Gas meter installer job, self employed corgi. Need advice

[sandhu40]

First post on here, so hello to everyone.

Need help.

Been offered a job as a gas meter installer starting very soon. It is based in London, I will be covering Twickenham and Uxbridge areas (quite a large catchment area to be honest)

It is a self employed job so I am responsible for all sorts of things such as own van, petrol, insurance etc etc.

I currently live in the Birmingham area so would relocate there (which isn't a negative point for me) and just live in a single rented room in a houseshare. Rent would be around £50. I intend to work at least 80 hours per week achieving around 90-100 meter fits.

The pay is as follows

First 3 months
£13.80 per meter, if achieving more than 50 per week it goes up to £16 per meter.

After 3 months
£15.80per meter,
>50 £18 per meter.

I just wanted to know what my running costs would be, things like wear and tear on van (06 Berlingo 12k miles, cost around £4000), depreciation, fuel costs, tax, NI etc.

I have never been self employed before so need some advice. I really need to know what I can clear, top end after an 80 hour week. I also want to know how the payment to me will work, will I be responsible for paying my own tax? I know I can ask at the interview, but it's a long trip to the interview and I thought some on here may know better.

Any help would be greatly welcomed.

AJ

 

[jeffreyw]

depends on how many meters you can get in a day some easier than others i used to fit 60 per week on average and home for 3 oclock
got to change lead recommision appliances
a few snags sometimes but normally good job
some times people are not in so nothing is guarenteed
i reckon you will clear 5 to six hundred

 

[namsag]

Meter changers dont have to strip and relight applinces anymore, Fit purge if it don`t light its up to customer.Plus all inlets are already made up. On Right estates and work is usually planned in zones on 80 hours a week you should make a fortune . Paperwork for meter details will take longer than fitting them. 30 a dayplus could be done on your 12 hour approx days if you get in them.
Wrong estates and lot of people out you may struggle to do ten its swings and roundabouts

 

[Paul Barker]

cost of self employed?

My first van I owned large ducato cost me on average over the time i had it £450 a month. I had alot of big bills for it.

Now I lease a dispatch 230 pcm

fuel depends on mileage obviously mine is about 400pcm

van insurance 600 pa

2 mil public liability 470 (with 1500 tools direct line)

prof indemnity 250

corgi membership anually 205

I spend perhaps £1500 pa on tools you wont need much

clothing 200 pa

every 5 years retrain 1500/5 = 300pa

You dont have to pay the part p tax at least.

pic out what is relevant above for you the rest of us have to add in marketing.

They will probably not put you on the books so you will have to either work through an umbrella company who willl take £15 a week off you or go ltd.

either way you will have to get c.i.s. registered, which is very simple you phone a department of tax office if you walk into one they have phones with the right button to press, they ask for your unique tax reference which should be on your last tax return, ask a few questions about what you plan to do and formulate a cis number. Thats all you need, they send paperwork a week or so later but the cis no. is sufficient.

Anyone paying you deducts 20% you fight it out end of year on tax return.

 

[namsag]

Paul WTF tools do you spend 1500 quid a year on and if you hardly use why not hire as needed or make do with what you have . Retraining shop about there are people doing acs resits for 400 quid now with training 700.
Stop crashing your van and insurance will be cheaper
Clothing is that not what your old jeans tee shirts are for or matalan

 

[gas4you]

van insurance 600 pa

Try Evan insurance, click HERE I've a Renault Trafic, £168, fully comp, protected no claims (unlimited claims), legal cover and breakdown including homestart

2 mil public liability 470 (with 1500 tools direct line)

prof indemnity 250

Try Simply Business, click HERE

£2M PL, £1M prof indemnity, £5K tools (on van & 24hr cover) all for just under £500/year.

 

[Paul Barker]

Retraining shop about there are people doing acs resits for 400 quid now with training 700.

but not within a local rural area travelling to cheap places negates the saving.

Stop crashing your van and insurance will be cheaper .

Fair cop. Was discussing this with ChrisR over a curry. Basically I at that time had lapses in conscentration to the extent that when my wife wanted to book mne a day driving racing car for my birthday I said not at the moment dear. I don't know if it is stress or a left over effect of the chronic fatigue syndrome which laid me off for a year and a half 5 years ago. But Me a big van small manoevres = bang! I have impaled it on scaffold pole, knocked down a client's iron gate and front wall, tried to reshape a stone wall with little impact upon it, tried to drag a sticking out pallet of sand sat on other sand bags around Jewson's yard, etc etc.

The smaller van is fine.

It's shameful because when I was a despatch rider in central london for 7 years as a younger man, I was top rider anywhere I went and could weave a gt550 through a gridlocked Park Lane as quick as the DT riders.
The repair costs of such a sized van are also humungous, they wear out door locks sliders hinges suspension breaks gearboxes clutches at an alarming rate, and as only two local garages can deal with such a sized vehicle they charge £60 per hour. The make sure that at every MOT they steal £1,000 off you.

You might think my van ownership figures are unbelievable, but one of my customers runs a fleet of such vehicles, when I said to him how much it had cost me (depretiation, interest repair bills mot's etc amounting to £450 pcm apportioned over it's life with me) he thought that was cheap. They have the exact same problems but it costs them even more.

Basically I sacked the apprentice (another huge drain in more ways than one) and at the same time leased a van, and the running costs of my business improved massively.

 

[Paul Barker]

Thanks g4u it's too late this year.

 

[tabs]

Not trying to put you off BUT- I did 3 weeks of this in Portsmouth on £17.50 a meter and more if it was out of hours.

The snag was are the people always going to be in? No

Will the meters all be in the same street, block of flats etc?
Depends on how well in with the central office staff you are.

Certain blokes were making a good living but they were 1 in 10.

 

[Paul Barker]

(06 Berlingo 12k miles, cost around £4000),

AJ

Are you sure they will allow you to use a berling I thought that job was usuall;y specd for transit traffic relay sized vans?

 

[sandhu40]

Thanks for all the input, I knew I would get alot of useful responses.
I have attended the interview and it was all rather informal and I was offered the contract. I'll be given the Harrow and Uxbridge postcodes, quite happy with that.

I have been told that there are a few guys doing 100+ meters per week, we are only allowed into a property 8am-8pm Monday-Friday. Also access to properties is around 60% (or so I am told) Alot of the big hitters will be the ones that plan their day. It's also a good idea to leave a card so that customer can ring back. It is not impossible to hit 30 fits one out of the 5 days. The other 4 days you'll be doing around 15-18. You can also work on call on a Saturday, emergency call outs where you are guaranteed that the customer will be in.

Also, a Berlingo will be too small so I will have to lease a medium sized van.

Thanks again for all the input.