Want To Be Your Own Boss?

Setting yourself up as an owner-driver is the easy part; the tricky bits are turning a profit and staying legal. Here, we pick a path through the road haulage minefield

- Kevin Swallow

All you need to set up a transport business are the right qualifications, money and to be able to fill in the application correctly. We touched on this in July T&D’s feature on how to get into franchise haulage, but it’s worth reiterating the bare bones here.

You need a Certificate of Professional Competence (CPC) for transport managers (via the OCR examinations board on behalf of Her Majesty’s government). To apply for an Operator licence you need at least £7850 for the first vehicle and £4350 for each additional vehicle.

Three types of Operator licence are issued by traffic commissioners for mainland Britain (the process is slightly different in Northern Ireland): standard national, standard international and restricted. An application process lasts nine weeks.

Most start-ups applying for a licence usually have some kind of work in the offing. Seeking work is usually done via three sources: word of mouth, transport companies offering subcontractor opportunities, and freight forwarders.

One of the team

It’s better to start with someone who will put you permanently in an established fleet rotation so you are one of the team. This will give you a chance to build up future contacts and not worry about trying to get backloads out of cul-de-sacs such as Cornwall.

You’ll sign a code of conduct but unless it’s a specific job that requires a certain level of commitment, such as moving 10 loads a week between two locations, you won’t be signing any contract with your chosen supplier of work. Any agreement will be verbal. This pact isn’t done lightly – no one wants to be known as unreliable – so if they take you on they will supply work.