Catalogue distributing... Worthwhile?

apoorstudent

As I study full-time in uni, I need some kind of income (I don't have a maintenence loan, and am not eligable for benifits)... But it needs to be quite a flexible job, so I thought maybe catalogue distribution would be a good idea.

Can anyone tell me more? Can you recommend any companies? What's the pay like? Is it hard work?

Or, is there anything else other that mystery shopping that people can recommend to bring in an extra few quid? I pay out £100/month for transport so I could do with some extra pennies other than what I make flogging my junk on ebay :P

Thanks in advance!

Shiggaddi

I did the Thomson directory about 10 years ago, and never again.

You can only carry a handful at once, so even in town areas you have to keep moving the car so you're not walking too far, whereas if it was leaflets, you could pick up a few hundred and do a whole estate.

You mention about paying out for transport. You would definitely need a car (or better still a van!!) for catalogues, but maybe not for leaflets.

The pay was also quite bad, and I had to use the car as storage.

apoorstudent

Shiggaddi wrote:

I did the Thomson directory about 10 years ago, and never again.

You can only carry a handful at once, so even in town areas you have to keep moving the car so you're not walking too far, whereas if it was leaflets, you could pick up a few hundred and do a whole estate.

You mention about paying out for transport. You would definitely need a car (or better still a van!!) for catalogues, but maybe not for leaflets.

The pay was also quite bad, and I had to use the car as storage.

Hmm, I was thinking more in my local area than all around town. Although I have a bus + train pass, so transport wouldn't cost me any extra.

What was the pay?

impy78

I know it is only a short term solution, but does your uni have a hardship fund or a bursary?

When i was at uni, I received a hardship fund a couple of times and I am on a scholarship at the moment too.

Shiggaddi

I did it in my local area, and the pay ended up less than £4 per hour, and it was also regarded as self employed and this was before the minimum wage came in.

It would be very hard to get your own streets, and you would have to pick up the booklets from a central collection point.

You would also have a round of about 300-400 houses, and you probably wouldn't carry more than 20 at a time.

And as for the yellow pages, then you'd carry even fewer at a time.

Poppycat

How about the local free paper? I dont think pay is brilliant but it may be worth considering. I even seen adults deliver the evening paper.

Shiggaddi

Poppycat wrote:

How about the local free paper? I dont think pay is brilliant but it may be worth considering. I even seen adults deliver the evening paper.

That is probably more realistic.

I used to do it myself before I had transport. The pay wasn't brilliant, and I certainly wouldn't do it now, but it was good to see my through college.

It also kept me fit.

Astaroth

I guess the question is also why do you need it to be that flexible? Surely your uni work is around mon-fri 9-5 and then "homework" to do in your own time as you see fit?

The majority of people at my uni worked in call centres for their part time work either in the evenings or weekends (or both) which did cut down on the socialising time (and so reduced outgoings) and also brought in a 1/2 way respectable income.

I dont know if things have changed since my day but when I worked for a catalogue company the people who delivered our parcels were the same people that delivered the catalogues themselves. They only got peanuts for each parcel delivered or collected and then only got paid at all on a successful delivery - if they went to make a collection and the customer wasnt in then they didnt get paid at all. 90% of people who did it were stay at home mums who covered a very small area and basically did the job on the way back from the school run etc and therefore didnt incur additional costs