Is there decent money in car transporting?
Discussion
Bit of an open ended question but I am thinking of changing careers and setting up my own car transporting business. I.e. a 4x4 capable of towing 3.5 tonnes towing a 3.5 ton capacity trailer.
My questions are as follows.
Is there decent money to be made from this? I.e. After fuel and car expenses are all said and done can you make say 35k+ a year (profit of course) I know it is all heavily dependant and my initial thinking was that to make decent money you always need a car on tow, as in if you have a car to be delivered from Manchester to London (I live south manchester) you would realistically need to have a car that needs taking from London to Manchester or close/on route.
I know there would be a certain amount of marketing required and handing out flyers to local car business's to get my name out there and I know the likes of Shipley however their quotes always seem like they leave very little on the bone for profit.
Then the other half to the equation is setup. I'd be going for a new or nearly new trailer with 3.5 ton limit ans a very gradual ramp up to the bed for low cars to maximise my ability to accept any job and also the car/truck of choice would be a 100 series toyota land cruiser amazon 4.2td. The toyota though is a little old and quite expensive so was wondering if anyone had any experience with the "modern" 3.0tdi's for heavy work in the likes of the audi Q7 and VW touareg. Possibly a cheaper entry to get my feet wet would be a discovery 2 td5 with a manual as I hear the autos suffer from over heating and also helps mpg I imagine a little too.
I'll be very grateful to any suggestions as I am becoming quite unhappy in my current line of work and would love to go my own way in life rather than as an employee. I have good business knowledge and that side of things I am very competent with so not a problem there. Thanks again
My questions are as follows.
Is there decent money to be made from this? I.e. After fuel and car expenses are all said and done can you make say 35k+ a year (profit of course) I know it is all heavily dependant and my initial thinking was that to make decent money you always need a car on tow, as in if you have a car to be delivered from Manchester to London (I live south manchester) you would realistically need to have a car that needs taking from London to Manchester or close/on route.
I know there would be a certain amount of marketing required and handing out flyers to local car business's to get my name out there and I know the likes of Shipley however their quotes always seem like they leave very little on the bone for profit.
Then the other half to the equation is setup. I'd be going for a new or nearly new trailer with 3.5 ton limit ans a very gradual ramp up to the bed for low cars to maximise my ability to accept any job and also the car/truck of choice would be a 100 series toyota land cruiser amazon 4.2td. The toyota though is a little old and quite expensive so was wondering if anyone had any experience with the "modern" 3.0tdi's for heavy work in the likes of the audi Q7 and VW touareg. Possibly a cheaper entry to get my feet wet would be a discovery 2 td5 with a manual as I hear the autos suffer from over heating and also helps mpg I imagine a little too.
I'll be very grateful to any suggestions as I am becoming quite unhappy in my current line of work and would love to go my own way in life rather than as an employee. I have good business knowledge and that side of things I am very competent with so not a problem there. Thanks again
I paid c 3k including VAT to get a car transported from the south of England to Munich.
As was not there to take delivery but my brother told me the driver said he was only paid a few hundred quid to deliver my car and then pick one up in CZ to transport back to the UK. Obviously as you (initially) won’t have employees you don’t have to worry about that, but the cost should give you a basis to calculate backwards if you would be making money on this based on petrol cost, ferry cost, tolls of going through France, possibly hotel costs, reserve/contingency for repairs, service, tyres plus eventual car/trailer replacement etc
I find driving with my trailer very tedious as you move at a snails pace - so you really have to enjoy driving imo
Good luck
You might want to consider a covered trailer as you can probably charge more than for an open trailer (Ihave a BJ RT6, which I can highly recommend)
As was not there to take delivery but my brother told me the driver said he was only paid a few hundred quid to deliver my car and then pick one up in CZ to transport back to the UK. Obviously as you (initially) won’t have employees you don’t have to worry about that, but the cost should give you a basis to calculate backwards if you would be making money on this based on petrol cost, ferry cost, tolls of going through France, possibly hotel costs, reserve/contingency for repairs, service, tyres plus eventual car/trailer replacement etc
I find driving with my trailer very tedious as you move at a snails pace - so you really have to enjoy driving imo
Good luck
You might want to consider a covered trailer as you can probably charge more than for an open trailer (Ihave a BJ RT6, which I can highly recommend)
It seems every other vehicle on the M'ways at the moment are 'transporters'...
