As the recession, or ‘downturn’ to put an optimistic slant on it, starts to bite, particularly in the building trade, we’re starting to see more and more new entrants to the same day courier industry. It seems an inevitable feature of every economic slowdown that the industry is swamped with out of work tradesman and redundant factory-workers, keen to put their unused van (or their redundancy payment) to use starting a new business for themselves.

It’s an easy enough business to get into, just a van and a mobile phone required. Nowadays it’s apparently not even necessary to have a collection of maps, or even any map-reading skills; just spend £75 on a satnav and you’re ready for work. That’s the theory at least.

There will no doubt be no shortage of local and national same day courier companies waiting to take advantage of these naïve new starters – high fuel prices, low rates and a general downturn in business has pushed many of their existing subcontractors out of the business and they will no doubt be wishing to put a few more vehicles on the road in the run up to Christmas.

There’s often an (incorrect) assumption that the rates offered by the well-known national courier companies will be the ‘going rate’ and that it must be possible to make a reasonable living at those rates. The reality is that some of the larger and better known courier companies pay their subcontractors mileage rates that haven’t changed for many years. I’ve read recently of one national company paying their subcontractors as little as 44p per loaded mile. That’s £88 for a delivery from Manchester to London, with fuel for the journey costing over £40.

As well as the courier companies wanting to cash in on this new source of fresh meat there’s the internet based scammers circling, all waiting to make a few pounds selling manuals on how to be a freelance courier or charging hundreds of pounds to be a member of their non-existent network.

A quick search on Google brings up a multitude of such dubious offers: ‘How To Become A Courier’, ‘Earn £250+ per day as a freelance courier’, “Make £1,500 a week as a courier’, ‘Join our courier network for just £150’, ‘Become a Freelance Courier’, ‘Want to be a courier? Buy our manual for £50’. It’s all a load of bollocks. Nobody makes £1,500 per week profit driving for a living, even after they’ve been in the industry for 10 years. Most experienced owner-drivers of small vans in the same day courier industry have a TURNOVER of less than £800 per week, often much less than that, for long hours and with high expenses to come out of that figure.

I’d recommend that anyone wishing to become a freelance same day courier should first visit the free forums at www.codforum.org.uk (that’s Courier Owner Driver forum, nothing to do with fish!), whatever your question it’s probably been asked and answered on the forums before. There’s also a lot of useful advice on avoiding the scammers.

I might be giving the impression that it’s not possible to make a decent living as a self-employed courier, but that’s not the case at all. It certainly is possible to earn a living but it’s not as simple as buying a manual or paying £120 to join a network or a web-site. Neither is it as simple as writing a few letters to your local courier companies. It will never be an industry where it’s possible to make untold riches with little effort – you’re driving a van around after all, nothing else, and if it was cheaper for these courier companies to employ drivers rather than using subcontractors then they’d do it. Hard work and dedication can build up a reasonable business, but as a get-rich-quick scheme or as a two month stop-gap venture it’s unlikely to give you the financial returns you’re looking for.

So to recap: DON’T pay for advice that you can get for free, DON’T pay registration or enrollment fees in the hope of receiving work and ALWAYS ask for advice on a forum like Codforum before parting with any money, signing on the dotted line or committing yourself to any new business venture. Oh, and don’t call me looking for work – it’s advertised on our website when we have any.

Many van drivers just assume that the speed limits for their vans are the same as for a private car. In many cases, particularly for smaller vans, they may be right, but for anything bigger than a small van they’re wrong.

The maximum speed limits for all goods vehicles of 3500kg and less, unless lower limits are indicated by signs, is 70mph for motorways, 60mph for dual-carriageways and 50mph for single-carriageway roads. The only exemption is for ‘car-derived vans’ with a maximum loaded weight (GVW) of 2000kg or less, to which the speed limits for cars apply (70, 70, 60).

For many years it seems that the police have interpreted ‘car-derived van’ as meaning any small van with a GVW of 2,000kg or less. This would include many of the vans typically driven by same day couriers, vans like the Escort, Courier, Berlingo/Partner, some Doblos, Combo, Nemo/Bipper/Fiorino, Kangoo, as well as some of the more obvious ‘car shaped’ vans like the Astravan, Fiesta, Corsa and Punto.

In December 2007 the Department for Transport (DfT) issued a document ‘Clarification of national speed limits for vans‘ which I actually ignored at the time because I could only find paraphrased reports of the document rather than the actual document itself. Anyway, I forgot all about it until I stumbled on it this morning while googling for something else. I have to say I’m astonished at how unclear the clarification is and even more astonished at the way they seem to be interpreting the law. Here’s the important bit:

“Q.  Are there any exemptions from these lower speed limits for vans?

A. There is one (small) group of vans which have the same speed limits are cars by virtue of the definitions in Schedule 6 of the Road Traffic Regulation Act of 1984.  These are vans that are both derived from a car chassis and also have a maximum laden weight of no more than 2 tonnes.  This means that the weight of the vehicle and the payload it is designed to be able to carry when added together do not exceed 2 tonnes.  The van design must be a derivative of a car body, it is not sufficient that it looks similar to a particular car.

