Job hunting for outside Royal Mail

[db]

The grass is always greener on the other side...

Unfortunately people realise this isn't true once they try to find it

Indeed. I think some people have been at Royal Mail for so long that they are blinded to just how bad other jobs can be and wouldn't be able to cope. You work your hours, you go home and forget about the job till the next day. It's taken me a while to appreciate that (and sometimes I still have a moan once I get home!) but you simply won't find such an easy job for the money we are paid.

And I've had some shoddy jobs since leaving school, believe me, so know what I'm talking about.

I agree but I do work in processing and I know that is easy compared to delivery, I am quite happy doing the job I do and don't want to search for another!

[dids620]

would anyone work for "the competition" yodel? 65 or 50p per packet and 40p per catalogue.

[db]

would anyone work for "the competition" yodel? 65 or 50p per packet and 40p per catalogue.

No

[BernardBresslaw]

You only get that per item delivered too! Not for just attempting it. You'd be lucky to make half what we do in a day, which is why I often see them out till 8pm at night. No thanks.

[international]

Just make the most of what you are doing if think you can do better have a go you might make it to

[savo]

would anyone work for "the competition" yodel? 65 or 50p per packet and 40p per catalogue.

No

I am a Hermes courier not Yodel, would assume that those rates are for a town centre "round"

I do a very rural area and get £1.85 per parcel, £1.45 for packets, £1.85 for most collections and £2.15 for some "specialised collections"

For catalogues i get £1.05 each for delivery ( also get Next gift vouchers for storage of their catalogues..... next gear is crap imho, just hand them over to mrs )

As well as above get a monthly Next bonus ( usually about £40 to $50) and a Hermes bonus ( £45 ish ) for meeting various delivery criteria.

For the Xmas period i picked up over £4K , obviously that is a gross figure before Tax & NI , and i have my own vehicle & fuel costs etc, but it would probably take 3 or 4 months for a postie to earn that sort of money..

Then again , i dont get sick pay or holiday pay and buy my own boots.... but dont get daily bullying & harrassment either..

Never regretted walking out of that RM hellhole for a second.

[WornOutPosty]

Well done Savo you sound like you're sorted and happy now you're out

[savo]

Cheers Wornout

definately much happier now, its not all roses as i work 6 days a week, and it can be a pain to get cover when i want time off ( have to pay my cover person direct )

I still see a few of the lads from my old office, they were going through preparations for a revision, but its been shelved cos they would have had to put hours back in apparently......

[dre33dd]

i know our local yodel delivery guy very well...trust me its not all good....long hours chaotic management etc
oh yes...sounds familiar!

[savo]

Yep sounds familiar re Yodel...

Though one of my fellow Hermes couriers also does a bit for Yodel and has not had any problems with them so far.

No long hours for me , lorry drops parcels to me around 9 am on an average days ( they have had days when they fcuk up using agency drivers and get to us later ) Get on road for 9:30 after scanning/loading. Today i finished at 3pm ( that was with doing saturdays parcels as well as todays, as there was a lorry breakdown on sat )

On a light day, can fin between 1 & 2 pm.

Even during the peak Xmas period when it was really mental volumes, latest i finished was 5pm - although last hour or so not pleasant delivering in darkness, so i might give away some of my work before next xmas.

[BernardBresslaw]

Any idea why Yodel and other self employed couriers get such a bad rep? The guy who delivers round here is great, but I have heard some horror stories.

[savo]

I dunno bud, i have been doing this job for around 2 years now and in that time Hermes have only had 1 complaint against me ( had a parcel where 2 different addresses were mixed up on the label, and i made a "gut feeling" call that it was one of them, and got it wrong - with hindsight should have sent parcel back, as the customer name had just the first name on, so i didnt even have a surname to go by )

I'm lucky as i deliver in a very rural, low crime area, its no problem to doorstep parcels if it is at a farm in the middle of nowhere ( i carry a big pack of black bin bags so i can protect parcel from weather if it isnt already in a weatherproof wrapping ). Most customers have a good safe place to leave stuff they not in.

I would imagine that the couriers who are messing up are delivering in built up urban areas, they will have few safe places to leave parcels, getting a crap rate per parcel( person who does my little town only gets 60p per parcel ) so feel under pressure to deliver everything on the day, and start taking liberties...

[dvbuk55]

Parcelforce was advertising for owner drivers in Welwyn Garden City - Hours of work 55 over 6 days, no sick or holiday pay, you had to find your own cover for holidays and sickness, have your own van as close to RM Red as possible and kit it out with the parcelforce livery provided, OTE 35 - 40K pa - presumably insurance, repairs, fuel also came out of the OTE...............now is that grass greener

[savo]

Yep you definately have to weigh up the pros & cons, i like being self employed but it wouldn't suit a lot of people ( ex-public sector who go sick at the drop of a hat needn't apply..... not talking about posties there before WW3 kicks off !! )

I must do around 35 hrs tops a week over 6 days ( apart from xmas period obviously ) would prefer to do more hours over 5 days to be honest, but i knew Sats were part of the deal when i signed on the dotted line.

I have an income protection policy in place that pays me about 1200 a month in case of sickness/accident etc, touch wood i havnt had to use it yet, i actually didnt have the policy for first few months, but when i had idiot drivers pull out of side roads in front of me a couple of times, i realised what i was risking...

As i say it suits me, not perfect with no free sick pay/ holiday pay, and can be tough getting time off, but good earner, easy hours, get home in time to get nipper from school most days, flexible too, if i want to start later cos of an appointment etc, i can.