whilst this may sound a little silly i am not looking to become an owner driver but looking to start a courier firm.
Basically, I have another company which is not far off going live. It will bring consumers and suppliers together to sell produce. The issue I have i the relatively high cost of the national carriers and the concern about transporting perishable goods. Thus, i thought why notput together a courier company delivery the goods at close to cost then at a premium to external uses.
Having researched this extensivley, i still think this is the way to go - but not with me directing it as i know next to nothing. I was looking for advice or direction on how or who to approach it.
Personally i think, i should grow it with someone experianced at the helm. Leave it to them to run with the person either a partner, share of the buisness or an alternative way.
I would be exteramly grateful for any comments, ideas or cristisms.
first of all welcome
second of all what do you need to know
third of all with costs depends on the product been delivered and how soon it has to be at the customers end
basically i deal with the sale of perishable goods. that is what i can do. But finding it hard to find a cheap courier. Given the low barriers to entry within the courier market, i thought there is scope for me to start my own courier company and intergrate it. It would fit well with the current buisness so no worries.
what i am difficulty is, as i have learnt, the complexity of the industry.
I was wondering what advice could you give for a start up courier company within the industry. I thought it would be best to find someone with experiance who would like to have the free reign of a courier company. All deliveries would go through from the other company at cost but a normal cost plus model courier service for external users.
Is this plausible?
Do people know people who would want to this (if so where can i find them)?
Should i be looking anywhere specfic?
By at cost i mean not at profit (or very little). So the cost of the driver etc… is taken care of but the company/shell/clearing house, whatever it is does not earn profit.
As both would be divisions of the same company. The courier division would earn very little (at most 1-2%) in profit from contracts from the other division. It depends if the correct buisness model can be divisised.
However, the courier company would be going for normal margin and profit on external business.
You may need a fridge depends on the perishable good you are talking about the cost of the said vehicle the running cost of the said vehicle like road tax insurance general wear & tear of the vehicle fuel are you going to use fuel cards & which 1 how much to charge said customer for the delivery the driver wages ( think you said have taken into account )
You may have to register it as a separate business venture but as you have a business already you may be able to tie this 1 in
Depends on size of vehicle you are thinking about you they may have a taco in & you may need an “O” licence CPC holder drivers who can rive that said vehicle if taco is fitted then you will have to adhere to the EU drivers hours otherwise it will be domestic driving hours
Do you have a customer base or will you be looking to increase customer base
Will you be buying or leasing said vehicle as there are advantages & disadvantages to both
If you add a courier firm to your existing business will you then be subject to VAT rules
Yes it can be done & not that difficult tbh yes bring a " transport manager " in to run that side of things that wont be hard & no they dont need any qualifications for this
If I can think of anything else will post ( have ran a courier comp before )
Welcome Sounds like a good idea. I used to be a sameday courier and often thought that companies with their own vans could tap into the courier market if only to get a few backloads and cut dead mileage. I suspect the big cost difference between own account ops and ‘hire and reward’ would be the insurance. So if you feel the extra work you do would cover the difference plus a bit of profit on the side then it looks like a good plan. If you regularly find your own deliveries need to happen at short notice then you could have the trouble of your vans being ■■■■■■■ with other customers and end up booking those expensive carriers you are trying to avoid But if your own deliveries happen with plenty of notice you should be be able to insert any ad-hoc work around them.
TBH i will not need fridges in vans as the packaging material is good enough. Small vans will do it for me. As loads will be pretty small. I will look into the licence needs, thanks for this.
IT canb be registered as the same business as it not widely disimilar and makes sense to have it there. However, a different set of books would need to be kept then added in at the end of the year or monthly.
it would be a completly fresh company so gaining customers would be the first and most obvious challange. However as long as it is not buring money the job is being done. If i could turn an extra profit this would be fantastic.
I am unsure about the VAT rules so thanks for bringing it up.
