bookings

once again post a job no calls seriously this site needs to sort it self out other wise i can see vendors leaving & not renewing there subscription.

Not arguing with your point about the lack of bids, but you don't have to pay anything to post work.

But the question is why are we getting no bids

Rob I whole heartily agree with you there, cx you can no payment performance but still genrate calls of intrest in the job listed not long started using cx just been getting to know pepole on it generating sum trust, listed my first job on there whilst trying to book it to a driver on there who've got to know & still got calls whilst booking it even on freight alerts 

Manjit, do you think that it will pay you in the long run been on CX as they rather expensive. I was on their site but due to been off the road for 10 weeks after me op my dues were due explained the situation to them they put my account on hold at £30 for three months, now they keep ringing me they have offered me a deal but I told them that I can't afford it but they are working something out for me

pete i've been on the cx for a few months now joined up just before the so called Christmas rush back in early November last year, at first i found it a bit intrigued that they kept ringing me up giving me the whole glorified pic & telling me to network with some of the local members kinda felt they where trying to tell me how to run my business & some of the companies id rang to just offer a price on a job found kinda rude & ignorant after working out who the good ones were from the bad it started to become a bit more plain sailing, on the plus side made some good contacts on it mainly the northern based companies, after getting a feel for the site i've posted 1 or 2 jobs on there, but however not to take any thing away from this site i do genuinely like this site but sheer frustrated with the lack of calls i get upon posting jobs on here & seems like i'm not the only one on here that feels the same way, i just hope between admin & tim they can find a way or solutions to solving this problem other wise i can't see which direction this sites gone go in.

CX has many issues, but it does what it says.

As i have said on another thread.

There are members listed on here who signed up 2 years ago, Have no details about themselves and have never contributed to any discussions, Some i don't even know what vehicle they have
 ( It could be his mums shopping bike or a skateboard for all i know).

There needs to be a culling of outdated members who have probably faded away anyway

I would rather have a small network of useable contacts rather than a loads of people you can't use.

I would be easier sticking a pin in a telephone directory and striking lucky.

Absolutely

I am real I have not faded away.

AWAY away away.....(echoes)

Yes Business Buddy
You signed up a few days ago,

There are members on here who signed up 2 years ago and have never updated any details or introduced themselves.
You will find that there are some members on here that post regularly because like me i am office based and can keep looking back, Then there are owner drivers and we know they are driving and can't really check back as often..........................Then there are the nobody's,,  I mean nobody's because we know nothing about them, What vehicle they have what insurances nothing,,It's that they just signed up and haven't ever been back on the site.

So the moral of the story is the more information you can update with the better..

Yep am new but been around the block and look forward to a long relationship. Business plan is taking shape so I can go and beg,crawl, plead or cry to my bank manager. 

I wonder what percentage of OD's have paid to be a member and so are able to quote on work?

I joined for free and have not upgraded. I get loads of alerts for jobs nowhere near where I am based. I have rarely seen a load that I felt I could bid on. OK I am a bit out of the way in NE Wales and I accept that.

So as far as this site is concerned what is the incentive for me to pay to upgrade? How many others feel the same?

If I saw lots of work I could quote on then I could justify paying.

I am guilty of lurking a lot on these forums. I am new to this game and soaking up as much information as I can and this and other sites have been helpful in that,

I have paid to join cx because someone I know and done work for recommended I did and I do get jobs from there.

Its a fine line when starting out, where do you spend your limited cash, where will you get most bang for your money. Sorry to say that I have not seen enough work on mtvan to justify spending at the mo.

So my original question still stands and is that why you that do put work on here not get the volume of quotes you want?

I started this thread on 25/10/11

Booking Work - Lack of Bids

"I have posted many jobs on this site in the last 4 months.

I have only ever received 2 offers on 15

If you are successfully getting your work covered, can you please share with me your secrets.

I am also on Courier Exchange, where this year alone I have posted 168 jobs.

I have had aproximately 250 offers and covered 112 of them.

I either smell, people don't want to make offers for good jobs, or I am doing something wrong.

I realise that I am setting myself up for the rise here.

Helpful comments would also be appreciated."

Now following on from Rob's post @ Speed.

Finally a question for website admin.  Do members experiences of booking work and getting it covered vary?  I refer to members in the same areas at the same time.  Geographical variation is insignificant.

Kind regards

Tony

Heres a 1st and last from me I dont do forums. If you have time to post then you have too much time on your hands.

As one of the longest serving/active members on Mtvan. I have seen members come and go for reasons other.

I concurr with the coments madce by Nottingham Sameday.

However I never have trouble getting work covered.

Birmingham clearly has more active members then cos it certainly don't work down here or anywhere else i've posted.....

Thank you B S C.  Before Mtvan went boing I used to post jobs and get responses.

Since it's rebirth, the site for me has been inefective.  I presumed that it works for others, which is what I hoped for and expected.

Why not me?

Comments please, particularly from Website Admin.

