What is a same day courier?

You can guarantee that at some point, almost every commercial business in the UK has used a same day courier. In short, a same day courier provides a transport service of urgent or time critical goods from one location to another.

For most companies, it is not cost effective to employ a full-time driver for the times when they need an urgent delivery of goods or documents, so they will employ an outside courier service to do these jobs for them.

What do I need to become a courier?

The 3 main things you will need to become a same day courier are a vehicle, a mobile telephone and GIT or Goods in Transit insurance.

When choosing a vehicle, everything is relative. The larger vehicle you buy, the more and bigger loads you can take and the more you can charge per mile, but your running costs will also increase.

The easiest way to start your own courier business is to contact local courier firms and see if they sub-contract work out to freelance couriers. If they do, find out what their requirements are it is no good buying a small van if most of their work requires a long wheel base and inefficient to buy a big van if they usually deal with small parcels or documents. Generally, the bigger you buy, the more options you have for work, but doing a little research here is the key.

You are required to purchase good in transit insurance and there are many companies that can help you here. As with anything, it pays to shop around for the best deal. It is advisable to get public liability cover as well and many companies will do a package deal including comprehensive vehicle cover, good in transit and public liability cover.

Giles insurance brokers are a specialist that could well be worth a call – www.gilesinsurance.co.uk

A mobile phone with any of the big 5 service operators will suffice. You may want to consider getting yourself a PDA or similar and many mobile operators will offer these free of charge on certain tariffs.

The advantages of a PDA are firstly that you can download satellite navigation software, something that is invaluable to a courier. Some load matching websites offer job alerts and mobile access to their websites if you have a compatible device and software is available that lets you use a PDA as a signature capture device, allowing you to record and send proof of delivery instantly.

VAT registration

As a freelance, same day courier you are unlikely to be required to register for VAT by reaching the threshold of £67,000 but it is well worth considering doing so anyway.

As a courier your biggest outgoing will undoubtedly be fuel, by becoming VAT registered you will be able to charge VAT to your customers, which will pay for the VAT on your fuel and could save you thousands of pounds a year. As most of your clients will be VAT registered, they will not have a problem with you charging VAT, but if you are not clued up about this subject then you may need to employ an accountant to fill in your returns for you. Call around local accountancy firms to get quotes for this service, again the key is research to make sure the pro’s of being VAT registered outweigh the con’s. You can find out more at - www.hmrc.gov.uk/VAT/index.htm

Getting customers

As with any business, you need to make people aware of your existence and what you can offer them. There are many ways to get your name in front of potential clients, the best free options include Yell.com and other local business directories.

Not only should you register in local directories, read through them as well and contact local companies. Introduce yourself and your company, ask to speak to the person responsible for goods delivery and enquire as to their needs.

Many companies may only use a same day courier once in a blue moon, by contacting them and giving them your details you can make sure that when that day arises, it is you that they call. Arrange to pop in and see them, it is always better to speak in person than over the phone, just be sure that both you and your van arrive looking clean and smart, remember it is their company image that you will be transporting as well as their goods.

Internet Marketing

In today’s world of computers and the internet, most people will go straight to Yahoo or Google to find a courier. Having your own website can massively increase awareness of your company and is not as costly as you may think.

You can employ a company to build you a simple but attractive and informative website from as little as £99, find out more at www.hddesigns.co.uk or www.garethhoyle.co.uk

Sub-contracting

The easiest and most popular way for freelance couriers to start work is by sub-contracting work from other, larger firms. Contact local firms and ask if they sub-contract out work, you will find that many will do this. Arrange to go and see them to discuss what they can offer you and what you can offer them.

They will usually have a set price that they pay to sub-contractors and terms of anything from 7 to 90 days. The most common terms are 30 days but you should think twice about working for firms whose terms are longer. Remember that you will have to pay for your fuel in advance (even credit and fuel cards only offer terms of 30 days) so bear in mind you will be out of pocket at first. Being a courier is not a 9-5 job so if you agree to sub-contract from another company you should ensure that you are easily contactable and available as often as possible. If you persistently refuse work from a company, they will just not bother to ring you.

Load matching sites

Another great way to secure work is by registering with some of the various load matching sites that exist. The biggest and most popular of these is courier exchange, where courier firms can post jobs that they are looking to sub-contract out.

Courier exchange is a very good resource for securing your primary work and is also a great way to network with other local courier firms and build solid working relationships. Most of the work on courier exchange is urgent work, or ‘hotshots’ as they are called. They do offer return journey work, or ‘backloads’ but these are not as readily available.

The ability to regularly secure return journeys is critical to your business and can sometimes be the difference between you succeeding or failing as a profitable business. Travelling 200 miles a day to make deliveries is great, but if you are travelling 200 miles back everyday empty, the cost of this will hurt your profits considerably.

There is a choice of sites specifically designed to offer you return journeys, but most of these do little to help the same day courier who is working to a tight schedule as they operate in a reverse auction format.

The problem facing same day couriers is that you are unlikely to be given much notice of your jobs, you will usually get the call and go. This creates problems when it comes to securing a return journey on a reverse auction site as any bid you place on a job is not likely to be accepted for days, if at all. This is not ideal when you are looking for a return journey within a matter of hours.

The advantage Transport4 has over all others

The advantage of www.transport4.co.uk is that all jobs are available in real-time, meaning that as soon as a job is posted, you can contact the shipper directly and secure the job. Even if you are on the road and unable to access the website, you can call our driver support team who will search for you and send you details of any jobs that suit your journey.

Subscriptions start from as little as £12.50 a month, all we require is proof of your trading address and your GIT cover and we will activate your account.

Register today and you will have access to an invaluable database of return journey work, helping to ensure you never run empty and maximise your vehicles earning potential.