Q.  Which vans meet the criteria to be considered car derived vans for speed limit purposes?

A. Very few vans will meet the criteria to benefit from the same speed limits as a car.  Those that do are likely to be similar to a Ford Fiesta van, Vauxhall Corsa or Renault Clio van in having maximum payloads of around 500kgs so that when combined with the weight of the vehicle unladen (normally around 1.4 tonnes) the maximum laden weight of the whole vehicle will not exceed 2 tonnes.

What this means is that vans such as the Ford Transit and (and of course the larger panel vans) will not meet the definition of car derived vans set out set out in part IV section 2 of the Road Traffic Regulation Act 1984.  Therefore these vehicles will be subject to speed limits of 50mph on single carriageways and 60 mph on dual carriageways.“

This guidance seems to ignore the very type of vehicle over which there is the most confusion, namely the type of van with a ‘car’ front end and a ‘box’ grafted onto the back. Vans in this class would include the Vauxhall Combo, Citroen Berlingo, Peugeot Partner, Renault Kangoo, Citroen Nemo etc., all of which have a maximum laden weight of under 2 tonnes.

Part IV Section 2 of the Road Traffic Regulation Act 1984 states defines a car-derived van as “a goods vehicle which is constructed or adapted as a derivative of a passenger vehicle and which has a maximum laden weight not exceeding 2 tonnes;”. This definition makes no mention of the chassis or the body shape.

To use my examples of vans above; the Vauxhall Combo is clearly a derivative of the Vauxhall Corsa car, albeit with a different chassis and body shape, and could also be said to be ‘based on’ the Vauxhall Combo Kombi – a version of the Vauxhall Combo with rear seats and windows. Arguably the Kombi is based on the van rather than vice versa, but the fact remains that Kombi is a passenger car and shares its body shape and chassis with the van. Similarly the other vans mentioned, although not based on any passenger car, all have an ‘estate car’ (or ‘window van’ if you prefer) version – the Citroen Berlingo Multispace, Peugeot Partner Combi, Renault Kangoo MPV – with the exception of the Citroen Nemo which is the lightest, newest and most car-like to drive of the vans mentioned but does not yet have a ‘windowed’ version.

According to the DfT guidance the Combo, Berlingo, Partner and Kangoo, may possibly be classed as car-derived vans, depending on the importance placed on there being a near-identical passenger version available, while the smaller Citroen Nemo is subject to same speed limits as a 3,500kg Mercedes Sprinter, at least until a ‘car’ version of it becomes available.

This situation is clearly extremely confusing, particularly as the clarification neatly ducks the issue of classifying this particular type of vehicle, instead only mentioning larger and smaller sizes. More confusion is added because these vehicles are actually classified as car-derived vans on their V5 ‘log books’.

I’ve emailed the DfT for some clarification on this and if I don’t receive confirmation that ‘car-derived van’ on the log book means that car speed limits apply I’ll be contacting our local police and maybe ACPO for confirmation of how they interpret the law.

Download the template here (MS Excel template file) or view it as a pdf file here.

Of course you don’t have to invest in a copy of Excel just to produce a few invoices, OpenOffice.org has most of the functionality of Excel (and other MS Office products) and it’s free. The template opens OK in OpenOffice but needs some slight adjustments for page margins and layout etc.

Google Docs allows you to produce invoices and other documents online and export to Excel or OpenOffice if required. They have their own invoice templates available and again it’s all free of charge.

Zoho.com is another online office suite, similar to Google Docs, with a lot more thrown in as well. They have their own dedicated online application for raising invoices invoice.zoho.com but annoyingly they’ve now seem to have started charging for its use.

Microsoft Office Accounting Express is FREE, fully featured, small business accounting software. For a free product it compares very well with the basic versions of Quickbooks and Sage, allowing you to raise and track invoices, enter bills, keep track of what you owe and what you’re owed etc, and did I mention that it’s FREE? It’s even upgradeable to the more advanced Microsoft Office Accounting Professional for about £150 if you find that you’ve outgrown it.

To satisfy HMRC you need to include on your invoice:

The date of issue of the invoice.
A sequential number that uniquely identifies the invoice.
Your business’s name, address and VAT registration number.
The name and address of your customer.
Your customer’s VAT registration number (only if they’re VAT registered in another EU country and you’re invoicing without VAT).
The date of supply of services (the date you did the work).
A description of the services supplied (from a VAT point of view ‘Courier work’ would be OK – your customer may want more detail).
The VAT rate applied (normally 17.5%).
Total amount of VAT payable.
The total amount payable for the whole invoice excluding VAT.
The total amount of VAT charged at each VAT rate (normally just one entry for the 17.5% rate).
The unit price of the services supplied and the number of units charged for – if this is normal practice for your industry (as far as I’m aware it isn’t normal practice in the courier industry) or required by your customer. In practice you can ignore this unless you charge your customer by an agreed price per mile or hour worked AND they’ve asked you to include the figure on your invoice. For example ’200 miles @ 70p/plm’.

