Wot do those folk who drive liveried vans get? - Surely they are not “owning” those ones? 
Very good money can be made from parcel delivery if you’re willing to put the work in. I did it for 3 years, 18 months was self employed at interlink, on my round I could often earn up to 4-5K a month gross, obviously you had to do it right regarding van hire/purchase and fuel consumption etc, it was less hours than I do now as well, very stressful though.
My brother still does it and owns 4 more vans in different rounds earning for him, not sure what his turn over is buts it good enough to keep doing it.
DPD are building a new depot on the outskirts of Bridgwater. I would assume they will be touting for drivers soon.
Tazbug
If you want to be a glorified employee with all the risk of being self employed the. Great go for it personally its not worth it you rates are dictated to you usually after the change has happened this applies to all the big parcel companies
I am looking for any DPD owner drivers to contact regarding pay and conditions at their depot before I begin a revolution at my own depot regarding the 10% pay cut and loss of holidays.
Please contact me if you are or know any contact details of any DPD odfs
or pm here
cheers
jackgers
I think your looking on the wrong forum
As regards the pay cut all they have done in reduce the rate as for holidays as an owner driver you aren’t entitled to them the drivers are owner drivers if it ain’t paying or your unhappy with the terms you may have to find other work for your van
jackgers:
I am looking for any DPD owner drivers to contact regarding pay and conditions at their depot before I begin a revolution at my own depot regarding the 10% pay cut and loss of holidays.cheers
jackgers
(glasgow 1 DPD Depot)
Another idiot who doesn’t understand what self employed means. It means NO HOLIDAY PAY and you’re not paid a wage as thats what an employee gets and a self employed person is not an employee.
So surely as an owner driver, you’re self employed? As such, you’re not entitled to holiday pay from a customer and you get a rate and not pay from them? Certainly when it used to be Parcelforce the O/Ds sorted out their own drivers for covering when they were on holiday and they didn’t get paid if they couldn’t get anyone.
Sorry you misunderstood conor but I am well aware of “self employment” and the ins and outs as I have been doing it for the last 20 years but what you do no understand is that other depots from the same company give their owner drivers up to 2 weeks “free” holidays per year and they have also given some of their drivers their 10% pay cut back so I was just trying to find from other depots in the DPD group if any other odfs had been given their cuts back
thanks
jackgers
jackgers:
Sorry you misunderstood conor but I am well aware of “self employment” and the ins and outs as I have been doing it for the last 20 years but what you do no understand is that other depots from the same company give their owner drivers up to 2 weeks “free” holidays per year and they have also given some of their drivers their 10% pay cut back so I was just trying to find from other depots in the DPD group if any other odfs had been given their cuts backthanks
jackgers
Sorry for being stupid, but how does a company give a self-employed person holidays? If you are self-employed YOU tell the company when you are and aren’t available, not them . And how can you have a pay cut? You tell the company what your rates are, they tell you whether they agree to them or not. If they agree then you move their stuff at £x per mile as agreed and if they don’t agree then you seek work elsewhere.
Or am I missing something here?
bugger, you beat me to it rob
Rob I think he’s referring to the contract the dpd ODs have usually if they are off they get fined usually more than they earn in a day usually double to cover getting an agency driver in so holiday I think he means they get can take 2 weeks of per year without incurring any fine
This may have been withdrawn at some depots also it may have been they have cut the daily or weekly rate by 10% usually companies the size of.dpd just impose a rate cut with the proviso of if you don’t like it there’s the door
Rob K:
Sorry for being stupid
That’s a quote we need to keep hold of… 
Rob K:
but how does a company give a self-employed person holidays? If you are self-employed YOU tell the company when you are and aren’t available, not themOr am I missing something here?
What you’re missing is that (from what I can tell from doing a few agency shifts for DPD) their owner driver franchise scheme is a very very long way from actually being an owner driver. They dictate pretty much everything as though you were an employed driver, including the rates they pay you and when you’re allowed time off. I can’t see the appeal personally, you’re taking all the risk of being self employed and buying/leasing a van but without any of the benefits.
Paul
That’s it Paul all the big parcel boys do this from dhl domestic to royal mail the rewards can pay off if youfranchise but the company dictate everything onecertain yellow company even charge the franchisee for invoice them
Paul, Alix - thanks for the clarification. Indeed, I fail to see the attraction of it too.
