How it should work

I am a Courier Company. I tout for work. I spend money on a website, sales & marketing blumph, and try and encourage Businesses to ring us. I have drivers who work solely for me, and a database of drivers to call on when they're all out, or the pick up is in a different part of the country. I am Office based

I come with many customers, so work for me and you have one point of contact with more chance of work than you being on your own.

Great thread Rob. You're making me inclined to add a 'sticky' feature to the forum.

A price is a price if you don't like it move on to someone else if these people have got it so wrong they will fade a die.

Correct MK Bikes, however especially for those new to the game you may find they're better at quoting after a few weeks/months.

Hmmmm, i am not saying i disagree with you speed because you are obviously succesful however are you saying that even though you have no drivers to cover work you tout on here expecting a favourable rate but still want to take a cut, dont get me wrong i am not having a go just trying to understand how you or others work.

From the other side as a OD I have to rely on networking and Mtvan all the time. What gets to me is a fair! Price for a good job. I have this week quoted for a job of 136 miles £80 was to much. I run a well maintained van, taxed insured at over £2000 pound a year, how can I deliver a service for less. I work for some of the larger companies at poor rates so need to try to receive return loads at a sensible price. Perhaps we are own worst enemy.

I have spent a lot of time and money touting for customers, and what they expect is availability. And that is what they get, by utilising a network of drivers, yourself included.

£80?

therein lies a problem speed, i have quoted at 70ppm and had no work so far, i suspect that there are people taking backloads at somewhat less than 59p just to offset their costs, i cant afford to work for those rates.I would love to work for a reliable fair paying couried firm as an OD its proving more difficult than i thought even to get a start.

Well i would persevere cos no one can quibble with that rate. There's always going to be those quoting lower so they guarantee to get their load home, but that's not gong to be the case that often cos their timing won't necessarily work for the vendor.

No Rob

This is a blueprint for how you would like to see things how you would like things to work to make your business run well .

a job is a job a price is a price . I might run my vehicles cheap for DHL who are going to pay me next week but realistcly you are asking for unsecured credit that the banks refuse to offer transport companies !!! Why should you expect these small business people to offer you credit at better rates than the banks and accept such a cheap rate in return . !!

You trying to tell me how it works but out of this game I own my yard, my vehicles , my house , and I own the house my son lives in and you wonder why I gat irrate when you try to teach me my business !!!!!!!! I have been doing transport for 43 years man !!!!!!!!!!!

Website admin good advice for the ones getting started but in my experience when a person hits about year 2 or 3 he moves away from running cheaply and will quote higher rates as he propably gains more and more and cherry picks the good work . For some reason people on this forum appear to be dead against people trying to make more money from their businesss

"I run cheap for DHL"

Im not here to insult you Rob nor use you as an example but if your asking for credit for a month or more that should be reflected in the rate that is charged I f you were to say payment made by card when the POD is phone through or card payment made on booking you would then have a very good argument for expecting a cheaper rate  .

Somewhere along the line the courier industry has become different from the transport industry I can see where !! The industry as a whole has been burdened by bad debts most defently smaller to medium courier companies I have lost thousands over the years all to small /medium companies

Im guessing your a good guy Rob with the best of intentions If you were not you would not be representing yourself and being open in this way but your way is not the only way . As a sole trader with a relativly high turn over and  being this old I canot offord to take the risk .

There is not rate scale or format as you deplict I mean what I say the ones that answer the phone may not even want to do the job so you cant blame them for quoting high.

I know these new boys are very keen but the people that have being going longer that have a weeks work that is safe are probably not that keen and not that willing to go out for 70 p amile after doing a day s work .

I do agree that the guy returning home chagres just his feul money is a good thing but we must not confuse that with this issue .

As far a credit worthyness goes its not even me these days that would do a Credit check my bookeeper does that for me The risks are culculated .This is more than we used to do in the old days and hell does it make some reading !!!

Well i still have drivers from when i first opened the doors, and these are guys that had experience of the industry before i got into it. And if 90% of the subbies are quoting around the same price, then forgive me Bob, but that suggests to me that the going rate is what i suggest it is.

I dont know Rob I think your showing a lack of respect for those that do quote a high rate.

If they were despaerate they would quote lower rates I dont see how the boys down South can afford to run at those rates the way things are down there How the hell do young drivers starting out make it ?

