Going self employed!

[Roverdose]

Little extra income by renting advertising space on the side of the van. Not much but every little helps! 

not a chance, dash had 2 sign written vans, they were both banned!

[markswan]

do you want an opinion from a self employed courier

<--- self employed courier

[bob23]

"vw transporters are good as long as you don't get one with ceramic cylinder liners"

1 not my experience, hatefull little vans, they really are too small, had one when i worked for vw, junk. I think no matter what i do van wise it's a risk, if i lease i risk loosing out cash wise, if i own i risk expensive repair costs, the way i see it, if i leese i'm not going to make any more money and i'll keep treading water and not get anywhere financially which ultimately will end up with bailiffs as the debt is getting bigger than my wages can cope with, if i take a risk with my own van it could destroy me and i'd have the bailiffs knocking within a month, or it could be alright and in 6 months everything would be alot more rosier, at which point there will be so many more parcels as peak will be starting again that i can afford to lease if i have to. I'm gonna go for it, cross my fingers and give it everything iv'e got, i can stay out till 9pm monday to saturday so i can just bang em out and make some money! I am now more torn than ever on deciding what van to get! Basicly their all sh!t is what we've established so far. Usually, when i'm not having to put my own fuel in, 2 i swear by the transit, love it to death. I've had my work van for a year now, from new, FWD LWB, not heard a peep from it but only get 450 miles to £120! Renault Masters, worked for ambulance service, they did break down but they were old and had monumental mileage, however the bodmin wagon on a 06 plate did 300,000 on the same clutch and gearbox!!! Which leads me onto the 3 Sprinter, which replaced the master ambulances, OMG not good, gearboxes, panard arms that snap after 5k, constant turbo hose failure and a raft of electrical faults, VW Crafter aka the Mercedes Sprinter, 4 Anyone had a Peugeot? I had one bloke tell me he's getting 55mpg out of his. AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGH!!!!

Ian - Now going bald

1 My old boss has one, 98 on an s, over 200k on it still going strong, never had a breakdown, he ran it for ages low on all fluids, took a full big can of oil to put it on minimum, that was 5 years ago and it's still going and he is a builder so it gets abuse, and you can get them the size of a luton transit.

2 Old transits were good apart from fuel, new ones have a lot of problems once they hit 20-30k, clutch, flywheel, alternator, starter motor and gearbox.

3 Old ones were very good, a truck mechanic that I use has a 98 plate lwb high roof that has done over 350k, never broke down, on same engine and gearbox and he has never had to do and major work to it apart from the suspension collapsed, but he had over double the weight he should in it going down a farm road so that was his fault.

4 I would say that is bollocks, don't know much about Peugeot vans, except they are French, which is enough reason for me never to have one.

5 Most importantly, GOOD LUCK!!! hope all goes well

[justalex81]

With no debt and owning my boat outright very easilly thankyou very much, you can't rip me to shreads on that one as iv'e done it before. Right, where do i start. My service center employs 4 drivers on a full time basis, my route will have a legally binding contract which both partys must fulfill, they can't give my route away and i can't just take a day off, when i have holiday or am sick i must get somebody to do my route for me, i have a mate who moonlights for £5 per hour and will cover, iv'e aggreed a bonus of £30 per day if he reaches target (70 stops before 7pm). My service center used to be a DHL site bringing in 30-40 parcels on my route when quiet and 120 - 140 during peak (sept - feb) up the road was the former HDNL site, now closed, the two businesses were merged together and now we get all there work aswell. They were always bussier than we were so now i'm getting between 70-80 per day when it's dead and i don't even want to think about peak, because my agent is DASH who own the contract with yodel for west cornwall, i  can have help from them as and when i need it. In the event of dash loosing the contract i'm safe as my contract must be passed on to the incoming service partner, yodel will always and do favour service partners over full time employed staff as sh1t drivers are easier to get rid of that way. My contract with Yodel IS SAFE.

Fair point with the vivaro, iv'e heard good things economy and reliability wise about the fiat ducato. Probably worth a look, could do with something bigger tbh but sprinters and transits are a no no, i can fix my own van and have access to cheap parts and tyres, really i need a renault master simply for the fact that if it goes wrong i have well conected people.

