Looking to start my own business as self employed driver

ADLS transport · Oct 8, 2024

Hello

Think to start my own business as self employed delivery driver and more likely as Ltd company but I’m not interested in multi drop deliveries.
I’m I looking to go the route that my business would do deliveries only small palletised same day deliveries or next day delivery and starting out only with single Van.

I’m trying to understand how desperate the logistic companies are at the moment for small palletised stuff to be delivered?

I will appreciate any honest answer.

fisicx · Oct 8, 2024

ADLS transport said:
I’m trying to understand how desperate the logistic companies are at the moment for small palletised stuff to be delivered?

They aren't. They already employ drivers or have contracts with agencies who can provide drivers at short notice.

How do you plan to get the pallet off the van when you arrive at the customers location?

James · Oct 8, 2024

The sameday delivery business is very saturated.
Working for other logistics companies is generally at low rates

Have you worked in this market place?

Do you have potential customers that you get work from directly?

This was my experience a number of years ago i still do some same day but mainly focus on international parcels and freight.

@JEREMY HAWKE will probably give you a more updated view on the market

ADLS transport · Oct 8, 2024

fisicx said:
They aren't. They already employ drivers or have contracts with agencies who can provide drivers at short notice.

How do you plan to get the pallet off the van when you arrive at the customers location?

Thank you so much for your answer. That’s why lately I want to change the route I’m going. And I do understand that there is a massive competition out there as well.

handball it, that’s why the delivery prices are higher if have to handball anything.

Also, just out of interest about the Man and Van service and private transfers? What’s your thoughts?

James · Oct 8, 2024

fisicx said:
They aren't. They already employ drivers or have contracts with agencies who can provide drivers at short notice.

How do you plan to get the pallet off the van when you arrive at the customers location?

The large sameday logistics companies rely on a lot of sub contraction to self employed drivers with a van over agency drivers as they are cheaper and more reliable.

Getting the pallet off the van is irrelevant as most of the work is B2B

ADLS transport · Oct 8, 2024

ADLS transport said:
Thank you so much for your answer. That’s why lately I want to change the route I’m going. And I do understand that there is a massive competition out there as well.

Also, just out of interest about the Man and Van service and private transfers? What’s your thoughts?

James said:
The sameday delivery business is very saturated.
Working for other logistics companies is generally at low rates

Have you worked in this market place?

Do you have potential customers that you get work from directly?

This was my experience a number of years ago i still do some same day but mainly focus on international parcels and freight.

@JEREMY HAWKE will probably give you a more updated view on the market

Thank you. No I haven’t started yet but I want to find out first if worth to start actually because I know there is a massive competition out there and large companies will charge less.
Is there international deliveries on high demand or you have existing customers you work for? Also, you do international deliveries with Van only?

ADLS transport · Oct 8, 2024

James said:
The large sameday logistics companies rely on a lot of sub contraction to self employed drivers with a van over agency drivers as they are cheaper and more reliable.

Getting the pallet off the van is irrelevant as most of the work is B2B

Yeah that’s what I don’t want to go sub contract route.

James · Oct 8, 2024

ADLS transport said:
Thank you. No I haven’t started yet but I want to find out first if worth to start actually because I know there is a massive competition out there and large companies will charge less.
Is there international deliveries on high demand or you have existing customers you work for? Also, you do international deliveries with Van only?

I will only work customers directly not via another transport companies.

European van work is quite common the issue for UK based drivers is the cost the european based transport companies will do the transport is a lot less than Uk. The supplier i use for European work will provide a LWB Curtain Side van for about 30% less than a UK based company.

My advice would be to work for a local same day company as a driver to make sure you like the work and understand the industry before you commit to going on your own.

Good luck

fisicx · Oct 8, 2024

ADLS transport said:
Yeah that’s what I don’t want to go sub contract route.

How are you going to market yourself without being part of an agency? If someone needs a pallet delivering they call up the local couriers who contact their drivers to see who wants the gig.

The local pallet deliveries all come on a van with a tail-lift and pallet truck of some sort. So while you might only be doing B2B you will need the means to off load at a building site or hardstanding.

Ozzy · Oct 8, 2024

fisicx said:
So while you might only be doing B2B you will need the means to off load at a building site or hardstanding.

A guy I know through some local networking is a 'man in a van' and only does B2B, and as @James confirms above too, loading or unloading a pallet is never really an issue as collection and destination sites typically have their own forklifts. He does a lot of work with the NHS and even Aston Martin with pallet loads, and they load and unload his van with their lifter.

If they didn't then the whole market for the Ford Transit is shot

fisicx · Oct 8, 2024

The building site next door doesn’t have a fork lift. It’s all tail lift and grabber deliveries.

But hopefully @JEREMY HAWKE will clear things up.

James · Oct 8, 2024

fisicx said:
The building site next door doesn’t have a fork lift. It’s all tail lift and grabber deliveries.

But hopefully @JEREMY HAWKE will clear things up.

Yes there is a huge sector which require self unloading especially around the construction industry a lot for this is covered on HGV's via dedicated vehicle fleets and or pallet networks. The typical dedicated van jobs will be Urgent / fragile / expensive items that don't suit pallet / parcel networks.

fisicx · Oct 8, 2024

James said:
The typical dedicated van jobs will be Urgent / fragile / expensive items that don't suit pallet / parcel networks.

But the OP specifically said they wanted to shift palletised loads. In other words, If I need an antique table delivering tomorrow they won't get the gig because it's not on a pallet.

I had a load of soundproofing delivered last year. 40 2m square sheets all needed manually taking off the van. They were on a pallet but I didn't have a forklift in the garage.

Maybe @ADLS transport would consider delivering anything that fits in the van - not just stuff on a pallet. Man and van we use does house removals and clearance along with anything else needs moving. Only takes cash. And the van is as old as I am.