A transport manager (thanks for the name) definately looks the way to go. Do you know where i would find one - advertise for someone?
exactly if i can take advantage of backloads and nulify dead miles it would help reduce costs.
yes having too little cars to operate the jobs is a worry. basically, standard cost of delivery for my other company is next day and beyound. Therefore i can estimate the amount of space needed. But i will be offering a same day service at a premium. something i need to work on.
Could I ask what is the differnece/ is it possible to start out using owner courier drivers. As i would roughly know the amount the night before i could employ on either a day basis if there were enough jobs or per job if there wasn’t. Anything on the day would of course be at a premium but i am getting paid that so it evens out.
If i started with a database of onwer drivers acting basically as subbies and sent jobs out the night before - to begin with would this work? whilst i have an unsure amount of sales (on the ecommerce site) it may be more flexible. As sales (on the ecommerce site) become more steady and i got customers for the courier buisness i could slowley take on the approiate level of permenant staff.
You can normally book couriers in advance that is not a prob also on the day but be careful as most will charge per loaded mile or have a fixed rate for local work
You could easy build up some local couriers weather a small company or a group of O/D
Depends where you live as to a transport manager They should be aware of the transport industry & how it works office experience pref
You could do what a lot of firms are doing is go the agency route then you can see if you like them or not & they fit in with what you have already or you could advertise yourself in job centre or local paper
Advantage of agency there reference have already been checked out for you & they have been interviewed by them if you dont like or not what you are looking for can easy let go but if you do like then can take on no risk to you
Disadvantage you pay quite a bit to said agency for this but you dont have to worry bout paying said person that is up to agency
Advertise in local paper cost to you then go through all the letters /CV check references interview them ect but if you take on then much harder to sack
That price is not bad at all. However, i am not sure if i could get that consistently. The national carriers want closer to £15 - 20 until sales can be proved, Which as a start out business is very tough.
Was chatting to a mate about it last night and both came to agreement that best way to do it is to break delivery up into regions. Basically, base the delivering divison aruound the geographical growth of the food division. Start with an owner drivers until it is economical to take on permenant workers. This way i am not tied into to contracts if the food company does not work in an area.
I know there are threads on it i have looked and i know it depends on many factors but what is a ball park range to the cost of an owner driver PPLM?
Would I set up backloads for owner drivers or is this just not done?
Is it possible to hire owner drivers on a daily basis or is it on a per delivery?
I live in London and have a base in the home counties. London and the home counties is my target market to begin with. Therefore will be looking for a transport manager in this area to begin this. However, would like to involve more and more transport managers as the buisness develops.
I have been trying to read up on the industry but is there a book or something that really shows how the industry works as well as terms so i am not lost in conversation? Even though i will not be running it i still want to know everything about it.
animal:
Depends who it went with & what else they were taking or was it a back load
I think it was HDN but in a plain white van
Unless I was the last but one delivery of the day at 9.30 in the morning, she must have got up with the larks, the van only had one other parcel in because she asked me if I knew the address.
This was about 3 miles away and came from the same supplier in Yorkshire. She didn’t call me “my duck” either so she wasn’t local
If you use o/d then they would set up there own backloads as this is not really your prob but if you have someone in the office you could offer this to them
Start slow then build plz dont read that "bible " as it is know in the industry
Not sure what the rate is plm in the London area for small vans also ask if they are VAT registered
You can hire them on a daily basis or even weekly If doing that you may consider hiring on a weekly with a retainer to include x amount of hours over that you agree to a rate per hr or plm
In the evening collate it, work out how may trips are needed and how many drivers are needed for the next day
access the database of OD in the area - and begin applying the correct jobs peferably on a daily rate but one off if needed. (This could then be upped to a weekly contract/ full time employees as the work becomes more regular and it makes financial sense)
In the morning the OD then picks up and delivers the goods.
Conformation on delivery.
Offer backloads if they are there.
Is it possible to pre set a time that the goods have to be delivered by? And how many ODs have the ability to electronically give a receipt to myself and/customer on how the delivery is going and when it arrived etc…
For same day it would be the same apart from a quicker response time needed.
beng986
But if your own deliveries happen with plenty of notice you should be be able to insert any ad-hoc work around them.