Distance to rate variation

Hi guys

I have been digging round checking on various rates so i can stay competitive. Yes i'am new to this side being self-employed i have worked out my costs per mile i have a minimum charge but dont charge from base to collection unless over x amount of miles.Is it the norm to lower your rate the further you go or do you stick to one rate plm. Some that i have checked out vary by as much as 50p.

The ones i have checked seem to drop in 50 mile sections. It doesnt matter if half of travel is down A road or motorway.

Any light on this matter would be helpful

A minimum charge for local work is pretty normal...It does vary but seems to be from £10 - £25 and covers anything from 10-20 miles

I've seen some reduce rates for longer distance, but it's not something we do

I think the simpler the better, both for you and for your customer

I did come across a courier company a few years back that had 20 different rates, and that's just plain daft

We have 2 x rates for each type of vehicle, Inner London and Outer London, and the minimum for Inner London varies on the miles involved, plus the congestion charge complicates things a little, but we got there in the end!

I think customers like to be able to work it out themselves too so easy is always best

They where along the lines that i was thinking so that my customer can say right a-b is x miles = price according to van. But some of the rates i have obtained drop from say a xlwb rate down to a small van rate over say 300 miles. Just dont want to be pricing my self out but want to have a system thats easy to use

Hi Ian,

Rob is correct. Keeping it simple is the key.

Here is how we do it for our small van.

We charge £0.75 plm to trade clients.

We have a minimum charge of £25 (this covers appx 33 miles).

The only caveat to this is that sometimes a small job can have almost 20-30 dead miles and can sometimes take more than 2 hours. Such jobs would not be worth the £25 and the courier companies who use us are aware of this so they just ask for a quote.

In this circumstance I usually look at the round trip mileage and the time it will take and work out a price that is reasonable for us and the courier company.

Reducing your price for longer jobs is counterproductive in my humble opinion.

Hope this helps.

Scott.

And don't worry too much about what every one else is charging...

Although it's important, there is always someone cheaper than you so don't sell yourself short

If someone wants to quibble over price then they're not the customers you want anyway, and if a competitor wants to charge low, then that's their lookout

Hear, hear!

I never understand why people have a price per mile with a simple minimum charge. As Scott touched upon, simply giving a minimum charge makes short distance work a waste of time and doesn't make sense. Is it really wise to charge your customer the same money whether it's a drop half a mile down the road or 25 miles away?

I think a better way to do it is to give a price for the first mile (say £30) and then a per mile charge after that.

So for a 10 mile run your price would be?

£30 for one mile... Lol... madness

Speed Couriers (Stansted) said:

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So for a 10 mile run your price would be?

£30 for one mile... Lol... Madness

Whats wrong with this at a minmun charge? If you have an employed driver committed to this he cant do anything else you would have to charge this. Yes around your neck of the woods its easy to cover but most places out on the moors dont have vans passing by all the time and that 1 mile is never that simple

Nothing wrong with that as a minimum charge, but a minimum charge has to cover more than a mile... Otherwise by the time he's got a 10mile job he will have priced himself out of the market... A minimum charge is supposed to cover up to a certain mileage, and he stated for the 1st mile, and that's plain daft

All these prices whats wrong with an industry standard. Trade and private outgoing and backloads.

Speed Couriers (Stansted) said:

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So for a 10 mile run your price would be?

£30 for one mile... Lol... Madness

Eh? Madness? The £30 was just an example to show the first mile is much higher than the standard rate per mile after that. It may well be lower - that's up to him - but I don't know if we're talking a Connect or a Luton Tail Lift, or whether it's for end-users or trade.

Out of interest, Speed, would you send a Luton tail lift out for an end user for less than £30?

Im pretty new to MTVAN as well ... And I can see this milage madness on here

So... All this milage to rate stuff on here... What does it all mean...? And what is reasonable PLM rate and does that include my meals at Mc Dougals, Or even Mr.G's greasy spoon. Can I have a dinner break and charge for it as well...?

WS Distribution Ltd said:

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Speed Couriers (Stansted) said:

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So for a 10 mile run your price would be?

£30 for one mile... Lol... Madness

Eh? Madness? The £30 was just an example to show the first mile is much higher than the standard rate per mile after that. It may well be lower - that's up to him - but I don't know if we're talking a Connect or a Luton Tail Lift, or whether it's for end-users or trade.

