Bad rates

I had a local courier firm ring me up last week, asked me if i could do a job for them, was from Ilkley to Burnley LWB, load 8am prompt go to Burnley wait and then return, I asked what it paid and was told £40, I said I cannot do it for that, I was told that they would ring back with a better rate, never rang, so someone must have done it 4 £40, How they can run a van and pay all cost out of that beats me! By the way 50 mile round trip, taking at least 2 1/2 hours, costing up to £20 in juice,

50 mile round trip? So 25 miles each way?

Yes 25 each way, may be not £20 in juice but you get my drift

Depends how long you expected to wait?

There are plenty that run for 30p travelled mile so I would imagine there would have been plenty of takers.

So how much would you have quoted an end user for that?

Rates are Market driven, believe me if I could charge enough to pay couriers more I would.

I ask as at 25 miles (as long as the wait isnt long) you're on £1 per mile with a half price return, you are opp norf Can't comment about the journey taking 2 1/2 hours for 50 miles total as I don't know the road

MK Bikes said:

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I ask as at 25 miles (as long as the wait isnt long) you're on £1 per mile with a half price return, you are opp norf Can't comment about the journey taking 2 1/2 hours for 50 miles total as I don't know the road

I live in burnley, I can confirm that the road to ilkley isn't a good one, so 2.5 hours sounds about right. gareth

MK Bikes said:

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I ask as at 25 miles (as long as the wait isnt long) you're on £1 per mile with a half price return, you are opp norf Can't comment about the journey taking 2 1/2 hours for 50 miles total as I don't know the road

I agree tbh the price seems good. However if you cant make it pay you are right to walk away, not fair slating the vendor though, if he had offered half that someone would do it . Out if interest what would you be happy with?

ILKLEY EXPRESS said:

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Yes 25 each way, may be not £20 in juice but you get my drift

Holly mose 17 miles to the gallon that's bad have you not had it serviced?

End user... Absolute minimum would be £70-80.

But then again, there's plenty of other things to take into consideration, how big the customer is, volume of work, type of work. PLM isn't the only way to charge for most of us

Thanks guys interesting comments

These sorts of jobs are interesting and also a minefield.

Strictly speaking it's not that bad a rate for a subbie, at full out, half back and minimal waiting the price is around the £1ppm mark.

That said not all jobs are equal, and on short journeys like this on 'bad' roads you need to take into account the time involved, and so for 2.5 hours work it's not that good a deal.

We tend to stick to pure mileage rates for regular customers, and just accept the good with the bad. For a one off job we'd be more inclined to look at the time and price according to that.

I think we've all seen plenty of examples of those that offer rates that make the job unviable unless you happen to be going that way anyway, but i don't think this is one of them.

We all have our minimum charges, and they're based upon a certain mileage from base.

For an LWB i would expect that to be anything from £25 to £50 depending on what radius your minimum charge covers.

For an LWB 25 mile wait and return? £40-£60 seems about right to me, assuming no phaffing about at either end.

I think we've all seen examples that are much much worse then this one

I don't blame you for not taking it. One-way would have been fine at that price but the wait and return makes it a bit of scratch and you just know that wait and return usually means hanging around like a dope for ages.

You can of course put a call in to ask about waiting time while you're sat there, but that sort of twilight zone of between 20min and an hour always makes it a bit tricky and you sometimes feel cheeky for asking. I prefer the long waits of 1hr+ because you know you can definitely put a charge without a worry!

Now it depends on who your doing it for... I know you said "local courier" and rightfully turned it away, but would you have done the same if it was the end user?

I once did a West Leeds to East Bradford, say about 7 miles, for less than £15 and they bit my hand off, and I came up from Sheffield to do it, I did think "why oh why" just thinking the mileage incurred for the money I'm getting, but looking at the "what ifs and buts" anyway in the end it paid off, after a sampling what was on offer and level of service given, so the "little" job was a risk but paid off... I'm not saying I'm running around at low rates, but I am willing to take a risk with the right folk..

Thanks again for comments, I just cannot make small runs pay, with my running costs,