I find it easier to deal with the numbers on a daily basis, it's all in the detail with a small turnover so i think small for now and take each day as it comes. Either way i've got nothing to loose and i'm heading for trully sh!t times if i carry on like this so f**k it, give it my all and try and make a sucsess of it! Keep it coming! At first i'm thinking c**ts but your all helping me to see it from a different angle,

Many thanks, ian

not trying to rip you to shreds. just trying to get you to think this through properly. i run my own business so i speak from experience.

please elaborate. so far you've only given us your potential earnings in a full time job. lets see some costs for when you've bought the boat and you're floating around semi retired. i.e

1. income. so you're gonna work part time?
2. living costs. food, phone, van, van insurance, tax etc.
3. running costs for the boat. moaring, fuel (if any), insurance? (not sure if you need it), maintenance.
4. if i've missed anything then please feel free to add.

[Agreeable Slick]

Wear and tear £0.08 pence per mile (aprox 100miles per day 6 days per week)

This seems like a very optimistic figure.

[Jay]

Cheezuz. 70+ drops a day?!  and our drivers at Habitat complained about more than 20 a day  

[Bellend]

Any other trades you're good at?

Got bored of a wayne kerr boss only wanting to pay 30 quid a day just because he could, told him to shove it up his arsenic and going well now.

Maintenance and mobile servicing + light repairs. Occasionally sell a car and haven't worked a Friday since!

Me and my partner pulled in 378 profit yesterday! Have to be sensible and just pay ourselves 50 a day ATM because we're both at home, just so the business account is filling up for tools, advertising and a new work vehicle.

[Roverdose]

With no debt and owning my boat outright very easilly thankyou very much, you can't rip me to shreads on that one as iv'e done it before. Right, where do i start. My service center employs 4 drivers on a full time basis, my route will have a legally binding contract which both partys must fulfill, they can't give my route away and i can't just take a day off, when i have holiday or am sick i must get somebody to do my route for me, i have a mate who moonlights for £5 per hour and will cover, iv'e aggreed a bonus of £30 per day if he reaches target (70 stops before 7pm). My service center used to be a DHL site bringing in 30-40 parcels on my route when quiet and 120 - 140 during peak (sept - feb) up the road was the former HDNL site, now closed, the two businesses were merged together and now we get all there work aswell. They were always bussier than we were so now i'm getting between 70-80 per day when it's dead and i don't even want to think about peak, because my agent is DASH who own the contract with yodel for west cornwall, i  can have help from them as and when i need it. In the event of dash loosing the contract i'm safe as my contract must be passed on to the incoming service partner, yodel will always and do favour service partners over full time employed staff as sh1t drivers are easier to get rid of that way. My contract with Yodel IS SAFE.

Fair point with the vivaro, iv'e heard good things economy and reliability wise about the fiat ducato. Probably worth a look, could do with something bigger tbh but sprinters and transits are a no no, i can fix my own van and have access to cheap parts and tyres, really i need a renault master simply for the fact that if it goes wrong i have well conected people.

I find it easier to deal with the numbers on a daily basis, it's all in the detail with a small turnover so i think small for now and take each day as it comes. Either way i've got nothing to loose and i'm heading for trully sh!t times if i carry on like this so f**k it, give it my all and try and make a sucsess of it! Keep it coming! At first i'm thinking c**ts but your all helping me to see it from a different angle,

Many thanks, ian

not trying to rip you to shreds. just trying to get you to think this through properly. i run my own business so i speak from experience.

please elaborate. so far you've only given us your potential earnings in a full time job. lets see some costs for when you've bought the boat and you're floating around semi retired. i.e

1. income. so you're gonna work part time?
2. living costs. food, phone, van, van insurance, tax etc.
3. running costs for the boat. moaring, fuel (if any), insurance? (not sure if you need it), maintenance.
4. if i've missed anything then please feel free to add.

1.part time £100 pw will do it
2. Living costs, firewood and coal, no van, no insurance, car only for summer dubbing.
3. mooring - free - £10 pw. Maintainance- steel hull nice and easy.
4. Electrics can run of the land for around £2 per day , i'll keep around half a ton of fuel in the tank for manuvering purposes only.

when i need stuff i'll work, but i can grow / catch my own food, don't need tv or crap like that, as i said, hermit style! Any more info you need?




Thanks for all your comments, i'm gonna go with the lease van. i'll continue to earn what im earning as employed until peak when the numbers go mental and see how it goes.