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Drinking and Driving? Not when we are delivering

June 16, 2010 By

As couriers we depend on our driving licenses, without them we couldn’t legally drive and deliver the goods. There are new changes coming in regarding drink driving and it seems just one pint could now put you over the limit.

Often couriers (and those that drive for a living) are the designated drivers when going out as simply we know the amount of alcohol that is in our bloodstream could affect our perceptions, and result in a ban, so we don’t drink. A driving ban would end our businesses in 95% of cases, so couriers are very careful.

Budweiser are launching a campaign to remind people of their responsibilities, and it’s rather funny. Go take a look, it doesn’t last long.

Think the dance will catch on?

With the new plans to lower the drink drive limits, designated drivers are vital.

The report, drawn up by Sir Peter North and commissioned by the former Labour government, recommends that the limit for drink-driving falls from 80mg of alcohol per 100ml of blood to 50mg. That would bring Britain into line with most other European countries.

Philip Hammond, the Transport Secretary, will publish the report today and will study its findings. If he goes ahead and backs the new lower drink drive limit it will be controversial, as the Conservatives had opposed such a move in opposition.

Sir Peter, who is the former Principal of Jesus College, Oxford, is likely to urge a tightening of other aspects of the procedures that surround drink-drive arrests. The Telegraph

Present legislation means that if the breathalyser is close to the ‘over limit’ marker, you can request a blood test or to give a urine sample. The time this takes allows the alcohol to disperse a bit more and a positive reading can become a negative one -it takes an hour for the body to break down a unit of alcohol.

So if you like a strong beer, or a large glass of wine you need to redress your drinking habits – with the incoming 50mg allowance, you could easily be over the limit after one pint or glass of wine.

If in doubt, don’t drink it.

Sarah

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Filed Under: Courier Blog, Driving

Use screenwash or die

June 15, 2010 By
A man pouring winshield washer fluid in to his...
Image via Wikipedia

Alternatively titled – Van drivers and Legionnaires disease
Do you drive a van? or do a lot of motoring in industrialised areas?
Do you suffer headaches, muscle pain, chills, high fever, shortness of breath, a persistent cough and chest pains? It could be Legionnaires disease. That shocked me, Legionnaires disease is something that I associate with manky hospital air con and water systems, not something I would associate with van drivers and motorists.

Apparently the warm stagnant water that we use to wash our windscreens is a breeding ground for the germ. As we know engines are lovely warm places and the water that we wash our windscreens with can easily breed the disease, as it’s got all the right conditions for it.

It’s easily cured according to the researchers, just use screen wash.

“Not adding screenwash to windscreen wiper fluid is a previously unidentified risk factor and appears to be strongly associated with community acquired sporadic cases of legionnaires’ disease,”

the researchers wrote.

So if you drive a lot you are 5 times more likely to catch the disease and the researchers think 20% of Legionnaires are caught this way, through washing your windscreens without screenwash.

Something worth thinking about? I think so.

Thanks to Andy @practicaleq asking where my blog on this was :)

Sarah

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Filed Under: Courier Blog, Driving Tagged With: , , , , ,

For Fox Sake!

May 26, 2010 By

When you are on the road for many hours at a time, like a courier, like a lorry driver you see many road signs reminding us drivers to be careful. But this takes the biscuit, a Fox’s biscuit at that!

This sign was spotted, and photographed, by Jo Abbot, who works for the RAC Foundation. It appears on a rural road between Wheatley and Waterperry in Oxfordshire.

Sarah

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As a courier or removal company, why should you bother looking for work?

April 30, 2010 By

It should come straight to you, right?

Sadly life is not like that, with good marketing you will get some work and you will find you still have to go out and get customers, you can sit back and wait for them to come to you BUT you will run through all your money first.

Being a self employed courier means if you don’t find the work you don’t get paid. If you own the removal company or are a self employed mover, then you don’t get paid. You need customers and you need to find them. You need to find profitable customers for your business.

Another white van
Image by jovike via Flickr

So what types of courier work are more profitable?

Local delivery jobs are good for a courier looking to increase their local customer base. As they are local you can complete more of them throughout the day and therefore become profitably quickly. The downside is that there will be more wear and tear on your vehicle when you complete local delivery work so you need to factor that in to your prices when you look for this type of work.

Long distance jobs can be profitable for a courier especially if they can get a return load back to their home area. Make a point of calling courier companies in your delivery drop area so they know to contact you if they have a load going your way.

Specialist delivery jobs can also be profitable to a courier. Jobs such as delivering dangerous goods (when correctly licensed) can pay a premium as this type of courier service is rare, so do your research and see what type of specialist courier services are required.

Whatever delivery work you have locally, nationally or specialist remember to calculate your costs and expenses correctly so you do not underquote on your prices, if you fail to calculate your costs properly you will quickly eat into any reserve that you have built into your business.

Source: How to deliver and profit

Attracting customers can be done a variety of ways and a blend of marketing activity is good, it enables you to reach more potential customers.

As well as an online presence, you need an offline one too. Believe it or not there are some customers who don’t use the internet, they prefer traditional media.

In conclusion, get off your backside and look for the work you enjoy delivering or get a job.

Sarah

Thanks to Graham Hunt for flagging up the removal company and their attitude in this blog, Spain is not Greece

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Filed Under: Courier Blog, Get More Customers Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

Looking to save money? Why bother with your courier insurance?

April 8, 2010 By

Why bother with courier insurance? Really, with bother with it all – even if you are a safe driver and have never had an accident.

With end users driving down the costs of their transport services some couriers are looking at ways of cutting their overheads. Insurance is one area where they think they can make savings.

Lowering the premiums by lowering the the amount they insure.
Instead of a courier carrying £50,000 worth of goods in transit cover, many are lowering their costs by slashing it to £10,000 worth of goods in transit cover instead. As a customer it’s essential you check how much cover you have and as a courier you should be responsible and ethical and let your customers know of any downgrading in the insurances that you have.

Not declaring accidents
There will always be some that don’t declare accidents regardless of what the financial climate is like. It is thought by some, that not declaring any accidents will keep their premiums low and thus their customers happy. These things have a way of coming back and biting you when you least expect it. We recently heard of a courier owner driver being hauled into court for reckless driving, the first account of the incident the police and insurer heard were the alleged victim’s. Honesty would have paid off 10 fold in this case, instead it’s costing lawyers fee’s and increased their premiums anyway.

Not having any insurance at all.
Yes you did read right, there are some couriers finding their jobs are so infrequent and their income is so low, that insurance is a financial liability to them. Never mind that it’s illegal, there are some that are just cutting back wherever they can to save us much money as they can. This is another false economy.

As a courier you shouldn’t put yourself in a vulnerable position and drive illegally – it’s your livelihood you are losing and a criminal record you are close to gaining.

Work safe, secure and legally.

Sarah

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