New Job: Self Employed Multi Drop Driver

Caporegime
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20 Jan 2005
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Co Durham
If you work it out, say an average day of 9am-6pm, that's 3 minutes for each drop, not including time needed to get to each destination.

Some may be 1-2 minutes apart, some maybe 3-4.

Amazon delivery drivers wait longer than that in our reception never mind travel time.

I think 150 a day is wildly optimistic.
 
Soldato
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12 Sep 2012
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Surrey
Likely the work will disappear just after Christmas. Its a bad time of year to do this sorta work and your terms of employment make you easy to get rid of the second the busy period ends.
 
Caporegime
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20 Jan 2005
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Co Durham
agreed - even with an average of say 4 minutes between drops that's 10 hours a day minimum for 150 parcels.

£8 an hour before tax and NI:eek:

And is it a guaranteed £80 a day or is that based on delivering a certain number? Eg it might only be £1 per package and when the op only delivers 30 in the first day he will get £30 for 10 hrs work...............
 
Soldato
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Oxon
I noticed that Parcelforce are hiring at my local depot, but it's for contracted drivers using their vans - £18k rising to £20k after 6 months.

I imagine that kind of gig would be ten times better than self-employed multi-drop, which my mum's partner does for DX using his own van - he's regularly working 12+ hour days.
 
Soldato
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Surrey
^

While you are right, if struggling for cash this time of year, i would be looking at bar work or temp shop work over the driving job.

Out of curiosity, what happens if there is a crash on motorway nearby and the area goes to a standstill?

This often happens near my house as the m25 is 2 minutes away. Do you just have to take a pay hit because parcels were not delivered and you are self employed?
 
Man of Honour
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Ottakring, Vienna.
^

While you are right, if struggling for cash this time of year, i would be looking at bar work or temp shop work over the driving job.

Out of curiosity, what happens if there is a crash on motorway nearby and the area goes to a standstill?

This often happens near my house as the m25 is 2 minutes away. Do you just have to take a pay hit because parcels were not delivered and you are self employed?

I'd imagine you do take a pay hit, like anyone else self employed.

If you were a builder and there was a road closure that meant you couldn't access a property to complete the job, you wouldn't get paid....
 
Soldato
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Surrey
no minimum wage, no reason needed to hire and fire etc - temp work before christmas - not needed after is the usual way this goes...

Yup, it sucks.

It is a shame that our retailers almost rely on this to make profit/survive. Many retailers spend 7-8 months a year trying to cover their expenses and the remaining months to claw in enough profit for a small pay out and to survive till next year.

Without temp work, many of these places would not be able to offer the services or staff stores in a volume that would net the profit they require. Others who decide to offer longer more secure jobs would be paying out after they needed it.

Sure larger retailers don't struggle to survive but they feel the need to make much profit as possible at the expense of these temps. For them profiting isn't good enough, they need to look like they are growing and paying out to shareholders or risk them panicking and selling shares making company value fall.
 
Associate
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15 Nov 2007
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Sheffield, UK
Almost every amazon parcel that gets delivered at work is left in an unmanned reception and fake signed for. It's not like there isn't a huge sign or anything directing all delivery drivers to the goods in area. I think Tony is our delivery driver. Or more likely all the drivers are like Tony.
 
Soldato
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11 Nov 2009
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Edinburgh
You will find that contrary to what some have said here that it can and will be hard work especially in the beginning when you are learning your area. I multi dropped all over the Borders of Scotland and for the first three months it was an absolute nightmare given the size of the area I covered. I could drive 30 miles between drops and I might add I did not have a sat nav I read maps.
One day things just clicked. I did not need to constantly look at my maps to know how to get to a particular place and I might add that when a younger man who had a sat nav did my run, when I was on annual leave he invariably could not complete it.
Once you have your area sussed then things will be much easier until then expect to sweat buckets.
 
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