Kind regards

Tony

i suppose it's down to it's rebirth then that drivers don't want to call for job's posted on here, me personally was happy the fact that tail end of last year i manged to get a few job's covered on mtvan as the begging was a dead endear & began to lose faith with the site, after getting job's covered on here tail end of last year i'd began to regain my faith with the site, but come of late we seem to going down the same route of no calls, whole idea of these exchange site are to cut out time wasting of constantly going through the old black book digging out numbers calling around, but looks like the old skool method is the best one, the old black book.
personally heard good reviews about mtvan before it's collapse & rebirth so some thing's going wrong some where, come on admin upgrade the directory get rid of the dead wood on here that no longer operate & maybe we can all go back to being one big happy family again happy days &
billy what's happen to you today appearing on a forum gosh that is a first.lol hope your well mate.

It may appear plenty of "Couriers" are joining but take 1 person who has registered today - He is a newsagent & off licence looking at his address on google maps street view.
So when it says 500 couriers notified it should say 500 texts sent but not all are couriers
What insurances do these people have if any ? - I think I probably know the answer

Another new member tonight who appears to be a baguette/sandwich shop from Google Street View

Interesting thread...

There are lots of members with Pro membership, so able to bid, but possibly not enough in all areas to give results for all Vendors.

Lots of members do fill in the details on their Profile, but not enough. This means that Vendors don't know whether bidders are worth calling or not.

So the site needs more completed Profiles, and more bids, so Vendors get results and post more work.


We will soon be making three big changes to mtvan which we hope will help:

• We will launch our free iPhone app, which we think will bring mtvan into the cab and make it really easy to post work, post journeys, get alerts, and bid for work.
  
  
• We will be rewarding people who add more details to their Profile, by giving them access to Vendor details in return.
  
  
• We will be doing even more deletions of "sign up and don't update their Profile" people.

thank you tim, well that's a start & hopefully that'll get the site working better to how it should be working.

Hi there

Hoping that admin. might respond to two requests, first made on 21/05.

Kind regards

Tony

Hi Tony

I must say there must be flaw in the plan somewhere as I rarely see a job even remotely near me!!
I think the helpfull spirit on here is great as I have said before ifit were not for the forum I would not be such a regular visitor,
 I find CX usefull in getting work for me and covering work I can't do myself,
I have been building up my business for 2 years now but there is no quick way you just have to stick at it!!
how about trying to introduce a platform with google latitude?
real time tracking of members that costs nout!? 

well I have to say cx is beginning to get fustrating too recently.

I can only grow my business with the help of exchange sites. Without them its much more difficult to grow. I had a 50% increase in sales for May, and rely heavily on quick responses from exchange sites. Now if these sites can't help, then I can't grow. 

as soon as i get a decent van sorted ill be posting quotes all the time.. i cant see why anyone else isnt if anyone has a spare van until i get a van sorted ill be happy to deliver parcels and packages for you :-)

Hi Tim

How are things?

"Finally a question for website admin. Do members experiences of booking work and getting it covered vary? I refer to members in the same areas at the same time. Geographical variation is insignificant".

Kind regards

Tony

Hi Tony

It's hard to answer your question, as some time ago we put phone numbers on the alerts, so we don't see all the replies. But there are lots of online bids, and the people who post all the time do get results.

Obviously we want it to work for everyone and we're constantly looking for new ways to make the site better and get more work on the site.

So we are getting on with lots of new stuff, especially the iPhone app which will bring mtvan into the cab in a way that txt alerts etc never can. And we'll continue to do surveys and talk and listen to what people want. 

So what we have now is a group of vendors who regularly post work, and other vendors who post just a few jobs, don't get a result and don't post again.  

So really for us the question is ... how do we get new vendors to keep posting jobs for long enough for couriers to get the message that there is new work on here?

Tim

Tim can i suggest you just text alerts to Pro members? If free members cant quote whats the point in texting them? I'd also get rid of the free members as it seems they are spoiling a good exchange site for the ones who pay. If they can quote why should they use this site to get jobs over the ones who pay to use the site??

Hi Bob

An interesting idea.

As a point of fact, although the free members get the email alerts, they don't get the Vendor details, so it's just a way of letting them know about the kind of work on the site.

Given that, maybe we should just say "29 Pro members alerted", as that's real number?

Tim

Hi Tim. Thanks for the reply. Do you mean alerting, for example, 29 Pro members and 500 non-pro members? I've just posted a job and over 530 alerts went out, one of which was to me!! 

I guess so.

CX have completely rewritten their software and it will go live in September.

Was there an answer to the app suitable for ANDROID?????.

It's a huge investment to produce one of these apps, let alone two.

At the moment, the answer is definite no to Android or any other platform.

You will still be able to access the full site on a mobile browser, of course, so having an Android phone or tablet in the cab doesn't exclude you from mtvan.

Hi Tim,

Just posted a job and got a bid, so things are looking up.

Kind regards

Tony

I was again looking to cover a job and when i looked at couriers closest to the collection i had to discount 5 registered members due to very little information.
We simply cannot risk giving work to people who can't even be bothered to keep their profiles updated or at least populated with the basic required information.

The job value was £192 so it would have been worthwhile if they had been bothered.

I thought he point of a site such as this was to make yourself known, network and get repeat customers.