Freelance Courier – Advice on self employed courier work in the UK

I spent months trying to go it alone before seeing sense and investing a few quid into getting some help.

The CRV courier guide was the difference between failure and success for me.

It’s that important I would argue it should be the second thing you purchase, right after the van!

Iam looking to become a self employeed courier and iam a little nervous at going it alone so iam looking for advice from anyone who is in my position or been in my position.I dont like the current job iam doing as i work terrible hours and i dont see a lot of my family as my shift pattern takes in most weekends so any advice from people out there will be appreciated

SCOTT RHODICK

I recently bought the crv courier guide and i can vouch for the fact that it does contain sound and solid advice, i joined their membership programme aswell, which has led to some regular work from a couple of courier companies.

Don’t know if you guys are for real because I don’t hear noone making money from CRV on these feedback. If you guys are with CRV then are you guys making any progress?

My friend is With SMP and he made good money!! in amonth..

who is this sunny guy? is it really shaun smith? lol.

I bought the crv courier guide a few day ago, its a basic but straight forward and easy to understand book. However, I am mostly impressed with their membership login as they actually help find courier work with some of the nationals. I’m now thinking about joining the crv franchise, i’d be interested to know if anyone else here has joined it.

was thinking of paying for guide is this any good or just a scam

I just had a look myself and it seems to be run by a professional courier company, there is contact details and a photo of their premises. Seems genuine to me.

i compared a few websites and crv looked the most genuine out of the lot so joined them. i can 100% vouch for the crv system, they got me proper courier jobs as they have their own national courier service. they are a known courier business as opposed to mysterious people with no identity behind some of the other websites. i have actually spoken to andy hinself since i joined and most of the other staff in the office, all good people.

this one looks a lot better than than the drivinguk emails. i’m going to look into joining crv tomorrow, i’ll give them a call and report back here

really interrested but is it a scam ?. and most importantly do you actually get well paid work ?

I’m interested in trying to become a courier part time before giving up my shiftwork job, can anyone tell me if the estimated upto £1500 a week is living in dreamland or an actual reality?

Having joined myself, i can vouch for the fact its not a con or a scam, however i think crv do get tarred with the same brush as uk driving and others. They don’t claim 1500 a week, just checked the website again and its 950 a week before costs and i’m not quite doing that yet but i’m still building it. What i will say is that i like them, i keep in touch every week and the transport office staff are really freindly and genuine people.

Was thinking of getting into the courier business but not sure if CRV are genuine, would appreciate some honest feedback.

Elaine

is this a scam??? im looking to start part time for now and just want some genuine honest feedback before i purchase this….

thanks
mandie

I havn’t purchased the CRV Courier Guide yet but i did call them this week and spoke to someone about becoming a courier. They do seem genuine to me, they actually deliver parcels so i assume they know what they are talking about. I’m still thinking about being a courier and i’ll probably go with CRV if i decide to have a go at it.

I neearly got ripped off by drivinguk.org but found this website first and joined crv instead based on the reviews on this website. So far so good and i’m looking forward to getting started as a courier. Thanks for all the useful advice from everyone on here.

I found this news article about Andy Stephens and his CRV courier company, seems like these guys are actually genuinely in the courier business rather than just book sellers. Anyway i thought it would be of interest to other people http://thedeliverymagazine.com/wordpress/?p=1944

hi thinking of starting part time to test the water,is there really work out there,and how does it work pay wise do you have to wait,thanks

is there any work in northern ireland

I nearly just got stung with the Ukdriving.org, i managed to block my card before they took the cash. I feel rather foolish but hopefully ill learn from this mistake…..However, i think i will pursue the CRV one, i did actually speak to someone from there and they were really nice and not pushy on the phone. And after reading reviews on here i think i will try it out. I would also like to thank people on here for setting the alarm bells ringing on the UKDriving scam

Andy

i live in northern ireland and im trying to start up as a part time courier, but it seems harder here to get work than mainland england, i saw the UKDriving scam and have read this crv info too, but has anybody had any dealings with “localcourierservices.net” who advertise on google and claim to have work in my area but want an upfront £50 to be able to log into a “drivers area” to select work. it semms TOO GOOD to be true.

Not sure if this is a scam or not? Can someone shed some light on this? Thanks

can anyone assure me 100% that CRV is genuine, no scam rip off web site like so many others??, i have a full time job of £25k but i have to do long hrs / shifts etc and need a change badly, looks great on the website, just need assurance before i make a decision, if i can earn what i do now + more (to cover costs etc) then i would like to run with it

can anyone help?

