Courier Jobs

A question about : Courier Jobs

Does anyone have any experience of courier work? I've got an 18 month old and 11 week old and once my maternity leave is over I'm only going to be able to earn Ј30/week max in my current job so i need to find something else and a courier seems to be a sensible idea but was looking to see if anyone knows more details about it. I know there's Redcats and Parcelnet, are there any others and how much am I likely to earn etc?? :confused: Any info would be very gratefully received!!

Best answers:

• I've been looking into this myself, as i need a job where I can be a bit more flexible. I have sent off a couple of emails enquiring about jobs but have not had any replies, not sure how much you earn. Does anyone have phone numbers to contact
• Hi,
  Have you tried DHL?
  My friend worked for them a few months back. He did have to use his own car to do this.
  I can find out contact no's etc if you like.
  Kerry
• yes they are now taking on temps who can use their own cars and have paid off permanent staff ( to save themselves money).
  I will find out as much info as I can and let you know.
  Not sure if they pay well or not.
  Im sure he did it in his local area + approx 5 miles. He did find it quite hard work though as he was not used to doing this kind of work.
• hi i used to work for dhl home couriers as i have 2 kids at school and a 2 year old i found this work very hard but i think they have changed their system now and its supposed to be good. i would give it a go you just have to have 3 hours training and you get the parcels delivered to your door and then you have to take them out when it suits you just look it up on their website
• Thanks for your replies KerryM & kaza3, I have sent an email to parcelnet & HDNL, and left a message with DHL but no one has replied. Also on the DHL website you have to have a clean licence even though you are self employed but I have 6 points
  I am getting really frustrated now because I really want to leave the job I am in and this would of been ideal
• Hi If you are looking for a flexible job then why not work for yourself doing Kleeneze! Its excellet, about to launch TV advertising and needs loads more poeple.
  If you are going to work hard, why not earn what you are worth!
  Let me know if you are interested.....
• You could try betterware catalogues you dont have to pay for their stuff and the money is good i only got a few orders but made about £50.00 in 3 days
• I work for a courier company, and I do quite a bit of driving when the warehouse is quiet....it is quite good and can be flexible (but only really when self employed and hired through a website called Courier Exchange)
  The drivers who are actually contracted to the company, are quite well worked and put under a lot of stress for same day ETA's etc.
  Obviously this is only one company and a small one (that thinks its big)
  How ever I had heard some adverts on the radio recently giving details of how to become a full time self employed courier company etc..
  If I can be of any more help I will gladly help! Just let me know.
• Well this is the website I heard on the radio this morning, not sure what they're like
  https://www.fastwaycouriers.com/
  See what they say, I'm not too sure as I never really organised them but if you are self employed I think you need something called a CX Number. Relates to that Courier Exchange thing I think. Sorry if not much help
• i used to be a multidrop driver in central london, and to be honnest it is a proper job which you need to be full time at and know youyr stuff if you want to make andy decent money, as by the time you have paid additional insurance premiums ( unless u are in a co vehicle which is what i always did transit or 7.5 tonners). you need to be clearing 30 odd drops a day to make decent cash. this is pretty muc h 8- 3 or 4. also its is actually quite physical work, i seemed to spend 50% of my time driving and navigating ( you also need to be an A-Z wizard) and 50% running up 14 flights of stairs with boxes.
  however if you are willing to do this it is a cracking job, i loved the fact that i was on the road with a radio doing my own thing most of the time
• Courier exchange gives you a CX number. Iv got one on my car, to get it you need Goods in transit cover and as my car spends alot of time carrying bloods and medical equipment iv got private ambulance with blue light cover.
  Earnings are good as its a niche market. Need to know your stuff though and have a reliable, quick car with good sat nav.
  Im planning on leaving my job next year and hopefully getting a new Renault Kangoo. I currently drive an Escort Estate on a T Plate which is okay but doesnt realy make the right statement when your carrying the medical stuff but hey its my first car and the next one will be new or nearly new so il make up for it!
• Worked as a courier for over 3 years and if you divided my weekly income by the hours i worked i could have earned more working for Mc Donalds, i was averageing 16 hour days and on at least a couple of occasions i did 21 hr's in one day, The insurance for the van i had was around 2.5k per year and the compant i worked for suplied the goods in transit insurance and stopped the money in weekly payments from your earnings. Courier work may have been good in the past but with rip off insurance prices and even higher fuel cost's it isn't really a job thats going to make you rich any time soon.