To satisfy Companies House and Trading Standards:

If your business trades under a name other that its actual name then you must include the actual name on your invoice, as well as the trading name.

If you’re a sole trader John Smith and you trade as ‘John Smith’, ‘J Smith’ or just ‘Smith’ then that is the only name that needs to appear on your invoice.
If you’re a partnership of John Smith and Alan Jones, and trade under any combination of the names (‘Smith & Jones’, ‘J Smith & Alan Jones’ etc) then those are the only details needed.
If your business is a limited company and it trades under its own name ‘S&J Courier Services Ltd’, then that’s the only name that needs to appear on your invoices.

In any other case, where the business trades under a name that is not its actual name, the full actual name of the legal entity behind the trading name must be shown on all invoices. So if John Smith trades as ‘John Smith Couriers’, or John Smith and Alan Jones trade as ‘J&A Couriers’, or even if S&J Courier Services Ltd trade as ‘S&J Courier Services’, then the actual name of the sole-trader, the partners or the limited company must be shown on the invoice.

To keep you customer happy

The date you did the job.
The collection and delivery details – I prefer the format ‘XYZ Semiconductors, London E14 – ABC Computers, Manchester M30′.
Any reference if you’ve been given one by the customer – otherwise use the name of the person who booked the job.
Any purchase order number supplied by the customer – if it’s the first job you’ve done for them it doesn’t hurt to ring them and ask them what they need to appear on the invoice.
The POD for the job – often not essential with end-users but other transport companies like to get their PODs. Also attach the original hard copy POD to your invoice, KEEP A COPY FOR YOUR OWN RECORDS THOUGH.
Your bank details. – Most companies pay by BACS or internet banking these days. Make the payment process as simple as you can for them and avoid any excuses for late payment.
Invoice promptly – if it’s a one-off job then don’t leave it until the end of the month, do it now.
Invoice accurately – only invoice for the agreed amount. if there are any additions for waiting time, call-outs etc then agree the charges with the customer at the time that the cost is incurred.
Don’t backdate your invoice. If you don’t get round to sending your invoices until the middle of the month then don’t date them at the end of the previous month. Large companies may not notice and you’ll be paid as and when your invoice is cleared, small companies may get annoyed at being presented with an invoice due for payment within a few days of receipt.

To avoid any problems in the future

Spell out your payment terms and the due date on the invoice.
Explain the methods of paying the invoice – “Cheques should be made payable to XYZ Couriers…etc” “BACS payments may be made to Account no……etc”
Don’t mention unreasonable and un-agreed penalties for late payment on your invoice.
Draw the customer’s attention to the Late Payment legislation – “WE UNDERSTAND AND WILL EXERCISE OUR STATUTORY RIGHT TO INTEREST AND COMPENSATION FOR DEBT RECOVERY COSTS UNDER THE LATE PAYMENT LEGISLATION IF WE ARE NOT PAID ACCORDING TO OUR CREDIT TERMS.”
Draw the customer’s attention to your Conditions of Carriage, Conditions of Trading, Terms & Conditions, or whatever “ALL BUSINESS UNDERTAKEN IS SUBJECT TO OUR CONDITIONS OF TRADING – A COPY OF WHICH IS AVAILABLE ON REQUEST – or go to www.quietlyefficientcouriers.co.uk/conditions.pdf” This won’t automatically mean that the job you’re invoicing on this occasion will be covered by those conditions, you should have agreed that in advance, but it will help you show that your Conditions apply to any future work you carry out for the customer.

www.payontime.co.uk/doctor/doctor_main.html

The Late Payment of Commercial Debts (Interest) Act 1998 gives you the right to claim interest and compensation for late payments.

This is a statutory right – your customer doesn’t have to agree to it, you don’t have to inform them in advance that you intend to charge them if they pay late and you are not permitted to agree in advance to waive late payment fees unless a suitable alternative form of late payment penalty is agreed.

For invoices up to £999.99 you can charge £40 PER LATE INVOICE. For invoices of between £1,000.00 and £9,999.99 you can charge £70 PER INVOICE. You can also charge interest on a daily basis, currently at a rate of 13% per annum.

You don’t charge VAT on the late payment or the interest and you don’t charge the late payment fee on a recurring basis.

You don’t HAVE to charge the late payment fee but unless you’ve specifically agreed to waive the fee the late payer still owes it to you EVEN AFTER THEY’VE PAID THE ORIGINAL DEBT. The late payment fee is like any other debt – you have up to 6 years to recover it from the late payer and remember that it’s chargeable on EVERY payment received late over that period.

