Transporters/recovery truck... shall I buy one?!

[GentlemanJames 0]

Anyone else bought one and worked out well for them?

noticed I spent £11k with movex last year...! £6k buys you a working truck and picking up half of those cars makes it a strong business case...

i buy a lot off DA and BCA blackbushe (which is a pain to get to)

of course my own time to get on with selling is important but I often wonder if fetching cars with one won’t take up that much time. 

interested to hear peoples thoughts and experiences....

[EPV 631]

If you buy one and ship my stuff around at half the price Movex quote I'll tell you it's a good idea

[A & S 20]

I've owned a dolly before, pulled 100s of cars from BCA Peterborough and BCA Bedford plus a few from here and there. Then I used to use taxis, £25 a time after a while I employed a driver, we both used to go and pick the cars up one at a time which was a bit time consuming, currently I am finding the most cost effective way is getting BCA to deliver them as it costs me £36 + vat a car from Peterborough (60 miles round trip), if I have 5 or more at a time (which I normally do).

With the driver it costs about £16 labour charge, £10 fuel in the car we go in, usually fuel in the car we bring back plus my time. (Which i can't put a price on). Per car

I have thought of buying a 3.5 ton gross recovery many times  can't really justify it as either I will have to drive myself or get someone to drive it and that's more cost on top of running one.

With BCA delivering, I can spend all the time spent on picking up cars at the garage, which means I can see customers etc, and make sales.

[lastyboy 23]

Not sure i could justify if i was just doing car sales. With a workshop its a no brainer.

I was at an auction the other week in my 5k transit. A dealer offered me 6k cash for it there and then but i would have to walk/train it home.

Declined because i dont think i would find another as good as mine for what i paid.

[Barclaywoodmotorco 4]

Buy one no brainer !!!!!! just make sure it has not done star ship miles. 

could not live without mine. makes life so easy no booking drivers .

 

 

[Mark101 536]

I sold mine because it just takes too long out of the business.

BCA charge me £60 from their local sites, Manheim £65 (single units, less if multiple).

No queuing at the key office, no dirty ratchet straps, no missing calls etc.

There has been a couple of occasions when I could do with one but there is always a work around.

 

[Stalker 180]

8 hours ago, GentlemanJames said:

Anyone else bought one and worked out well for them?

noticed I spent £11k with movex last year...! £6k buys you a working truck and picking up half of those cars makes it a strong business case...

i buy a lot off DA and BCA blackbushe (which is a pain to get to)

of course my own time to get on with selling is important but I often wonder if fetching cars with one won’t take up that much time. 

interested to hear peoples thoughts and experiences....

How many cars was that for?

We have a crafter that we got converted, it’s fuel economy is poor (£120 gets you 450 miles).

Add in the additional cost of insurance plus labour cost to drive it you might find that movex isn’t that expensive.

 

I find it cheaper for me to have ours rather than employing a additional driver, it’s never phoned (texted nowadays) in sick, never had to go home cos the dog feels poorly, never came in pissed..... the list goes on!

[A & S 20]

2 minutes ago, tradex said:

Dolly or a DECENT A frame like SoloMatic, worth just having one mo matter what

I know plenty thst have bought transporter only to sell them after a year. 

I had a dolly and I still have an A frame, they are very handy to have, easy storage etc. Only thing is they are illegal because they are not braked and all four wheels should be off the ground as the car is not taxed when you buy from the auctions.

[metcars 397]

42 minutes ago, A & S said:

I had a dolly and I still have an A frame, they are very handy to have, easy storage etc. Only thing is they are illegal because they are not braked and all four wheels should be off the ground as the car is not taxed when you buy from the auctions.

There was a time when you could get away with dragging them home with an aframe, but now the 'feds' are looking more aggressively for these sorts of easy nicks. And you are an easy pull for any eager copper! Who can blame them, they will get just as much kudos from pulling a trader towing a car home the block as they would being shot at chasing bank robbers! I now what I'd rather do?

i thought you needed an operators licence and a tacho to run a recovery truck? 