Out of interest, Speed, would you send a Luton tail lift out for an end user for less than £30?

Good question that one if anybody does send one out for £30 they wont be sending them out for much longer

I think there is a massive contrast on this site between those running small goods vehicles and those running different specialist vehicles because there is a large company big one massive that pays a minumum of £50 for our flatbed

You're absolutely right there Barnsley.

I am just a bit confused as to why Speed called my suggestion 'daft' and 'madness' and that 'otherwise by the time he's got a 10mile job he will have priced himself out of the market' when his own website states that a LWB from CM23 to CM24 is £50...

My price suggestion of £30 first mile + £1 (for example) thereafter = £33!

Just like to point out that I did state that the rates I quoted were intended for a small van!

Also, I do believe that charging in this manner whilst not officially an "industry standard" it's the "generally accepted practice!"

Scott.

Barnsley Shipping said:

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WS Distribution Ltd said:

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Speed Couriers (Stansted) said:

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So for a 10 mile run your price would be?

£30 for one mile... Lol... Madness

Eh? Madness? The £30 was just an example to show the first mile is much higher than the standard rate per mile after that. It may well be lower - that's up to him - but I don't know if we're talking a Connect or a Luton Tail Lift, or whether it's for end-users or trade.

Out of interest, Speed, would you send a Luton tail lift out for an end user for less than £30?

Good question that one if anybody does send one out for £30 they wont be sending them out for much longer

I think there is a massive contrast on this site between those running small goods vehicles and those running different specialist vehicles because there is a large company big one massive that pays a minumum of £50 for our flatbed

£65 for my curtainsider min charge

But i do get £120 for mansfield to derby and mansfield to chesterfield (thats each run) :-) thats for the c/sider

Barnsley Shipping said:

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Speed Couriers (Stansted) said:

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So for a 10 mile run your price would be?

£30 for one mile... Lol... Madness

Whats wrong with this at a minmun charge? If you have an employed driver committed to this he cant do anything else you would have to charge this. Yes around your neck of the woods its easy to cover but most places out on the moors dont have vans passing by all the time and that 1 mile is never that simple

The problem you have is 90% of people going on about mileage rates and min charge's do not employ anybody, so when they get a price from a company that does employ people and doesnt run on the banks money, they think the prices is way over the top and have a panic attack lol

SMH said:

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Barnsley Shipping said:

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Speed Couriers (Stansted) said:

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So for a 10 mile run your price would be?

£30 for one mile... Lol... Madness

Whats wrong with this at a minmun charge? If you have an employed driver committed to this he cant do anything else you would have to charge this. Yes around your neck of the woods its easy to cover but most places out on the moors dont have vans passing by all the time and that 1 mile is never that simple

The problem you have is 90% of people going on about mileage rates and min charge's do not employ anybody, so when they get a price from a company that does employ people and doesnt run on the banks money, they think the prices is way over the top and have a panic attack lol

Exactly running a courier company that depends on cover from exchange members is a world away from a properly run company where the customer actually knows your drivers well

Well this thread seems to have got a bit silly in my absence

The minimum charges discussed were of course for small vans not lutons, curtain siders or anything else anyone wishing to confuse the issue wants to mention

Then again, you all knew that didn't you... Just arguing black is white as per normal

And WS you'll also note if you've done your homework that the charge for an LWB of £50 covers a 20 mile trip too... I. E it's a minimum charge... Covering a 20 mile radius...so the same for 1 mile or 20 miles NOT £50 for the first mile then a mileage rate on top of that for each subsequent mile. That's what i'm calling daft

Hang about Speed, the chap didn't mention the type of van in his post and I just told him the general principle that we work to using the fictional example of £30 for the first mile then a regular plm charge thereafter. For my troubles I got lol'd at and called daft!

My point was that in my view it makes more sense to do it my way rather than to simply have a flat plm charge and a minimum charge.

I'm based in Brum and if one of my customers has a drop (as one of them often does) just a couple of miles away, which will keep a driver busy for 30 minutes, I'm not going to charge him the same as I would for a delivery 25 miles away the other side of Wolverhampton, which might take out one of my drivers for the best part of 2 hours. Now that WOULD be daft.

