Is anyone hear a self employed courier? thanks

 

I fancy a bit of that if it pays enough.Fancy being my own boss. Lets hope someone replies.

 

my mate does it, struggle until you get yourself a good contract with someone like tnt to earn yourself some money

plus you need a decent van

 

I did it in my gap year for about 4 months.

I was 18 and the company I worked for took the piss a bit with calling me at 4 in the morning to do all the shit jobs....

Don't know what the pay is now but for an 18 year old I was earning about £500 a week gross [ten years ago ] but I got so annoyed at being taken the piss out of I fucked it off.

I was only young.

Get in with a decent firm, buy a cheap van [I had an ex royal mail AstraMax - with 4 x 12" subs ] and go for it!

A bloke I know does it still for some avionics company and he does ok out of it, I'll try and get their number for you

 

Paddy
If you wouldnt mind. Thanks fella.

Was gonna get into it a while ago but bottled it but would still really liketo do it.

Matt J
A lot of it probably is scams but i know there is a couple of sites that database you work and you dont pay them until you have done the job so its all good

 

A bloke I used to work with did it, he got a van on lease and a contract with Business Post.
They did all the sign writing on the van for him too.
He said its good money, but very long days and alot of hard work.
He said the worst bit is, if you are ill or on holiday etc, you arent getting paid!
It was also part of the contract, that if you are off for whatever reason, it is upto YOU to get the route covered by someone else!

 

had an offer im contemplating now with parceline,there are 2 types of driver, an overflow driver for depots who havnt enough drivers or an owner driver who works at the depot with a set route,which you after??

 

either but at moment prob one that supplies a van as i will have to invest in one. then im willing to go alone if thats the offer.

I dont wanna sell the RS if i can help it

 

working for a big deliveyr company like parceline tnt etc is hard work long hours etc as we have a couple of owner drivers that pick up from where i work
one of them lives in kent and his round is southend edit to add he works for parceline just spent 6.5k on a new transit as he was leasing one but was to much greif ie milage and personal out of work usage he said better to own your own for his circumstances


on th eother hand if you were thinking on the lines of doing smaller jobs ie one of same daty delivery jobs then that would be good as you can choice when to work etc like paddy said above wait till get a phone call etc


good luck with it thoe

 

Greg shepherd
only prob with smaller jobs is you may not get them regular. Is the money still good like it was few years back?

 

my dad does it, long hours if you wanna make the money and as was said above you have to get yourself a decent contract but once your in you could easily take in 1k a week.

as soon as i hit 25 and can get insured on the vans i think i will be heading in this direction.

 

Also take insurance into consideration. From what I have seen insurance is very high for the old white van man.

 

I run a Logistics company so we have couriers in and out all the time and we in fact run our own vans too.

I'll give you an example of a mate who works for Parceline..

He has to buy the van, cannot be older than 2 years and he has to pay the fuel, to make it work, he has to do minimum 100 drops per day which can range from 7 in the morning til 9 at night, so its not as straight forward as it seems...

Shame you're in slough, we need some drivers

 

money wise on smaller jobs not sure but at work we do use a company for same day delivers small outfit he has about 8 drivers work for him he does allright out of us we must spend about 3k minimum with him a month not sure on the %involved what he keeps and what he gives the drivers


nothing wrong with working for the big courier companys just think the hours are harsh we have a ups driver comes to us for picvk ups everyday he gets up at 5.30am starts work 6.30-7 finishes about 6.30pm -7 somettimes later but to him it worth it as he can sometimes earn about £28 a hour depending on how much overtime he allready done etc

so i would say look into it see what suits yourself and good luck

 

how spooky just done my last reply then thought about you .as the best person for advice

 

Yeh i spoke to a nice young lady at your place Greg, very helpful indeed

 

our depot expect a min of 50 drops from a employee, a owner driver needs to do 80plus to start earning good money, get paid per parcel so basically the more you deliver the more you earn. owner drivers need a town centre route ideally to make it work. You can rent a van or purchase your own. Being self employed means all costs are to be paid by you. if you dont turn up or cant supply cover for your route you get billed 150 per day (parceline)

 

jumpin jack crash
RSOrion
I got insured last year fella and im only 23 so think it depends on who you with. I paid £1100 for the van insurance and it was about £350 i think for the GIT etc on top. Its possible!

I dont mind putting in the hours so hopefully i would earn good oney

Richie Russ
you got no contacts
whereabouts are you? Igot sourced through some database when i started up doing it before and they didnt have a prob with the van. I had a 2000 astravan. They said as long as it was reliable and didnt keep letting them down it would be fine. Again i think its prob diff company policys and stuff. who knows

 

yep that would be young claire very nice lady and she did mention to me she spoke to you

 

compnaies like, business post, tnt , parceline etc will take you on and a give you a contract on a self employed basis, i think you get so much for each parcel you deliver , think its like £1.50 or sumit, i think they expect you to deliver around 100 pacels a day, seems hard work but i think there is good money to be made in it if you put in that hard work

 

Cheers Greg just tell her to give us some more work

 

russ thats seems a bit exageratted compared to up here, vans no older than 5yr but can only be sprinter,lt35 or transit. 80 drops of timed,nxt day etc will pull around 850.00 pw which after cost = 500ish, i could knock 80 out by 5pm on a 7am start. Really depends on route though. Deffo no a walk in the park. preperation is the key and avoiding busy areas at peak times etc. Also having a good team laying out your route in morning so there is basically loading when you start makes a big difference

 

Quite right, however, sometimes the drivers do have it easy as if the are dropping 100 parcels a day and 10 drops each have 10 parcels, they'd be done in a few hours, then the overtime can begin.

 

she tries m8 just sometimes she not given a choice who to use by some of our export customers

 

Im a driver for city link. Im employed by them and on average i earn £600 a week , they supply the van and i get to take it home which is another bonus !!! I like being out and about, i stop when i want with nobody getting on my back

 

as buk said its around 1.50 per parcel but b4 12 b4 12 etc you get more and collections also pay more (2.40) so thats where you make money, next day drops are the in fill to the next good drop

Also dont forget a drop and parcel are different, parceline wont pay for 3 parcels delivered on 1 drop you will only get paid for 1 parcel

 

yeh i could have got insured but was a hell of a lot of money, got told by a few to wait the extra year then you can get insured by anyone and its a lot cheaper (although courier insurance is bloody expensive anyway)

and tbh i would hire a van instead of buying one, the amount of money you will save is amazing, you have to fork out around a grand at the start for deposit etc then its 400 a month, seems a lot but you never have to worry about breaking the thing as you just get another van

 

Well, that is how it is here, i suppose it depends on carriers and their terms, trouble is, some drops are pre 9am, some 9am so you cant always avoid the traffic which is where most time is lost....

Its NOT easy by any means, quite a challenge in fact, my drivers tend to do 90 drops per day, but then the vans and fuel is supplied, they earn about 350 pw also..but yes, planning your route is vital and knowing where the hell your parcels are in the van

 

Yes, i can give you some numbers to call, you could drop them your details and advise what you can do if required, not a problem, but i wouldnt have thought they'd be too impressed with an Astramax

 

deffo need to load van in order and pack it tight, nought worse than pulling outside a business at 9.50 with a b410 in the back then opening the back doors to find all the boxes have fell over and your looking for a small jiffy bag

 

you lot would not wana see the nightfeeight lorry that come sto us with deliverys in the mornings bomb site is a understatment


davemark we use city link what area do you do as i see you in essex

 

dont you also get a fine if you do miss a befre 10 drop etc

 

you just dont miss it lol not going into that