DHL, TNT, UKMAIL YODEL and all the large carriers tend to pay O/D s weekly.
This is because the subbie rate is the same now as it was in 1999.
They also have a fuel surcharge which i am not convinced gets passed down.
We do act as backup for some of the big carriers but have to charge our normal rates and they only use us as a last resort.
Some of them settle weekly and some monthly.
We have had some stupid rates from London couriers and some good ones a few months ago we had to collect some equipment from the London eye and move it 3 miles, One courier £145 + vat the other £15 + vat.
And people say the rip off rate is just what you have to pay in London.
The same goes north of us, some good standard rates and some who haven't got a clue on rates.

So...central London work 3 miles = 4 hours work at £15 for the job...now that is cheap

Probably right place at the right time

Good Morning Nottingham

               The way we work with them are as you point out and rates have rarley climbed but you can negotiate .

Where we do OK with these companies is on the flatbed work as it always almost near a 7.5 tonner and not everybody has them . They do however use a little bit more juice so we reflect in the rates as well. & 7.5 toners are also rare around here so the next thing for them to do is sub it to a 18 tonner and that too dear so we have a method in our madness !!

We have an tri axle Ifor Williams trailer but we are only allowed to tow it for fun these days

How is 3 miles 4 hrs work?

Jeez speed you had a sense of humour removal....i was joking :-)

I wasn't talking about multi dropping rates we have a subby driver we sometimes call who works for DHL and 50pplm is the rate---------As it was in 1999.
He went to London a few weeks ago for us and when he was paid he though that we had over paid him.
We don't touch multi drops. We did however do a 5 drop run 2 weeks ago at our rate.

EG London up to 2 miles £15, 3-5 £20, 5-7 £25, 7-10 £30 and 10-15 £35

Mr Nottingham has hit the nail on the head!
if your in the right place at the right time then you can discount your rates to get the job,
normally 0.70ppm is my normal price and I do OK on this price if someone does not want to pay this then I don't get the job, However I happened to be driving past a job from Bristol going to W1 I was already on a retail job going to W1 it seems criminal not to quote cheap,
it worked out at 4miles@£18.75+vat per mile for the extra drop!
So discounting is not a bad thing as long as it's of benefit to both parties!
and of coarse prices are always subject to customer attitude!!!! 

And i have a guy that works for TNT at 47p per mile so is very happy indeed getting what we pay.

And contrary to what some may think I do respect other peoples opinions BUT only when that opinion has some foundations holding it up, rather than an opinion sitting on a hillside with a fast running rather swollen river sitting next to it and no boat.

Quote: 'Like i said in a previous thread, once you start moving this networking comes into its own'

Prices are subject to customer attidude

I do like that one ,That has to go in at least the top 25 of worthy quotes !!

Well Scott all I can say is, new or not, if you conduct yourself in a professional way you are sure to get "trusted" and get repeat biz., and on that count you have nothing to fear whatsoever.

im with you tony a price is a price take it or leave it, i use milage rate as a guide price depending on where its going and what time its going

like friday afternoons anyone that charges there normal price for london on a friday afternoon is crazy lol (unless you get ££££££ out of a customer then thats a different matter)

if someone was to call us on a friday afternoon for central london and its just a one customer, they'd be on £2plm at least lol trade or not trade :-)

I have drivers who work solely for me

self employed?

I have drivers who work solely for me

self employed?

Good question because thats not how it should work !!!

My drivers are the books and I dont know what Im doing or what Im on about !!!!

But my drivers on the books I guess that makes us a proper company !!! ?

if you have drivers solely working for you then they should be employed, unless you have a water tight contract with them and the tax man

Speed Couriers (Stansted Airport) said:

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The more we all communicate where we are, the more we can keep the vans filled and cut down your dead mileage.

Come on Rob ive been texting you all week and still waiting for your call . Wrong place at the wrong time?

Obviously otherwise you'd have had a call back....the chances of your whereabouts fitting in to where one of my pick ups is is a bit like a needle in a haystack. That's why you have the likes of MTvan and Courier Exchange. Tell them where you are and 100's of Couriers are informed thereby increasing your chances of getting a result.

Mr G, Rob wont give you any courier work until you put some wheeltrims on your combo!

No wheeltrims? Thanks for the tip....You can't be too careful in this game! Thank god you told me before it was too late