James · Oct 8, 2024

fisicx said:
But the OP specifically said they wanted to shift palletised loads. In other words, If I need an antique table delivering tomorrow they won't get the gig because it's not on a pallet.

I had a load of soundproofing delivered last year. 40 2m square sheets all needed manually taking off the van. They were on a pallet but I didn't have a forklift in the garage.

Maybe @ADLS transport would consider delivering anything that fits in the van - not just stuff on a pallet. Man and van we use does house removals and clearance along with anything else needs moving. Only takes cash. And the van is as old as I am.

Fair point i see where you are coming from. Needs to define the market they would like to target.

JEREMY HAWKE · Oct 8, 2024

The business model of same day pallets is far too narrow
Our vans carry everything from small packets to large bespoke framework
In fact it is not often that business customers actually put any same day freight on pallets as the pallet networks will do it for 70 quid
The overheads are considerably high and you would need a decent chunk of liquid capital available for start up.
For me it has never been about what sort of freight we want to carry I dont care what vans we have at any point in time when agreeing with customers what we are going to do for them.

My job is to market the business and when that business comes in concern ourselves with what we are going to do and how we are going to do it and this is the way I have always done it

If you have the work you will always make it work .
If you have the vans you like but not the work then you are in trouble!

Socio South West · Oct 9, 2024

The theory is great... the financial reality of your train of thought is not.

As our very learned friend has said, networks are starting at around £70/pallet and you are not going to compete with that doing either single drops or a few drops.

You would be better offering a Man and Van clearance service, get yourself licenced at the local tip and do tip runs, house clearances, furniture moves etc than try to compete with the networks.

ADLS transport · Apr 30, 2025

fisicx said:
But the OP specifically said they wanted to shift palletised loads. In other words, If I need an antique table delivering tomorrow they won't get the gig because it's not on a pallet.

I had a load of soundproofing delivered last year. 40 2m square sheets all needed manually taking off the van. They were on a pallet but I didn't have a forklift in the garage.

Maybe @ADLS transport would consider delivering anything that fits in the van - not just stuff on a pallet. Man and van we use does house removals and clearance along with anything else needs moving. Only takes cash. And the van is as old as I am.

Yes, I would deliver anything as long it fits in the van. Obviously the oversized goods at higher price. Man and van service that’s what I was considering too. I had all approved the start up loan to help me get up and running but I was still researching about it and application timed out. But that’s not a problem I can start a new one, but just I need to be sure that I have a van and I have a work too otherwise it will go done the drain.

ADLS transport · Apr 30, 2025

JEREMY HAWKE said:
The business model of same day pallets is far too narrow
Our vans carry everything from small packets to large bespoke framework
In fact it is not often that business customers actually put any same day freight on pallets as the pallet networks will do it for 70 quid
The overheads are considerably high and you would need a decent chunk of liquid capital available for start up.
For me it has never been about what sort of freight we want to carry I dont care what vans we have at any point in time when agreeing with customers what we are going to do for them.

My job is to market the business and when that business comes in concern ourselves with what we are going to do and how we are going to do it and this is the way I have always done it

If you have the work you will always make it work .
If you have the vans you like but not the work then you are in trouble!

Yes that’s the trouble that I’m trying to research and understand how it all works because If I start and buy a van and no work, then I’m in big trouble, like you said.

James · May 1, 2025

I would recommend speaking to local transport companies to see if you can subcontract regular work from them. I would expect the rates to be pretty poor but it will give regular work whilst you find you own direct work. An example close to me is £125 a day then 19p a mile as a subcontractor .

ADLS transport · May 1, 2025

Will try to get in touch with them. Thank you

JEREMY HAWKE · May 1, 2025

James said:
I would recommend speaking to local transport companies to see if you can subcontract regular work from them. I would expect the rates to be pretty poor but it will give regular work whilst you find you own direct work. An example close to me is £125 a day then 19p a mile as a subcontractor .

Have you calculated how much money the OP can lose running at these rates

ADLS transport · May 1, 2025

JEREMY HAWKE said:
Have you calculated how much money the OP can lose running at these rates

Running at those rates is without any profit on my business and if a van need to pay garage visit then I’m in big minus sign. It’s not a business but survival at low cost. I’m definitely won’t do any work at those rates.

JEREMY HAWKE · May 2, 2025

ADLS transport said:
Running at those rates is without any profit on my business and if a van need to pay garage visit then I’m in big minus sign. It’s not a business but survival at low cost. I’m definitely won’t do any work at those rates.

Look 90 % of start ups in this industry dont make it through the first year and this is not a questimate this is fact
This reason for this is that it is a very low level of intellect industry where mostly knuckle draggers in tracksuits are having a go at it
Forget what vehicles you need and all that other stuff
Ask yourself What do I want from this business and think about the prices you would need to charge to achieve that objective
You will then start to panic as it is more than those giving you advice are charging

Then consider investigate and understand what customers you would need to achieve that and it will be nothing like the customer base that those who are advising you are suggesting.

Your quest should not be to put food on the table in a council flat but villas in the sun and big German cars if you know what I mean

James · May 2, 2025

JEREMY HAWKE said:
Have you calculated how much money the OP can lose running at these rates

The OP would not be at a loss with those rates. Yes they wouldn't make much probably equal to minimum wage.

But as you said this industry has a very high failure rate hance why if was going into the van sector i would want some regular work lined up before i even considered buying a van. Then once you have regular work you can target the higher value work directly yourself and real fun begins.

The only UK van work i do for contex is a round trip from us in Gloucester to Liverpool (140miles) on a MWB twice a week we charge £1.50 per mile outbound and £0.75 for the return £315. Most of what we do on vans in to and from Europe.

Good Luck OP

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