I dare say most have no Tacho if needed, very few running at 60mph and no trailers in the outside lane obviously doesn't matter either, places to go, time etc.... Utility vans with trailers also do it so I'm not picking out just the car transporters
I dare say most have no Tacho if needed, very few running at 60mph and no trailers in the outside lane obviously doesn't matter either, places to go, time etc.... Utility vans with trailers also do it so I'm not picking out just the car transporters
I have a chap we regularly use to move cars about... Useful if a car is going for maintenance/repair, it saves the hassle of having to get back from wherever it is the car is going to.
The Jensen went up to a Jensen specialist up north a little while ago, I think the transport charge was pretty much the same as what it would have cost in fuel to drive it up there and get the train home.
The Jensen went up to a Jensen specialist up north a little while ago, I think the transport charge was pretty much the same as what it would have cost in fuel to drive it up there and get the train home.
if you're doing it commercially at those weights I believe you WILL need a tacho. I didn't know that until recently but was told by someone who runs a transport business. You can tow up to your licence levels without a tacho if it's for yourself, or not for reward, but not otherwise.
IMO there's only (a little) money in it if you go high end - premium service, covered trailer, decent tow vehicle, livery, etc and then go for the luxury car market.
This will require investment in equipment and contacts being made to get the work. You may want to start by working for somebody else, then branching out yourself after a year or so.
At the bottom end - Shiply and just transporting wrecks from A to B, there's no money. Too many others out there looking to invest little and earn a crust. Fair play to those people by the way, but just don't expect to compete and earn good money.
This will require investment in equipment and contacts being made to get the work. You may want to start by working for somebody else, then branching out yourself after a year or so.
At the bottom end - Shiply and just transporting wrecks from A to B, there's no money. Too many others out there looking to invest little and earn a crust. Fair play to those people by the way, but just don't expect to compete and earn good money.
Dr Interceptor said:
I have a chap we regularly use to move cars about... Useful if a car is going for maintenance/repair, it saves the hassle of having to get back from wherever it is the car is going to.
The Jensen went up to a Jensen specialist up north a little while ago, I think the transport charge was pretty much the same as what it would have cost in fuel to drive it up there and get the train home.
Well, if you are going to go for the RollsRoyce options, I'm not surprised The Jensen went up to a Jensen specialist up north a little while ago, I think the transport charge was pretty much the same as what it would have cost in fuel to drive it up there and get the train home.
Tis as I thought that the market must be saturated at the bottom and I don't have the budget for a new covered trailer at around 15 to 20k. As said Shipley quotes are rock bottom prices which I can't find a way to make a good living from so would need to build a customer base from my own marketing and charging over £1 a mile which again as said that you are limited to the amount of people willing to pay for that.
I think from what i've seen on Facebook with the amount of people prepared to do it cheaply it's going to be a hard market, I regularly see people who are clearly doing a trip one way loaded either up or down the country and even asking if they can pick up scrap cars cheap cars for resale etc to try and make the journeys more profitable/ worthwhile so I think to just do car transportation for customers is going to be hard to make anything out of it.
I suspect there will be a lot of people trying to cut corners doing it also who are pushing the prices down.
I suspect there will be a lot of people trying to cut corners doing it also who are pushing the prices down.
All you really need is a driver's licence and a vehicle and that puts you in the realms of 'race to the bottom' on pricing.
