Couriers

[Ruthmay]

There was a piece on this on Newsnight tonight, specifically Hermes. Apparently they are the leading company and all the delivery drivers are self employed and get 50 p per delivery - no work, no pay, so they struggle through the snow. one chap made £23 a week, course don't know how many hours he worked. one woman said she earned £400 a month and £100 went on petrol. they are wanting a minimum wage - have to cover 6 days a week if required and find their own replacement if they go away or are ill.

must be ok as a part time job for a working mum or someone retired. still seems a paltry sum when you think of what QVC and others charge for post and packing. the people interviewed said they could find no other work.

 

[BurlyBeaR]

thats terrible. my hermes bloke "paul" is really good too. dead reliable and always smells nice :O)

 

[donna255]

Yes, they are I believe though under contract to Hermes classed as self employed. That is how Hermes get round the minimun wage thing.

I have seen on the Moneysaving site people ask about doing this type of work as the ads usually say earn £2000 a month or something. Then a few people who actually do this type of work explained the real way it works. Think I heard another company pays less per delivery!!!!!

 

[deanos]

You can make money at it but only if you work for someone like HDNL or Parcelforce as a owner driver , when i was talking to the HDNL driver last year IIRC he was paid £1.50 a parcel

 

[craftybel]

my local courier combines it with being a childminder and delivers after school hours.he has a very local round and is well known and popular, but i doubt his popularity impresses his bank manager! it's a scandal really, that the man at the sharp end picks up peanuts for doing the bit that actually counts with the customer!

 

[boffy]

my friend did this years ago and was paid 35p. a parcel that was 9 years ago.

SCANDALOUS!:ninja:

 

[Loveinamist]

Thank you for this post it has answered a question for me. A delivery (not Q) for my DD arrived when we were out and left in our green bin with a note telling us through the door. When a confirmation email arrived it said your item has been delivered and signed for. Well I didn't sign for anything, I was out but the courier obviously wanted his delivery fee. Agree this is very poor pay and can understand them doing this but if it was like the old days when refuse collections were done by bin men entering your garden to collect the bin then couriers could not do this in case they were emptied that day. If we don't put our bins out ourselves they don't get emptied.

 

[inatizzy]

Thanks to the OP for highlighting this

I have just watched it on BBC iplayer

BBC 2 Newsnight 3.12.10.

I am shocked at the content and cannot believe that the Couriers do not even get the Minimum Wage ??

I have a new respect for my Courier and will make sure I give her a larger 'reward' than usual for Christmas bless her !

They do a tremendous job - out in all weathers - how do these large companies (Qvc Next Debenhams * etc) get away with this ?

*Should amend that actually cos it is after all Hermes etc..........

inatizzy