Wanting to be a self employed courier. Some questions

Jordan_M_Eastern

If you are intending to setup as an owner driver ( buying a van (transit size up the firms like). My advice is to higher for the first few weeks till you get the feel.

Ok let’s crunch some numbers:

Insurance for a Transit sized van: £3000 give or take. This covers goods in transit, PLB ,insurance and hire and reward.

That’s the first sting.

A sack truck (a must) eBay £40

Then the actual van: I got mine off face book for ££5700 and was luck to get a low mileage one.

So there’s your first bill of: £8700

Now that’s ok.. if you get the work..

Well easy enough to do providing you get return work.

Ie: you drive with a loaded van from Sheffield to London.. you need the return load.

Employers pay between 40-80p per loaded mile.. not included home run or if you take a load home over night and continue in the morning.

You have to claim your fuel.. so allow for £80-£160 a week in your wages for fuel.

So when you work out your mileage.. you think aww yeah.. made £400 this week working 8.5 a day sounds ok till you take the tax and fuel out.
Now look at your take home.

And that’s before you pay your van off.

Sooo... if you happy to drive the length of the uk for less than minimum wage each week.. ( some pay fortnightly), then I say go for it.

But the only way to make it work is to get return loads and graft like a dog.. social and beers at the end of the week? Forget it.

That’s my view anyway.. but I am still new to this and open to be proved wrong.

FYI. If you hear of earning £1000 a week.. that’s potentially true.. but that’s BEFORE deductions etc..

You want to pay for fuel and your vehicle now.. not next October. Especially if you are loaning on it or hiring it.

Like I say that’s my view.

Cheers all.

Jordan_M_Eastern

If you are intending to setup as an owner driver ( buying a van (transit size up the firms like). My advice is to higher for the first few weeks till you get the feel.

Ok let’s crunch some numbers:

Insurance for a Transit sized van: £3000 give or take. This covers goods in transit, PLB ,insurance and hire and reward.

That’s the first sting.

A sack truck (a must) eBay £40

Then the actual van: I got mine off face book for ££5700 and was luck to get a low mileage one.

So there’s your first bill of: £8700

Now that’s ok.. if you get the work..

Well easy enough to do providing you get return work.

Ie: you drive with a loaded van from Sheffield to London.. you need the return load.

Employers pay between 40-80p per loaded mile.. not included home run or if you take a load home over night and continue in the morning.

You have to claim your fuel.. so allow for £80-£160 a week in your wages for fuel.

So when you work out your mileage.. you think aww yeah.. made £400 this week working 8.5 a day sounds ok till you take the tax and fuel out.
Now look at your take home.

And that’s before you pay your van off.

Sooo... if you happy to drive the length of the uk for less than minimum wage each week.. ( some pay fortnightly), then I say go for it.

But the only way to make it work is to get return loads and graft like a dog.. social and beers at the end of the week? Forget it.

That’s my view anyway.. but I am still new to this and open to be proved wrong.

FYI. If you hear of earning £1000 a week.. that’s potentially true.. but that’s BEFORE deductions etc..

You want to pay for fuel and your vehicle now.. not next October. Especially if you are loaning on it or hiring it.

Like I say that’s my view.

Cheers all.

andygb

eamon wrote: »

Its already an extremely crowded & competitive market. Don't do it. There are threads on here by people that work for the likes of Hermes, Yodel etc. For most its a struggle to make a living. A Yodel driver delivered to me last week he had 120 drops to do. Its mad.

I totally agree.
Back in the day I did a bit of long range motorcycle couriering, and when you offset the money spent on chains, sprockets, tyres, servicing, fuel, it didn't really stack up.
As you have said the market is at saturation point, and I think it would drive many people mad, particularly when you take into account the state of the roads and increased traffic:(

System

If you want to make money driving go spend £3,000 on getting your Cat C+E license and go drive a lorry.

pelirocco

patrickb wrote: »

Thanks for all the replies everyone. Some good things to consider.

