I’ve been unemployed for 6 months now and having very little luck finding any employment. I’m a strong roadie and have been using my extra free time to ride even more, but im fed up of being broke and want to try and make some money from cycling. I live in a large town, but certainly no metropolis and there arnt any bike courier companies here. I haven’t been a courier before.
Do you think it’s viable to be an independent courier and rely on my own skill to find packages to deliver?
I think it might be possible to secure small contracts with local businesses, and being the only man in the business be able to hold a decent amount of deliveries. At the moment they would be using the royal mail or van delivery. I can beat both for speed, and undercut the van deliveries prices.
You might as well have a go innit. Only problem with one man set ups is if you're off the road you dont have no cover, which would annoy everyone. if you can commit to 5 days on for the foreseable than why not though. Insurance (both for you, and the stuff u carry) might be a good idea.
The easiest way to start is to offer your services to any and all of the local courier firms - many small firms would be glad to use a cyclist, but can't make it worthwhile for anyone to ride for them, just not enough work. Go speak to them personally - don't let them say no over the phone. If you can get a little work from a few of them, you'll have you foot in the door of the business. You might pick up a little work for yourself as you go along (but don't steal clients from the firms you do work for). It is sensible to strictly limit the area you cover - call it 'focused'. And don't be afraid to turn work away if you can't cover it - never set yourself up to fail. And charge a little more than you think is reasonable!
That's been my biggest problem finding someone to cover for me. The other one is you can undercut the vans for on-demand service but you can't really compete on scheduled route service. The bigger clients love scheduled route service.
http://www.bycaboy.com/ I meet this guy in the streets of London and he is his company, problably he has some good infos and advises,it seems a nice guy, and he said that he is doing quite well, ahen all the othe big companys are suffering fron the crysis.
Yep, I started out working part-time for Seb (Bycaboy) and he's got a good thing going. I do get the impression he spends a lot more time than he'd like to doing paperwork though.
Out of interest Blackjack, where do you live? My brother keeps talking about starting a courier firm Oop North.
yeah the lack of cover is somthing ive considered but dont have any answers for. i dont really know anyone else who can take up the slack if i cant ride or if i want some time off. im a bit lost to be honest.
i dont really expect to take the the scheduled route service away from the van companies, thats a service i just cant compete with.
This guy looks as if he comes from a racing background like yourself, and is one man start up. I have no idea how successful he is, as he has been in business for less than a year.
I wonder about the wisdom of competing with Royal Mail (32p a drop? bloody hell!) but why don't you try asking him?