Stop-over or homeward bound?

Your working out of hours or delays have caused you to be in the wrong area at the wrong time

If you have the choice would you rather
1. Drive home with no chance of getting a backload 2. sleep in the van 3. Find a room for the night and phone around in the morning for a backload

If you choose number 3 what type of accommodation would you choose BnB or budget hotel?

Budget hotel, can normally check in till quite late in the evening, also better chance of getting a bed, I say that cos I dont like B & bs.

Hi, the best bet would be to price the job correctly in the first place to negate the need for a backload.

I agree with AJM though about B&B's so Hotel every time!

Backloads are a nice bonus but I don't think one should rely on them to make doing a job worthwhile.

1. Often drive home without a backload but as Alan says, if you price the job right in the first place, that shouldn't bother you.

2. Sometimes kip in the van although it's not all that comfortable in a Berlingo.

3. Sometimes do that too, depending on how fa I am from home and how cream crackered I am. If it's not too late a look for a farmhouse type B&B in the area because it's always 'up guardrails' at breakfast in those places. If's it silly o'clock, then it's Travel Lodge or similar because B&B owners don't take too kindly to getting dragged out of bed at 02:00 hours by some clown asking if they've got any rooms available.

Take it you wouldn't have planned to stay overnight?? Search for a Truck Stop first. They're cheap and you get a good breakfast!! Most allow vans, but ring first. Then check on Laterooms.com. in the area.

if you charge the right price for the outbound then you can come straight back home

Not if driving straight back home means risking falling asleep at the wheel. That's if you've got any sense, of course.

I keep a camp bed and a sleeping bag in the van so I get a decent night's sleep for nothing. But now it's less appealing having just got into the back with dog sh*t on my shoes. And the ordeal with the snails a couple of months ago will continue to haunt me...

Manadon Despatch said:

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Not if driving straight back home means risking falling asleep at the wheel. That's if you've got any sense, of course.

as long as you havent been driving 12 hours already and have no coffee left in your flask

any runs that take more that 11 hrs + round trip should have a night out costed into them should they

Agree Simon

Its ok saying charge the right price in the first place. Try it in the Central region, & your laughed at. Too many couriers from all 4 corners passing through, at all hours of the day, make it easy for company's to hold out for Backload rate. I do a search on local businesses, find it can be cheeper than Late rooms &! alike.

If you do not charge correctly you are part of the problem in driving prices down.

No its cant beet them join them. I believe Its a regional thing. If you have your own customers your ok. But otherwise your scrapping with everyone else who is about then. I have to get returns or die.

I'm with the quote properly brigade. We quote a price which makes us happy to do the outward and return journey without any need for a backload.

We hardly even bother trying to source a backload. (We do occasionally call a company or two when we will be in their area).

However, if we do not get a backload it's no big deal to us as we have,,,,,,,well, read the first sentence again.

You have to run the days run at profit backloads are not always there no matter what site you are on or who you run for . I have run for big companies when they had the monopoly on any backload system / proccess even then it was only around 10 to 15% backloads

Anyone who quotes so low on a job that he has to rely on backloads deserves to 'die'.

so if you have factored in the backload then you can stop out without any worries rather than drive home same night

Assuming you've got a guaranteed backload that's great.

You people on here are a bunch of nut cases I have come to the conclusion !

A bloke that does a backload should die !!!!!!!!!!!

Maybe you have got some of your backload readings from the jimmy Savile case confused with your beginners courier guide handbook or what ever it was the bloke in Litchfield sold you !

Somebodys backload might be somebodies payday but there really is no reason to kill anybody

What was the name of the guy in Lichfield?

I dont know his name he used to come up the M1 on a regular run but he used to sell cd disk that told you how to become a courier I think he sold in the classified in the papers or something

I admired him really all those people daft enough to buy into it

Dopey people !!!

Mr Barnsley, are you being serious? I put 'die' in speech marks, which means, figuratively, to stop functioning, (ie. my car engined died, etc.). No-one in his right mind would take that literally!!

If a Business Plan was done at start of business would it not show that returns had to be covered to survive and backloads were the 100%profit icing on the cake [or friday night beer money]

BusinessBuddy said:

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If a Business Plan was done at start of business would it not show that returns had to be covered to survive and backloads were the 100%profit icing on the cake [or friday night beer money]

No.
It SHOULD show that one is foolish to have to rely on getting backloads!
Jobs should be priced to cover the return journey.

I would say that if the so called business plan showed that returns HAD to be covered, then the business is not really viable.

Backloads should be seen as a bonus not a necessity.