I nearly just got stung with the Ukdriving.org, i managed to block my card before they took the cash. I feel rather foolish but hopefully ill learn from this mistake…..However, i think i will pursue the CRV one, i did actually speak to someone from there and they were really nice and not pushy on the phone. And after reading reviews on here i think i will try it out. I would also like to thank people on here for setting the alarm bells ringing on the UKDriving scam
+1

i also nearly joined driving/org untill i found it was a scam, i have been on both driving org and crv websites and the only thing i have noticed is that crv dont hassal you with emails of join today every day and there website looks a bit more professional than our friends at driving/org

Localcourierservices.net is a scam. I emailed 12 of the people who were listed as couriers on their site.

I received replies from 5 of them. None of the 5 had got any work at all , some weeks after paying their up-front fee.

They also said there was no way to contact the company … it seems they take the money and stay silent.

I assume the 7 who didn’t respond are too embarrassed.

LCS is a scam dont do anything.

is this a scam, someone has repeated the same thing twice with two different names

I am looking to subsidise my locksmith business with some courier work and utilise my van. I look at Localcourierservices and decided to do some checking. After emailing them 3 times and calling atleast 5 and getting the call terminated everytime I sacked it. Lucky for me I never paid anything. I did last year speak to someone in CRV but never followed it up. I think I will now look into them again. Lets hope I can put a positive post on soon. I have also contacted City Sprint this evening. Has anyone had dealings with them? Good luck to you all!

I have been in-undated by UKdriving.org and am thinking of becoming a courier and have read all the messages on this site some people are saying CRV is a scam, some are saying it ok, ? I live near Lowestoft, suffolk would this be a worthwhile loss of 39 quid ?

Iv decided to give CRV a go. I have done lots of checking and have found nothing to suggest it is a scam that is substainiated. Watch this space and see what happens! Here goes £40.00 quid eh!

please some one let me no if crv are a shame is anyone making money

I have read lots of reviews and lots of comments about `CRV courier` some good, some bad and some indifferent. Im still trying to decide if this is a risk worth taking tho I am still attracted by being self employed and possible earning potential tho the £950 quoted per week is optimistic in my opinion and to begin with I would be happy with £500 – £600.

I joined CRV a few months back and after a slow start, it is now working out for me really well. I get regular work through them, sometimes 2-3 jobs a day. I live in a fairly urban area which helps alot. I have also generated my own work using their system, what alot of people don’t understand is that you have to treat it like your own business, rather than just joining and waiting to see what happens.

I signed up with CRV Couriers and i’m getting more work than i expected, mostly long distance runs and a few local ones. The licence fee is a tenner a week, so it’s definately worth it for me. I would reccomended it to anyone else but i think you need a van to make it work.

Seems to me like all these so called courier sites are having us for mugs.I don’t know a soul who as made money by driving a van and calling themselves a courier.I know what happens, someone is watching this site because as soon as someone writes something bad about these sites Captain Bull writes something to get you interested again.My advice is find another career route.Try being a rag n bone man

after looking on your and the reviews on crv courier guide i have to take the plunge and order a copy it looks genunine to me and after reading the feedback i would a career as a freelance courier so i am going to purchase a copy and give it go

hi
after reading all the commen ts still not sure if i should try it out but.

wanting to take the plunge as i’m unhappy with my working hours.been thinking about it for a while now but still unsure about it. it seems legit but could someone give me some assurances please

does this work in northern irela\nd

You’d have to cover some ground for some of the quoted distance payments to be viable. Not to mention the time. You don’t need to pay £40 to buy a book – the dooms day book’s cheaper! The rest is just common sense.

The figures sound rather grand until, as self-employed, you take into account DERV/petrol costs which can be massive, Public Liability Insurance, Van purchase costs – not to mention depreciation and maintenance costs which are imperative if you want to keep moving( e.g. you can pay £85 for a tyre depending ( you’d be surprised how many don’t bother with the maintenance side of things until the van blows up!), high van insurance costs (couriers are hammered), cleaning costs, national insurance, road tax, buggering about with self-assessment for the tax man, yada yada. Don’t shoot the messenger: I don’t do the driving but husband does. I do, however, do the accounts. Also remember, as self-employed the minute you take a moment off you get no pay which means every time the Queen has a jamboree with extra bank holiday thrown in, you get to be two days pay down, not to mention the usual bank holidays.

For some, once all the above is taken into account, they end up with the basic wage in their pocket.
There are plenty of courier companies to be rung although from recent experience as a customer I wouldn’t touch Yodel, it’s in chaos.

If you were going to do this, find a good bookkeeper (even your aunty who is good with figures will do) to take care of your accounts, necessary for the Revenue. Bookkeepers are not expensive and their charge is tax deductible and it saves a lot of heartache, they will also find expenses to deduct where you didn’t even know they existed, reducing any tax liability. They can also advise you on how to go about things. Keep every piece of paper and receipt and try to keep them in order.

The bottom line is that it is b….y hard work with a 12 hour day being the norm. There’s no such thing as a free lunch – even if you manage the time to take for one which will be rare!

Good luck to everybody.

Levequesis