I spoke to a guy who collected a car from me recently and the number of miles he did and the hours he did were considerable to say the least. I think you could find something more worthwhile and interesting to do
I spoke to a guy who collected a car from me recently and the number of miles he did and the hours he did were considerable to say the least. I think you could find something more worthwhile and interesting to do
MichaelXJ said:
Is there decent money to be made from this? I.e. After fuel and car expenses are all said and done can you make say 35k+ a year (profit of course
Consider the simplest most noddy of fag-packet maths. You want to earn 35K. There's 365 days in a year. That means you've got to average £95 *profit* per day. Every. Single. Day.What do you think the answer is?
(If you think the answer is yes, start refining the fag packet maths with costs, realistic working days per year, realistic charging model, etc ).
Is my game, has been for 15 yrs.
You are somewhat optimistic in your net profit figs, it is possible even as a single car, just, but no way on start up & even after long time in is tough & easier with a multi, will take a while to get there & requires a lot of miles & ideally euro stuff (tho Brexit has made that a lot harder) & top end cars, but to move 'em you'll need expensive insurance & the wear & tear on kit is massive, so you might hit your target in one year, then blow an engine, then rip a trailer axle out, then it's replace trailer time then the tow vehicle etc & you'll struggle to break even the next 3 yrs.
The ridiculous shiply prices etc often barely cover the fuel.
You can go newer kit, usually more reliable, depreciation can be enormous, esp on a top end 4x4 that you've just put 250k miles on in 2 yrs etc.
At the low end the prices are just ridiculously low, they have to run bent & with shoddy vehicles as its not possible otherwise, at the top end an enclosed transporter the prices are higher but so is the insurance - massively so & it's not 2k for an open trailer but 15k odd for a decent enclosed, well 30k if you want the best, or go enclosed big rig at 250k etc, not a grand for crap insurance but 10k etc
Anyway a bit of a ramble, but a 4am start 558 miles done a ferry crossing & a loading & all legal by a few mins, so I'm a tad scrambled.
Ps yes of course you'll need a tachograph, depending on tow vehicle choice operator licence & dcpc also.
You are somewhat optimistic in your net profit figs, it is possible even as a single car, just, but no way on start up & even after long time in is tough & easier with a multi, will take a while to get there & requires a lot of miles & ideally euro stuff (tho Brexit has made that a lot harder) & top end cars, but to move 'em you'll need expensive insurance & the wear & tear on kit is massive, so you might hit your target in one year, then blow an engine, then rip a trailer axle out, then it's replace trailer time then the tow vehicle etc & you'll struggle to break even the next 3 yrs.
The ridiculous shiply prices etc often barely cover the fuel.
You can go newer kit, usually more reliable, depreciation can be enormous, esp on a top end 4x4 that you've just put 250k miles on in 2 yrs etc.
At the low end the prices are just ridiculously low, they have to run bent & with shoddy vehicles as its not possible otherwise, at the top end an enclosed transporter the prices are higher but so is the insurance - massively so & it's not 2k for an open trailer but 15k odd for a decent enclosed, well 30k if you want the best, or go enclosed big rig at 250k etc, not a grand for crap insurance but 10k etc
Anyway a bit of a ramble, but a 4am start 558 miles done a ferry crossing & a loading & all legal by a few mins, so I'm a tad scrambled.
Ps yes of course you'll need a tachograph, depending on tow vehicle choice operator licence & dcpc also.
I had a crash damaged car transported 180 miles for £120, thought it would be on a 5/6 car transporter, guy rocked up on his own single transporter. Couldn't fault service but felt bad paying so little.
Problem is a lot of companies will pay retired people minimum wage to transport cars, we had 2 new lease cars delivered in October this way, getting 2 more on Sunday, was offered delivery for £233 per car (233 miles) but when we chose to get two it worked out better to get someone to drive 2 people down there.
Not something I would want to get into
Problem is a lot of companies will pay retired people minimum wage to transport cars, we had 2 new lease cars delivered in October this way, getting 2 more on Sunday, was offered delivery for £233 per car (233 miles) but when we chose to get two it worked out better to get someone to drive 2 people down there.
Not something I would want to get into
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