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2 Good 2 B True? S/emp Couriers....


outlaw118

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Been looking at ways to increase my income, ebay is a pain in the arse, and overtime in my "real" job is variable, and only paid at "single" rate, and has an adverse effect on other stuff, like targets etc etc.

So, i've been looking for alternatives, new job, part time, wprking from home you know the stuff, and i've stumbled across an advert for CRV couriers.

http://www.crvcourierguide.co.uk/become_a_courier/

 

All sounds too good to be true; anyone heard of this lot, or have any kind of dealings with them?

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That stinks of a scam. Keep you money in your pocket.

 

A van with goods in transit insurance will cost you a fair few quid and has to be acquired before you go knocking on any doors. Many companies I've worked for use couriers on an emergency basis so if you do manage to make any contacts that do offer you a job and you can't do it due to other commitments your number will go in the bin.

 

If that's the sort of thing you want to do then cut out the expensive fact pack at £39.99 and join a backloads website like this one...

 

http://www.google.com/url?q=http://www. ... z8dFqdHoIQ

 

You may as well get an operators permit and rent a 7.5 tonner.

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Asa a former self employed courier, I feel qualified to reply. The only way you will MAKE £275 per trip is to be fully loaded both ways on a VERY long trip, at good rates, and that happens rarely.

 

These sort of deals usually involve subcontracting to other companies, and the figures quoted are usually takings rather than profit. If you want to be a self employed courier, canvass the big firms (TNT, CityLink, DHLetc)for subby work and go from there. You don't need to buy a book or sign up to anything that will cost you. Just be prepared to work hard, and for long hours. You will need a decent van, you will need proper insurance including goods in transit, because they will want to see it. If you want to dabble part time, try doing a bit in the run up to Christmas in a hire van. You'll find out if you like it from that, but it's no easy ride.

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Hmmm, cheers chaps, was tempted to do a bit part-time for a while, see how it pans out, but would be using my car....I would imagine the potential hike in insurance and the cost of juice would wipe out any kind of real profit....Volvo V40 T4....30mpg, so a trip to Plymouth and back, 500 miles, @£6 per gallon.....30ish mpg.....thats 17 ish gallons, so £102 on juice alone. Bearing in mind I could be earning £12 ph doing my "real" job, lets assume that it takes me 9 hours for the round trip, thats £108 "labour", so a total of £210 spent, without taking into consideration any increase in insurance, wear and tear, smokes, and pasties, for what could realistically be a £275 payday, which may well take 2 months to turn up. Bugger that.

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I was a self employed motorcycle courier for years, the way insurance was calculated was that they worked out how much a policy would cost for you to drive/ride a particular vehicle as a normal SDP quote, then times it by 150%

 

Distance stuff is a nightmare, you dont want to go too far unless you can get properly loaded up, but if you are in an ovlov then obviously you cant take the pallet of car parts and the box of fish and the hundredweight of A4 boxes etc

 

You'd be better buzzing about a city ideally, plenty of multidrops and a few jobs going 50 miles will py much better

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A neighbour of mine has set up a courier business with a mate of his. The idea was to hire drivers but it was all too much hassle and he does the work himself now. 3 am starts not unusual, minimum 250 mile each way journeys, and breakdowns etc etc to contend with. Sounds like hard work to me.

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Or you could get a job with UPS, they're the direct descendant of ROADLINE. :D

 

On a serious note, I've done overnight trunking work to the main hub of a major parcels company and to be honest I'm surprised anything gets delivered without being broken at all. People get injured there regularly and there's even been a fatality there as well. Many of the staff were illegal immigrants who didn't care.

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A couple of years back this is exactly what a job centre advisor said to me 'if you go for multi drop work, you will have at least 6 points on your licence within a month', and judging by how I see Shitty Stink and Driver Hopelessly Lost' vans doing insane speeds in a 30, I do get his point

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As above. Unless you can get a good contract and stacks of work (which you can't, because theres millions of other people also after the same) then the wages won't cover your costs. Yeah, you can earn money, but by the time you've paid for all the many miscellaneous outgoings, you'll do well to break even.

 

My dad does it, he's got a "bag run" for DHL, where he does about 10 drops in a morning to the individual couriers that to the multi drop stuff.

 

It takes him about 3 or 4 hours in total, and after his diesel costs he makes about £20 a day. If he took into account the insurance, wear and tear and actually putting some "value" on the van, I'd be surprised if he made anything. But, he's got the van, it's insured and it gets him out of the house.

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A couple of years back this is exactly what a job centre advisor said to me 'if you go for multi drop work, you will have at least 6 points on your licence within a month', and judging by how I see Shitty Stink and Driver Hopelessly Lost' vans doing insane speeds in a 30, I do get his point

 

:lol: A few years I used to work for 'Drivers Hopelessly Lost' (how apt in my case) as an employed driver. Pay was shit to start with but it became much better. Being paid by the hour, I didn't have to drive around like Meatloaf's 1977 album too often. The self employed drivers had the more lucrative routes, of course. One of the s/e drivers warned me never to go s/e as the fees the company pay remain fairly static whereas diesel, road tax, etc all increase thus eroding any earnings.

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Just take a moment to think about it; if you are of average intelligence, honest and hardworking, of smart appearance, own a car or van and have a mobile phone, then you could EASILY be making £950 plus per week. That’s at least £4,000 per month and almost £50,000 per year! Is that enough? Well, it’s here for the taking.

 

SCAM!!

 

I shall re-write it as the truth: If you are of above average intelligence, hardworking, wear Armani jeans, own an Audi and have a variety of pay as you go mobile phones, then you could EASILY be making £1-2000 per week simply by selling crack cocaine. Is that enough? No? Then branch out into heroin or contact our office for our sister guide "How to start a meth lab with some glass bottles and a heater".

 

No-one earns fifty grand by just driving a van about all day. I, and everyone else would, if it were possible.

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Applied for a job at Shite Arrow a few years back who were advertising for self employed couriers at top dollar. They actually put me off applying when I rang them, the amount of drops per day was just ridiculous, you had to be insured to store parcels at home, you needed (very expensive) cover if you were off and it actually seemed impossible to do what they wanted.

 

Did 'sort of' multi-drop work for eight years and how I kept a clean licence is beyond me, having to do scores and scores of drops per day must be a nightmare.

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My old next door neighbour back in Leeds worked for a firm called 5 Star Express couriers in the 1990s. He was self employed, had to pay for the van, insurance, and fuel. The merde hit the fan for him, and many others when the firm went bust. I know he worked stupidly long hours, and only ever made anything if he did the long distance jobs.

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I did a bit of work for a parcel company a few years ago.... they pay flat rate per parcel no matter how big your patch is, so you need some common sense about your route. And also something really economical - not a petrol Mondeo like me! Ended up barely making a profit but spending hours per day sorting parcels out, finding addresses, having to deal with returns etc.

 

Don't bother.

 

Oh, and I didn't bother with business insurance (ssshhhh) - so I dare say I'd have been out of pocket if that thought had occured to me!

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i was gonna get a van and do this as well...not multi- drop though... mainly pick up load from point "A" and take to point "B" and hope there is a load from there going the other way :roll:

 

i know that cvr courier ad is just some twat selling his memiors on how he made bucket loads doing courier work and for a fee he will tell you his secret :roll:

 

looks like it is gonna be a luton van for me now so that i can also offer removals jobs as well as the parcel side

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Bumping this thread up a bit, just bactually look at the age of some of the vans from UPS. Recently I saw an N reg'd Merc based fugly van still being used by them. Clearly there isn't much profit in it, and they are one of the biggest parcel firms in the world.

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