How to - Starting up breakers yard business

[Violet]

I'm wondering how to go about this. I'm still on the look out for another job, but I wouldn't mind a crack at this if nothing happens - depending on the scale of whether it's possible or near impossible. Just want some advice! Has anyone any experience at it? I've been around enough of them to know how their 'stock' rotates etc.
Any advice gratefully received!!

[lawton]

dont no much about them but you would need quite a bit of money to start off as you would need some land and then to buy stock and equipment and you now have to get rid of oil etc the right way

[Violet]

I understand the bit about buying (or renting land) and the stock I'd need. This is just a 'in theory' question, so I would like to know all the bits I don't know about like licenses, where to start, etc. I'm not clued up about the breaker industry, so need advice on that.

[spanishfly]

How bout a dismantlers, I.e.: A shop front, break the cars in a garage, mark up the parts shelf them etc There's a jap one near me who makes fortunes, people use them rather than proper breakers as they don't get dirty and there's no stubborn bolts to remove! He charges £160-£200 for the dizzy and coil setup on a honda, people pay that over £100 for an unknown breakers one!

[Violet]

Yeah, I'd do that. I'm not scared of hard work or the weather, etc. Any info on the Jap one?

[spanishfly]

As in the company name? Basically they have an outlet shop (which is a more recent thing) near me. There main one is in East London (where they love a nissan). If I were to do it, I would get myself a storage type workshop, have one bay to dismantle cars, a bit of parking and then a counter, people ask what they want, you go get they pay They offer 3 months warranty too, which in reality is worth feck all!

[nrj]

you would need waste licence for a start, plus public liability insurance (usually £2m minimum in motor trade i think).

need to set your market really as millions of cars and you could end up with a lot of nothing, specialise in a marque i recon would be best or area ie jap rubbish/yankie beasts.

[Allvaux]

Minefield, dude, minefield. Register with the EA, waste managment course (expensive), constant harrassment by EA, huge fines if you **** up, special cages/racks to store vehicles, waste catchment tanks, hard floor areas only, need to dispose of stuff like waste oil, anti-freeze, other fluids etc (all costs money) and probably a whole heap of other things too.
I know of a small yard in E.Port which will hold about 20-ish cars or more for rent (which I was considering) but I haven't got enough on to warrant the rent. If you want details pm me and I'll give you the landord's number. It's probably ideal for storage, partial or full dismantling and various other things.

[tommychimp]

Theres a vauxhall breaker near me who has an industrial unit where he strips the cars down and then stores the parts, it's a good way of doing it imo

[jamied]

it will cost you loads mate and as Allvuax has put the EA is always on your ass, you do one thing wrong and it big fine and shut down.

My de-pollution license has just gone up and thats for the garage use only..not good

[Galahad]

You can do it legally and have nothing but trouble, lots of spot inspections, lots of hassles.

It's not just about keeping the Environment Agency happy, its the council as well, whether or not your landlord will let you do that kind of business.

The way to attack it if you get rejected by the council is to always go for the RECYCLE option, they love that ****, as do the Environment Agency.

Firstly, make sure you get a waste carriers licence, absolute must, EA love that, if you do something wrong, they'll take into account you have that licence and think "well at least he's trying to do the right thing."

If you want to break up cars legally, you need a breakers licence. Unfortunately you cannot have a breakers licence unless you have a depollution licence as well.

To do it all legally, you could be waiting MONTHS to get setup, its a massive cost mucker.

Me? I did it the dodgy way, and then slowly built myself up to be more legitimate.

I got round the breaking licence problems by claiming I was breaking cars at a local metal yard that had the required licence. When the EA rang them up to check, they confirmed thats what I did. I was taking them 40 cars a week for months, so they were keen to keep me onside


EA were happy with that, because my business model was slightly different. I claimed to break cars in their yard, and stuck the parts on the shelf. EA loved it, because it was recycling, and thats the thing to push for.

But screw all that mucker, if you have a shop premises, you invite Business rates, so my advice would be to find somewhere secluded where you can break cars properly, and sell the bits on the Internet with little or no overheads.

Once you've got some money coming in, then start exploring about doing it more legitmately. Its virtually IMPOSSIBLE to setup legitmately, and quickly without a huge amount of expense and time before you can get working.

People seem to think its a doddle and cheap.... it aint. Just a few costs to think about:

Beavertail truck - £1500 minumum
Storage - £100 minimum a month
cars to break - £XX
Tools - £xxx
Waste Carriers licence - £132 (I think)

Thats minimum mucker. Doesn't sound much expense, but you need to be picky over what you break. Sure, break just Vauxhalls, but there might be two other businesses that do the same, break only one type of model of a marque and you might be waiting weeks for sales.

Ironically i'm now moving away from solely breaking cars, closing my business down and reopening with two mates to fix up and sell cars and do servicing and repairs.

Being legitimate is the ultimate goal, unfortunately its very expensive and time consuming to achieve.

[mike261263]

Makes the old days sound so much better....get land, break cars!!

[Violet]

Yeah, typically the council like to interfere as they are all jobsworths. I use to work for Trading Standards, and we worked alongside the EA on some jobs so I know how they work, but I also built up a friendship with some of the heads in the council. I pretty much do everything by the book to be honest, so doing it by rules doesn't really phaze me at all.
Thanks for all the info, I'm seeing how jobs in the industry I'm in plan out (I've got an interview in Canada ffs, it's that thin on the ground at the moment), but I think I'm going to go for it after a couple of months of planning.
Allvaux can you pm the details of that Ellesmere Port chappy?

[Allvaux]

On it's way mate...