Stick to yer guns

Now we all know Jan/Feb and March are historically quiter than we would like, but what i'm seeing from some owner drivers is suicidal.

Some say that they'd rather be moving than doing nothing, but there comes a point when doing nothing is better. And "doing nothing" could instead mean working out a new sales and marketing strategy, or simply carding a local industrial estate with your leaflet?

I've had some quotes in the last week as low as 50p a mile, why?, Not becasue they're going that way with a co-load, or returning home empty but because they're getting no success at their normal rates. Ok its "that time of year" ie more drivers than work perhaps, but moving anywhere at anything lower than 70-75pplm from home isn't sustainable, not to mention if you take a low paying job, you can't then do a proper paying job.

My advice, for what its worth is stick to your guns.

If your quote isn't accepted don't assume its always down to price.

If you sell yourself short then its you that will suffer, not the vendor, they'll still be there long after you've thrown in the towel

It will get even worse when Scotland goes independent there are talks of making there motorways toll roads, another expense for the poor subbie.

The chancellors announcement of £200m of funding to repair potholes will be welcome news to many fleets. Will this inflate other costs. This does mean even more road works, the country is almost at a standstill as it is.

BusinessBuddy said:

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The chancellors announcement of £200m of funding to repair potholes will be welcome news to many fleets. Will this inflate other costs. This does mean even more road works, the country is almost at a standstill as it is.

£199,000,000 cost for putting the bollards out, £1,000,000 for some second rate tarmac to repair roads South of Birmingham.

PMSL.

My guns are well and truly stuck here Speed and agree with your observations about selling yourself short, as said before my rates are my rates and they were worked out on what I can survive on.

Maybe Bollard manufacture may be the future instead of sameday.

Sorry Rob I went off topic

BusinessBuddy said:

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Sorry Rob I went off topic

Forgot to say 500 top of the range Land Rovers the Highway Agency

BusinessBuddy said:

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Maybe Bollard manufacture may be the future instead of sameday.

Funny you should say that. I went to school with a kid who's dad got the contract to supply the cones when they built the M25. New Jag, giant house, pool, Carribean holidays, he was rolling in it.

I've taken to posting what I am prepared to pay on jobs (on another site), cuts out the jokers as well as the suicide artists

I've taken to posting what I am prepared to pay on jobs (on another site), cuts out the jokers as well as the suicide artists

I think that's what I would do if I was selling work on here.

People can still offer lower if they want to.

Some people might be pleasantly surprised, even.

Above all, saves time for all concerned.

I saw a quote on another site for a 202 mile trip. Some muppet had put a bid of £89 on to do it. He lives 122 miles from the pick up and 340 ish from the drop off. Crazy or what?

GeeGee vans said:

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I saw a quote on another site for a 202 mile trip. Some muppet had put a bid of £89 on to do it. He lives 122 miles from the pick up and 340 ish from the drop off. Crazy or what?

Wouldn't have happened a few years ago. The Internet is solely to blame for making jobs available to all and sundry. Much prefer how it was 20 years ago, could certainly make alot more money then too!

RAPID LIGHT TRANSPORT LTD. said:

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Wouldn't have happened a few years ago. The Internet is solely to blame for making jobs available to all and sundry. Much prefer how it was 20 years ago, could certainly make alot more money then too!

I completely agree. I was looking on Anyvan, a guy wants his 4x4 picked up from the Lake District and delivered to the Pyrenees, 900 miles. He sent a rude message to a quote for £750 saying it can be done much cheaper, last time I paid £450. I guess the person that did it last time has gone broke or learned their lesson. A few weeks ago I was thinking about buying a van and becoming a courier again, after a bit of home work on this site I am very much having second thoughts.

Well I must agree with the first comment, am a newbie and yes done the 50p plm runs and travelled 30miles to do the pick up, I`am now going alone and yes its hard but its the only way to go, and yes I go for jobs and put my rate in and heard nothing, but when did courier work become a charity,

I don't think the internet can be blamed. If exchange sites ensure that they weed out or prevent from joining those who really have no understanding or knowledge of what being a courier is really about, and vendors who's sole ambition is to take advantage of the naive, then we are left with professional exchange sites with professional members, with both owner drivers and courier companies singing from the same hymn sheet.

This is what we should be striving for, and this is what exchange sites should be striving for.

