Going self employed!

[Roverdose]

I'm a courier looking at coming off hourly rate at work and going self employed at a "per parcel rate" . Anyone else done anything similar? Cost and expense wise:

First parcel rate £1.35
Subsequent parcel rate £0.68
Collection rate £3.80

Costs

Van lease £130 Per week
Wear and tear £0.08 pence per mile (aprox 100miles per day 6 days per week)
Insurance £4 per day
Fuel £120 - £140 per week

A friend of mine who's doing this on another route with the same cost did over £200 in profit today. Worth doin. Anyone got a van? What mileage are you getting? I think the key with this is to own my own van, needs to be LWB high top really, any thoughts?

[bob23]

I would say unless you own the van outright then don't do it, mate of mine runs 5 44ton lorries, he did look into doing courier work with vans but the margins were too small, to lease and run a van and pay a driver a decent wage (what you would want doing it self employed) meant that he would have broken even, which sounds ok if your doing it for yourself and not as a business employing someone, but then you have to take into account things like the van breaking down, you may have it on an r&m lease so wouldn't cost you anything for repair, but you aren't working while it is being repaired so you lose money, you don't get paid for drops where no one was in and have to deliver it again at your own cost.

I had a mate who ran his own van doing this, he owned it outright and still only did it for a few months because he was working all the hours god sent and making peanuts.

[Roverdose]

I see what your saying but i'm doing 70 drops a day and 7-10 collections a day so lets call that £112 a day,  from my calculations i won't be any worse off if i'm leaseing the van from dash, it's a brand new transit, so it drinks fuel like a twit but has warentee and someone else pays the bills etc, however if i can find a trader who will sell me a van on a hp type arrangement at £133pw then im making the same money im on now AND buying my own van which would be a Renault master or a Peugeot boxer as they both do massively better mpg's over the transit so id save around £40 per week which takes my take home to £350, if i buy a van for say £2200 (like the fiat ducato i've seen)  it will take 16 weeks to pay it off at £133 p/w but after that my take home will be £480ish per week, massive improvement on what i'm on now! Not going to employ someone except for when i have time off, in which case i have a mate that will do it £5 per hour. Bargain!

[bob23]

But if your looking at buying a van for £2200 it's going to be fairly old and have quite a few miles on it, which means it will probably need more repairs than a newer van, which because you own it you will have to pay for and that will have to come out your £480 take home, so while it's off the road for repair you'll be losing money, then you'll have the repair bill, might only be £50 for changing a wheel bearing, but could just as easily be a gearbox or engine costing £500+ to repair and however many days off waiting for the garage to fit it in.

Ideally you'd want a lwb high roof sprinter, much more reliable, more comfortable, not too bad on fuel and they ride a lot better than a boxer, new transits are sh!t, they go through starter motors, clutch's, flywheels and fuel pumps like they are going out of fashion.

You need to think, is the possibility of earning £480 per week worth the risk of having the time off and cost of repairs and work going slack, £350 per week guaranteed is better than £480 profit 1 week then £100 profit the next, not knowing what is coming in from 1 week to the next, then the possibility of big bills.

If you do decide to go for it good luck and I hope it works out for you.

[gti gaz]

The big question is will you get the amount of work as a self employed person or a member of staff cos not all companys will give self employed people as much as hourly rated.
You would be best owning a van out right also you will haft to pay your own ni and bits like that.
As self employed myself sometimes its awsome and others not works out about even most the time but that me

[Roverdose]

I'll have my usual postcodes and i will also be allowed to cherry pick from the neighbouring postcode if im short on stops, I've spoken to a mate i work with and he's going to sell me his Vivaro at 130 quid a week, so after 16.5 weeks the van will be mine, it's ideal really as i can find cheaper insurance than the standard that comes with the transit at £4 per day and i won't have to pay the 8p per mile, i might pay it to myself and save it as a vehicle wear and tear fund, my plan is to save at least 50% of what i earn anyway after i'm out of debt. I'm excited but ever so slightly sh1ting my pants at the same time! Every now and then all i think is what if it goes wrong! Just want to make sure iv'e thought of everything humanly possible, I've been experimenting with my route while im still on hourly to try and get the best result for the mileage, I've previously left Tesco's for someone else to do as it's a 12 o'clock delivery and slap bang in the middle of my route, but theres sometimes 30 parcels for them so it would be foolish not to try and make it work, iv'e also got the problem that because i don't get on the road till half 11ish, by the time i get to Helston town center alot of the businesses are closed so i'm driving past stops loosing money, need to make a economical route where the buisinesses are priority, that way by the time i get to the home delivery it'll be after 5 and more people will be home, so more sucesfull stops! Really need to get more collections aswell, i keep getting these paperless collections where you just hand over a "bullet" from the label, at least half of these i get to and somebody's already been, wondering if i can still invoice yodel for the collection even though it's a failure. Feel free to rip this thread apart as i really do wanna make sure iv'e thought about it from every possible angle.

