How do Courier Exchange know our number?

Been on mtvan for a while now find it very good for subbing work out which is I guess that's what it is for.

However had a call from Courier Exchange today wanting me to join them. Why should we pay there silly prices when get on well on here.

Noticed recently that there seems to be more people joining mtvan.

Thanks

Russell

I have a phone call about every 2 weeks offering discounted prices to join.

They seem to have fallen out with me when I said I'll pay month by month.

I don't know if they've necessarily all come from here, but it does seem like we could have a problem with our courier ranks being infiltrated by undesirables and contacting members. Insurance companies etc are easy to spot and we remove them immediately.

I have plans to tighten up on this stuff/make it more difficult for them. Looks like I ought to move them to the front of the development queue...

Sounds fair Mr Admin. Resent cold calling. This site works so no need to change.

OK, you must now have 200 reputation to access contact details. Anyone with less than 200 reputation must use the contact button to make contact through the site.

We may alter the reputation required without warning, but for now we'll see how it goes

Fantastic hopefully that will stop them.

Fuel card companies as well. Will this affect text alerts on work?

id.couriersolutions said:

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Fuel card companies as well. Will this affect text alerts on work?

No, alerts will come through with contact details as normal. Also the quoting forms on the site/app will work as normal obviously.

I was wondering how come i get 5-6 fuel companies calling most weeks.

Direct Fuels South by any chance?

Some of you lot worry me greatly you are surly doing something wrong!

You have a business the idea is to get that business and its contact details to as many people as possible. If you are worried about who is calling and where did they get the number from then you really should not be in business!

The plan is to get the number out there to as many people some people will get it,some will be sales people (we can live with that ) and hopefully some will be good contacts that make you money.

If you paranoid and carefully defending your number ,your probably sat on your ass all day for that reason and its probably time to call it a day.

This thread is about sales and marketing firms getting hold of our numbers through this site NOT potential customers you plank.

There have been companies that join purely to get access to the database of couriers, Insurance brokers for example, and THAT IS NOT what this site is for. Sneaky and underhand I call it...thankfully they get thrown off pretty quick...one of the downsides of offering free membership

Speed Couriers (Stansted Airport) said:

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This thread is about sales and marketing firms getting hold of our numbers thru this site NOT potential customers you plank

At least I dont suffer from Ash diback like you lot down south !!!! What makes people think that the calls originate from the data base on this site if people have their number on this site only then how do they expect to gain business . If you have had marketing calls and your number has only ever been givin to MT van Then what is wrong with you

The calls probably originate from sites like this because people are too lazy to do all the leg work themselves, one tip I'd give is when registering with these free sites like hotfrog, free index and the like is to put a fake contact name, if you have a good memory use one for each site relating to the name ie Hot frog Harry French, Free index Frank Ingle etc etc That way you will know where the call has originated from as they normally ask for Mr French, Mr Ingle etc

Mine's Mr Bab, soon as I hear that I say....."Oh he's on holiday til next Tuesday" and on and on until they give up, the call usually lasts no longer than 5 sec's

I had one persistent woman who kept calling back so eventually I said "Sorry Mr Bab passed away 2 days ago, but I have his widow here sorting some stuff out if you'd like a word?"

"No don't worry her!" PMSL

If you get calls you don't want block their number. Simples.

Yes, I then save them as "Do not Ans".

RGM Courier Services said:

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If you get calls you don't want block their number. Simples.

Either way, I'm happy to make life more difficult for the spammers and we're not here to help CX either!

Strangely enough. I agree with Barnsley. If you are a business and you want people to call you then there is virtually no way you can stop cold calling. Also, any attempt to make it more difficult for cold callers to get your number can also prevent a genuine business contact getting hold of you.

It is part and parcel of running a business however much we may dislike it.

With regards to requiring a certain level of "reputation" in order to access contact details, how would that work for newly joined courier companies looking for subbies to cover work?

Peter Riley said:

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With regards to requiring a certain level of "reputation" in order to access contact details, how would that work for newly joined courier companies looking for subbies to cover work?

They can still post courier work that will alert our members in the normal way.

Peter, I think the point being made is there have been a number of Companies who sign up to mtvan purely to get access to the database of drivers so they can "sell" em whatever it is they're selling.

There was one last week saying how wonderful their new insurance quote was for example.

We all get cold callers yes, especially when you initially start up and don't know what to look out for, but it was noticeable how one particular fuel card company suddenly starting hassling us all.

