They say there are no stupid question... Courier in a car

UK PROFESSIONAL DRIVERS FORUMS OWNER AND FLEET OPERATORS FORUM (INTERACTIVE)
1

I am going to Czech republic soon with my car, and I told my friends if anyne has some excees baggage I can take it for them. It sounds like it was a bad idea, as lot of my friends are here for Erasmus exchange and they are going back. So soon it seems that I will have to fold my back sits to put all these books, bags, backpacks etc then I will put three guitars and top it all with an ukulele (no, I am not joking) :wink:

Now it got me thinking, that actually I could put a lot into my car (i think with seats folded I should be able to put euro pallet in it) and with 50 mpg that could not be so bad idea - we used to have Citroen Berlingo in our place, but we get rid off it as it was not enough jobs for it. But we still do some small jobs and since we donā€™t have small vans any more, and only three medium (Dispatch/Expert) sometimes we go with a sprinter to deliver for example one box 20 kgs to Switzerlandā€¦

Off course this is when insurance coming in, as if I would like to do something like that I will need courier insurance and to insure my car for business use which makes no sense if I would like to do that as an odd job from time to timeā€¦

And now i found some small gate I could use, but I wonder if thatā€™s a proper loophole or I am not familiar with all regulation.

My company (and I guess most of courier companies) are insrued and their insurance takes all the vehicles that are owned by the company, hired or lent to it, unless they belong to company employeesā€¦

So if I find some courier company, lent them my car and then hire myself (I am self employed) to do the driving, I should be covered by their insurance, as the vehicle wonā€™t be borrowed from their employee, but from someone who does driving as a self employedā€¦ So it will be just to agree with them some good hourly (or per mile) rate to cover fuel, tolls etc and car amortisation and I should be able to do it?

I am not thinking about it as a lifetime business opportunity, but if I can get some run from time to time just for the sake of free travel on my carā€¦ What do you think? Does it sounds reasonable? Is it worth researching, or itā€™s just impossible because of something I missed?

2

Why should you class what your doing as a businessā€¦who is to say the goods are not yoursā€¦and as for loadingā€¦the Arabs who travel from the north of France back to North Africa well they do know how to load a car /van and find space for all the family.Indeed we used to watch them unload for customs inspection in Irun as they tried to cross into Spain.Once they had spread everything on the ground the customs would walk around and give them the OK then they would have to pack it all up and in again and we drivers with fridge trailers would think the struggle we might have fitting it in our fridge what they were piling in and on their car or van.Just load it and go

3

My friend used to have Suzuki Maruti:

He was moving out from the student hall after the term and then a friend asked him if he can take her stuff as well, as they were leaving in the same town. So he managed to put her stuff into it as well, they got in and drove 120 km to their town. Then they realised that he has something that belongs to her and that itā€™s right at the bottom. So when they arrived to her house, they unloaded everything and put it around the car on the grass. Passers by gathered around and said ā€œitā€™s impossible, you will never put all this stuff into this carā€. Imagine their faces when they learned that all this stuff actually just got OFF it :wink:

The other anegdote: I used to play in some bands when in high school. Believe or not but you can fit acoustic guitar in hard case, bass quitar with hard case and amplifier, three guys and a dog to this:

or acoustic guitar in hard cover, electric guitar in hard cover, bass guitar in hard cover, keyboard with a stand, two amplifiers and full drum set + two people to this:

where half of the boot is taken by LPG tankā€¦ :wink:

Also once Iā€™ve been hithiking with two of my female friends. We had guitar, big back pack and small back pack. Two guys in Fiat 126p (the first of the two above) stopped and offered us a lift. So I gave the girls small backpack and told them that we shall meet in the nearest big city. But the guys said ā€œno way, nobody uses that road, you will stay here foreverā€ so they actually pushed me into the car so I sat on the laps of one of my friends, then closed the front sits, the passengers took our big backpack on his laps and driver got guitar on hisā€¦ And so we were driving - it was 10 kms on the road that was indeed not used by anyone. But when we got to the big town, the guys decided to give us a lift a bit further so we can try to catch another lift. And it so happened that the police car was going the oncoming way.

I still laugh when I remind how the driver got scared and told us ā€œOmg, this car is registered for four persons, only, HIDE!!!ā€ :smiley: :smiley: :smiley:

And as for instruments in a small car, I am just getting carried away as I recalled that movie. Watch it, is brilliant:

As for my original question - off course I would not class that what I do as a business (even that they give me some beer or liquors to contribute towards fuel cost (studentā€™s logic, just donā€™t get to deep into :stuck_out_tongue:), but this was just a point where I thought if itā€™s real to actually use my car for business in the future.

4

I your thinking about using your car as a courier vehicle in the future thereā€™s only 3 companies in the uk that cover that type of usage so you can guess the prices of hire and reward for it then you have to find work to keep thats on going not many companies will touch you

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5

alix776:
I your thinking about using your car as a courier vehicle in the future thereā€™s only 3 companies in the uk that cover that type of usage so you can guess the prices of hire and reward for it then you have to find work to keep thats on going not many companies will touch you

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Yeah, I realise that. That why I was thinking about doing it the way I described - trying to be covered by the bigger company insuranceā€¦ But I donā€™t know if itā€™s realistic, not to meention that I am not sure if that loophole is legalā€¦ It was just me thinking, but itā€™s always worth to ask.

6

from memory a couple of years ago a courier friend was going to borrow my mates van also at the same firm as his van was off the road as my mate had just bought a sprinter and he had a bipper sitting on his drive up for sale he was going to rent to the other courier the other guy was going to put it on his insurance but he couldnt do it as my mate was not a rental company :unamused: :unamused: :unamused: :unamused: i think the same rule would apply to your car

7

alix776:
from memory a couple of years ago a courier friend was going to borrow my mates van also at the same firm as his van was off the road as my mate had just bought a sprinter and he had a bipper sitting on his drive up for sale he was going to rent to the other courier the other guy was going to put it on his insurance but he couldnt do it as my mate was not a rental company :unamused: :unamused: :unamused: :unamused: i think the same rule would apply to your car

Hm, thats answer my questionā€¦

Itā€™s just in our company insurance says ā€œhired car, except cars belonging to the company employeesā€ā€¦ So i thought that it does not need to be a rental companyā€¦

Thanks anyway.