You may find that it’s best to use the threat of the late payment legislation as a tool to get late payers to pay up. For example, our standard collection letter includes:

“As you may be aware, under the Late Payment of Commercial Debts (Interest) Act 1998 we have a statutory right to charge interest on overdue payments. The current rate of interest is 13%. We also have a statutory right to charge compensation of between £40 and £100 towards our collection costs. You will notice that your statement includes an invoice for the late payment charges. IF WE RECEIVE PAYMENT OF ALL OTHER OUTSTANDING INVOICES WITHIN 7 DAYS OF THIS LETTER WE WILL NOT PERSUE THESE CHARGES.”

This at least gives the customer the chance to pay up straight away and avoid the extra charges. It’s worth mentioning that if you use this approach and they do pay up within the 7 days then you’ve lost your right to go back within 6 years and claim the late payment charges.

Thomas Higgins solicitors will do the whole thing for you for a small fee. Direct Route are often recommended for business to business debt collection but I’ve heard several reports that they seem unwilling to collect late payment charges.

Many accountants seem completely unaware that this option is available to their clients, despite it being prominently featured in the HMRC Help Sheet HS222: How to calculate your taxable profits.

Self-employed people with a turnover under the VAT registration threshold (whether they’re registered or not) are allowed to claim HMRC Approved Mileage Rates instead of actual running costs. The rates for cars and vans are 40p/mile for the first 10,000 miles then 25p/mile. For motorcyles it’s 24p/mile and for pedal cycles it’s 20p/mile.

Since the government haven’t raised the rates since the scheme was introduced in 2002 it’s not quite as beneficial as it once was but it can still be a very tax-efficient, and simple, way of claiming your vehicle expenses under certain circumstances.

It works best for owner-drivers with rented small vans doing very high mileages. 2500 miles per week equals about £650 allowance for £85 rental, £20 insurance & £250 fuel.

If you use the scheme you can’t claim any other expenses for ANY vehicle costs except for hire-purchase interest. You can’t claim fuel or vehicle insurance but you can still claim for congestion charge, tolls, GIT etc. You can only start to use the scheme when you change your vehicle, although off-hiring and starting a new hire agreement should be allowable.

You have to keep a full, accurate log of your journeys and mileages and be able to prove that you covered all the mileage on business. Records have to be kept for 6 years after the end of the tax year and the Revenue can and do check records randomly.

The allowance is charged to your Profit & Loss account as if it was a normal expense and can do a nice job of decimating your profits for both Income Tax and Tax Credit purposes.

The system, known as VIPER, involves weight sensors actually embedded within the road surface (known as WIMS – Weigh-In Motion System) which measure the weight of each axle going over them to within 5% accuracy. The vehicle details are checked using ANPR (Automatic Number Plate Recognition) and the VOSA operative in front of his computer immediately takes the decision whether to request that the vehicle’s stopped and brought in for accurate weighing at the VOSA weighbridge.

During the trials of the system from June 2004 to December 2005 VOSA reported a 700% improvement in the accuracy of their vehicle stops for suspected overloading. Out of 434 vehicles identified by the system as being overweight, 379 were found to be actually overweight. Since the trials they have improved on their operating procedures and now report an almost 100% record in stopping overloaded vehicles.

There are apparently already 14 of these VIPER sites in use throughout the country and there are plans to introduce many more. Other than there being one on the M6 at Birmingham and the fact that VOSA have stated that there will be a “particular focus on port traffic” there seem to be few clues to exactly where these sites are located.

The bad news for couriers and other van drivers is that VOSA are actively targeting enforcement on light commercial vehicles because overloading is so common, particularly in the 3,500kg GVW range – overloaded Sprinter vans in other words.

So what can you do to avoid being caught breaking the law?

• Know exactly what weight your van can carry. Take your fully fuelled van, along with your maps, sack truck, ropes, straps and all the paraphernalia you carry, along to your local weighbridge and have it weighed (with you in it). Subtract that weight from the GVW of your van and the result is the weight you can legally carry.

• Know how heavy your load is. Don’t just take the customer’s word for it – if they’re wrong it will be you that’s prosecuted, not them. Many customers will give you the weight of the product rather than the weight of the product including containers and pallets. If you think you may be overloaded then drive to the nearest weighbridge to check your weight – you can’t be prosecuted for being overloaded if you’re on the way to the nearest weighbridge.

• Distribute your load evenly. You can be prosecuted for overloading individual axles as well as for being over your maximum allowed weight. Adjust your load so that the van sits evenly. If you’re driving along with the nose of the van pointing into the air then you probably need to shift some weight forward.

• Consider some sort of on-board weighing equipment – http://www.axtec.co.uk/On-board.htm for example, there are many other manufacturers.

The GB Domestic Drivers’ Hours Rules apply to all drivers of goods vehicles, however small, driven in Great Britain (Northern Ireland has its own rules) in connection with a business, where EU drivers’ hours rules (tacho regulations) don’t apply.

The rules are quite straightforward. In any day (defined as 24 hours from the start of duty) you’re allowed to drive for a maximum of 10 hours. Driving is defined as being at the controls of a vehicle for the purposes of controlling its movement, whether it is moving or stationary with the engine running.

