Advice on starting a horse transporter business

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Corker

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Hi everyone,

I am looking into starting a horse transporter business and I want to know as much information and advice as possible. There are o transporters that I know of where I live so I know there is a need for it.

I know I need to do the WATO CPC and you need "hire and reward" insurance but I would like to know as much as I can as I need to put a business plan together to try and get a loan from the bank to get me started. I've searched the internet but information on the subject is a little vague.

I have all my driving licences (B+E, Class 2 and Class 1) and I am sick of being turned down because I don't have commercial experience so I want to start my own small business up, I have plenty of experience driving horses around and have been around them for nearly 18 years.

Thanks.
 
Well first thing is you need to decide what type of lorry your going to want to buy and what useage you will get from it

i.e if you buy a 7.5 tonner - it will probalbly only take 2 horses or 3 ponies, which seams a resonable amount to fill.

However if you go for a larger vehcile ie one that can carry 5 horses.... well are you going to fill 5 horses all the time. Very often the poor transport chap is the one whom ends up getting the bad loaders on - so be warned - what will you do if you have a kicker? How well will you be able to advertise... many of the calls our local chap gets are to run very ill horses upto Liverpool - stay the night and then come back the next day.... all this of course is expected to be done for an "all in" price - you need to make sure the vehicle is spotless inside and please clean it out after every journey - nothing worse than a transporter turning up and having a pile of festering crap on the floor.
 
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Corker said:
Hi everyone,

I am looking into starting a horse transporter business and I want to know as much information and advice as possible. There are o transporters that I know of where I live so I know there is a need for it.

I know I need to do the WATO CPC and you need "hire and reward" insurance but I would like to know as much as I can as I need to put a business plan together to try and get a loan from the bank to get me started. I've searched the internet but information on the subject is a little vague.

I have all my driving licences (B+E, Class 2 and Class 1) and I am sick of being turned down because I don't have commercial experience so I want to start my own small business up, I have plenty of experience driving horses around and have been around them for nearly 18 years.

Thanks.
Click to expand...
You would be best starting with a 3.5 ton lorry ... a trailer would need you to have a tachograph fitted and used ,and any lorry over 3.5 ton would require an opperators licence as well which requires planing permison for an opperating center where you keep the lorry/s , accounts and proof of your finacial standing , various responsiblitys for management , and some proof of how and when maintanace of the lorry takes place usely every six weeks... look up and contact the area trafic office or VOSA .. as for a bussines plan I would work out what folk are willing to pay !!!how much a mile your vehicle costs to run and better still find some customers needing your services so you can go to the bank and say costs x and y wants me to do 5 jobs a week at £$ so I need this much and im going to put in ?... however its unlikely the bank would lend much unless you would make personal garantees like your house!!!! at best they will give you an account and a small overdraft facility , you would need a finance co to borrow for a lorry but that can help as you can get a lease deal that includes maintanance ...good luck ..
 
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Thanks very much, yeah I think I will start off with a 3.5T as it seems a lot less complicated to start with.

If I got finance from a company for a box and I had say £2000 of my own money i would probably only need enough for the deposit on the box so hopefully the bank would be ok with it. Deposits are about £4000 depending on price of box.

I'm going to e-mail companies and get dummy quotes so I have an idea of how much they charge.

I know I would need hire and reward insurance and public and liability insurance and insurance for the box so I'm hoping I can get set up pretty easy, just need the bank to say yes!!

Thanks for the info.
 
I am using a lady in the northwest to transport my colt to the hospital this week . It is only 7 miles but she has been brilliant booking etc and runs special offers through the week. I am geting both trips ie there on Wednesday and return of Friday for £70 all in and I think that is a really good deal ! To hire a 3.5 would be £100 a day + your fuel!!

I have got a trailer but it needs a service and Dad would need to take time off work + I'd need to give him fuel money so to ease a stressfull situation I have gone with her and she seems lovely.

Here is her website to give you ideas

http://www.northwesthorsetransport.co.uk/horse-transport-prices-and-services
 
One type of insurance you haven't mentioned is "CCC" (Care, custody & control or Custodial) this covers you if a horse you are transporting gets injured & the owner tries to hold you responsible - make sure when you ask insurance companies for quotes for this you tell them it's for a horse transporter.
Good luck !
 
Contact your local Trading Standards, you will need to obtain a Transporter Authorisation from Animal Health, as well as the Certificate of Competence. If you are planning on doing journeys over 8 hours, you will need a type 2 Authorisation and assessed C of C and have the vehicle approved. You will need to keep Animal Transport Certificates for every journey. Your Trading Standards can help with all this, there is also a lot of info on the Direct Gov website.

Good Luck, although I have heard from transporters that there is less work at the moment as a lot of people are getting 3.5t vehicles and transporting their own horses.
:)
 
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