Edited March 20, 2019 by met

[Dave2302 387]

1 minute ago, met said:

There was a time when you could get away with dragging them home with an aframe, but now the 'feds' are looking more aggressively for these sorts of easy nicks. And you are an easy pull for any eager copper! Who can blame them, they will get just as much kudos from pulling a trader towing a car home the block as they would being shot at chasing bank robbers! I now what I'd rather do?

Ickk Zakk Early 

I thought A Frames and dollies went out with the Ark

[Linctrader 16]

I just bought an auto sprinter yesterday and intend to buy a tipping car trailer to do just this job.

Will let BCA and Manheim deliver for the most part, but im using a old van as a beater/runaround anyway and the sprinter will serve this purpose, plus it has 7 seats so the family can jump in for school runs etc.

£1500 or less for a decent 4 wheel trailer and I have something handy when I need other cars lifted...crap when you are doing it by yourself but like Mark says there is always a workaround - this is mine!

[A & S 20]

1 hour ago, met said:

There was a time when you could get away with dragging them home with an aframe, but now the 'feds' are looking more aggressively for these sorts of easy nicks. And you are an easy pull for any eager copper! Who can blame them, they will get just as much kudos from pulling a trader towing a car home the block as they would being shot at chasing bank robbers! I now what I'd rather do?

i thought you needed an operators licence and a tacho to run a recovery truck? 

Tacho and operater's licence is only required if the gross weight is more than 3.5 tons.

[Dave2302 387]

27 minutes ago, A & S said:

Tacho and operater's licence is only required if the gross weight is more than 3.5 tons.

Which of course means it usually is over the weight, unless you are putting very small Cars on a small transit sized truck with lightweight alloy body 

That is why all those years ago when I had Transmission Firm we had an Iveco 12 tonne with Tilt and Slide, a 7.5 tonner would be over GTW weight with a Range Rover / Shogun / Bentley etc etc on it !!

Edited March 20, 2019 by Dave2302

[Linctrader 16]

6 minutes ago, twerp said:

They still give it a go

3.5 Ton Sprinter with an Aventador on the back, tugging a LWB Maybach...

 

got to wonder what the customers say when the above combo arrives up to the mansion with £600k worth of cars on the back of a rig like that...

V o s a dont seem to give two hoots either as it does happen like this daily up and down the country and further afield.

 

[Stalker 180]

16 minutes ago, twerp said:

They still give it a go

3.5 Ton Sprinter with an Aventador on the back, tugging a LWB Maybach...

 

That might be a 5 ton Sprinter? I cant see how many wheels it has at the back.

That's the same body as ours, i cant recommend AMS truck bodies enough. Very good job they turn out, and fast too.

 

BTW ... The Aventador only weights 1575kg (DRY)

[Linctrader 16]

No thats a 3.5, single rear wheel.

[Dave2302 387]

Nice rig, but waaaaaay over weight

It goes on up here a lot too but a few fellas have got impounded and all the aggro that goes with that, we do see VOSA up here a lot in the summer, they also check the Tour buses out as well

BTW does anyone know exactly how much a 3.5 t Sprinter can carry legally, I've got a W220 S Class (1860 kg IIRC) to pick up from Glasgow very soon and usually borrow the Sprinter off a buddy

Hmmmmm a quick check suggests a 1400kg Car would be borderline for a RWD 3.5 t Sprinter 

Edited March 20, 2019 by Dave2302

[metcars 397]

2 hours ago, tradex said:

Good enough for the AA/RAC and they run them unbraked on the towing vehicles plate.....that may not be a good reference though

Even wearing a high viz and swapping the plug leads wont convince a copper you are doing a breakdown recovery! Lol

[justina3 518]

Being on vosa's front door so to speak its a nightmare unless its to the letter of the law, plus for me time is money so delivery is our only option.

[MarkTVS 209]

We have a 3 car Iveco Eurocargo, one on the top deck and 2 on the bottom, it was a bargain buy, ive had it a year and its more than paid for itself already, BCA Edinburgh charge us £50+Vat a unit to Glasgow, I take the truck with 2 bodies therefore bringing back 5 at a time. Way I see it that is £250+vat im saving, less fuel, operating costs, staff time etc I still think the truck makes over £100 a run. Planning to run it another 6 months to a year and change up to a bigger 5/6 car transporter.

