DPD Driver Franchise

Goli1 wrote: »

I've just stumbled upon this thread whilst searching for some details for my nephew, so I apologise for resurrecting a *buried* thread - however I feel it may be pertinent to correct some misguided or indeed incorrect information.

I am a current franchisee for DPD with nearly 17 years under my belt, and maybe an extra 1 as an employee of Parceline (DPD's former name).
One of the biggest problems we have is the opinion of our *employed* colleagues who, frankly have no idea of what a franchise involves or the costs therein.
Linehaul drivers do have it quite easy (one of my best friends is a current linehaul driver) - but they don't earn anywhere near the money I earn. And a blowout costing 30% of your income? Seriously, do you really actually believe that?

A franchise at DPD is one of the cheapest start-up businesses around (£1300) and the current earning expectations of a new franchisee to earn up to £30k ish *after* direct expenses. Direct expenses are things such as vehicle lease, insurances, fuel and service costs. Other indirect expenses such as your own mobile phone, holiday cover, accountancy etc are not included in this figure but as they are tax deductable (and with different tax rates for self employed or limited companies) should be easily swallowed.

Im not going to say its all roses. If you are don't turn in for work, you do not earn anything and you will get fined £150, but then if you are the sort of person who feels the need to stay in bed because you have a cold then don't run your own business. I have only been fined on one occasion, after an accident at work - and the only reason they fined me was to cover their own procedures as they knew I would have to sue them to cover my own losses (funny old world, huh?). There have been occasions when I have had an upset stomache, migraine etc and I have rung up explained the situation and either turned up later in the day when I was better or just been told to "get well soon, we'll cover it".

If you have a blowout, you will have to pay for it - what did you expect, the tyre fairy to come and fix your van for you? When I leased a van from them I bought and carried my own spare tyre etc and researched which companies were cheaper to call out in cases of emergency. But even if you use ATS to fix your van it would never cost 30% of weekly profit.

You have to pay for a manual handling course? Sure, but why not - YOU ARE SELF EMPLOYED! Just as an update I believe these courses are now supplied free, at least the refresher courses are.

Long hours? Sure, i'm at the depot for 6:30 most days and some days I'll work 12 hours and others i'll work 8 - it's the luck of the draw and dependent on business/route.

I do hear a lot of naysayers when talking about DPD franchises sometimes, mostly from the ill-informed, the jealous or just the plain ignorant. If you can handle the life, the hours and the work load you can earn a very decent living. I have managed to support my family to a very high standard and now own 2 houses - all thanks to my franchise career at DPD. I would throughly recommend a franchise to anyone who asks me, provided they walk in with their eyes open and realise that it's not an employed job. If you become self-employed then take responsibility for your own actions, prepare for the worst case scenario if you can (tyres?) and be prepared to work hard to achieve what you want to.

Oh and mostly, I would advise those who have no in-depth experience of a subject matter to keep your opinions based on what you know, not on the hearsay or misguided opinions you pick up. Had I seen this message earlier I would have advised the OP, an un-employed family man, to go for it as it is certainly a less risky venture than the one he plumped for - I hope he was ultimately successful in what he did though.