comivIEN - r
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DEATH BY HAULAGE
his week CM received a phone call from an owner-driver previously profiled in the magazine. After launching into the business with high hopes, and a carefully prepared business plan, little more than a year on the venture had begun to turn sour. What started out as a "problem with cashflow" grew into mounting debt. After initially bombarding him with offers of insurance and every other financial service under the sun, his bank manager turned cool. When you've money in the bank they're all over you. When you've a minus sign to your name they don't want to know. His liability was just four figures. But enough to push him to the brink. Cynics might say he didn't go in with kis eyes open. Keen to provide a reliable service he leased a new truck and trailer when wise men would say "buy a used wagon and build up slowly". Hindsight's a wonderful thing. Those same wise men would also say that, like all newcomers, he simply didn't plan to cover all the angles. But just how far can anyone plan ahead?
0 ther operators have their own problems. Recouping VAT from goods purchased abroad (see page 10) is a major bugbear For international hauliers and one that threatens their cashflow by tying up frightening amounts of money. Then there's the restrictions that suppliers
place on operators—such as Fuel companies insisting on expensive bank guarantees before they part with their dery (see page 9). And let's not forget the every day "chal lenges" of escalating fuel duty, higher toll fees, and so on and so on ad nauseum.
Given all that, our advice to anyone contemplating join ing the ever-shrinking band of 0-licence holders is simple: prepare for suc cess—but plan for failure. Only pessimists are ever pleasantly surprised.