Courier: delivery driver

fryup · 05-10-2017 11:38pm #1

Thinking about getting into courier game, but been warned off it by some drivers i've spoken to.

Most of them are doing 12hr shifts a day..with little money to show for it.

Is it really that tough? whats best to do.. owner/driver or be employed directly by the company?

Snotty · 06-10-2017 12:05am

Listen to them, it's a crap way to earn a living, if you do manage to take an average wage €450pw, then it's by doing 12hour days and 6 days a week.

fryup · 06-10-2017 10:23am

^^^^^^^^^^^

you've been there worn the t-shirt ?

LollipopJimmy · 06-10-2017 10:26am

I've recently hired two ex couriers into 21k per year jobs and they are better off now.

It became a race to the bottom over the last number of years. Unless you are buying a busy, established route in Dublin then forget it would be my advice.

fryup · 06-10-2017 10:44am

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

are they driving? or is it something completely different?

Hitman3000 · 06-10-2017 10:50am

fryup wrote:

Thinking about getting into courier game, but been warned off it by some drivers i've spoken to.

Don't do it, more money and job satisfaction in Supermacs. I worked as a multidrop driver for a couple of years. I'd eat grass before I'd put up with the long hours, sh*t money and pressure.

fryup · 06-10-2017 10:52am

^^^^^^^^^^^^

which company?

Hitman3000 · 06-10-2017 10:56am

fryup wrote:

which company?

No point naming a company as they all have the same attitude towards drivers. You asked for oponions/advice it's not a great job not even an ok job but your decision good luck if you do it.

TallGlass · 06-10-2017 11:00am

Don't do it. You'll more than likely be self employed, but your an employee of the company still.

Worst thing is your basically your own boss (which wouldn't be bad if it was a true vision of the situation but it's not), looking after everything from taxes, if you want holidays you have to arrange cover and pay that person, to putting diesel into your van and air into your tyres.

You'll be working early morning 5/6am to 8/9PM at night. Your not just doing deliveries you'll be doing collections also along with sorting the parcels out for your run and the admin work that goes with the run, paperwork, phone calls etc..

The only company I would ever do it for is An Post. Simple as that.

LollipopJimmy · 06-10-2017 11:22am

fryup wrote: »

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

are they driving? or is it something completely different?

Completely different

siblers · 06-10-2017 11:27am

I know someone doing it, works from 5am to around 5pm Mon-Fri and then does around 5am to 1pm on Saturday, he absolutley hates it. He was working with a different company where the hours were better but they treated him pretty badly, kept saying he would get a raise and never did, better holidays etc. He knows more people working for one of the biggest names and they all get treated fairly badly too.

He told me that one driver while he was at the depot (for one of the biggest couriers in Ireland)found out his dad had died, he told them he needed to get home but they had the cheek to ask him to do his deliveries first as they had no other drivers. The problem is must of these companies are completely understaffed

tonythecamper · 06-10-2017 2:30pm

I'd strongly advise against it. I've done it in the past and it's very tough. I was working for a large courier company self employed.

I started in the depot about 7am most days and finished between 6pm and 8pm most evenings. I earned approx €750 per week. After expenses I'd walk away with about €420. It's very long hours and very stressful.

boardsuser1 · 06-10-2017 2:32pm

If you want a decent standard of life and money AVOID!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Kerryman79 · 06-10-2017 3:52pm

owner/driver definity not worth it , too many overheads even if you leased ...its a cutthroat world out there these days!
Employed directly well depends on the company and the run you get but you will still work long hours for little money, increase your stress levels and have the ever endearing public customers forever whinging in your ears....failed deliveries, missing parcels, broken goods, failed collections etc etc etc
Way easier ways to make money out there and that's from 12 years exp in the game.

fryup · 06-10-2017 9:54pm

Snotty wrote: »

Listen to them, it's a crap way to earn a living, if you do manage to take an average wage €450pw, then it's by doing 12hour days and 6 days a week.

12 hr days

but you'll be driving around like a zombie at that rate...are there many accidents involving couriers??

boardsuser1 · 06-10-2017 10:31pm

fryup wrote: »

12 hr days but you'll be driving around like a zombie at that rate...are there many accidents involving couriers??

Could be upto 14/15 hours depending on the job. All on a daily rate of about €80 before tax.

Snotty · 06-10-2017 10:52pm

fryup wrote: »

12 hr days but you'll be driving around like a zombie at that rate...are there many accidents involving couriers??

