I think that’s part of the problem right there. You are running a second van for a part time semi retired worker who is topping up his income. When you look at the running costs of the second van there is no way these costs can be covered by a semi retired person working 2 days a week after you have paid his wages and other associated costs. This will undoubtedly be draining your profits.
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I totally get where you are coming from but i looked into this also and was completely suprised by the actual results. The main van is fairly new and full of expensive gear. Costs for this van are as you would expect for a decent setup.
The second van used by the semi retired worker, i went with a different play here. I bought a 10 year old transit connect fitted it with a DIY System myself before my health problems got really bad. The cost to run this van are minimal and even only being used 2 days per week it doesn't affect the margins as much as you would think.
Put it this way, when i made the decision to go from 1 van to 2 vans even with a part time worker, my bank balance grew and yearly profits were way up. Suprisingly even having a 2nd van just doing 2-3 days a week made a big difference in my yearly profits.
The reason for this is because there are certain static business expenses that are required to run 1 van, but when you get a second van, these static business expenses didn't increase at all, therefore from the added turnover to the business the actual net profit was much higher.
For example if you have 1 van, you still might need to pay for a website, mobile phone, van insurance, employers liability insurance, water production, cleanerplanner software, paying accountant fees etc. But when you go from 1 van to 2 vans, most of these costs do not increase at all, and the ones that do increase only proportionately.
