dhl self employed couriers advert??

bigmacman

ive just seen a advertisement in my local paper for dhl self employed couriers.I was just wondering if any1 does this particular job or has done it in the past it says you deliver 25 to 30 parcels a day in your local area and you can get paid between £400 to £600 per month

any advice would be helpful as im desperate for a new job to keep the bills paid on time.

paulwf

If you are self employed you won't get any holiday pay (currently a minimum of 5.6 weeks a year in an employed position) or sick pay (usually a week or two if you average it over several years) and you will need to keep your own accounts in order to do a yearly return.

You will need to pay for all the running costs of your vehicle plus commercial insurance will be higher...this will probably run to a few hundred a month.

Basically if you aren't getting the benefits of being an employee plus a lot of your wages will go on expenses work out what your actual take home pay will be over the year. It looks like it will be very little for a lot of effort.

kingfisherblue

My ex was employed by Securicor, which was taken over by DHL. Paulwf is correct in what he says, but also, you need to find and pay for somebody to cover your run if you are off sick or on holiday (at least, this used to be the case). This is because you are given a certain area to cover and even if you cannot work because of holiday or sickness, the parcels still have to be delivered.

I think you also need insurance to cover the cost of parcels going missing/ breakages/ etc while they are in your care.

My ex left DHL five years ago. At the time, a few of his mates had moved over to the self-employment status, thinking that they would be better off. They ended up working twelve hour days in some cases, just to bring home the same amount of income as they had previously as paid employees on a standard full time rate.

Sorry if that isn't what you want to hear, but I wouldn't be self employed for DHL for anything.

robredz

It is most likely for the DHL@home service.

You get parcels delivered to your home, similar to Parcelnet, and the old Redcats, catalogue goods deliveries. and use your car/small van, this job usually doesn't pay enough to warrant using a Transit. You will be expected to deliver them at a time convenient to the customer, up to and including 9pm, and will get approx 65p per parcel, so 30 parcels a day would give you £19.50, less fuel and costs so £97.50 for a 5 day week. You are not paid for the parcel until it is delivered.

The courier work mentioned by kingfisherblue, would be the van rounds using LWB Sprinters and Ivecos, they pay around £1.40 a drop. A great many deliveries are being diverted from the van rounds to the @home couriers, well do the math .65p a drop against £1.40........

robredz

kingfisherblue wrote: »

My ex was employed by Securicor, which was taken over by DHL. Paulwf is correct in what he says, but also, you need to find and pay for somebody to cover your run if you are off sick or on holiday (at least, this used to be the case). This is because you are given a certain area to cover and even if you cannot work because of holiday or sickness, the parcels still have to be delivered.

I think you also need insurance to cover the cost of parcels going missing/ breakages/ etc while they are in your care.

My ex left DHL five years ago. At the time, a few of his mates had moved over to the self-employment status, thinking that they would be better off. They ended up working twelve hour days in some cases, just to bring home the same amount of income as they had previously as paid employees on a standard full time rate.

Sorry if that isn't what you want to hear, but I wouldn't be self employed for DHL for anything.

That part of DHL, the old Securicor Omega Parcels, has been sold on to Home Delivery Network (HDN), who were the old White Arrow catalogue delivery organisation I think (200 drops and throw the parcel over the hedge)

Hoodster42

I used to work for Dhl for 2 years, only stuck with them because it was regular money really, but yeah, felt kinda like a full time job for part time pay. I used to do 40-60 parcels a day over 2 post codes again at 65p per parcel. I could often do 14 drops each hour in the first 2 hours, with the 2nd larger post code that went down to 7 or 8 an hour usually. So I would say it's just about worth it if you need the money.
Eventually I managed to negociate a pay rise of 85p per parcel, but due to bereavement I had to go down to 30 odd a day at 65p again - so if you do a lot of deliveries, you can push for an increase in pay.
Most worryingly though are the parcels for addressee only. Not only did I have to get a signature, I couldn't leave it with a neighbour either. Early on in my time there I would get 3 or 4 of these a week which was fine. During my last year they increased to 4, 5 even 6 a day and I was only doing 35 or so a day.
Needless to say I gave them to a neighbour anyway, no way I'm going to drive to up to 30 addresses a week and not get paid because the recipient isn't at home. But it shows the utter contempt that Dhl bosses have for their workers.
If you're going to take this job, business class 3 insurance is a must. Not expensive at £40 - 50 per year, but it's getting more and more difficult to find non commercial insurers to cover couriers/delivery drivers.