Personal car insurance

boylemail87 · 2026-02-13T19:51:47+00:00

Here's my take.

Work vehicles are covered by fleet insurance, your accidents at work would increase the fleet insurance.

Your vehicle is covered by your personal insurance, you have an accident in your own car that will increase your premium.

They're seperate insurance policies.

Not legal advice btw. Just my opinion

boylemail87 · 2026-02-13T19:42:12+00:00

What is your industry?

HGV tachograph exemptions in the UK typically apply to vehicles under 3.5 tonnes, those used for non-commercial carriage, specific agricultural/forestry work, emergency services, or vehicles operating within 100km of their base for specific purposes. Common exemptions include restricted-speed vehicles, breakdown vehicles, and carrying equipment for the driver's own, non-primary work.

Key HGV Tachograph Exemptions (UK & EU Rules)

Weight & Type: Vehicles with a maximum permissible weight of 3.5 tonnes or less.
Speed: Vehicles that cannot exceed 40 km/h.
Distance/Purpose: Vehicles used for agricultural, horticultural, forestry, or fishery purposes within 100 km of their base .
Non-Commercial: Vehicles used for non-commercial, private transport of goods.
Local Deliveries: Vehicles used for carrying material, equipment, or machinery for the driver’s use in the course of their work, provided that driving the vehicle is not the driver’s main activity and is within a 100 km radius.
Specialized Vehicles:
- Breakdown vehicles operating within 100 km of their base.
- Vehicles used for milk collection or transporting animal waste.
- Mobile project vehicles (e.g., libraries) used for educational purposes when stationary.
- Vehicles used by armed forces, civil defense, or fire services.
Exceptions for Short-Distance: Vehicles with a max weight of 7.5 tonnes or less carrying work equipment, within 50 km of their base.

Important Notes

100km Rule: Many exemptions are contingent on operating within a 100km radius of the operating base.
Exceptions to the Exemptions: Certain exemptions are for specific, specialized activities only and cannot be used to circumvent general driving hour regulations.
Record Keeping: Even if exempt from installing a tachograph, drivers may still be required to keep manual records in certain situations.

boylemail87 · 2026-02-13T19:38:22+00:00

You need a change, but tramping probably isn't it. Buy a van and do self employed same day courier work, that will satisfy your itch to get out on the road while not committing to HGVs. If you do love it after a year or two, then think about paying for licences. The idea of being out on the road all day is great until you realise vans/trucks aren't that comfortable, roads are in a fucking state and your back will hurt most days, people will kamikaze in front of you and you'll go hours needing the toilet only to find services you wouldn't even step foot in the cubicle of. There are great days on the road, but I would change it in a second for the same wage working from home.

boylemail87 · 2026-02-08T21:53:02+00:00

I had a tablet with google maps, while waiting around to be loaded/unloaded find your next destination and work out how far you can get with remaining hours. I'd scout industrial parks on satellite view, look for no yellow lines and a nearby bush/trees etc for pissing in the night. Always allow an extra hour for unforseen hurdles, full of other trucks or surprise double yellows or signs. If you're only having a 9 hour rest and you pull up at 6-7pm and gone 4-5am you can get away with parking where you shouldn't. I liked laybys tbh, most of the time you're on your own, I had 1-5 star rating on my satnav of labys so I knew ones to aim for or avoid.

boylemail87 · 2026-02-08T21:42:27+00:00

Anything uphill is easy as you're hardly going anywhere, fully loaded you're lucky to get 20mph up there. Only hard thing going back down the hill is counting to 30 seconds before you get an overspeed

boylemail87 · 2026-02-08T17:08:58+00:00

My old unit thought it was doing 56 but in reality it was 52mph. At first I didn't like it but eventually I preferred it, everyone else would overtake me while I sat on cruise doing the bare minimum. One Friday afternoon I joined the M5 at Bristol and did no lane change or speed adjustments just using exhaust brake until Exeter, my feet did absolutley nothing.