• I saw an ad from DHL in my local (Hull) press, they are looking for self-employed local delivery drivers / couriers, with own car, it was also on the York gumtree website.
  I couldn't believe how poor the terms were. I emailed DHL and I've posted my reply to them here for the info of anyone who's interested in the terms they were offering....
  "Hi
  Let me just check this out.... 65p per parcel, you estimate 25 parcels per day, and you estimate this takes 3-4 hours work per day.
  Ј0.65 x 25 = Ј16.25
  Ј16.25 / 3 hours = Ј5.41
  Ј16.25 / 4 hours = Ј4.06
  So... the income is LESS than the legal minimum, less than someone would get serving burgers in McDonalds, and not only that, I would have to use my own car, so my own petrol costs and wear and tear on the car costs would have to come out of a mere Ј 4.06 an hour???!!!
  Are you looking for applicants who are not very good at maths?
  It sounds to me that DHL is an unscrupulous and unethical company who take advantage of people for their own profits. I will bear that in mind next time I need to use a courier service.
  No thank you. "
• Interesting to find a thread on this subject on the MoneySavingExpert website, because I'm sure DHL are doing a fine 'money saving' job be using this home courier service idea.
  I heard about this a good few months back and sounded like it might suit my present circumstances. Heard nothing for many months, then got a phone call out of the blue a few weeks back. Went for a brief interview and couple of days later got offered the gig. A training session was then offered, which was mainly about how to use the PDA system. It helped, but as there was no written guidance to help with the bits you didn't remember, there's a bit of trial and error involved. (Got to say that the old system of signing a bit of paper would have been about 10 times faster than the PDA though. You have to see it to believe how slow it works.)
  Anyway, I thought I'd give it a go. Was not expecting to make my fortune, but a few quid a day for a few hours driving around locally seemed fair enough. I live in a fair sized village in a semi-rural area about 3-4 miles from nearest town. First day I had 8 parcels and next day I had 7. Was told it was a quiet time of year, but to boost the numbers, they would add an area on the closest edge of the larger town. In the 3 weeks since then, the parcel numbers have been between 15 and 44, but averaging in the mid 20s. The outer edge of my patch is about 5 miles from home, but again, guess this is due partly to my own location.
  Now the truth about doing this job. Firstly, the parcels don't get to me until about 11 and one day it was just after 12. I had wanted to do most of the work in the first half of the day. Told them I want them earlier, but nothing happened as yet.
  It takes around 45 mins+ to do what's needed before you start deliveries. You have to count the parcels and take them into the house, where you have to 'receipt' them onto the PDA. There is a bar-code scanner, that works on about 10% of them, so you have to pick them from the list and tick them off. Then you plan your route. This is important as you need to keep the route as cost effective as possible. Takes a while though - and the more parcels, the longer that takes. Then finally load up the car. I found that if I got numbers at the higher end of the scale, it was a two-trip job.
  I've been tracking the number of parcels, the miles I drive and the time it takes to complete the WHOLE JOB. Then knocked off JUST the petrol costs from the payments and worked out the rate I was earning per hour. Now I have to say that DHL have upped the rate they offer me to 80p, mainly due to the fact it's a bit more spread area. Even with this 'enhanced' rate, the BEST hourly rate for a day I've had is Ј4.43 and most days are a little under Ј4. I don't think I'm the slowest at doing this work, but it really takes longer than you might think. Finding houses without street numbers is a real pain and there are usually a couple of those each day. When you get to the mid afternoon 'school run' time, there are less people at home. Did try one evening recently, but once the light goes, seeing the house numbers is a pain. Some people are also a bit wary of a knock on the door once it's dark, so don't think that's the answer.
  By the way. Yes, it's treated as a self-employed job, so you need to pay tax and NIC to the Inland Revenue. They will accept 40p a mile as allowable expences for using you car for business miles, so you need to record them on a daily basis. I've only been using 15p a mile petrol costs in my own sums. If I used 40p, I'd be earning very very little. At least it won't cost much in tax.
  In summary, I'd say that this system is probably great for DHL and their customers, but if you want me to say if I'd recommend it to a friend, then the answer is a firm 'no'. Plenty more I could say, but think that's enough for now. For some people it might be considered worth their while and maybe in different types of area to mine, it might be quicker to complete. Anyway, hope that helps anyone reading this.
• Do you also have public liability insurance,goods in transit isnurance and also informed your insurance company that you are using your car for business purposes ?All this needs to be added into your outgoings.