I would say 7am to 7pm is probably the minimum shift.
You can't just start work at 9am in a job like that, van needs to be filled, route planned and normally a pile of admin work that's either done in the morning or its not going to be done.

Last thing is, a new person will be getting the crappest route, establish guys would take over a good route if it became available, so it's inevitable. Worse the route, the longer the hours and less money.

frosty123 · 20-08-2018 11:33am

i'm on the look out for a job myself at the moment....and courier was something i was considering

but reading this thread has put me off...serious question: am i better off on the dole??

Faith+1 · 20-08-2018 1:39pm

frosty123 wrote: »

i'm on the look out for a job myself at the moment....and courier was something i was considering

but reading this thread has put me off...serious question: am i better off on the dole??

Any job is better than no job. However with the economy being as good as it is you won't have too much difficulty finding work that isn't driving.
The dole sucks.

frosty123 · 24-08-2018 12:26pm

Faith+1 wrote: »

Any job is better than no job.

really

how about being in a job that wrecks your head?

Quadrivium · 02-05-2019 12:10am

boardsuser1 wrote: »

Could be upto 14/15 hours depending on the job. All on a daily rate of about €80 before tax.

How are you earning that little? How many drops per day would you do and how much is paid per drop? It's very hard to believe couriers are out there working 12 hours for 80 euro before tax.

02-05-2019 12:42am

Mad replies here, although I'm sure there's truth in them.

I know a chap that does it. He has a route and he takes the fastest way he can to deliver.

As far as I can tell he starts about 7am and wraps up for the day around 2pm at the latest. He reckons he's pocketing about €100 a day after petrol (though unsure how he works out costs for servicing, tyres, etc.). He's really happy with it. He also delivers for a take-away at weekends, which he reckons is mind numbingly boring at times, but still worth doing to make use of the van.

His route is a built up area though, so not sure if that makes a difference. Several large house estates. As far as I am aware he gets paid per parcel dropped/collected, so being in an urban area presumably helps.

He loves it, and I often see him out and about. At christmas time he gets a mate with an estate car to give him a hand and throws him a few euro.

I also know a chap that was not at all connected to the courier companies, but that did his own man with a van work and ended up working for a large hardly normal electrical store. He was making great money out of it, from what I can tell. Albeit it's a much different situation to the normal courier job.

swarlb · 02-05-2019 12:55am

Quadrivium wrote: »

How are you earning that little? How many drops per day would you do and how much is paid per drop? It's very hard to believe couriers are out there working 12 hours for 80 euro before tax.

How much do you think they get per drop ? And how many drops do you think you'd fit in a day ? Then try to calculate the distance and fuel costs, and phone, and wear and tear, and breakfast roll !!

Let's say the route is from Dublin to Wexford (every day)

Just as an example, an Post will deliver a small parcel, overnight to anywhere in the Rep, for as little as €7.50

Won't be long before your head is wrecked from trying to beat traffic, deadlines, and 'other couriers', while at the same time wondering why you've no money.

30 years ago I had a small delivery business, working for several connected companies. Into Dublin City centre every morning, load up at a central warehouse, and deliver to set customers. At the time it was £25 per drop. Gradually, due to pressure from rival delivery companies who were constantly offering cheaper rates, it dropped to about £10.50 per drop, while at the same time, the city got more congested, and fuel and maintenance costs got higher, along with insurance, tax and DOE charges.
Eventually I packed it in, as in order to earn 30k a year, you'd need to turn over almost double that.
Try it by all means, you could be lucky, but unless you can offer a 'service' as in some sort of repair business, owning a van simply for delivery's is simply not worth the expense.

Quadrivium · 02-05-2019 1:58am

swarlb wrote: »

How much do you think they get per drop ? And how many drops do you think you'd fit in a day ? Then try to calculate the distance and fuel costs, and phone, and wear and tear, and breakfast roll !!

Let's say the route is from Dublin to Wexford (every day)

Just as an example, an Post will deliver a small parcel, overnight to anywhere in the Rep, for as little as €7.50

Won't be long before your head is wrecked from trying to beat traffic, deadlines, and 'other couriers', while at the same time wondering why you've no money.

