I have paid out over £2K to get my class 1 CPC MPQC and I am working for agencies as a newly qualified driver getting paid roughly £11 per hour, I am starting at 6.30am and finishing anytime around 9pm.
I have a mate who has been working for the last 6 months for Hermes as a local delivery man dropping of parcels from next etc… he is getting paid 70p for a small parcel and £1.30 for larger items he starts at 6.30am and currently with the Christmas rush is finishing at about 5pm, after going home for some breakfast and lunch. He is taking home roughly about £130 a day currently, during the non Christmas quiet periods he takes home about £70 a day, its done on a self employed basis so obviously writes off diesel maintenance etc against his tax bill, during the quiet times he is done and finished by lunchtime. He gets to earn extra by covering other peoples holidays or when there is a catalogue delivery for Next etc. His initial start up cost was the £1500 he paid for a relatively ok transit (although he has had a few repair bills to contend with on this). He has to pay for normal insurance on the van and Hermes cover the business side of the insurance by deducting a coupe of quid a week from the wages.
I know people are saying there is a shortage of drivers so as a result the wages should start to increase but as a newly qualified artic driver I have to just take what I can get, but given the responsibility of driving one of these things it has to be questioned is it worth it■■?
If you want to bust your balls on multi drop then feel free, I doubt you’d last 5 mins after driving class one 
Hermes will drop him like a stone as soon as its slack who pays the bills then? Way too many things stacked against those s/e couriers to make it a genuine long term position for me. I prefer a bit of stability, as much in that I know I’ve got 5 days a week every week and holiday pay etc.
You paid £2000 for your licence which lasts forever he paid £1500 for a van that is worth less ever time he uses it and will need replacing, I think you got the best deal.
I can assure you its not as easy as he makes out.
For starters Hermes do very little large stuff, the prices they charge compete with the PO for small items but for larger items practically every other company is cheaper, in fact for a 10kg parcel they’re twice the price. You also don’t get paid you can’t deliver it so you might spend ages trying to get someone to sign for it.
Depending on your area you might not get your parcels until mid morning and you’ll still be expected to deliver them that day. The area where i work i see the Hermes truck dropping off around 9am to a unit where the drivers are waiting to go off and deliver them. Some days you’ll have 100 or more parcels, some days you’ll have 50.
Take off your taxes etc for being self employed and the fact you wont have holiday pay, sick pay etc and that you’ll have to pay someone else to cover your route if you’re off.
In reality its ok for a part time bit of cash or a 2nd job but that’s about it. If you work for Hermes themselves as apose to being a subcontractor its better
If you want to do multidrop, join UPS. £32k last year, 100 drops a day, 27 days holiday and pension. I know which i’d rather do.
Multidrop is one of those things, you can either do it or you can’t.
Mate of a mate worked for citilink…complete dross.
Once you’ve took the van on etc,they have you by the ■■■■■■■■…and they know it.
Double post
I am self employed as a limited company so I don’t get holiday pay, as for busting my gut on multi drop last week I was driving a double decker and had to load 52 pallets on my self with a pallet trolley twice in the same day , jumping out f a van with a parcel is easier than that. You get given you round and that’s it they don’t drop you unless your crap my mate has hadthe same round for 6 mths and one of the other drivers has been doing it for 15 years 
If I go on holiday I don’t pay someone else to do the shift the other drivers in the area cover the shift as a way of earning a bob or two extra. Yes the van is a depreciating asset but weigh up the fact your home most evenings earlyish you can nip home for a cuppa when you want. The tax mans cut is going to be less as there is more I can write off. Oh and the fact there is a lot less responsibility than drivng an artic not forgetting the lack of regulations and rules.
Whitey2104:
jumping out f a van with a parcel is easier than that. You get given you round and that’s it they don’t drop you unless your crap my mate has .
Give it a go then of its so easy. I covered for my brother who had his own van on parcels a couple of times and on both occasions it was the hardest weeks work Ive ever done, which is saying something since I used to work for the likes of Nolans & HSF. Listen to what people are saying, driving a van on parcels isn’t as easy as you reckon it is. I’d certainly take the pallet truck and double decker over that any day. As for ‘nipping home for a cuppa whenever you want’
Presently - no. Im pretty much at the same point as you bruv. Ive only had my bendy licence since August 1st, shelled out around two and a half grand for class 2, 1, and cpc, and have been working pretty long hours for the same level of pay. Im viewing it as a situation of getting paid (albeit modestly) to gain experience as a driver, and every day that passes i become more confident and knowledgeable regarding this crazy old job of ours! Hopefully, any bite on driver numbers will manifest into next year, and its then that i will be pushing for a better deal, having become more adept at it. Although everybody in any and every job considers themselves to be underpaid, i strongly agree with you that the responsibility of piloting 44 tonnes is quite considerable, and the present pay rates are truly not representative of that degree of responsibility. Let`s see what next year brings, eh? 
