When starting a courier business you need to be aware of giving the best customer service and giving the correct information about what you can and cannot deliver. Quite simply it’s a balance. If you don’t look after your customers in the right manner – you will lose them. If you lean to far the other way and do something illegal, you could possibly lose your growing business.

Some of the things a courier should not be delivering…

• Chemicals, unless your courier company has invested in the correct ADR training and certification, a courier should not deliver chemicals. There are certain exemptions such as limited quantities.
• Livestock, that’s right – no animals can be transported with out the correct licences and training
• Human/Animal remains – again these are a specialist delivery that you would need to be certified for. A customer asking you to bring back the remains of an animal from a vet could get you in trouble if payment was accepted. It is almost impossible to issue the remains of either human or animals, not even a coroner has this type of insurance and they are often the only people allowed to move the deceased.
• Fireworks, Firearms and weaponry (new or antique) again the correct licenses and training are needed and limited quantities may apply.
• Certain medical supplies and prescription drugs, again licensing may be needed
• Blood, tissue and bio-hazardous samples even in small quantities may not be allowed.

There are some things a courier cannot transport because of insurance and the related costs to that. They may be items that are mostly likely to break in transit, so therefore the customer should be warned that a delivery cannot take place due to insurance reasons. They may then make a decision as to whether they want the delivery to proceed or not, uninsured.

• Glass
• Fine art
• Jewellery

When taking your delivery request from their client, the courier should establish what needs to be delivered and if the item is in boxes. The courier would need to ask exactly what is in the boxes in order to give the best customer service to the client.

Questioning your customer shouldn’t be an interogation, but a fact finding mission that will enable you to deliver excellent customer service as well as their goods.

A good courier company can be prepared for this by researching for potential subcontractors with the correct licenses in place. When their customer calls they then have the option of subcontracting that work out, or referring their customer to the courier with the correct training.

Sarah Arrow

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For some time now in the US and the UK courier companies have classified certain parts of their workforce as ‘independant sub contractors’. These independant sub contractors work almost exclusively for one company, have their own vehicle, wear the uniform of the contracting company and deliver to the standards of the contracting company.

In some instances they hire vans and equipment from the contracting company and that is deducted from their invoices. They are not paid a wage and they do not get holiday pay, they are most certainly not treated the same as employed drivers yet carry out the work as same as an employed driver would.

In the US there is a difference of opinion over the classification of drivers and the unions, and it relates back to how Fedex and UPS came into existence.

US Fedex have asked for help with regards to these drivers and the outcome could have big repercussions across the delivery market.

In lawsuits across the country, FedEx has been accused of misclassifying pickup and delivery drivers as independent contractors and of taking improper deductions from their pay while failing to pay overtime. Many of those cases are now consolidated and are being heard by a federal judge in Indiana.

Plaintiffs, including some represented by law firms in Batesville, Miss., and Memphis, maintain that what workers do, not what they’re called, should determine their classification.

“State and local governments in Ohio are being cheated out of hundreds of millions of dollars each year as a result of employee misclassification,” said Atty. Gen. Richard Cordray of Ohio in a separate statement. “We are committed to aggressively pursuing these misclassification cases to level the playing field for businesses that play by the rules and to protect Ohio’s workers.”

On another labor front, the House of Representatives passed a bill earlier this year that would subject FedEx Express workers not directly involved with the company’s aircraft to the jurisdiction of the National Labor Relations Act and its rules permitting labor union organizing at the local level. The Senate is expected to consider the issue by the end of this summer.

Source : Commercial Appeal

Another interesting viewpoint comes from a UPS employee who clearly thinks they have not had a bailout, and that what is going on is less than honest.

Disclaimer here. I work for UPS, so I’m not a disinterested party on one level. On another level this is about lobbying and politics. There’s a pretty nasty battle going on between these two companies. FedEx drivers are working under a law that makes its drivers airline employees. No other package delivery company has its drivers employed as airline employees. The actual bill before Congress is HR 915, which would re-classify FedEx drivers and they would be bound by National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) like all other package delivery drivers. FedEx drivers work under the Railway Labor Act (RLA).

FedEx at the beginning was primarily an airline delivering documents, which was fine until faxes and email became the primary means of document delivery. Putting FedEx drivers under the NLRA law only effects the drivers. Their airline personnel would still work under Railway Labor Act. FedEx is fighting this primarily because they would have to recognize unions. The government has more regulations which UPS has submit to that FedEx doesn’t.

Source: The metaphysical Peregrine

The unions are trying to protect the drivers and the companies involved are protecting their interests, and if it’s not played out carefully a worldwide delivery company could be bought to it’s knees and then what would happen to all the drivers?

Sarah

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