Thanks for the comments guys and you are totally right when you see you don’t see the appeal of it. I have been doing this sort of ‘self employment’ now for 4 years and it has turned into a nightmare. Alix and repton are pretty much right. The company decide your drop rates and even how many drops you go out with each day. If their employees don’t meet there moderate target drops per day then we are told to leave off so many so the DPD employees have enough.
Put it this way last week they had an outside agency driver come and take 20 drops from me and the two owner drivers on either side.
Its a total joke. but jobs are pretty much hard to go by up here right now and having a young family (like most everyone else) you need some sort of decent income coming in.
Oh by the way I don’t know if you have heard about it but recently DPD brought in an ETA computer system which now once we download our scanners in the morning our 70-100 drops each have an hour window which they have to be delivered in and the customer gets a text or an email to tell them which hour of the day their delivery will be dropped.
so your first drop might be say 10.55 to 11.55 then the next one will be 10.58-11.58 and so on but here is the best part of it.
If you are at the persons house or business before the hour window you have to sit outside until the window opens.
it gets better. If you deliver the parcel early or late but a mere 1 second you get a breach of contract which is just like a warning.
Get three breaches and your contract is terminated. Meanwhile during the day you are send various collection drops which have to be squeezed in to your schedule.
Its great fun . lol
jackgers:
Thanks for the comments guys and you are totally right when you see you don’t see the appeal of it. I have been doing this sort of ‘self employment’ now for 4 years and it has turned into a nightmare. Alix and repton are pretty much right. The company decide your drop rates and even how many drops you go out with each day. If their employees don’t meet there moderate target drops per day then we are told to leave off so many so the DPD employees have enough.
Put it this way last week they had an outside agency driver come and take 20 drops from me and the two owner drivers on either side.
Its a total joke. but jobs are pretty much hard to go by up here right now and having a young family (like most everyone else) you need some sort of decent income coming in.
Oh by the way I don’t know if you have heard about it but recently DPD brought in an ETA computer system which now once we download our scanners in the morning our 70-100 drops each have an hour window which they have to be delivered in and the customer gets a text or an email to tell them which hour of the day their delivery will be dropped.
so your first drop might be say 10.55 to 11.55 then the next one will be 10.58-11.58 and so on but here is the best part of it.
If you are at the persons house or business before the hour window you have to sit outside until the window opens.
it gets better. If you deliver the parcel early or late but a mere 1 second you get a breach of contract which is just like a warning.
Get three breaches and your contract is terminated. Meanwhile during the day you are send various collection drops which have to be squeezed in to your schedule.
Its great fun . lol
Whilst I sympathise with your family issues, that is just complete BS. You need to drastically do something about finding work elsewhere and tell them where they can stick their parcels. As long as you keep on working for them they will continue dishing out BS like this because they know you’ll just accept it after a bit of grumbling.
jackgers:
Thanks for the comments guys and you are totally right when you see you don’t see the appeal of it. I have been doing this sort of ‘self employment’ now for 4 years and it has turned into a nightmare. Alix and repton are pretty much right. The company decide your drop rates and even how many drops you go out with each day. If their employees don’t meet there moderate target drops per day then we are told to leave off so many so the DPD employees have enough.
Put it this way last week they had an outside agency driver come and take 20 drops from me and the two owner drivers on either side.
Its a total joke. but jobs are pretty much hard to go by up here right now and having a young family (like most everyone else) you need some sort of decent income coming in.
Oh by the way I don’t know if you have heard about it but recently DPD brought in an ETA computer system which now once we download our scanners in the morning our 70-100 drops each have an hour window which they have to be delivered in and the customer gets a text or an email to tell them which hour of the day their delivery will be dropped.
so your first drop might be say 10.55 to 11.55 then the next one will be 10.58-11.58 and so on but here is the best part of it.
If you are at the persons house or business before the hour window you have to sit outside until the window opens.
it gets better. If you deliver the parcel early or late but a mere 1 second you get a breach of contract which is just like a warning.
Get three breaches and your contract is terminated. Meanwhile during the day you are send various collection drops which have to be squeezed in to your schedule.
Its great fun . lol
VAN FOR SALE 
pete-b:
jackgers:
Its great fun . lolVAN FOR SALE
or you could try HDNL/DHL (Domestic) - soon to be YODEL and get similar but with a 3 hour time slot on SOME deliveries
This was something I’d considered doing in the past. What do you reckon your take home is now?