Reverse job what would you do???

We had a collection enquiry to collect from Skegness going to Coalville the other day.

After spending 20 minutes looking for someone near the collection point i was struggling.

I had 5 hours until the collection time so i called a courier in Coalville and asked for a reverse job
going across empty.

The courier said it wasn't worth it for him as he wanted the dead miles paying for.

Where are the dead miles it's a simply reverse job.

What do the rest of you think?

in real term's i would'nt do it either unless some running mileage was involved or unless it was a favor for some one i dealt with on a regular basis. 

The way I see it there is no difference wotsoeva, its a physcological thing. The argument is that you can't get a return journey therefore I will charge more BUT how many trips get a return journey?.....so for me, thats a naff argument, but one you'll never win.

I regularly send empty vehicles down to London to collect documents for a government institution in Sheffield as London rates are so, understandably, high. Pays the same either way!

I understand what everyone is saying but i think if i had said to the driver i have a Coalville to Skegness then the start and end points are the same, the mileage is the same so why would it not be worth it?.

The rate on the job is the same whichever way round it could be done.

Whenever we regularly collect goods from London coming back to Notts or Derby i don't charge more unless things don't go to plan and it's a problem like waiting etc.

I occasionally do reverse runs and I don't see  a problem with it. It's no different to going out loaded and back empty. The only drivers who could lose out are those that charge cheap rates for the one way and expect to make up their money with a backload. If you charge a proper outbound rate in the first place it makes no difference which way around you do it.

Well said Stuart 

Well said !!

We send approx 3 vehicles a day to places as far as 200 miles away from base to collect jobs. Whether we charge extra for this or not is between us and the customer. A job is a job, price it up for what you want. All this rubbish about not willing to work as you wont get a return job, what a load of crap.

I do reverse runs but youve got to specify that you still get paid if the job gets cancelled for any reason after youve set off. For example, i went to Brighton FC from Manchester to pick up a dvd of the game to take back to Leeds. When i got there got a call to say the game had been cancelled!! Got paid the full rate though because that's what was agreed. I'd only do reverse routes for companies i could trust.

I thinks it is simple when I price a job I always assume i will return empty so that is factored into my price, If i get something its a bonus, so if it had been me i would have done it, because work is work , i know at the price i quote i wont be out of pocket and  its like saying im not going from worc to somewhere as I dont know i will get a return job Loads each way are sweet but we all know it dont always work that way , also I would like to think i would also score points with you for any future work :) just my view :) 

Well it looks like 99.9% of everyone agrees with me on this one.

Obviously if the job was cancelled it would be me that would ensure that the driver was appropriately compensated and charge any costs to the customer.

OK I'll be the 0.01% then... I regularly get asked when quoting on jobs where "base" is as that seems to be taken into account by some controllers as to how much I should quote. 

Courier MX.

The way you run it is perfectly understandable and i would not disagree with you rejecting the job i had.

So in reality you are the 0.01%.

I always look for reverse jobs but the only issue is it could be 3hrs before i could collect the load which puts most customers off, if they have a local courier then he could be there in 30mins. Because of this they will go for the local guy.

I really don't see the problem! If you have time to get to the collection or the customer is prepared to wait then whats the difference? Its all the same mileage.

Totally agree, its still going to take the same amount of time!

Its the same milage if it all goes to plan.
I used to cover the majority of the tv collections from the bookies ( as Tony will remember ) I would send vans empty anywhere north of leicester to deliver back to either hinckley or milton keynes. Out of the hundreds i had cover only 2 went pearshaped. Arrived at collection to find the job had been cancelled, now as it was ME that had quoted on the job then all i could do was to price it as a cancellation and charge a minimum fee as if a local courier had priced it.
If we look at a reverse job thats been booked like this Skeggy pick up and something goes wrong then i would expect the courier to charge the full rate as he will still be doing 200+ miles on the round trip.
Worst still is when the coalville courier collects and gets to delivery point and the delivery is refused. Total milage then doubles to 400 as opposed to a skeggy one doing 200 to return it.
Surprised you went to the furthest point though instead of trying somewhere like Lincoln, grantham, newark etc. Same round trip milage but quicker to collection.

No such thing as a reverse job in my book. We price up on round trip mileage at about half point to point rates.

I tried courier companies and O/Ds in Lincoln, Newark, Peterborough and Boston. some on the directory list were no longer Couriers, Some didn't have vehicles available even though we had a good few hours until pickup.
I thought logically a Coalville driver the next best option.
If the job had problems it would be down to us to cover the costs of the driver and charge the customer.
At worst if the delivery address was closed we would have received the goods into Notts /Derby for re-delivery the next day.
The client was aware of the potential closing times and would have been charged accordingly.