DPD Driver Franchise

PXR5

it's about time HMRC and VoSA took an interest into the working practices of the parcel companies, using workers under the banner of being self employed to absolve themselves of costs and duty of care to their workforce. Their job titles include: Franchise, Self Employed, running a business etc, they're all terms used to entice people into their schemes, but you are actually none of these, you are basically an employee without any of the benefits, rights or safety attributes of being employed, no holiday pay, no sick pay, or workers rights (not that there are many of those these days) you will have no holiday or sick entitlements, if you are too ill to come into work, expect to be 'fined', typically they'll take £150.00 per day out of your earnings, a week off could well cost you £750.00, you will have no say in the area you work, or the route you'll be working, they can and will take work from you at will, the rates offered are non-negotiable, they set the rate, take it or leave it, how many self employed plumbers or electricians will allow you to dictate their rate of pay? exactly! all terms are dictated to you, you will have little or no input into the running of 'your own business', you are 'self employed' but the hours you will work are set by them, you have no say, there's no such thing as job and finish as you would expect being self employed, with other self employed trades, you are free to finish when it suits you, but not in the parcel industry, you finish when they say the job is done, and not before, they don't care about making you work above and beyond normal working hours, because you're 'self employed'. a 12+ hour working day is normal, 99% of the time with no break, you just don't get the time to have a break.

Think long and hard before jumping into this type of work.

colin58

Well I just love the way people are commenting on this. Seems that most of the comments are from people who have never been DPD Franchisee or even self employed.
To get the parcels delivered of course you have to work till the job is done...THAT IS THE WHOLE PURPOSE OF PARCEL DELIVERY!! You cant just decide to finish early because you feel like it. Get Real Please People!!
If it were such a bad deal for the Owner Drivers, they would be in real trouble as parcels would not be getting delivered and they would not be able to maintain the level of business that they do. Anybody going into this needs to be well informed and have their eyes wide open without the rose tints on but silly, unresearched comments dont help anyone make a decision.
I personally have been self employed for more than 10 years and prefer to remain self employed and self responsible. We all have to stick to rules whether self employed or paye. When self employed you dont get paid for your holidays and if your business is to continue and somebody else has to fill in for you then of course you will have to pay for their efforts etc etc.
Personally Im not a fan of Franchises as the rules are written by and for the Franchisor. However for the sort of ill informed comments coming from some on this forum , its easy to see that self employment would never be for them as you have to be self responsible. If you want the chance to earn over a grand a week after expenses then you must be prepared to work hard for it. You dont get something for nothing.

SailorSam

I think Colin 58 your post could have almost come from a Courier owners handbook the way it implies the money is here if you want to work hard. I've never had any sort of franchise or worked as a courier so don't speak from experience but have read many threads on this subject and you seem to be almost out on your own talking about how good it can be.

saintjammyswine

colin58 wrote: »

Well I just love the way people are commenting on this. Seems that most of the comments are from people who have never been DPD Franchisee or even self employed.
To get the parcels delivered of course you have to work till the job is done...THAT IS THE WHOLE PURPOSE OF PARCEL DELIVERY!! You cant just decide to finish early because you feel like it. Get Real Please People!!
If it were such a bad deal for the Owner Drivers, they would be in real trouble as parcels would not be getting delivered and they would not be able to maintain the level of business that they do. Anybody going into this needs to be well informed and have their eyes wide open without the rose tints on but silly, unresearched comments dont help anyone make a decision.
I personally have been self employed for more than 10 years and prefer to remain self employed and self responsible. We all have to stick to rules whether self employed or paye. When self employed you dont get paid for your holidays and if your business is to continue and somebody else has to fill in for you then of course you will have to pay for their efforts etc etc.
Personally Im not a fan of Franchises as the rules are written by and for the Franchisor. However for the sort of ill informed comments coming from some on this forum , its easy to see that self employment would never be for them as you have to be self responsible. If you want the chance to earn over a grand a week after expenses then you must be prepared to work hard for it. You dont get something for nothing.