The total amount of time that you’re allowed to be ‘on duty’ for the same 24 hour period is 11 hours.

For an employed driver, including directors of limited companies, ‘on duty’ means any working time, including sweeping the yard, answering the phone, loading and unloading etc.

For a self-employed driver ‘on duty’ means driving the vehicle or carrying out any other work in connection with the vehicle or its load. Answering the phone or sweeping the yard would not be duty time, cleaning the van or loading it up would be.

If you drive for less than 4 hours in a day there are no restrictions on duty time – you could legally work in the warehouse for 10 hours and then drive for up to 4 hours.

There are exemptions to the duty time BUT NOT THE DRIVING TIME for certain trades, but same day courier work wouldn’t fall into any of the exemptions.

If you only ever drive vehicles that are under 3,500kg GVW there is no legal requirement to keep records of your working or driving hours.

• You can drive for up to 10 hours per day, breaks aren’t included in the 10 hours, nor is loading and unloading or waiting time with the engine switched off.
• You can ‘work’ for up to 11 hours per day, breaks aren’t included but all other work is included (unless you’re self-employed when some work doesn’t count).
• The ‘day’ lasts for 24 hours from the time you start work. So if you start at 10.00am today and work for 11 hours then you can’t do any more work until 10.00am tomorrow.
• There are no record keeping requirements for drivers of vans under 3,500kg.
• There is a requirement under the Working Time Directive and Health & Safety laws for drivers to have adequate rest.

The rules are enforced by VOSA, but except for in cases where tiredness has actually caused an accident I’ve never actually heard of anyone being prosecuted for being ‘over hours’ in a vehicle without a tacho or driving hours log. That’s not to say it doesn’t happen, just that I’ve never heard of it.

In the case of an employee who causes an accident while exceeding their daily driving or duty time their employer would almost certainly be held liable for the accident. A death caused by an employee under these circumstances could leave the employer facing a charge of Corporate Manslaughter.

It should also be noted that both VOSA and the Police can go to extraordinary lengths to establish exactly how long a driver has been working, particularly following a serious accident. Mobile phone records can easily be checked to pinpoint the users whereabouts to within a few hundred metres, your own GPS tracking logs can provide even more conclusive evidence, fuel receipts can be examined and the time of fuel-card and credit-card purchases can be traced. Even a POD for a 500 mile round trip same day delivery may be enough to incriminate you.

VOSA are already using ANPR (Automatic Number Plate Recognition), in conjunction with axle weight sensors embedded in the road, to identify overloaded vehicles. I believe that it’s only a matter of time before they use it to detect drivers’ hours offences as well.

So – Do I Need a Licence to be a Courier?

In the UK there are is no special licence required to operate as a courier. You’ll need a full driving licence of course if you want to drive a van, car or motorbike. You could ride a motor bike on a provisional licence but you’d be limited to 125cc bikes which are of very limited use in the courier industry; you’ll also struggle to get proper courier insurance on a provisional licence.

Your normal full driving licence will allow you to drive vans up to 3,500 kg GVW (Gross Vehicle Weight – the maximum allowed loaded vehicle weight). This would include most large Sprinters/Transits/Ducatos etc but not the biggest 3,500kg+ models in the ranges – these larger vehicles are very rare in the courier industry though.

If you passed your Category B (normal car) test before 1st January 1997 you should also have Category C1 (vehicles up to 7.5 tonnes) entitlement and Category B+E (vehicle and trailer) entitlement. If you passed your test after 1st January 1997 you’ll need to take an extra test if you want to drive vehicles over 3,500kg or a van towing a trailer over 750kg.

If you intend to operate a vehicle over 3,500kg you’ll also need an Operator’s Licence (known as an ‘O Licence’) which is much to complicated an issue to cover here. See the Transport Office website for more details.

Depending on your circumstances you may need permission from the local council, your landlord or your freeholder to park a van at your house, these requirements are quite rare though.

Courier Insurance

If you’re just thinking about getting into the courier business your next step should be to consider insurance. Motor Insurance, Goods In Transit Insurance and Public Liability Insurance are a major start-up expense.

Motor insurance which covers you for the “carriage of goods for hire or reward” is essential – and is a legal requirement.

Goods In Transit insurance covers the goods you’re carrying against loss, theft or damage. This isn’t a legal requirement but it’s sensible and some customers, particularly other transport companies, will insist on you having it.

Public Liability insurance insures you against claims from customers or members of the public for damage or injury that might be caused by your actions. Examples of this would be dropping a box on someone’s foot or knocking a computer of someone’s desk while you’re delivering.

In 2006 a 45-year-old Toyota employee died, apparently from working less than 20 hours overtime per week in the run up to launching a new product.

His death has now been classed as an industrial injury, meaning that his family can claim against his employers’ insurances.

60 hours per week is classed as a short week by many in the UK same day courier industry. While HGV drivers are limited by law to 48 hours work a week and any employed workers can insist on working a maximum of 48 hours per week with 5 weeks holiday per year, many courier owner-drivers and courier company owner-managers work in excess of 70 hours per week with few if any holidays.

