courior how much ££ per drop

jess_the_cat

courior how much ££ per drop would like advice is 50p about the norm.
thanks all.

clairibel

I worked for DHL @ home and i used to get 65p a drop and that included going back up to 3 times. Who you working for? :rolleyes:

jess_the_cat

:beer: No one as yet just an offer from a small co. may give it a go

max2009

Do not forget your public liability insurance and also fuel costs.

Antispam

Also I doubt legally you are able to drive your own car on normal insurance you would have to contact your insurance company

For 65p a drop and perhaps some call backs, umm I dont think it would be worth it unless the calls are all close together

max2009 wrote: »

Do not forget your public liability insurance and also fuel costs.

max2009

Police are currently clamping down on couriers and pizza delivery who use their own cars as there has been a sudden increase in accidents.A lot of the time the police are finding they have no public liability insurance or even told their insurance companies they are now using their car for work purposes.

Forris

Is this something you would be doing in your own vehicle, or would the company be providing one? If it is your own, as well as public liability and work-based car insurance, would you also be required to have goods-in-transit insurance?

50p per drop sounds quite low. How many drops will you be doing? Is this a full or part-time job? What sort of mileage will you be expected to cover?

Courier companies are always looking for drivers, but you need to look at the figures very carefully. A couple of pence per parcel/drop can make the difference between making a decent wage and making a loss.

jess_the_cat

Thanks guys im just looking into it at the moment im waiting for a chat and and more info first.:D

schneckster

Hi,

I'm an ex self employed courier. I got out when my daughter was born. Too many hours meant I wouldn't see her so a change of job was preferable.

However, I spent long enough doing it to know how to do it and what not to do.

If you're self employed you need to know and understand your costs and what your capabilities are. So:

1. Decide on a van. The van you buy will dictate the rate you can charge. Small vans are better for new startups as they're cheaper. You can buy or lease, but you need to know the costs. [EMAIL="DON@T"]DON'T[/EMAIL] USE YOUR CAR!!!! For a start, you'll kill it in 6 months, and secondly, decent companies will think you a cowboy!
2. Get insurance quotes. When I was working, my insurance came to approx £2000 per year. Your 10 years no-calims discount on your car is only worth 2 years no claims as a courier. Insurance should be a courier (if multidropping)/light-haulage motor policy to cover the van; goods in transit (GIT) to cover the goods you carry; and public liability to cover everything else
3. Get an idea of service and tyre costs for the vehicle you choose
4. Get a mobile phone contract and the monthly charge
5. Factor in clothing, office equipment and consumables, and anything else
6. Open Excel and put all these costs in.
7. Add them up and then divide them by the annual mileage. If you want to work full time, then it's quite simple. In an 8 hour day, you can drive around 400 miles when you account for stops, traffic, and the odd unknown. Multiply that by 5 days a week, 48 weeks a year. Only half of those miles will be paid by the customer though. It's all done on a price per loaded mile, i.e., while you have the goods onboard. So divide that mileage figure by 2. Then divide all the costs by this mileage. This gives you your cost per mile.
Work out how much you want to earn. Be practical, here. It's no good wanting to earn £50k, because you won't. Again, divide this by your mileage rate. This is your pay per mile.
Add your cost per mile, and your pay per mile together, and this is your rate per mile that you charge customers.

But there are two customer types. Sub contract customers (other courier companies, who will probably give you the bulk of your work) and end users (anyone who actually needs a courier). There's usually about a 10 to 20p per mile difference in rate between the two for a small van.

Before you commit to doing this, though, you need to do your research. The big boys like TNT and DHL make more money by using drivers who only work for them. I didn't and made more money on jobs for them than their own drivers. As completely freelance you can work for anyone, so a flick through the Yellow Pages will show you loads of courier companies worth ringing.

But you must do your research and know what you're getting into. It's a difficult business, especially right now when people are cutting back on delivery costs.

I hope this has helped,

Schneckster

kinglewis121

thanks alot for that info mate i was thinking about this myself made it alot clearer because the bloke that delivers to us is from city link but uses his own van , he did say to me that u can make 300 pounds a day if you tried is this a bit of a myth?

thanks

schneckster

If you look at the adverts in the papers for the courier's handbook that tell you you can earn £300 a day with your own car... well, I hate to say it's not that easy. These claims centre on being able to get backloads. Say you live in Birmingham and get a job to, say London. You drop off and then get a load from a London company to take back to Birmingham. That's a backload and extra money... you were going home anyway, now you're getting paid for it.

Nice though they are, backloads are rare as local companies have their local drivers to keep happy before giving a job to an out of town driver. In two years, I had 4 backloads.

But if you work for several local places, then maybe more than one has a job to the same place. But again, this isn't too common. In two years, I had about 15 of these.

My best days, money-wise, came from jobs to Scotland (Glasgow was worth £200, Aberdeen worth £250), or Europe. Small vans (what I used) aren't used often for Europe work, so I didn't get many of these, but bigger vehicles, do. You can charge overnight rates, tolls, hotels, the lot.

Multi-drop drivers like the DHL bloke, are different. Bigger vehicles get better rates, but multidrop is a van killer and seriously hard work if you don't know the area that well. Multidroppers usually get paid a day rate rather than a mileage rate, although some pay mileage (usually around 40 miles, or so) plus so much per drop.

But again, a freelancer doing multidrop in a large van (XLWB Sprinter) can earn that sort of money. But again, the courier companies will try to use their own drivers first.

The way to do it is to work for other companies first to get the money coming in and your reputation improving. And then start looking for your own customers.

But above all, know the business before you commit money. It cost me 4 months of research before I set up... and setting up cost over £10,000! We're not talking small amounts, here.

Hope this helps,

Schneckster