the dx(courier company) self employed help!

zeddy1

hello folks, i need some advice. i've read about self employed courier jobs on this forum and it doesnt make for good reading. for all of you who dont know what "the dx" are they are similar to city link and parcelforce.

thing is i might have a job coming up with them, i've passed the vetting process and they've told me that i need to hire out a van(£297p/m+vat) and also get insured(£263p/m) which i have quotes for. i'm hearing they are offering £800 a week minus all of the costs (van, insurance, fuel) which may come around to about 500-600 quid a week.

they also told me i dont get any holidays(because im self employed), i work 6 days a week 5am to 5pm (bye bye social life) but the money is decent.

my question is has anyone had any experience with this sort of thing because at the moment the money seems too good to be true.also because i have no experience in this line of work and they are ready to start my training. please advise me.

kind regards
zed.

Annisele

It may be reasonably decent money, but it's probably also at your risk.

The van and insurance costs will be there whether you get any work from them or not. So - is there anything in the contract about how much work they will send your way, or about what happens if there isn't enough work?

rockybalboa

If they send enough work your way then your on a winner.
I know that the DX Courriers have a massive contract with the American Embassy in London, so collecting passports from people at their home addreses and delivering them to the embassy and back will be one of your jobs.
Good thing about that is there is no weight to transport so you will not be burning too much fuel.

maninthestreet

The hourly rate, after costs, is £3.33 - is it really worth it?

warwicktiger

Have you checked how many drops a day you will be expected to do?

I suspect that to make a decent wage you will find yourself doing 12 hours a day.

Before committing yourself try and speak to someone already doing the job and see if it is for you.

Rylynn

maninthestreet wrote: »

The hourly rate, after costs, is £3.33 - is it really worth it?

Really is that what it equates to, then heck I would not even consider it myself.

RL

bugslet

£800.00 pw x 52 = 41600.00

297 x 12 = 3564

263 x 12 = 3156.

Post van hire and insurance leaves you with £34880.00 out of which comes fuel, income tax/NI and whatever is left for you wages. Fuel will be the big outlay and we'd need to know more before finding out how much of an outlay it will be.

You need to know what the job involves - is it all local or long distance As a new boy/girl, it's unlikely you will get the plum jobs and how much of that work is guaranteed?

My view is that if a company wants you to take all the risk, it's for a reason, in their case they don't have to pay for a van and driver when they are standing.

Think it needs a bit more looking at myself.

gb12345

zeddy1 wrote: »

i'm hearing they are offering £800 a week minus all of the costs (van, insurance, fuel) which may come around to about 500-600 quid a week.

They aren't offering that - they are saying you might make that.

You will be self-employed - that means that they only pay you for the work you do for them not a fixed wage.

Do you know how they pay? Is it per job, per mile, per hour?

CKhalvashi

bugslet wrote: »

Fuel will be the big outlay and we'd need to know more before finding out how much of an outlay it will be.

Correct.

If it's a Transit, you'll be looking about 17p/mile, if a Sprinter about 20p a mile, anything else, I don't know. This is typically with 4 people and band gear in the back, 60% on motorways.

Please be aware, that all our vans since March 2008 have been Sprinters, so the figures on the Transits may be a little out.

CK

ETA: That should read that the oldest Transits we have are '57' plate, and I think about 3 '08' plates, and they'll be going in the next year to 18 months. The reason that we go for the Sprinters, just before anyone asks, is because MB retro-fit the vans to our specification, whereas Ford needed approx. £9000 spent on them. Automatic gearboxes are also nice, which Ford don't do.

zeddy1

thanks for the replies folks. im sorry i didnt specify the hours when i meant 5am-5pm, the contracted is 8 hours a day at £7.50 an hour. you start at 5am, load up your van and be out before 7am (or they fine you £10). you have to deliver all the tracked packages by about 9.30am and then theres the other packages which arent as important which you have till about 11.30. then heres the crappy bit, you get a long !!! break of 3 hours and you have to come back to do collections by 5pm. and i'll be doing this 5 and a half days of the week.

the van would be a ford transit swb 250 100ps and i would be doing 75 miles a day. they say they will negotiate the van hire/insurance/feul so that you make atleast a decent amount by the end of the week.

but i rang the operations manager today and he was all to pleased to hear from me. i'm starting to think this is all to good to be true(even though it is hard work).

one of the things that im scared of is, they could let me go at anytime and i'll be stuck with £600+ bills a month. i'm starting to think that its not that great of an opportunity after all.

kind regards
zed

maninthestreet

How can they 'fine' you???