If you lose your members trust of other members then surely the site loses its whole purpose in life.

You may call it elitist, but i'd rather have fewer members happy in the knowledge that when they post work they're going to pay, and when accepting a job its going to be done quickly, efficiently with no detours, stop offs or vans breaking down AND with the correct insurance by a driver that hasn't just done a 10 hour drive.

The internet, or rather the exchange sites on the internet, allows me to cover work nationally, and allows owner drivers to cover more work when they're already out driving... As long as we can trust who we're giving work to... And i look to exchange sites to help me make that decision. If they don't check out who they let join then i'm just using my gut instincts and leaving my companys reputation open to abuse. And we all know how long it takes to build a good reputation, and how quickly to lose it.

Maybe blame isn't the right word but without the internet there wouldn't be the exchange sites! The old days the custumer called a courier either he could do it or get it covered or he would have to turn the job down and it would be up to the customer to ring around until they found a courier that could do it.

Most jobs paid a proper rate for the job and there was no need for back loads. Rates today are no different to 20 years ago but fuel is a lot more expensive!

Without the internet the rates would be a lot higher now.

I said a long time ago the internet would be the death of a lot of retailers. If all retailers have an online shop and offer promotions/loss leaders to gather customers then the savy shopper would go online find the cheapest supplier of what they want and end up paying close to cost price. If everybody does this then no retailer makes a sufficient margin. (The situation of the courier industry now?) The only reason the retailers survive is some of the people with plenty of money are too lazy to shop around.

Sorrry but i disagree. The reason rates are lower than we would all like is more to do with the Big guns trying to undercut everyone to win contracts. And thats exactly what they do, leaving the majority of the rest of us sharing the crumbs of what's left.

You are right in that back in the dim and distant past if you had run out of drivers, you had little choice but to turn down work. The internet, or rather the exchange sites on the internet, means that your customer no longer has to ring around, because you now no longer say "no". You can take on every job even when you've run out of your own drivers and outsource it. If you have the confidence in the exchange site you use having good quality couriers, and enough of them, then if anything, the internet means we can take on a lot more work.

We even have Courier Companies who have no drivers whatsoever, relying solely on whichever network they choose to cover their work for them. Whether you think thats right or not is another thing alltogether but like it or not the internet, and exchange sites inparticular means we all have access to a network, which in turn means we can all tout for the same contracts as the big guns doesn't it?

That gives customers more choice, which if anything should mean standards get better, which in my opinion should mean more independents win out because they care more about customer care than the big boys do.

Chicken and the egg but without the internet the urgent one off jobs would be done for a realistic price. The company I do a lot of subbing for when a decent run up north comes in will look on ce and try to get it covered often £50 if someones going home empty. Thus keeping drivers local for the short jobs. They couldn't do that without the internet! As a result if us subbies complain they just say they can get it done cheaply take it or leave it!

Trouble is now customers have got used to discounted prices, so they look here to stay! Drivers on ce can get a backload home so a lot of hot shots are being done at back load rates both ways!

Well we all have our opinions. I think its swings and roundabouts, if you "sell" a distance job to a driver who quotes low cos he's going that way then clearly you're making more profit BUT so is the driver covering the job for you as he's getting something he wouldn't have otherwise got... So thats a win win scenario.

If you're saying drivers are deliberately being held back to cover local jobs, then they're not going to keep those drivers for long so i can't see how that works either.

I can only speak for me, and there are instances where i know i could cover work cheaper, but i want it done without me having to chase a driver for an eta, for a pod, a courier that communicates if there is a problem and one that has common sense too. I want to be able to trust that courier to treat my delivery with the respect it deserves, with someone who isn't doing a sly co-load i don't know about.

I also want to move on to the next job asap, so i'm more likely to"sell" a job to the nearest to the collection rather than waiting for the right price. For me its about offering availability when perhaps others cannot... And offering collections within 60mins means moving quick... Not twiddling thumbs waiting.

And that is why an exchange site with full uk coverage, where 99% of work is covered within 10mins of posting is what i look for. We are in a reactive industry, not a proactive one and i need couriers who know what being a courier is all about.

Could i offer the service i offer without the internet? No.

Could an owner driver potentially get a return load or co-load witout the internet, possibly.

Is the internet responsible for the state of rates? I'm not sure

All i do know is an exchange site needs to offer more than quantity of membership, it needs to back that up with quality of membership