how do you know people haven't done this?

colin58

SailerSam,
I can 100% assure you Im not a courier. Only ever done some curtain sider work through an agency. Did I say how good it can be??? Where did I say it was good working for DPD pray tell me!!! Most things you get out what you put in I think its fair to say. For those who are lazy and expect to get paid for doing very little , get paid for being off sick then go work for the local council whilst those jobs last!!
I was merely pointing out that parcel delivery if self employed is going to be hard work and you will need to work till job done. There are inferences that franchisees are being exploited for working long hours. Get real . I grew up on the farm and used to work in excess of 100 hours a week during harvest to get the job done. Thats a bit extreme I know but have no sympathy for those who expect to get paid loads for doing very little. Courier work will mean long hours, be thankful there is enough business out there at this time to keep up the momentum.
I have no idea what its like to be a franchisee with DPD but from intelligent reading, neither do most of the bloggers here. I do trust those who have given good accounts of their experience having worked there and for many who are still working there. Those and only those are the ones who can be trusted as they actually work there as apposed to those who have had chat with a mate down the pub who thinks he knows somebody who may have worked for DPD at some point etc etc.
Trust the facts and not heresay

mattcanary

colin58 wrote: »

SailerSam,
I can 100% assure you Im not a courier. Only ever done some curtain sider work through an agency. Did I say how good it can be??? Where did I say it was good working for DPD pray tell me!!! Most things you get out what you put in I think its fair to say. For those who are lazy and expect to get paid for doing very little , get paid for being off sick then go work for the local council whilst those jobs last!!
I was merely pointing out that parcel delivery if self employed is going to be hard work and you will need to work till job done. There are inferences that franchisees are being exploited for working long hours. Get real . I grew up on the farm and used to work in excess of 100 hours a week during harvest to get the job done. Thats a bit extreme I know but have no sympathy for those who expect to get paid loads for doing very little. Courier work will mean long hours, be thankful there is enough business out there at this time to keep up the momentum.
I have no idea what its like to be a franchisee with DPD but from intelligent reading, neither do most of the bloggers here. I do trust those who have given good accounts of their experience having worked there and for many who are still working there. Those and only those are the ones who can be trusted as they actually work there as apposed to those who have had chat with a mate down the pub who thinks he knows somebody who may have worked for DPD at some point etc etc.
Trust the facts and not heresay

The laws states employed workers should get a minimum of 20 (paid) days holiday per year.
DPD offer twelve days paid.

They call the work self-employed but it is not really. They tell you where, when and how you will work. They supply you with equipment. Additionally you have to pay for some of the equipment and/or training.

So DPD get around all the UK'e employment legislation by saying you are working self-employed.

That alone makes it a bad opportunity and rather dodgy, I would say. Several practices employers use are dodgy though, and could be interpreted as being illegal. That is, if the courts and government so wish to interpret it in that way. Zero hour cntracts is another one.

All of the above makes this a bad opportunity,in my opinion.


I would add that it is extremely doubtful that a courier working as an owner-driver for DPD would earn over a grand a week after expenses, Colin. Probably more like £400 a week after expenses max.

Mr_Inquisitive

Thinking about the DPD ODF option so found this very useful.
Thanks to pelirocco for some useful questions to ask at interview.

Just wondered what happen'd to andrewsjohn? Said you were going to blog about your experience but haven't seen an update. How did it go?

Jskillz

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.

Hello there anyone can help me I'm really thinking of doing this and can put the time in I understand you have 100 drops but what can you earn in a typical week ???????

maverick23456

I am with DPD as ODF. I have read many correct and some false information on this thread. If you have any questions regarding ODF, please forward them to me and I will answer as honestly as I can.

J3n4kd

maverick23456 wrote: »

I am with DPD as ODF. I have read many correct and some false information on this thread. If you have any questions regarding ODF, please forward them to me and I will answer as honestly as I can.

What can you potentially earn a month or week, when just starting, and after being settled
ThAnks