I've nearly owned 3 Billy, the first one I was to be a 25% partner with 3 others, it all went to the wall within 2 years resulting in 2 buying one out, blatant feeding and meddling with things that had run perfect for 15 yrs previously saw it fail, the second I missed out on because the one who sold out in the previous office became a partner with 2 other drivers, they managed to run it into the ground for the same reasons as above between them, and finally a 150 car firm that due to bad management had whittled away to 30 cars within 5 mths, also due to the above reason *feeding* and the air being jammed at 8pm every Fri & Sat, I tried to get the premises and rebuild it from the ground up when I was told I could have it on condition that I had Mr #1 from the above examples as a partner, as I'd seen how he worked I wasn't busting it so he could sit on his lazy arse all day taking 50% so I bought the plate instead.

If you are only planning a small number of cars I'd go PDA on this occassion, the licences aren't that expensive, if you use 2 way radio you will need a telecoms licence, not sure if it's required for PDA delivery though, you need to have a chat with the council regarding fees but iirc it's not much more than the licence for a car pa, cherry picking will cause resentment, and you should be competitive, get a good phone number and aim to have about 20 cars minimum to be profitable and cover office and staff costs, look for a unit to rent and leaflet drop one area at a time and try to observe regular custom and look after it regardless if they have to jump the queue. hth.

I'd steer clear of the PDA's Doom.

use mobile phones all on the same network, check the cheapest calls within 1 provider.

if you wish to know where they are get tracking

what "council fees" are you refering to?

use mobile phones all on the same network, check the cheapest calls within 1 provider.

You can get unlimited calls between 4 vodafones for £5 a month or 6 for £7

hi,cant decide wether to set up a firm or just plod on working for the same company ive been at 4 what seems like the last 50 years!would like to hear from anybody who took the plunge and has it been worth it?know most of the costs involved but no idea bout the costs of a basic 2 way radio system and the licence to operate it or can u really get by on the mobile phone method bearing in mind im thinking of just 3 cars to start with.

To get a DOT radio licence requires installing one, with mast (with permission) then a check for interference to local services and users

You can also go car to car now without the need of a permanent base
We have about 5 or 6 small company's doing just that

use mobile phones all on the same network, check the cheapest calls within 1 provider.

if you wish to know where they are get tracking

what "council fees" are you refering to?