For the working man, doing his best to provide for his family, is it not better to have a few more years to spend with the family, rather than a few extra quid each year and an early death? Life is apparently a journey, not a destination.

(Written by me, working at 1837 on a Saturday evening)

One particular paragraph of the review stopped me in my tracks and made me think about the general problems people have had with satnavs since their introduction – namely satnavs sending drivers down unsuitable roads:

According to PC Pro, “The most significant upgrade to the new range is TomTom’s new route-finding ability – dubbed IQ Routes. What this means is that the 930T, along with the rest of the new “x30″ range, calculates routes not using the speed limit data alone, but also by taking into account the average speed of real-world traffic on those roads.”

Just pause for a moment to let that sink in - not the fact that IQ Routes™ (cue the jingle again) calculates routes based on the average time taken to travel those routes but that TomToms in the past have calculated the fastest route based on the speed limit of the road.

Even my first copy of Autoroute had options to set different driving speeds for different types of roads – rural A roads, urban B roads, urban motorways etc. It beggars belief that up to now TomTom have been basing their route calculations on speed limits.

Think about it – is it generally possible to make better time on an unclassified road than on, say, a speed-restricted section of the A1? If TomTom has been calculating routes using speed limits then it’s quite possible that it would direct you onto an unclassified country road with a (theoretical but unachievable)60mph speed limit rather than a fast A road which is restricted to 40mph for safety’s sake. The fact that you may be able to only do 30mph on the minor road is apparently irrelevant to the TomTom.

It certainly seems to explain some of the stories of satnavs directing people down totally unsuitable roads when there’s a perfectly good major road available as an alternative and may also explain some of the bizarre routes (Leicester to Croydon via the Edgeware Road anyone?) often taken by inexperienced drivers relying on satnav instructions.

With this in mind I was saddened to read this story about a young woman who died last week after a delay in getting her to hospital, caused by a faulty satnav.

The first lines of the story reminded me of my thoughts about the older TomToms’ route calculations:

“A young woman died after the ambulance taking her to hospital got lost on the way because of a faulty sat nav unit.

The vehicle carrying Kay Gadsby, 21, was directed along a narrow country lane instead of a quicker main road.”

The story goes on to explain that the satnav actually ‘packed up completely’ after that, and that the delay in getting Kay Gadsby to hospital may not have caused her death.

This particular satnav may not have been using this obviously flawed ‘speed limit’ routing method – it may just have been faulty – but the tragic story does show the fallibility of satnavs and the dangers of simply following directions from a satnav without actually thinking about the route that it’s sending you on.

IQ Routes™ is available on the TomTom GO 730, the TomTom Go 930 and on the ‘Traffic’ version of both units which take current traffic conditions into account when calculating your route and can adjust the route to avoid hold-ups.

CMR stands for “Convention relative au contrat de transport international de marchandises par route” which translates as “Convention on the Contract for the International Carriage of Goods by Road”. It was devised by the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe and was brought into UK law by the Carriage of Goods by Road Act 1965.

When does CMR apply?

It applies to every contract for the carriage of goods by road in vehicles for reward, when the place of taking over of the goods and the place designated for delivery, as specified in the contract, are situated in two different countries, of which at least one is a contracting party to CMR.

The current contracting countries are: Albania, Armenia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iran (Islamic Republic of), Ireland, Italy, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Lebanon, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Mongolia, Montenegro, Morocco, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Moldova, Romania, Russian Federation, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Tajikistan, The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Tunisia, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, United Kingdom, Uzbekistan.

It doesn’t apply:

(a) To movements between the United Kingdom, The Republic of Ireland, The Channel Islands and the Isle of Man;
(b) To carriage performed under the terms of any international postal convention;
(c) To funeral consignments;
(d) To furniture removal;
(e) To movement of your own goods.

What does it mean to me as a same day courier?

Surprisingly enough, given all the fuss that people make over it, it means very little to you. It simply provides a standardised set of Conditions, which you’re not permitted to contract out of, which replace your own Terms & Conditions (if any) when carrying out deliveries to which CMR applies.

The two main issues that concern same day couriers are paperwork and the issue of insuring for liability under CMR.

What about Liability and ‘CMR Insurance’

Under CMR your liability for loss or damage to a load is strictly limited to 8.33 SDRs (Standard Drawing Rights) per kilo, unless you’ve chosen to offer your customer a higher level of liability. That’s currently (11th July 2008) equal to £6.87 per kilo of damaged, lost or stolen goods, or the actual value – whichever is lower. While that’s a higher rate than standard FTA or RHA limits of liability (£1.30/kg) it’s still less than that offered by most couriers’ standard Terms & Conditions.

Despite what you may have been told ‘CMR Insurance’ is NOT compulsory by law, in fact there’s no such thing as CMR Insurance – it’s just Goods In Transit insurance that meets your liabilities under CMR. Since your liabilities under CMR are usually more limited than your liabilities under UK Common Law, or most couriers’ Terms & Conditions, then this issue of ‘CMR Insurance’ shouldn’t really exist for same day couriers; it’s only the ‘Territorial Limits’ of standard GIT cover that make it an issue.

