Courier Driver - Going to be one

[my_e36 43]

Hi all,

I will be start as a 1-hour Courier next month, just want some advice on start-up stuff...

1. Insurace - who will do it? (AA don't) Your experience with them, etc...

2. Security - what brand/model of system is good for this line of work?

3. Finance - will be borrowing a small sum to help with start up cost (around $5000), should I go to the bank? finance company or from work?

4. Bookkeeping - do you do your own books? Is it major work? How many hours will that take you to do them on average?

5. Vehicle - Van or car? Petrol or Diesel? (I've discounted hybrid already as it deliver little savings (if any) over other small (esp. Euro diesel) vehicles)

I havn't started the training yet. Although I am sure the company will give me some advise on these, but I would like to find out from someone who's doing it. Thanks all in advance!

[jjs 64]

Hi all,

I will be start as a 1-hour Courier next month, just want some advice on start-up stuff...

1. Insurace - who will do it? (AA don't) Your experience with them, etc...

2. Security - what brand/model of system is good for this line of work?

3. Finance - will be borrowing a small sum to help with start up cost (around $5000), should I go to the bank? finance company or from work?

4. Bookkeeping - do you do your own books? Is it major work? How many hours will that take you to do them on average?

5. Vehicle - Van or car? Petrol or Diesel? (I've discounted hybrid already as it deliver little savings (if any) over other small (esp. Euro diesel) vehicles)

I havn't started the training yet. Although I am sure the company will give me some advise on these, but I would like to find out from someone who's doing it. Thanks all in advance!

I'm sure most of these questions will be answered by your employer upon starting. But try and educate yourself on claiming back expenses and maximising the tax advantages of your new role. I would also highly recommend getting GST registered. As for finance, what do you need to borrow the funds for? You should lease a vehicle (tax deductions) and I'm sure your employer will sort out uniforms etc.

[TDP 0]

Hello. Interesting career choice.

I was an inner city courier for Deadline Express for 4 years.

Most of the questions you have asked would be best answered by your employer as they frequently have preferential deals with outfits like insurers, accountants and mechanics, but I will try to respond as best as I can based on my own experience. This was 3 years ago though and things may have changed since then.

1. I believe I was insured by State. I had the car covered as a commercial vehicle. I can't remember what the premiums were but the excess was $1000. I don't remember it being too expensive, all things considered (Male, under 25, one accident, several speeding tickets, living in South Auckland).

2. Talk to alarm installers. The one I had allowed me to leave the engine running and the keys in the ignition. This is probably more pertinent if you go with a diesel of some kind.

3. Who offers the lowest interest rate and is willing to loan to you? You can claim interest as an operating expense and write it off against tax (I think I have that right, the money side of things was for me... well... difficult) so that may not necessarily be an issue as long as you earn enough money to cover payments whilst still buying useful things like food, stress-balls and personal hygiene products.

4. This is the area where I fell down. The government has an exciting array of acronyms like PAYE, GST and ACC. All of these will cost you money. If you do not stay ahead of them they will cost you even more money. If you are smart and fancy spending evenings filling out official forms then by all means do it yourself. I had a lovely semi-retired lady take care of my accounts for me. She did a very good job and charged a reasonable price (which was written off against tax). Unfortunately I ignored every single remittance advice that she sent me and ended up many, many dollars in debt. The sooner you can get your head around the fact that at least a third of the money that shows up in your bank account is not actually yours then the better off you will be.

Ask your company about this they usually have an acceptably priced accountant that they can refer you to if you don't fancy doing it yourself.

5. Depends. Are you working primarily in the inner or outer city? What sort of thing does your company mainly transport? How confident are you parallel parking something like a van? Is it going to be cheap to service and run? Is it built tough enough to survive multiple kerb collisions? How much does it cost to buy initially? Once again, talk to your company. Pay attention to what other people are driving (Toyota Corolla station wagons when I was working).

The diesel vs petrol question is a little more vexed. I was always told that RUCs made the difference in running costs between the two negligible, but petrol was a lot cheaper back then.

Hope that helps a little.