30 years ago I had a small delivery business, working for several connected companies. Into Dublin City centre every morning, load up at a central warehouse, and deliver to set customers. At the time it was £25 per drop. Gradually, due to pressure from rival delivery companies who were constantly offering cheaper rates, it dropped to about £10.50 per drop, while at the same time, the city got more congested, and fuel and maintenance costs got higher, along with insurance, tax and DOE charges.
Eventually I packed it in, as in order to earn 30k a year, you'd need to turn over almost double that.
Try it by all means, you could be lucky, but unless you can offer a 'service' as in some sort of repair business, owning a van simply for delivery's is simply not worth the expense.

I honestly have no idea what the drop/collection rates are. I'm guessing around €4 per drop but not sure at all. I've read in other threads here that some courier drivers were doing 60 to 80 drops a day.
I have no doubt it's a tough business but it's no tougher than laying blocks all day with no guarantee of work if it rains or if the sub contractor doesn't want to pay.

Thanks for the input ðŸ‘

Quadrivium · 02-05-2019 2:02am

[Deleted User] wrote: »

Mad replies here, although I'm sure there's truth in them.

I know a chap that does it. He has a route and he takes the fastest way he can to deliver.

As far as I can tell he starts about 7am and wraps up for the day around 2pm at the latest. He reckons he's pocketing about €100 a day after petrol (though unsure how he works out costs for servicing, tyres, etc.). He's really happy with it. He also delivers for a take-away at weekends, which he reckons is mind numbingly boring at times, but still worth doing to make use of the van.

His route is a built up area though, so not sure if that makes a difference. Several large house estates. As far as I am aware he gets paid per parcel dropped/collected, so being in an urban area presumably helps.

He loves it, and I often see him out and about. At christmas time he gets a mate with an estate car to give him a hand and throws him a few euro.

I also know a chap that was not at all connected to the courier companies, but that did his own man with a van work and ended up working for a large hardly normal electrical store. He was making great money out of it, from what I can tell. Albeit it's a much different situation to the normal courier job.

Cheers for that info, nice to see a bit of positive info on this. I'd be happy enough working 7am to 6pm if I can make a fair wage in those hours.

Del2005 · 02-05-2019 2:31am

Quadrivium wrote: »

Cheers for that info, nice to see a bit of positive info on this. I'd be happy enough working 7am to 6pm if I can make a fair wage in those hours.

Have a look at the courier and consumer issues forums to see what the other side is like.

On all the threads about working as a courier there's only 1 positive, from a non courier.

rovers2001 · 26-01-2020 12:49pm

Hi Guys

I have also set up recently as a sole trader,it is a long story so i wont bore you as to why i did it.
My background is driving and deliveries so i have set up a courier business.
Whilst i have Registered with Core and Vat and tax/insurance etc but i am finding it difficult to come up with my own price list as such.I do have connections with some big companies that i hope will send some work my way.
Too hard to compare with huge companies like dhl etc,so my question here is..
Can anyone recommend or point me in right direction to get an idea of pricing for the following as a sole trader deliveries/collections please..

Jiffy bags
Small parcel
Large parcel
Small pallet
Large pallet up to 1.8M high.

Sorry if this is in wrong thread.

_Brian · 27-01-2020 10:37pm

rovers2001 wrote: »

Hi Guys

I have also set up recently as a sole trader,it is a long story so i wont bore you as to why i did it.
My background is driving and deliveries so i have set up a courier business.
Whilst i have Registered with Core and Vat and tax/insurance etc but i am finding it difficult to come up with my own price list as such.I do have connections with some big companies that i hope will send some work my way.
Too hard to compare with huge companies like dhl etc,so my question here is..
Can anyone recommend or point me in right direction to get an idea of pricing for the following as a sole trader deliveries/collections please..

Jiffy bags
Small parcel
Large parcel
Small pallet
Large pallet up to 1.8M high.

Sorry if this is in wrong thread.

Surely to god pricing and costs were worked out at the beginning to determine if this was a viable business.

Your post reads like you set up a whole courier business without knowing what the charge for deliveries would be, how could you do that ?

rovers2001 · 27-01-2020 10:50pm

_Brian wrote: »

Surely to god pricing and costs were worked out at the beginning to determine if this was a viable business.

Your post reads like you set up a whole courier business without knowing what the charge for deliveries would be, how could you do that ?

Hi Brian
I supppse that’s a fair reflection on what I said.
Costs etc were researched but my pricing research is too erratic across the board to confirm my own pricing,so was looking for a bit of help.
May of worded this wrong but appreciate the reply.

Courier: delivery driver

Comments