Hi guys seems to have dri9fted away from what i asked perhaps i should put it different Prices below for example lwb

A journey of 100 miles costs £140 = £1.40 plm A journey of 150 miles costs £195 = £1.30 plm A journey of 200 miles costs £220 = £1.10 plm A journey of 250 miles costs £250 = £1.00 plm A journey of 300 miles costs £285 = £0.95 plm

A couple of companys drop there rate the further they are going so is this the norm.

Schofields couriers said:

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Hi guys seems to have dri9fted away from what i asked perhaps i should put it different Prices below for example lwb

A journey of 100 miles costs £140 = £1.40 plm A journey of 150 miles costs £195 = £1.30 plm A journey of 200 miles costs £220 = £1.10 plm A journey of 250 miles costs £250 = £1.00 plm A journey of 300 miles costs £285 = £0.95 plm

A couple of companys drop there rate the further they are going so is this the norm.

We digressed no its not good as the further you go your overheads stay high as you may need hotels or wages going in to day 2 where that vehicle or you will not be available because your recovering on your way back. In my veiw this is bad practice

They where my thoughts it just seemed a few were doing it. Iam just going to stick with the one rate per van with a minium turn out charge covering x amount of miles

But hey if you dont ask you dont find out thanks guys

Speed Couriers (Stansted) said:

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Well this thread seems to have got a bit silly in my absence

The minimum charges discussed were of course for small vans not lutons, curtain siders or anything else anyone wishing to confuse the issue wants to mention

Then again, you all knew that didn't you... Just arguing black is white as per normal

Where does it say s/v? Or have i missed it

You missed it

16 posts in, why not put it in the heading lol, still £40 min for 20 miles :-)

Ian,

The long and short of it is that it is a fools economy to offer lower rates for longer journeys.

It's great business for those that want to hire you, but you will go broke very quickly.

Charge what you want Children, so long has your happy, and forget everbody else.

I run a SWB Transit. I charge a set fee for any journey of up to 35 miles and that is from Base to Base. On longer distance jobs providing I am in the middle of the total mileage, then I charge from Pick Up to Set Down. If however I am on one end of the job, ie. Base to pick up - 40 miles, job 100 miles, return to base 140 miles, then the first 40 miles are charged at the rate of £135.9 per 9 miles, I then charge my standard rate for the next 100 miles and then the return journey is free. If however the job is a, there and back job, then all miles are charged, but NOT the first 40

Why not charge a flat rate per round-trip mile (Base - Base) and then a small amount for each and every stop (first collection and last delivery included and every extra stop)

Fair to your customer and also the bloke who pays the fuel bill gets remuneration for every mile he travels.......

Has worked for us and our regular subbies for the past 12 years.

Speed Couriers Nationwide Ltd said:

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And don't worry too much about what every one else is charging...

Although it's important, there is always someone cheaper than you so don't sell yourself short

If someone wants to quibble over price then they're not the customers you want anyway, and if a competitor wants to charge low, then that's their lookout

We had a local company who wanted us to price match Nottingham to Aberdeen for £220.00 XLWB

We said not a chance.

Anyway they went with the Cheap Man and van option and the goods arrived 24hrs late and damaged so they were refused.

They were then returned and held by the driver until the company paid a 50% return charge.

We stopped carrying out deliveries for this customer in December as they always booked a delivery and afterwards tried to negotiate the cost down. This got very tedious and annoying as we always provided a high quality service.

They have tried to re use our service but so far we have politely declined.

ABC Couriers (A BETTER COURIER) said:

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If however the job is a, there and back job, then all miles are charged, but NOT the first 40

A "there and back job" as you put it is known as a Wait and Return and standard practice is to charge them at 1.5 times your rate for just the outgoing journey, although not everyone sticks to that.

MyVanCan said:

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ABC Couriers (A BETTER COURIER) said:

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If however the job is a, there and back job, then all miles are charged, but NOT the first 40

A "there and back job" as you put it is known as a Wait and Return and standard practice is to charge them at 1.5 times your rate for just the outgoing journey, although not everyone sticks to that.

Your down South, try charging the tight Northern gits normal price and they moan.