Becoming an owner operator

[JD450A]

Anyone thinking they can go out for £400 a day(don’t care what size machine your bringing to the party at that!) and not be sh*t hot in the seat will soon be shown the way off site!

The Recession is coming I agree.

 

[Furniss]

Ultimately being a owner operator/self employed is bloody hard graft most of the time, it’s either in you or it isn’t. I sure as hell couldn’t work for another company no matter how tempting it may be at times!

Anyone thinking they can go out for £400 a day(don’t care what size machine your bringing to the party at that!) and not be sh*t hot in the seat will soon be shown the way off site!

Yeah .... its madness really, in fact save yourself a load of sleepless nights and get a good job , seriously.

 

[fred]

At a recent Engcon dig day there were people there looking to spend £20k+ on a tilty charging £380 a day for a 13 tonner.

how can the possibly make that pay ? I know the depreciation on machine sis good but even so.

It's a bit like a lot of subbies who took the 20k free furlough money from the gov, spent the lot and now have a £5k tax bill coming in Jan to pay and have no cash.

 

[fred]

Right, pitfalls and realities.

As a basic route, you've either got the small machine route that requires as a minimum -
Van/4x4 and towhitch (You'll need a B+E License that you can't currently take)
Trailer
Digger

Reality is that with the digger most will expect you to have access to a breaker.... Then you also need a C.A.T, and soon it snowballs.

Option 2 is to smoke crack and decide you can make it with a bigger digger.... I'm not even going down this explanation..... Ring Lynch/Flannerys/TruPlant and see what suicidal rate they will send you a machine and driver for..... whilst your at it ask them what rates there little diggers are......

There is good money to make in the specialist, and contacts are king.

Ultimately though your own ability is the product your selling..... I can and regularly do turn up with something pulled out of a hedge.... it earns the same as a new one.

that is pretty much 100%

For more dollar you need to go specialist.

A good money maker for not much kit is the lads who do the boreholes for soil tests. A little tracked machine on a trailer, half day on site take a few tubes of soil away and its £750 with the analysis results.

the 7.5 tonner concrete line pumps, £3/400 per pump can do 2 a day.

Small crane, lifting trusses/tree work etc £300+ can do multiple per day.

Most are going to look for a package from a digger op, footings and drains etc. 13 tonner too big for 70% of 5 or less sites.

 

[Giles]

wrote and deleted few times but it’s hard work 15 years into groundworks and construction firm still struggle some days but that’s more weather and clients expectations and too much work rather than the initial problems of finding the work etc

prepare to be screwed over, blamed, dropped at a minutes notice, clients switch to competition for no reason, have your time wasted have stuff stolen or vandalised,

owner operator seems like a panacea but being employed on good wage and leave all the s**t at the site gate sounds great to me

i know of one lad with a 20 toner thought he was on a winner every day to same demo firm even bought Komatsu to match their fleet etc next thing they just dropped him and bought their own he’d had a good run of over a year though it was going to continue but ppl will always look after themselves first

 

[DaveDCB]

Oh come on, Rorys not that bad Dave - its harder to do a nice job with worn pins in that old kit he runs
Doobin has no excuse with all that shiny new kit

My post wasn’t focused on anyone in particular, just don’t expect to go self employed and get good money 365 days of the year!

I wrote and deleted what Giles said, probably the worst thing you can do is go work for just one company full time as self employed, granted it works for some but without a squeaky clean contract I’d be very sceptical !

 

[Furniss]

And it's a bad time to ask us lot for a positive reply ..... come back in April

 

[doobin]

that is pretty much 100%

For more dollar you need to go specialist.

A good money maker for not much kit is the lads who do the boreholes for soil tests. A little tracked machine on a trailer, half day on site take a few tubes of soil away and its £750 with the analysis results.

the 7.5 tonner concrete line pumps, £3/400 per pump can do 2 a day.

Small crane, lifting trusses/tree work etc £300+ can do multiple per day.

Most are going to look for a package from a digger op, footings and drains etc. 13 tonner too big for 70% of 5 or less sites.

Was talking to a 7.5t concrete pump guy the other day, the rig is £150k. Lot of investment, you really need two guys in the wagon also. I always thought that was more of an add on for concrete firms.

 

[Hg2702]

My 2 pence on this is as follows

I’m lucky I started on the back of a family business well established over 60 years and set up a joint venture regarding the plant put my own money in and got to where I am today 50% my own work 50% on the building side so I’m never quite and always have a wage like I say I’m lucky

regarding plant I’ve found that being different helps I’ve several attachments and over the years have gained jobs due to being able to flail back a hedge , knock posts in or even grab work but that That has taken 5+ for word to go around

. I’ve only got a new machine as selling my machine off for all but what I paid for it and borrowing the last amount with a bounce back made sense as we took one out to keep the wolf from the door .that being said the next 10 years I’ll be paying that off so take from that what you will but I’m still here which I most likely wouldn’t of been without the loan !

 

[Storrsy]

And it's a bad time to ask us lot for a positive reply ..... come back in April

This is the long and short of it- winter time I don't really want to know about it! Mud- mess- loss of earnings due to weather- shite basically- but then I am in somewhere that gets 2000mm plus of rain a year so asking for trouble really!

 

[DaveDCB]

Plant hire / Groundworks has always been a funny industry, so many very wealthy people/companies within it, yet so so many go bust and end up with nothing! I guess you’ve either got it or you ain’t!

 

[Furniss]

This is the long and short of it- winter time I don't really want to know about it! Mud- mess- loss of earnings due to weather- shite basically- but then I am in somewhere that gets 2000mm plus of rain a year so asking for trouble really!

1200mm average here I think

 

[GazCro]

1200mm average here I think

1500mm here av but only 8 mile from wettest place in England 3500mm a year so often feels like somewhere in between. Up until last few week hadn't seemed like a bad year for wet weather mind
I say wettest place in England it might be wettest place in UK

 

[V8Druid]

1200mm average here I think

supposedly 1500mm here .... but my buckets, etc. say we've had probably 30% or more, of that, in the last couple of weeks!! WTF they get their rainfall figures from is beyond me ... when a heavy downpour can put 30-40mm into a parallel sided, open topped container, (tin can) in a couple of hours

 

[Furniss]

1500mm here av but only 8 mile from wettest place in England 3500mm a year so often feels like somewhere in between. Up until last few week hadn't seemed like a bad year for wet weather mind
I say wettest place in England it might be wettest place in UK

You saying that prompted me to search specific to our local town not the district... and it's good news 1010mm

Wtf am I moaning about

 

[Maxus]

For me being self employed and running my own business is preferable because of the flexibility it affords me. That being said you never really switch off and it is a lifestyle which many people would not be prepared or able to commit to.

If you have lots of personal responsibility like family and a mortgage make sure you really know what your doing, its not just your neck on line if things go wrong.

 

[Gunners]

780mm here in the costa del Hampshire. Half what some of you get - that's why Doobin and I can run Florida cabs on our machines and get a year round tan

 

[Smiffy]

780mm here in the costa del Hampshire. Half what some of you get - that's why Doobin and I can run Florida cabs on our machines and get a year round tan

I'd like to have seen you getting a tan yesterday!!!

 

[Storrsy]

780mm here in the costa del Hampshire. Half what some of you get - that's why Doobin and I can run Florida cabs on our machines and get a year round tan

Pathetic rainfalls and mega day rates to boot- no wonder Doobin can squander on so many frivolous toys
I'm moving to Hampshire to get a slice of the action

 

[JD450A]

On a side note thinking about taking a pay cut to drive a timber harvester/forwarder quite seriously atm....