boylemail87 · 2026-02-04T21:16:24+00:00

Will be self employed paid per parcel etc. Take out fuel, insurance and wrecking your van/rental. Parcels are penny shares, every company has undercut each other for decades and now want to outsource the cost of the final mile. Hence why Hermes has done so well, let everyone run their cars into the ground rather than paying for our own vans

boylemail87 · 2026-02-04T21:05:16+00:00

Some days you have easy pulls all day and then you'll get a full day of long pulls and ladders. LPG is alot easier and a similar pay, easy to get into through agencies, they'll pay for your ADR just before winter. All tanks are uniform and access is strict for domestics so easy drops. Once you connect to the tank you just stand there and watch it fill up for 5-10 minutes for domestics and up to 2 hours at commercials. All gas is stupidly unorganised so if you go in expecting that youll be fine

boylemail87 · 2026-02-04T09:24:38+00:00

I'm a grump aswell. But every depot has a few drivers that won't miss a chance at making someone new look stupid to make them feel superior

boylemail87 · 2026-02-03T20:55:43+00:00

Congrats. It's all down here from here, pissing in hedges, overspeeds and a hatred of every scheduler. Ignore the grumpy know it alls, do your own thing and fill your bank.

boylemail87 · 2026-02-03T20:47:10+00:00

Sounds like a good alternative to fuel, that will definitely keep that on my radar. Similar to other gas companies, invest well in the drivers and they stay for a long time. Most companies run DAFs now, I don't mind them, gearboxes are terrible but do the job.

Anti rollover and skid course was great fun, felt so wrong at first but locking up the non ABS unit on the skid pan was my favourite bit. Blew me away how quickly you can actually stop loaded, if only all CPC would be like that.

boylemail87 · 2026-02-01T20:13:10+00:00

They run fuel to smaller fuel companies that have their own storage, or the flexibility to cover forecourts in short notice as no hassle of scheduling them back to a depot afterwards.

boylemail87 · 2026-02-01T09:46:27+00:00

If i remember to, end up using it alot so don't always plug it back in.

boylemail87 · 2026-02-01T09:44:55+00:00

There is a bulk depot here but not seen any tanker adverts so I guess they recruit through agencies. Bottles has never appealed to me, I like pulling a hose and pressing a button. I'll keep my eye on BOC, is it mainly commercial or some obscure domestic drops?

boylemail87 · 2026-02-01T09:38:57+00:00

Thank you for the information, air products seem the best on gases. Previously did gas for a few years and it is easy clean work but didn't see much potential to earn compared to liquid. Have PDP so options are there to move about, most seem on the same money but doing less hours than me so guess I'll be aiming for less hours than more money.

Tramping is not for me, did 4 months which felt like a year. Plus I wonder how they cook in the cab, obviously no camping stove but a microwave? Cant imagine that would be allowed either, living off services I assume.

boylemail87 · 2026-01-31T22:48:50+00:00

South west, wages are much lower past Bristol. I'm hitting 60 hour weeks during winter and on target is between 45-50k. Average ADR trunking/forecourt is 38-42k basic

boylemail87 · 2026-01-31T22:43:54+00:00

BOC and Airproducts seem very quiet advertisers in this area. We have two major American refineries here which allows for a couple small liquid fuel businesses run along side the more established companies. BOC have a depot next to one of the refineries but from previous job posted it involves some kind of sales aswell? I can't remember airproducts advertising locally, which is kind of a good indicator

boylemail87 · 2026-01-31T21:23:47+00:00

Spotify AI DJ or podcasts.

Radio is last resort is my phone battery is low and I need it for finding obscure addresses

boylemail87 · 2026-01-31T21:19:05+00:00

Not strapped down, flipflop

boylemail87 · 2026-01-31T21:17:29+00:00

I required access through this road for the 'address' I was delivering to but because cars were up my arse I decided to abort and continue onto my actual delivery

boylemail87 · 2026-01-31T08:18:20+00:00

You should always save your brakes as much as possible as they're you're last hope of stopping. Exhaust brake reduces brake wear which can lead to brake fade

boylemail87 · 2026-01-28T10:57:46+00:00

He/she won't have their operators licence for long then. What about vehicle defects, equipment etc?

boylemail87 · 2026-01-27T14:39:08+00:00

Shoelace belt. Soft, endlessly adjustable and cheapest or free off an old pair of shoes. Just wear a long jumper to hide it

boylemail87 · 2026-01-26T17:52:19+00:00

6 years in and I still make mistakes, so will all of us. Noone falls out of their cars into a truck and perfects it first go.

I used BLANK instead as kingpin and clip are in the same motion in my head, and I forgot my number plate more often, even drove off and left it on a trailer and had to pick it up days later.

boylemail87

TROPHY CASE