Also plan on getting a small single car Boxer/Ducato type van that I can send down south and that will be decent on fuel, the big truck is too greedy to send anywhere for just one car.

Operators license is not always required, I read the manuals and made lots of enquiries and due to the fact transportation is not our main business and the truck only does one small journey a week I was told it is exempt. We don't run a tacho either, Just a manual logbook.

[Mark101 536]

1 minute ago, MarkTVS said:

Operators license is not always required, I read the manuals and made lots of enquiries and due to the fact transportation is not our main business and the truck only does one small journey a week I was told it is exempt. We don't run a tacho either, Just a manual logbook.

Sorry Mark, you're wrong.  I have had O licences and been throught the hassle of applying, and appealing.

Like everything in life, everything is fine until it isn't.  You have a bump in that truck and believe me they will scrutinise you to the point of imprisonment if anything falls short of perfect in the event of a fatality.

Don't ask me how I know (not me but one of my best mates) - forensics had his car for weeks and examined every inch and analysed the ECU to determine his general driving behaviour.  Cost £250k to defend (covered by his insurance).

Get the licence, make sure drivers have their drivers CPC and you have a transport manager or designated third party.

There is a reason why you are one of the very few who run anything over 3.5t (which are next to useless if staying legal).

[MarkTVS 209]

I have my CPC etc, the truck gets inspected every 12 weeks or so though we don't require them, I will look into this further as Im not sure you are correct here but I could be wrong.

[Stalker 180]

22 minutes ago, Mark101 said:

Sorry Mark, you're wrong.  I have had O licences and been throught the hassle of applying, and appealing.

Like everything in life, everything is fine until it isn't.  You have a bump in that truck and believe me they will scrutinise you to the point of imprisonment if anything falls short of perfect in the event of a fatality.

Don't ask me how I know (not me but one of my best mates) - forensics had his car for weeks and examined every inch and analysed the ECU to determine his general driving behaviour.  Cost £250k to defend (covered by his insurance).

Get the licence, make sure drivers have their drivers CPC and you have a transport manager or designated third party.

There is a reason why you are one of the very few who run anything over 3.5t (which are next to useless if staying legal).

I'm not sure of it either, but not for hire or reward is a different ball game i think?

 

 

[Brunswick 10]

I have a 3.5 ton transporter, previously had 7.5 ton slide beds.  The long and short of it is you need a operators licence, CPC and tacho for any transporter / recovery truck / trailer combination over 3.5 ton train weight.  If you have a CPC you will know this as its part of the course.  Even a 4 x 4 with a car trailer needs all of the above if you are moving cars as part of your business activity.  There are exceptions such as caravans and plant etc but the DVSA  have long been all over this.

Going back to the original question the viability depends on your stock mix.  We have a 65 plate Crafter with a full alloy body, no spare wheel and stripped back as much as we could and that carries 1500kg with me in it.  If you want to carry anything bigger than lets say a Golf / petrol 3 series then you run the risk of hitting problems.  

Fuel wise we get 30 mpg empty, 24 mpg loaded.  If you are going to build one it might as well have a winch (just in case) that will need a LOLER certificate annually.

If you move any cars with it for someone else you need to add hire and reward insurance, if you do recovery you will need to add that to your insurance plus goods in transit insurance for your own cars.  It all ads up in cost.

Build a good one though and it will really hold its value and you will never look back.  

 

Edited March 21, 2019 by Brunswick

[metcars 397]

5 hours ago, Brunswick said:

I have a 3.5 ton transporter, previously had 7.5 ton slide beds.  The long and short of it is you need a operators licence, CPC and tacho for any transporter / recovery truck / trailer combination over 3.5 ton train weight.  If you have a CPC you will know this as its part of the course.  Even a 4 x 4 with a car trailer needs all of the above if you are moving cars as part of your business activity.  There are exceptions such as caravans and plant etc but the DVSA  have long been all over this.

This confirms my thoughts. I used to run a lwb shogun and a twin axle trailor which couldn't legally carry anything bigger than a lawn mower! 

Its fair to say there are a lot of guys who feel none of the above applies to them because they dont want it to!

Edited March 21, 2019 by met