Starting Your Own Courier Service
Sooner or later everyone has dreamed of quitting their job and
starting their own business. Unfortunately the main thing that
stops or prevents someone from making the dream a reality is
usualy what I call the 'two F's', and this is 'friends' and
'funds'. You can probably understand 'funds' as a lack of money
needed, but why 'friends' ? Because I have said and I have heard
others over the years say 'I am thinking of starting my own
business', as soon as you say this to your friends, do they tell
you it's a great idea ? No, they tell you 'oh it will fail', or
'there's no money in that' or some other negative comment,
friends very rarely tell someone 'hey that is a great idea, you
should try it!', the reason why is because it wasn't their idea,
or they were not the one who first brought the idea up in
conversation. I am telling you right now, when it comes to
starting your own business, the only friend I want you to listen
to is me, the one who wrote this article.
Can you answer 'yes' to these 2 questions ? 1. Can you or
someone you trust devote some time to driving a vehicle ? 2. Is
the vehicle dependable ?
If you can answer 'yes' to them two questions, you can start a '
Courier Service '.
What exactly does a courier do ? They pickup and deliver
merchandise and sometimes, people and pets to and from various
places such as businesses, airports, Hospitals and even peoples
homes. These services are in great demand, because there is
always someone that needs a package delivered to a nearby
airport, or some other location ASAP, and this is where a
courier is needed. UPS and the Post Office have set schedules
and will only pick up at certain times, where a courier can
often deliver or pickup the item at any time of the day or
night, when it's needed.
You must decide what type of packages or things you will pick up
and deliver, and how many miles you will travel. If you live in
the country it will be harder due to the distance involved
between, Hospitals, airports, and businesses, and if you live in
the city you will have to deal with traffic and lots of stop and
go driving, so both have their advantages and disavantages.
The easiest way to determine your driving area, is to get a
state map, find your location and then make a circle with a
compass with your town or location as the area in the center
where the compass point is. From this point move the compass
outward as far as the miles is your willing to drive to a
location, ie; 30 miles, 50 miles, etc. Once you find the right
area of miles, make your circle with the compass, you now have
your area of service for your new Courier Business. I bet your
getting excited already and you should be.
Next you must carefully sit down and decide what type of items
you will courier. Will you do hazardous material, medications,
explosives, liquids. If so, you may need a special license and
certification, you may need to be bonded or approved by your
local or state authorities or public works departments. If I was
you I would start out small only hauling safe items. Make sure
you have a photo ID card made, clearly showing your image and
the name of your Courier service, along with your name and other
info. In this day and age it's important for folks to feel safe
when dealing with a business especially a newly established one.
If possible have a nice magnetic sign made for your vehicle,
which clearly shows your service, displaying the name, telephone
number and town, this is a cheap item, but it will help you
build your customers and it will also add credence and make your
service seem more official or real.
Check with your vehicle insurance company, to see if they charge
additional fees since you will now be using you vehicle a lot
more for business needs instead of personal use, it's better to
be safe now than sorry later. For your personal safety, you may
wish to have any passenger(s) sit in the rear seats, and place
packages in the trunk or rear areas behind the driver if this is
possible, for this reason a nice utility van or SUV makes the
ultimate courier vehicle.
How will you choose your rates ? Sit down and call as many
courier services as you can and ask them what they charge per
mile. Most charge a fee per mile for gasoline, vehicle
deterioration and business fees. If you travel 10 miles to pick
up a package and then travel another 50 miles to deliver it, you
must also travel back to your home or courier service location,
this may be another 60 miles back. This is a total trip of 120
miles from start to finish, if you charge only 50 cents per
mile, that is $60. You should be able to easily drive 120 miles
in roughly 2 hours or slightly more, so that averages out to $30
an hour for your earnings.
Once you have the service area, and the fees you will charge,
place a small ad in local Newspaper's under the sections:
Services Offered or Work Wanted. You can also place flyers on
store bulletin boards and hand out business cards. Word of mouth
is a great and free way to increase your customers. When you
start getting calls from a customer, be sure to write down
directions carefuly, and what is to be picked-up and delivered.
When the job is completed, It's a good idea to telephone your
customer and tell them that the job has been completed.
There is computer software that is made for someone that is
starting or already owns a small Courier Business. The software
is available for download at this website address:
http://www.rb59.com/courier
By Robert W. Benjamin Copyright