Just for the record, i would rather shove my pecker into a baling machine than do multi-drop van slavery. Not too sure that early evenings at home are a regular feature across the board, and “popping home for a cuppa” when the fancy takes you is stretching the reality a tad.
Good and bad facets to both arguments of course, but i`ll stick to artics as a longer term prospect.
Surely this whole argument is about “hourly rate” over “piece rate”.
If a job is going to take all day, and you’re busy rushed off your feet - you want hourly rate.
If you fancy yourself as speedy gonzalez running up and down garden paths with packages the size of a biscuit tin - then maybe piece rate is for you.
I’ve never seen anyone “the average age of a artic driver 53” doing the van job - put it that way.
What’s all this with UPS btw? Are you salaried there for a job that everywhere else is self-employed piece rate? 
Well I would say go and give it a go, if you enjoy it then crack on, if not your licence will still be valid, I may be wrong but it looks like you won’t be happy until you do it & prove, or disprove it, for yourself. I’ve tried multi drop & I hated every minute, it’s what I’d call a marmite job.
Sounds like you’ve made your mind up Whitey. I say go for it, it’s always better to regret something you have done as opposed to something you haven’t!
I’m not gonna mouth the usual platitudes like “the grass is always… Blah blah blah”, but if you genuinely feel that way just do it.
I will add however, that within a few months you will be practically begging to get back behind the wheel of an artic! This is from a man who used to own his own small fleet of vans on UK and European light haulage and courier work.
I also had ago at Multi drop with LWB Transit my own van, and its a nightmare from start to finish i only lasted a week, i was on for Uk Mail, You get there in the morning get given a crap scanner that don,t work you have scan each parcel on to ya van, before that you route plan your day with AA route planner all this takes about an hour then your on your way, i was ad hoc, and the last day the bottom pulley fell of the engine, belt fell to floor oil everywhere, this was caused by keep starting and stopping, One day i got a rural round ie 80% of the round made up of house names, i ended up takin most of it back as i could not find half the houses with names, I guess what im saying its like marmite you love or hate it, and i for one hated it, hence me only lasting a week. Keep plugging away you should get something in the new year mate.
… Usually, I post on here, but can somebody update me on driving the likes of a ‘■■■■■■’ van in relation to Driving Time Regs?.. Saw something in one of T.mags a while back that somebody got hammered. How did this come about without Tacho evidence?..
Thanks.
Hahaha reminded me of last week I was dropping a tug off at Broughton airbus and a woman in a transit pills up and said it was her first day delivering and she was dropped in at the deep end… It took here an hour to find airbus
I did mention the fun she would have finding farms on North Wales that do not appear on the map, her face was a picture 
She was fit so I helped her unload the parcels 
Drift:
Hahaha reminded me of last week I was dropping a tug off at Broughton airbus and a woman in a transit pills up and said it was her first day delivering and she was dropped in at the deep end… It took here an hour to find airbus
I did mention the fun she would have finding farms on North Wales that do not appear on the map, her face was a pictureShe was fit so I helped her unload the parcels
What’s up Drift… Ya blushing… and she saw you got a big one… truck
simon1958:
Drift:
Hahaha reminded me of last week I was dropping a tug off at Broughton airbus and a woman in a transit pills up and said it was her first day delivering and she was dropped in at the deep end… It took here an hour to find airbus
I did mention the fun she would have finding farms on North Wales that do not appear on the map, her face was a pictureShe was fit so I helped her unload the parcels
What’s up Drift… Ya blushing… and she saw you got a big one… truck
He did what was natural 
I got a bit disheartened when she told me her husband loaded the van, … After I had helped her 
simon1958:
Drift:
Hahaha reminded me of last week I was dropping a tug off at Broughton airbus and a woman in a transit pills up and said it was her first day delivering and she was dropped in at the deep end… It took here an hour to find airbus
I did mention the fun she would have finding farms on North Wales that do not appear on the map, her face was a pictureShe was fit so I helped her unload the parcels
What’s up Drift… Ya blushing… and she saw you got a big one… truck
… And how could she miss the AIRBUS Plant… It’s the biggest industrial building on the landscape round there…
simon1958:
simon1958:
Drift:
Hahaha reminded me of last week I was dropping a tug off at Broughton airbus and a woman in a transit pills up and said it was her first day delivering and she was dropped in at the deep end… It took here an hour to find airbus
I did mention the fun she would have finding farms on North Wales that do not appear on the map, her face was a pictureShe was fit so I helped her unload the parcels
What’s up Drift… Ya blushing… and she saw you got a big one… truck
… And how could she miss the AIRBUS Plant… It’s the biggest industrial building on the landscape round there…
That was my original point Simon