Courier Business Stuff

While it may be flattering that so many of you seem to think that our website is worthy of copying, I’m getting a bit f*****g sick of having to ask ‘Network’ MEMBERS to remove OUR intellectual property from their websites.

The next ‘Network’ member that copies ANYTHING from our website will be charged £500 as a design fee (our standard charge) AND will be sued for their breach of our copyright if they don’t remove the material immediately.
 

Posted under Legal Issues

You don’t even need photo ID unless you’re flying. An old style driving licence is fine.

“Irish Ferries recommend all passengers bring a passport with them. Irish and British citizens do not strictly require a passport to travel between the two countries – some form of identification is however required.
Photo ID, Bank Cards or bills for house utilities addressed to you are all acceptable and useful means of identification. “

Posted under Uncategorized

A letter before action and a late payment charge at the same time. Here – and don’t forget you can still claim the late payment charges for the other two invoices they paid late.
 

Posted under Late Payment

You realise that THEY have to pay for you ringing them on an 0800 and they don’t receive anything out of what you pay your mobile company. Odd sort of a scam.
 

Posted under Courier Scams, Mobile Phones

I feel a FAQ answer coming on….
But in the meantime….

If they’re only driving vehicles that aren’t on tacho they’re covered by the Working Time Directive but not by the Road Transport Directive – so they’re allowed to opt out of the hours requirement of the WTD.

They’re also covered by the UK domestic driving rules which limits them to a maximum of 10 hours per day driving and 11 hours per day total ‘duty time’.

No written records need to be kept, but if your employee was to drive for say 11 hours a day and had an accident that killed someone (or him) you’d probably be charged with manslaughter.

Posted under Courier Basics, Drivers' Hours, Employment

lynyrd wrote:
what would be the fastest ever period going from starting a ltd company to shutting the doors?

last year 6 weeks, now another it seems?…..isnt it time the law got involved in this scam?

what actually constitutes “obtaining goods or services by deception”?

and if my booking form doesnt state “ltd” just who was I dealing with?…

This is exactly why recently formed limited companies, or in fact most limited companies now, are a bad credit risk. That’s why the banks demand directors’ guarantees before lending them money.

The Companies Act contains all sorts of get out clauses so that limited companies can act in a shonky way and get away with it – but if they get the basics wrong then the shield of limited liability is taken away from them.

If the booking form doesn’t contain their limited company details then they’re in breach of the Companies Act – which means that the directors should be held personably liable for any losses you suffer because of their breach.

Posted under Courier Financial Issues, Late Payment, Legal Issues

I can see where you’re coming from Simon but is there really any need for “fuel surcharges” when every transaction between us is negotiated separately anyway? People are free to adjust their prices to a suitable level at any time so why complicate things with a fuel surcharge mechanism?

The reason the likes of DHL and TNT apply fuel surcharges is to give them freedom to adjust their contractually agreed rates (and their published tariffs) to allow for increased fuel prices. If they didn’t have contractually agreed rates or published tariffs then there would be no need for the surcharges – they could just increase their rates instead.

By all means put a mechanism like this in place for your customers, and for subcontractors that work for you regularly on an agreed ‘pence per mile’ basis but please don’t encourage people to adopt this as a standard on here. Apart from confusing the hell out of everyone it will increase the amount of time spent on admin and increase those little disagreements where one party claims that a surcharge had been agreed and the other claims that it hadn’t.

I’ve just had an invoice from a ‘Network’ supplier who’s started applying a fuel surcharge on every job. I’ve no problem at all with him increasing his prices but his £20 minimum charge has now become £21.60 and the £181 job he did for me now costs £195.48. Call me picky but it’s a lot easier, and less likely to result in an input error, for me to enter £22 or £196 onto our systems.

So by all means PUT YOUR PRICES UP if you think that it’s right for your business but PLEASE don’t f*** about adding percentages onto every job.

Posted under Courier Financial Issues

If the charges relate only to the goods that he has in his possession then he doesn’t need anything in his terms and conditions to allow him to retain them, he’s not allowed to sell them though.

Proper T&Cs should establish a general lien (rather than the special lien described above) and the right to dispose of or sell the goods. The customer doesn’t necessarily need to have signed (or even read) the T&Cs for them to apply – it’s enough to be able to show that the customer should have been aware that the T&Cs existed and that they were available to examine.

Personally I’d keep hold of the stuff, continue charging her for storage at the agreed rate and tell her you’ll sue for the full amount plus a late payment charge and the court costs. She’ll soon decide that she’s got the money.

Posted under Courier Financial Issues, Late Payment