Follow my life experiences, journeys , ups and downs, laughs and tears of the small van courier working mainly through the Courier Exchange (CX). Hopefully will be doing a weekly video sharing my week working as a courier.
Hi, it’s the newest female courier from Snowdonia just looking for a bit of advice please. Reference charges what would you suggest as waiting time, loading time and cost for cancellations. Thanks in advance
@OpenRangeCouriers Hi, my terms for waiting time is £20 per hour after the first 30 minutes. Obviously this is for a small van. Handball doesn't really apply for a small van. Cancellation charges vary depending on what the job is and if you have arrived on site. £30 is normally my minimum. Hope this helps
@gamesmaster3671 The normal route would be to email companies or get some flyers made up and drop them locally. Remember though when you are working on the cx you are not allowed to approach the company you are collecting from and delivering to. This would be poaching and you would be suspended from the cx.
Hi, I am a female courier based in Snowdonia and new to the business. We have been watching your channel for a while now and find it very helpful with excellent tip for a novice.
Best of luck with your new venture . Although you probably know this you are in a very remote area for a courier . I presume you are doing multi drop as same day work would be very difficult without tramping.
At the moment the van prices are scary expensive if your getting a new van avoid WET BELT engines as there a disaster waiting to happen 😭 newer vans now have Addblue which is another nightmare so on the hole i would stick to your old van that you have looked aflter for the past year or so especially when there may be changes to anti pollution legislation coming soon which may determine which van you should get
Your Doblo is barely run in, Dave. I've got the 1.3 Vauxhall version (Combo) on a 2017 plate and it's done 274K. It's worth about £200, if that, but it's still doing a great job. Good choice keeping it for now mate
Ive been looking for a van for a wile but ive now come to the conclusion all i can afford woud be a higher mileage example or an N cat low lower mileage one but the prices are staying quite high because the cost of new vans has nearly doubled in the last 4 years
Nothing wrong with a cat n / s repaired correctly. I'll be in a 23plate cat s crafter in a couple weeks, just need to find a reasonably priced side loading door for it.
Dave welcome back. Don’t go spending that £35 too quick 😀. I think it’s sensible to keep Olive . Why replace when you don’t need to. Already awaiting your next one 👍👍👍
It's about 6 weeks from peak van time due to Amazon, Royal mail, DPD, Yodel, Evri etc boosting numbers for peak. As long as Olive survives that period you'll be fine, but if you need to get a new van or rental during peak, it'll be painful.
Good decision Dave. Your Doblo is still pretty low mileage for Courier work. Mine just topped 180,000 and had it serviced this week end and still got flying colours from the mechanics. Our type of work does not wear down the van anywhere close to stop start city driving which destroys an engine. I recon you should easily get 250,000 plus miles out of this Fiat engine without any serious work done on it.
Easily do it. I had a brand new doblo on an 11 plate, I done 170odd thousand with only a clutch kit fitted before giving it to my nephew, he's ran it up to 220k with only injector seals needed & a few minor bits n peices. There decent engines the 1.3 is a pile of shite tho 😂@@saintsmanthesmallvancourie3219
Great video saintsman, been doing this a year now and have a Vauxhall Combo, been thinking of upping to next size van. How are you gauging the additional work you think you will get compared to additional costs. It would be nice if the CX could provide this for your home location.
Merc Vito 9 Speed Auto ultra reliable & nice to drive now on my 4th Vito & No issues all had done over 200th miles, oil service them every 12,000m & they will go on & on 1 std pallet + 1 Euro or 2 Euro’s 85Okg max I can recommend em 👍
Hi Dave. I've been driving Vivaro and Movano - both had the steering wheels not in great position - a bit moved towards middle of the van. I had experience in quite few medium size vans - one I'd recommend mostly would be transit custom. As long as you'll maintain it well and change the wet belt once every 60-70k miles they'll do great job. In comparison to all the vivaro group (peugeots, toyota, citroen etc are in it) they have better driving position, way better turning circle, better cabins, loading space I'd argue is better itself aswell. Transporters are not too bad aswell, but I'd still go for custom. No clue with the mercedes benz vito though as didn't had pleasure driving these. I currently own custom at 180k miles and drives mint, only big repair was clutch - which kind of got to expect at this mileage.
I got a lwb high top transit connect what a good van no issues great on fuel 1.8tdci getting around 65mpg empty according to the clocks on a run at around 60mph
Another great video Dave. I bought my Dablo around the same time as you and it’s now near 175,000 miles on the clock. Touch wood nothing has gone wrong with it yet. As you said just consumables. Brakes, discs, clutch etc still all the originals. More important than no adblue is that it gives me 58-62 MPG which is brilliant for this size van. Just one thing. Why are you going bigger? In my opinion a SWB or MWB van will not give you much more advantage on the CX. The pence per mile prices are only marginally higher than a small van but the running costs are are quite a lot more. Dry hard to get 58 MPG out of a SWB
Chugga-boom! 😂 Buying any vehicle with Ad-Blue is a nightmare, if you think the Euro 6 vehicles are fragile and unreliable, you haven’t seen anything until you drive a Euro 7 engined van. Euro 7 is an unmitigated disaster. Take care and take money Saints man!
Great video, as usual... My must have list is, in order of importance, Air con (must must have), Speed Limiter, Cruise control.. Keep those wheels turning 👍
@stevenjevon1302 They were £170 for the pair. To be honest there wasn't any choice as they only had 1 pair of commercial tyres in stock. I think there toyo's.
Thanks Dave interesting as always. Don’t know if it’s only me with my ancient ears or the volume level was quite low this week. I could hardly hear you
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@@cptransportservicesltd4318 okay this is a rough guide my van does just under 50 miles per gallon. So based on 1500 miles per week thats 30 gallons per week or 6 gallon per day.
My current key fuel card price is 5p per litre than my local branded (Esso) petrol station. Supermarket fuel near me is obviously cheaper that the Esso station. Keyfuel has been more expensive for the last 3 weeks
