Sub Contract work

Hi. Past 2 months working for a local firm which supply a fair amount of work. What are peoples view on working soley for a local firm?

Jim

I've been doing the same the last few weeks because they're so busy, touch wood they've paid well and on time, sometimes it's a case of 'better the devil you know'

First, you cant work for 1 company and be self employed. The letter of the law means you need to spread yourself around.

Second. Working for a single firm means you get a degree of job security. If your the go to guy you get to eat at the end of the month as they will look after you and will cherry pick the work that keeps you with them. This may not last forever so always be open to moving if need be.

Third, your earning them at least 30% of your take home. This means you endure bills of around 60/70% of income where they endure perhaps 5% ( small company ) to less than 1% . This means you earn fair enough but they prosper off the back of your work ethic . It therefore becomes questionable in how subservient and loyal you are required to be.

Forth, if your happy and earning enough to keep on top of the bills, save for a new van as and when needed plus earn more than minimum wage your doing ok. If not do question who is gaining. Remember a job priced at say £100 in your pocket will earn them more than you will get after expenses , also remember if you had sourced that job yourself you would need to do half the miles to earn the same amount in wages . Theres a thought.

1, debatable and a very mute point 2, my customer is very happy with the service and pays the going the rate for it 3, what company doesn't profit of a subbie's back? 4, if you're stupid enough to work for less than needed you're in the wrong trade, I know my costs and won't work for anything less (unless it's back load) so the costs are always accordingly calculated ;)

1 . If you work for a single company then after a time you are entitled to all the usual sick pay , holiday entitlements etc etc . The company can not try to opt out of this by stating self employment regardless of if you have both agreed to it . If you work for the same company for 12 months then your employed by them . This is employment law . No debate needed its the law . Its easy to swerve by demonstrating you have attempted to source work elsewhere and therefore arnt exclusive .

2 . Pleased for you . In this world its not always easy to earn a wage beyond starvation .

3 Oh sure , they provide a service and want due reward for this . Thats fair and right but not always morally right in the % of money that they receive compared to the person who did the work . No end of time ive been paid simple miles on 2 collections and drops instead of 2 unique runs . Ditto on 1 collection and 2 drops or the joy of a wait and return paid at a % when its known the company will charge full amount for the totality of the miles covered . This is why i stated it can be questionable to how loyal you need to be to 1 company alone . Almost all companys do not want you working for others or sourcing work elsewhere . They want you to call at all times as a dedicated van available without question . This mentality may not pay the bills . As a courier you may need to source work elsewhere from time to time and of course backruns mean the world to us all . The reality of the matter is though most companys cant get better rates and stay competitive within the market place in the hunt for work and thus be able to pass this on to the drivers . Its a dog eat dog world and no company would survive so its a catch22 situation in what can be done .

4 , Sorry fella but thats a simplistic approach . Pop into any courier company you like and state the amount you require per miles . You will be laughed out the door . This business pays known amounts to subbies (which is of course what this thread refers to and not your rates ) and a quick break down is 60pplm for small vans to 90pplm to lwb. A breakdown of this means that a 300 mile run will pay £180 and after fuel at 45mpg will leave a subby with £80 to play with. Once other costs are considered this leaves an income of less than minimum wage. Stupid Or naive?

And that's where the circle needs to broken, Firms around Heathrow are dictating rates so they get 'man with van' to do the job. A few weeks back i get a call asking to meet a bloke who's broken down and can i take the shipment onwards. It's urgent aircraft parts btw, they ask how much i want, i say £X and the bloke nearly faints. He's only got 80p PLM on the job, and that's for a LWB Sprinter! He agrees my rate i meet the bloke and it's a tramp in an ex citylink van that i wouldn't move horses in! If the industry doesn't help itself then it will always be sh*te.

First, you cant work for 1 company and be self employed. The letter of the law means you need to spread yourself around.

This is only slightly correct your talking about IR35 and working for one company self employed and tax reasons. Firstly you can work on a contract for 2 years before it becomes a tax issue seccondly if you decided your going to be working on a contract longer than 2 years then you just pay the extra tax.

1 . If you work for a single company then after a time you are entitled to all the usual sick pay , holiday entitlements etc etc . The company can not try to opt out of this by stating self employment regardless of if you have both agreed to it . If you work for the same company for 12 months then your employed by them . This is employment law . No debate needed its the law . Its easy to swerve by demonstrating you have attempted to source work elsewhere and therefore arnt exclusive.

Simple way round this become ltd company. If you already are all of the above is total rubbish.

My next move is to work for another company and split my service into 2 hence gain more work as the van is costing £13 a day to run when you include all the insurance ect...

Forget the law, the isn't for paupers like us, do has you want.

Jim, if the company gets you enough outbound work to keep you happy then the answer you need is to find some work whilst out and about. Courier Exchange, Shed5, MT etc are all individual tools to help with this, even joining up with (can't believe I'm about to say this) City Sprint, RM, TNT etc will all aid you in earning extra.

If you have no aim to gain your own customers and stay as a owner driver you need to try to exploit every earning avenue.

Don't forget networking. Even phoning up some of the members off here for a chat can result in extra contacts and occasional work. Good luck.