1) Primarily people would use me as i'd be local to the area i'm serving. I'd post an advertisement in the local paper. People might like this idea possibly?

2) I'd use the Royal Mail site to get the rates for the trips, ie one postcode to another. When I've used this in the past it's been fairly reasonable on fuel and realistic.

3) Almost the same answer to question 1. Like a lot of local business's i'd put an advert in the local paper every week continuously. I'd hope this would provide a small amount of work. The rest i'd assumed would come from word of mouth.

You need to work out what your overheads will be , You will need at least goods in transit insurance , however the good you carry will only be insured up to £30 a tonne that won't be enough to cover the small items you intend to carry , therefore you need to arrange a higher insurance cover and you will need terms and conditions that have to be deemed fair and all your customers need to be aware of the cover and sign to agree it
You need to factor in insurance , road fund licence ,vehicle purchase /hire , repairs,servicing and mot costs,fuel,and your wages ...to get a rough idea what you need to earn each day .We own a transport company and would probably want £120 at least per day for a van .....thats a lot of parcels to deliver

custardy

patrickb wrote: »

2) I'd use the Royal Mail site to get the rates for the trips, ie one postcode to another. When I've used this in the past it's been fairly reasonable on fuel and realistic.

.

You mean RM that charges the same price for the whole of the UK?

motorguy

Jordan_M_Eastern wrote: »

If you are intending to setup as an owner driver ( buying a van (transit size up the firms like). My advice is to higher for the first few weeks till you get the feel.

Ok let’s crunch some numbers:

Insurance for a Transit sized van: £3000 give or take. This covers goods in transit, PLB ,insurance and hire and reward.

That’s the first sting.

A sack truck (a must) eBay £40

Then the actual van: I got mine off face book for ££5700 and was luck to get a low mileage one.

So there’s your first bill of: £8700

Now that’s ok.. if you get the work..

Well easy enough to do providing you get return work.

Ie: you drive with a loaded van from Sheffield to London.. you need the return load.

Employers pay between 40-80p per loaded mile.. not included home run or if you take a load home over night and continue in the morning.

You have to claim your fuel.. so allow for £80-£160 a week in your wages for fuel.

So when you work out your mileage.. you think aww yeah.. made £400 this week working 8.5 a day sounds ok till you take the tax and fuel out.
Now look at your take home.

And that’s before you pay your van off.

Sooo... if you happy to drive the length of the uk for less than minimum wage each week.. ( some pay fortnightly), then I say go for it.

But the only way to make it work is to get return loads and graft like a dog.. social and beers at the end of the week? Forget it.

That’s my view anyway.. but I am still new to this and open to be proved wrong.

FYI. If you hear of earning £1000 a week.. that’s potentially true.. but that’s BEFORE deductions etc..

You want to pay for fuel and your vehicle now.. not next October. Especially if you are loaning on it or hiring it.

Like I say that’s my view.

Cheers all.

Interesting figures, and worth pointing people to this thread and post when it comes up again (which it will).

My brother had his own small haulage company for a few years - had three articulated lorries on the road full time and (obvs) a couple of full time drivers.

He could easily get the work per loaded mile, but it was the lack of backfills that killed the business. Driving the length of Ireland at £1.00 per mile or whatever it was was all very well, but getting the lorry and driver back up the road at his own cost made it unviable as a business.

At the small van end of the market it strikes me as everyones "ideal job" - driving about in a van all day, etc etc. But the reality in terms of making it pay is somewhat different (as you have summarised).

lincroft1710

Pelirocco and custardy - you've both replied to a 2 year old post

bugslet

lincroft1710 wrote: »

Pelirocco and custardy - you've both replied to a 2 year old post

Beat me to it lincroft:D

Motorguy, I will only take on a job that pays round trip rather than loaded miles, money isn't in it to go chasing a backload that barely covers fuel and probably on 90 days payment terms.