Own Car Driving Work

lclose62

I'm looking for some own car driving work, does anyone have any contacts/companies that offer this type of work?
I'm not looking for the usual Pizza Delivery type work, but more like courier work, travelling fair/long distances using my own car.
Has anyone had any experience of this type of work, any hints/tips etc would be appreciated.

:beer:

Antispam

Be careful there are scam companies that ask for up front fees so avoid any that ask for a fee

Also from what I read its poorly paid work ie you can get paid as little as 40p per parcel. You also need to notify your car insurance as you cant run a business under normal car insurance and some may be self employed so there many be tax implications

lvm

I keep seeing adverts for Yodel everywhere - not sure about pay or if it's worth it but worth a look into at least. They seem to advertise on Gumtree loads!

schneckster

Hi,

In a previous life, I worked as a freelance courier. So:

1. If you really want to get into this, forget a car and get a van. Courier/light haulage companies won't take you seriously unless you've got the proper kit. You might get jobs with your car for mobile phone companies, etc., but the real money is with courier/light haulage firms.
2. Work out your costs, properly, and don't undercharge or you'll be out of business in weeks. Easy way is this...
Add up your mileage: 8 hours a day at 50mph is 400 miles, 5 days a week, 48 weeks a year is a good base
Add your costs: the RIGHT insurance policies (courier/haulage motor insurance, public liability, goods in transit insurance (all risks, and NOT per kg!)), mobile phone costs, van services and tyres, van repayments, etc.... add them up to get a yearly figure. Also add in a salary. You're not a charity after all. And then add in fuel for the annual mileage you worked out. A price of 13p per mile isn't far off for a small van.
Divide the costs by half the mileage (you're only paid for loaded miles, but you still have to drive back). This is your minimum charge per mile.
When you ring people, see what they pay per mile and prepare to be a bit flexible. But remember you're trying to earn, here. Courier companies get trade rate from you, everyone else retail. When I did it (2007), for a Citroen Berlingo, it came out to around 65p per mile trade, 85p retail. Bigger vehicles get bigger prices. Things may have moved on, though.
3. Forget these books offering contacts. Not worth the money. The best thing to do is look in the Yellow Pages for courier or light haulage companies with names you've never heard of and get in touch.
4. Don't forget to register as self employed. With the correct insurance policies, sole trader is fine.

If you're looking at doing this part time, forget it. Controllers want to know that if they ring you, you're either available or on a job. If you're neither, they won't ring again. But full time, prepare to work interesting hours, but also interesting places and jobs. I lost count of the major concerts I delivered to (Take That, Oasis, Elton John, Anastasia with the female dancers wandering round with very little on! ), sights I saw (like a 1 tonne stillage full of women's underwear from a Tom Jones concert! :eek:) and the places I went (including Europe on occasions), and the things I delivered (racing pigeons, racing horse sperm samples, and a consignment of infant educational dvd's and hardcore !!!!!! dvds to the same place at the same time :think:).

It can be lonely, long days, and you'll live by your mobile phone. But I did enjoy it and I made a decent living from it. I gave it up when my daughter was born, though. 14 hour days when you're a new father is not what you want.

Good luck,

Schneckster

schneckster

Antispam wrote: »

Be careful there are scam companies that ask for up front fees so avoid any that ask for a fee

There used to be a few things that required upfront payment that actually worked. But once you got to know a few other people in the same game, you quickly didn't need to pay anything upfront for work. Stick to the Yellow Pages idea as courier companies pay you, not the other way round.

Antispam wrote: »

Also from what I read its poorly paid work ie you can get paid as little as 40p per parcel. You also need to notify your car insurance as you cant run a business under normal car insurance and some may be self employed so there many be tax implications

If you do multidrop (think average postman or DHL van making deliveries) then yes, you get paid so much per parcel. What the OP and I are both talking about is sameday couriers, which to be honest falls under light haulage rather than courier. With this you get paid per mile, not per parcel.

OP - flat rate for first 15 miles, say £20? And charge £10 per half hour waiting time. You do get people messing you around.

Schneckster

lclose62

Thanks for the detailed information, but I already have a full time job, and do a lot of MS work, so am really just looking for a little extra. I know of people who do this with their own car, even taking things to europe etc, and was just wondering if anyone has any info on this?

InsideInsurance

Surely you would ask the people you know?

Others have already told you about the standard of flat rate delivery for multidrop couriers.

Its going back a bit over 10 years but back then the catalogue company I worked for owned a (in)famous delivery company who started using small time private couriers whilst I was there. They used to pay 20p per successful delivery and 40p per successful collection, needless to say you got nothing for an attempted delivery/ collection which was unsuccessful. You also had Service Level Agreements for attempts and would have financial penalties if you failed to adhere to them.

The profitability of it all depended very much on you area, those that did well tended to have small areas with socio-economic conditions that matched the catalogue's target demographics as their parcels rarely required signatures, not much petrol to cover the area and a steady stream of work. Those that did badly had large patches full of DINKs, work was less common, more often signatures were required and people would be out and much further to travel to attempt the delivery.

As has already been said, your car insurance will not cover this type of work and you will need to get a proper courier insurance which is going to be significantly more expensive.