Of course if you’re carrying out work for another transport company then they’ll probably consider that you have to have ‘CMR Insurance’ in order to protect their interests. You may also feel that your chances of theft or damage to your load are increased when travelling abroad, particularly during the often unavoidable overnight stops.

Paperwork – the ‘CMR Note’

Again, despite what you may have been told, it’s not compulsory to have a ‘CMR Note’ of the ‘standard’ design in a 4 part NCR set etc. However, the law does stipulate that certain details must appear on the consignment note and that observations & remarks should be entered in the appropriate places.

Given that foreign officials (and the consignee) will be more familiar with the standard design of CMR note it would probably be foolish not use it.

A downloadable 4 part CMR Note from the IRU Website is available through the link here http://www.deliver-it.biz/couriers/useful-sites-and-tools/ and guidance on completion is available at http://www.iru.org/index/en_services_cmr – although you’ll need to register to access it.

The full text of CMR is available at http://www.unece.org/trans/conventn/cmr_e.pdf and the Carriage of Goods by Road Act 1965 which enacts it in UK law is available at http://www.opsi.gov.uk/RevisedStatutes/Acts/ukpga/1965/cukpga_19650037_en_1

According to a report in The Scotsman, the navigational experiment took the form of a ‘race’ over a 989 mile route between three teams of drivers.

The race was won by a team of men relying on reading road signs and asking directions. In second place was a team of women relying on their map-reading skills and the car relying on satnav finished over an hour and a half later.

So apparently men can ask for directions, women can read maps and satnavs don’t always find the most appropriate routes.

The report goes on to quote Luke Bosdet from the AA: “Unfortunately, many drivers become slaves to their satnavs – turning sharp right on to railway lines, rivers and, in one instance, a toilet on a German building site.”

Sarah Sands from the organisers of the experiment, Reader’s Digest, is quoted as saying “It goes to show that when you’re trying to find remote locations in the Lake District or navigate busy city centres, you’re better off relying on the people who live there, rather than a line on a piece of paper or a computer.”

I’d suggest that the outcome of this experiment might have been very different if the team relying on directions from locals had been trying to find locations in mid-Wales or in central London.

Satnav and asking locals for directions are without doubt useful methods for couriers to find their way around but both have their disadvantages. Satnav is occasionally inaccurate, often suggests less than perfect routes which add miles onto a journey and encourages professional drivers to rely on it far too much.

Asking directions is all very well until you find yourself in an area where the locals aren’t really local or deliberately misdirect people that pronounce their place names wrong.

The real answer is to develop good map-reading skills, a good knowledge of the national road network, make use of postcode location facilities on Multimap and Google Maps etc, ask the locals if you’re stuck and always use your brain first and your satnav second.

Avoid buying fuel (or anything) at motorway services. If you’re caught short for fuel (or anything else) try Cheap Fuel Near Motorway Junctions for conveniently positioned fuel and supermarket sites.

Check your tyre pressures regularly. You’re meant to do this every day for the sake of safety of course. You’re normally meant to increase your tyre pressures slightly when carrying heavy loads and when driving at motorway speeds for long periods. Check your van’s handbook for the manufacturer’s recommendations. Think how much harder it is to pedal a bike with flat tyres than with well inflated tyres.

Close your windows on the motorway. Apparently an open window at 70mph can increase your fuel consumption by nearly 10%.

Drive smoothly. Change up early, don’t race away from the lights in low gears, read the road ahead of you and try to avoid coming to a stop. Keeping the van moving slowly is far more economical than stop-start driving.

Lose weight. Every bit of extra weight you carry around with you is costing you money. Even carrying a 25 litre jerry can of fuel with you can increase your fuel consumption by 1%. How much of the rubbish you carry around in your van do you really need?

Slow down. Cruising at 80mph rather than 70mph will gain you less than 11 minutes on a 100 mile journey but can increase your fuel consumption by up to 25%. Sometimes every second counts but often arriving 10 minutes later is no great problem. If you have to stop to fuel up because of your excessive fuel consumption then you’ll lose all the time you gained by speeding anyway.

Switch off unnecessary electrical equipment. The electricity in your battery isn’t just a free by-product of your engine turning. The more electricity used by headlights, heated windows, TVs etc, the more fuel you’ll use. Charging your mobile and laptop at home costs you less than charging them in your van (unplug the adapters when you’ve finished though).

Maintain your vehicle properly. This is part of the job anyway but it can make a big difference to fuel consumption. In particular make sure that your air filter is changed at least as often as recommended by the manufacturer. Ensure that the correct grade of oil is used in the engine, maybe consider using a synthetic oil even if it’s not specified by the manufacturer. 10,000 miles at 41mpg costs around £20 less than at 40mpg so even a slight improvement would make the extra cost of the oil worthwhile.

