What is research?

Research is what you do to find out all the facts and figures you need for your planning, so that you can go into the business with a good idea of how it will work out.

Ask any established courier how you should start and they will tell you to start with research — but what? and how? and where will you find the information?

how long does it take?

Some people spend a couple of days looking into the business and others spend months doing detailed research and planning. It depends on how much detail you want to get, and how much of a risk you are willing to take.

For example, if you’ve got some money in the bank and you can afford to take a risk, you could just rent a van, get some insurance and ‘sub’ for a courier company to see if it works out. (But you still have to be committed — if companies think you’re just playing at it they won’t give you work.)

On the other hand, if you’re thinking of using your redundancy money to set up, and you need to be sure of a reasonable income, you’ll probably want to take a few months and get all the facts and figures before you take the plunge!

where to get the information

These are some of the places where you can find the information you need.

forums

There are some free forums on the internet, where you can pick up a lot of useful information before you start.

The courier owner driver forum (www.codforum.org.uk) is an independent forum for courier owner drivers and is friendly to new starters.
The Courier World forum (www.courierworld.co.uk) is another free forum which also has work listings.
Trucknet (trucknetuk.com) and the Professional Drivers Association forum (www.pda-uk.org) are both for truckers, but are good for learning more about the transport industry and life on the road.

other websites

Have a good look around the internet and you will find a lot of sites where you can get general information about transport and the courier business. Try a search on ‘courier work’, ‘courier sheds’, ‘transport’ and ‘logistics’ and see what you find. Here are some suggestions:

For information about all the different vans try the What Van? site (www.whatvan.co.uk).
Department for Transport
Vehicle and Operator Services Agency
HM Revenue & Customs (for information about VAT and other taxes)
The codforum links page also has lots of useful links for owner drivers.
books
There are several books and guides available online, most of which promise you can earn £250 or more a day! Don’t waste your money — there is plenty of free information available on the web.

couriers

Try ringing around your local couriers—both ODs and companies—and chat to them. They might be too busy to talk, but if you catch a friendly one in a talkative mood you’ll be able to get some good local information. It’s best to avoid Fridays — try Monday or Wednesday.

And remember when you’re talking to people that they might be busy, so try to stick to the important things and try to make it a friendly conversation, not a grilling — and don’t expect them to give away information about their own customers or finances.

suppliers

Suppliers are the people who will provide services to you — such as printers, accountants, banks, van hire companies, freight exchange sites, insurance companies etc.

Get some prices and quotes, find out what they offer and decide which ones you would want to do business with.

customers

Go out and speak to some local businesses that might become customers — find out whether they use couriers, how often, what kinds of loads, etc. If you can, find out how much they pay, and what is important to them — is it price? service? reliability?

Also, see for yourself — loiter on some industrial estates and business parks and look for vans going in and out.

personal contacts

Ask around among your friends and family — do their employers use couriers? Are they happy with the service and price they’re getting?

what to find out

When you do your research you will be looking for the information you need to fill in the gaps in your business plan.

So you should start working on your business plan when you start your research. Some key points to cover are:

costs
vehicle
equipment (phone, satnav, computer, etc)
stationery and advertising
insurances, subscriptions and fees
accountants
income
how much work there is, and what kind
what rates people will pay
other information
how many competitors there are locally, and what type
how many potential customers there are, and what types of courier service they use

how reliable is the information?

Generally speaking, if somebody takes the time to talk to you and answer your questions, they won’t deliberately give you bad information. On the other hand, it’s your future livelihood that’s at stake, so you have to be careful about accepting information at face value. So, what could be wrong with the information, and why?

optimism

It’s common for people to be a bit over-optimistic and paint a rosy picture of courier work, such as…

other couriers might exaggerate because they don’t want you to think they are doing badly, or you might catch them in a good month when business has been very good.
customers might exaggerate for the same reasons, or they might be expecting a lot of new business that doesn’t materialise.

lies

Sometimes people will tell deliberate lies, for example…

some books about courier work over–state the likely income, and how easy it is to get work, just to sell more books
a customer might lie about what prices they are paying, because they hope you are going to quote lower
a courier company might exaggerate the amount of work available, to encourage more ODs to sign up

misunderstandings

Another source of bad information is genuine misunderstanding, for example…

a customer might say they use couriers for ten loads a day, but they actually mean overnight or next day deliveries
someone in an office might tell you they don’t use couriers, but the post room or transport office will give you more reliable information.

what to do next

The next thing to do is to decide whether to carry on.

The information you have collected so far might make it obvious one way or the other, but you will probably need to do a simple business plan to be more sure about it.