I'm not too bothered by any of em tbh... I can say "F**k Off" in so many different ways

They call me all the time!

There's 2 different guys ringing me from there usually a couple of days apart, always saying there's no other operators in my area and they'll give me a huge discount. I tell them I'm in mid Wales not Birmingham or Manchester etc and its too much money to pay out. I've told them if they're so confident in me getting work through them then give me a months free trial and if I get a job I'd sign up! Didn't like that idea!

I'm in Aberystwyth, mid Wales so unfortunately I haven't had any work from here yet. Good site and very helpful forum though guys. Any advice is appreciated thanks.

Speed, I agree with you completely. There are indeed plenty of companies that will register in order to punt us whatever they are trying to punt. However that is part and parcel of running a business. It happens in all businesses.

The moment I know that it's an unsolicited sales call I just hang up. If I get repeated calls I block their number.

It makes no difference what rules/regulations/requirements are in place, sales reps will always find a way round them if the potential profit is worth it (and in many cases even when it isn't).

However, that answer from Tim that courier companies can post work without being able to see contact details of individual members is good. ie: They can't contact us until we respond to one of their "Work Available" posts.

But: This still leaves a couple of issues in my mind.

1: Courier companies that have just registered. Posted a job and got no responses and now need to search for couriers in the area and try to contact them directly to get the job covered.

2: New couriers who have joined up not only as a way of finding work to quote on, but also as a means to find courier companies in their area that they can contact and approach directly to solicit legitimate business.

I'd rather hang up on an unsolicited sales call or just block the number of a company for repeated unsolicited calls that worry about people being unable to contact me.

absolutely agree we all block/spam the ppi companies exactly the same

Yell.com Just phoned, he can make me a millionaire deliving goods to Europe, bla bla

@Peter

I agree that getting sales calls is part and parcel of running any business, but we don't want our members to feel that joining mtvan makes their phone ring off the hook with people trying to sell them fuel cards and expensive memberships to rival sites etc, so we're trying to put a few obstacles in the way.

We have been working on the "reputation" idea for a while. It is still likely to be tuned and developed in the light of experience.

We actually devised it as a way of encouraging and rewarding participation, not as a way of stopping spammers, but it serves that purpose equally well.

The problem we were really trying to solve is where some couriers, or even wannabe couriers, join and don't really get involved. No photo, no description, no ID, no forum posts, just an anonymous-looking entry. This is pretty useless to Vendors looking for a courier, and therefore pretty useless to the anonymous courier.

We're now beginning to say that to get the most out of mtvan, to see and be seen, you need to invest a little time and effort, to get 200 rep. So it's likely that soon the directory will optionally filter out those lower than that, for example, so Vendors can search only people actively participating on mtvan.

As things stand now, a new courier company can still contact you if he has less than 200 rep, though only through the site. Although it's not as instant as by phone, it's still a means of contact.

courier exchange rang me today but i am an ex member of their site I found them to expensive

I used this site a few years ago. I came to have a look to see how things have changed. Finally got some interesting conversations going on. Was thinking of coming back to the trade. Still got a lwb movano ‘05. Not moved for 5yrs. Starts first time occasionally taken round the village. What a waste of good van. Back on the road in the new year I think.

Hi Admin,

Thank you for the clarification. This is what I am concerned about. Whilst I don't want sales, I do want job calls.

I would be concerned that when a courier company first joins and wants to get in touch with subbies because they have an urgent job that needs done, then find that they can't call anyone until they have x reputation then they might just never use mtvan again.

Similarly for the subbie who signs up to be able to contact courier companies in their area to offer their services.

I realise and fully appreciate the attempt to prevent us from being bombarded with junk calls but as I stated previously I believe that this is part and parcel of running a business and can be quickly dealt with on an ad hoc basis by the recipient.

Hi Peter

Just to emphasise, people with less than rep 200 can make contact, through the site, using the contact button.

To get 200 you only need (for example) half a dozen people to "trust" you (surely a good thing for others to know), and/or get 4 lots of good feedback, all of which we are trying to encourage.

In other words it doesn't take much, but what it does take makes a massive difference to others on the site.

(We'll publish a list in due course).

Tim

North/South rivalry? Never.

Barnsley does like to tell people to get off their arse...

I was contacted by Courier Exchange very soon after starting courier work, and before joining mtvan. I think they got my number from my listing on the Yell directory.