work.Maybe also with drawbar capability.
Ironic ly these days you could kill two birds with one stone. Most of our company’s waste that can’t be recycled is bailed and shipped to Belgium Holland and Germany. Mainly on ferry trailers but we load about 5 ee motors a day.
Flat work is harder than dragging containers around or doing RDC deliveries on a curtainsider, that’s why it pays better.
However I’m not talking about doing general haulage with it, but specialist stuff, for example airconditioning units that need a crane to lift them on a rooftop, emergency generators, containers with equipment in them, slabs of marble etc for building facades and posh bathrooms, that kind of thing.
You need an extensive list of contacts and you need to be very flexible and prepared to hold all kinds of odd shapes and sizes on a trailer, but you can make decent money at it.
When it goes quiet you can run around doing bagged aggregate or containers, but not subbing for one of the big hauliers, there are ton of freight forwarders and removal companies that ship worldwide, you can get a far better rate working direct for them.
However you need to be a lot more than a lorry driver to do this, you need to be a good salesman and pretty good at planning, you’ll spend a lot of time on the phone and a lot of time scratching your head wondering how you’re going to make it all fit together so you’re keeping busy without having to be in two places at once, but the rewards are there if you’re prepared to put in the graft.
newmercman:
If I was starting out over there again, there’s only one thing I would do and that is buy a good strong flat trailer with twist locks (PSK) this would give the ultimate flexibility. Plenty of work around for that kind of outfit. Not many people want to do, or even can do flatbed work, it’s the closest thing to a niche market with limited outlay.
Don’t bet on anything with WS growing in to the flat market .
They don’t go after the little firms with a job here and there, they want steel stockholders and the like that will keep them busy all the time.
I’m talking about the kind of firm where the bloke that organises the transport is an engineer or site manager, not firms that have a transport or shipping department, except for the freight forwarders of course.