Many thanks, Ian

[justalex81]

I'll have my usual postcodes and i will also be allowed to cherry pick from the neighbouring postcode if im short on stops, I've spoken to a mate i work with and he's going to sell me his Vivaro at 130 quid a week, so after 16.5 weeks the van will be mine, it's ideal really as i can find cheaper insurance than the standard that comes with the transit at £4 per day and i won't have to pay the 8p per mile, i might pay it to myself and save it as a vehicle wear and tear fund, my plan is to save at least 50% of what i earn anyway after i'm out of debt. I'm excited but ever so slightly sh1ting my pants at the same time! Every now and then all i think is what if it goes wrong! Just want to make sure iv'e thought of everything humanly possible, I've been experimenting with my route while im still on hourly to try and get the best result for the mileage, I've previously left Tesco's for someone else to do as it's a 12 o'clock delivery and slap bang in the middle of my route, but theres sometimes 30 parcels for them so it would be foolish not to try and make it work, iv'e also got the problem that because i don't get on the road till half 11ish, by the time i get to Helston town center alot of the businesses are closed so i'm driving past stops loosing money, need to make a economical route where the buisinesses are priority, that way by the time i get to the home delivery it'll be after 5 and more people will be home, so more sucesfull stops! Really need to get more collections aswell, i keep getting these paperless collections where you just hand over a "bullet" from the label, at least half of these i get to and somebody's already been, wondering if i can still invoice yodel for the collection even though it's a failure. Feel free to rip this thread apart as i really do wanna make sure iv'e thought about it from every possible angle.

Many thanks, Ian

i have 2 pieces of advise for you.

1. ffs don't get a vivaro
2. if you do decide to do this i suggest that all the extra money you make goes into taking some courses and learning a decent trade. there are loads of evening courses available.

[Roverdose]

Whats wrong with a Vivaro? 1.9 non turbo Renault engine, fair enough the gearboxes are made of cheese but every van has it's weekness, sprinters go through clutches and turbos, transits get to 4 years old and just give up, and Peugeot's rot and rot and rot and tend to not start every now and then for no reason whatsoever. I've got a trade as a fibreglass boat builder but the money is crap and seasonal, i need my 30k so i can buy my boat and become semi retired, i have no wish to be rich or own a house, never have, never will, all i care about is getting my boat and becoming a hermit by the time i'm 35, i'm 26 at the moment so i'm in with a shout of achieving my goal. I hate the game of tax, pensions and finance, but in order to get out of the game i'm going to have to play it for a while!

[bob23]

Vivaro's are renault traffic vans with worse engines, they are sh!t.

I bought this van with only 60,000 on the clock and very tidy looking. In three years it’s done an extra 22,000; it’s been off the road for over a year costing me a fortune in lost earnings. It’s had a new turbo costing £550, a new battery at £150, a new master clyinder at £150, a new slave cylinder at £675, a complete head rebuild costing £1300 (top) an engine rebuild (bottom half) costing £1400, a new clutch at £680 and now the gear box needs repairing at around £600 - £800! It has nearly put me out of business and so it’s now being sold for spares and repairs. Beware!!

I have a 2002 long wheel base Vivaro. Where do I start? I have had the van for two years now and it’s going on the 7th of Jan 2012 and good riddance! It has always been serviced, oil levels checked etc., etc. In the two years I have owned it I have spent £1000’s repairing it. To start with the gearbox failed, traditionally third gear first and then totally failed. It was recovered to Vauxhall for repair, then three weeks later the brand new box failed. It was again recovered back to Vauxhall who tried to blame poor driving for the failure (but that’s another story). After the gearbox problems had been sorted, the clutch failed. The van had only done 60,000 miles at this point. After this everything ran smoothly for a while, until one afternoon, the turbo started to over run. In stand still traffic, the van started to pump over 6000 revs and the key wouldnt shut it off. The only way was to stall it, but by this time the turbo was cooked. I thought that this was the end of my Vivaro, however I had it repaired by a small company and not Vauxhall with their astronomical bills. 6 months plain sailing, shortly followed by the power steering pump failing. Re-booked back into Vauxhall, 3 days later and £400 lighter my van was returned to me. Not even a week later, I pull off the motorway slip road to be surrounded by white smoke and a very rich burning smell. All the oil from the power steering had leaked through the alternator, leaving it to slowly cook itself. I was told by an independent garage that this could and should have been cleaned to prevent it after the leak. Now the speedometer has packed up. ECU light comes on as you go over 50mph. This was the straw that broke the camels back. I will never own another Vivaro, or Vauxhall/Renault for that matter. Not only do the vans appear to be poorly constructed, not much can be said for the Vauxhall/Renault service centres. Back to Ford for me!!!

I bought a low mileage van with full service history. The EGR valve went, then the power steering pump went and next the injecters played up (but they get seized so new head). A great drive and comfy, but such a shame as they suffer so many silly problems. I have just changed it for a Toyota Hiace, which is a bit basic but a lot better. Would I have a Vivaro again? No!

So basically what's wrong with a Vivaro is EVERYTHING! DON'T DO IT! my old boss had a Traffic van, that was sh!t too, cost him a fortune.

Don't forget if work goes slack where you are, the self employed people will be the first to lose work, if they have people on an hourly rate they WILL get preference, no matter what they might tell you.

[jimbooboo]

Why are you working out your costs daily? Would it not be better to work out on a monthly basis?