Don’t overfill your tank. This causes frothing, spillages and leaks through the vent pipe, costing you money and leaving dangerous diesel spills on the road. Forcing that extra 5 litres into the tank may lose you 10p worth into thin air and will certainly add almost 5kg onto the weight of your van. I also my suspicions about the accuracy of the fuel pump when ‘trickle filling’ or ‘brimming’ your tank.

Choose where and when you fuel up. Try to plan your route home so that you can fuel up at a reasonably priced filling station of your choice, without adding extra miles onto your journey. Every extra mile you add to your journey could add between 12p and 23p to your costs, depending on your fuel consumption. A 3 mile each way (6 miles) detour off the motorway to save 2p/litre could cost you up to £1.38 in fuel alone in a large van. Fuelling up on your way home, or on your slack journeys, helps prevent you from having to stop for fuel at expensive motorway services while you’re on a rush job.

Unless you only ever carry goods under your own ‘Terms and Conditions’ or ‘Conditions of Carriage’, which you make available to your customers before you carry out any work for them then you could be wide open to a claim for unlimited damages from your customer or even from your customer’s customer.

Your Goods In Transit insurance might well cover you for £15,000, but what if the goods you’ve collected are worth far more than that? A consignment of computer chips or a pharmaceutical sample can be worth many times that and if it was lost, stolen or damaged while under your control you would be liable for the full value unless your Conditions limit your liability.

That’s not the worst of it though. Most couriers’ Conditions quite rightly disclaim any liability for consequential loss. Without this essential restriction to your liability your losses are potentially unlimited should a late, lost or damaged consignment cause your customer any financial loss due to your ‘negligent act’. A ‘negligent act’ could be as simple as you leaving goods in your vehicle overnight and them being stolen, being late for a delivery because your cambelt broke due to being overdue for replacement, subcontracting your delivery to a muppet or just sending a document by overnight delivery and it being misrouted.

In the absence of suitable Conditions the only defence that you may have against a claim is to be able to prove that your customer’s loss occurred through no negligence whatsoever on the part of you, your employees or your subcontractors. In practice this may mean a delay or loss caused by an ‘act of God’ (exceptionally severe and unexpected bad weather for example) or a catastrophic and entirely unpredictable delay on the motorway system  – for example if you collect something the day before for 0900 delivery to London then a 1 hour delay on the motorway at Luton would not excuse a late delivery because it should be anticipated. If the motorway was closed for 4 hours because of an accident then it may be a delay that you could show that you were not able to anticipate.

What does ‘consequential loss’ mean and isn’t it already covered by your Goods in Transit Policy? Consequential loss applies not to the value of the goods that you’re carrying but to the financial loss that may be suffered should they not be delivered according to the customer’s requirements. By way of example, imagine a simple job where you collect an envelope from your customer for delivery across town within 2 hours. You leave the envelope on your dashboard and it blows out of the window without you noticing and it’s lost forever.

With proper Conditions you may be liable for around £15 for the loss of the paper and the envelope and you probably won’t be able to charge your customer for the delivery. Without any Conditions your moment of inattention could mean that the multi-million pound property deal that your client was about to seal with the contract that you were carrying doesn’t go ahead and YOU are legally liable for their entire financial loss. You’re a sole trader – so if they claim their losses you lose everything, all your savings and all your possessions.

Maybe that scenario seems a bit far-fetched, so how about that custom-made machine part that you’ve just collected from a freight forwarder for delivery to a manufacturer? The production line’s been down for 3 days at a cost of £20,000 per hour. You ‘thought’ that you’d strapped the pallet down properly but you take a corner too fast, the pallet slides and damages the goods. That’s say £40,000 for the damage to the machine part (only £15,000 covered on your insurance) and a further 3 days at £20,000 per hour (a further £1.44 MILLION in costs) for the stopped line while a new part is manufactured and delivered.

Without proper Conditions you are liable for losses like these. The good news is that it’s very simple to avoid the risk of being held liable for this type of claim. If you’re a CX member you have the benefit of being able to use their “Model Terms and Conditions”. If you’re not a CX member then the FTA allows use of their “Model Conditions of Carriage” by non-members as long as their copyright is acknowledged.

In my (non legally trained) opinion, neither sets of Conditions are entirely appropriate to the same day courier industry, but as a stop-gap measure they are better than no conditions at all. I hope to be able to point you towards some more appropriate Conditions in the near future.

In the meantime your main challenge may be to ensure that you can show that your customers have had the opportunity to view whatever conditions you may have before entering into a contract with you. If there’s a clear link on every page of your website and you’ve confirmed that your new customer has visited your website then you should be on fairly firm ground. If you’ve already carried out a job for someone without giving them the opportunity of viewing your Conditions then you can protect yourself in the future by simply adding a notice to the first invoice that all future work carried out will be subject to your Conditions. It doesn’t protect you from liabilities incurred during the first job but if you draw their attention to your Conditions at every available opportunity then you should hopefully be protected against future claims.