Agreed!!!

totaly agree. Personally I'd rather get straight home, unless a backload drops in my lap I'd rather not bother & I price accordingly!!

correct me if im wrong ..but if you factor in the backload then you will be charging a minimum of £1.40 per mile? who is paying that rate?

Hey Mr G. Factoring in the return journey simply means charging the job in such a way that you are compensated for your time and financial outlay such that you can do the job, come home empty and still make a living in this business.

Well Mr G Im a bit confused about your last post The reality is to just about make an average living yes if you do your sums you should be charging £1.40 a mile !!!

This is a shot industry and has been for a long time . I just dont understand why new people even do it I dont understand why you new people are even doing this !!!!

Some of us (ROB included !!!) know no dfferent and have no choice as this is what we have always done and we have known very lucrative times .

I have brought two houses a yard and own my vehicles outriht all of the back of this industry !!! |However very little of this money has come to me in recent years We like most have treaded water for the last 8 to 10years .

How many of you now expect to be able to buy houses of the back of your earnings from this ?

BusinessBuddy said:

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If a Business Plan was done at start of business would it not show that returns had to be covered to survive and backloads were the 100%profit icing on the cake [or friday night beer money]

If the businessplan was done properly !!!!

Ye Ye so all the established couriers do a 100 mile trip for £140 & have there profits made. Then can someone tell me how it is done then. If you do what you think is a very good job, (& that isn't hard to do in this trade), & receive praise & plenty of good feedback, then why is it that as soon as you try getting a fairer rate you suddenly get overlooked. .

Fetch & Carry " then why is it that as soon as you try getting a fairer rate you suddenly get overlooked. "

It really is not rocket Science, just the way it is! If you were in a position to pass on surplus work I am sure you would do the same as most would i.e Give the work first and foremost to a colleague or 'mate', and then if you had a choice between 2 similar subbies one offering to do it £30 cheaper, which would you choose?

Facts are facts and it is foolhardy to price cheap and have to rely on backloads! If it is not possible then maybe the business is not viable.

I think you may have answered the question Mr Rapid . Nobody wants to hear it but as you say facts are facts and if you are unable to get the rates you require then you are most cirtainly unviable it would be best to act now before unviable becomes insolvent !

Courier service by mr G said:

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correct me if im wrong ..but if you factor in the backload then you will be charging a minimum of £1.40 per mile? who is paying that rate?

we aren't talking the same language here e.g speed calls me (sooner than later) to do a job from Stansted to Bham . i give him a quote of £140 . He falls off his chair and states that im way off the going rate and no-one is going to pay that. I tell him i have to factor in the backload hence charge 2x 70p plm . best of luck he says

so ....how can you factor in the backload if no one will pay it?

when you are quoting for your own customers you then factor in the cost of both ways, if quoting for work on these sites you offer a trade rate which does not include a back load cost, i try to use these sites for what i call back loads which are loads that are going my way

do you mean there is "life" beyond these sites ? show me

Just so as to avoid confusion.....the example that Mr G used is fictitious not an actual conversation we had.

One man's hotshot, is another mans backload, it all depends where you're from and where you're going to

back on track, I have taken my tent and camped a few times when having done some Euro work, has long has it`s warm enough, its cheaper & more fun.

But AJM a hotel will cost you less than £30 in Euroland!

I know, I`m sad camping is one of my interest/likes, I can camp for between £8-12 using my acsi camping card, depends how tired i am.

Strange thing that Mr AJM I would never camp on a job but my wife and I have done lots of tours in Europe with a car and tent . So I think there is probably no difference !

I find customers are never willing to pay more than £1 per mile unless the job is going to, or from, London.

Over the summer I could get two hotshot rates to and from London, earning up to £270 for about 130 miles driving. Can't seem to do that any more.

Tha,ts probably cos the Olympics were on and no one wanted to do London

Camvan, the good times have gone, I hope you saved all that money you earned?

Perhaps I was mis-understood. Oh well.

AJM - nope. Spent it all on insurance, new clutch and tyres, CX membership and my servicing my business overdraft. I thought the good times were supposed to have gone gradually over the last decade, not suddenly in the last couple of months :(

The good times finished around 2001, since then its been survival of the fittest, smaller margins, the big boys undercutting all and sundry, thereby making a biz you could make a decent living by, into one you have to scratch around to survive in. Touch wood we've been growing back year on year, since a rough period back in 08, and are almost back to where we were...but its been hard work, a lot of headbutting of walls in fustration, and sheer bloody mindedness...not forgetting having a loyal crew!!!

So Mr Camvan, the work is out there, it just hides itself well at times