Delivery Drivers

[ymwoods]

I currently run my own business but this makes enough money to grow the business at the moment and not enough to pay both mine and my business partners wages so we both work FT in other jobs and bang all the money back into growing the business.

As it is I currently work as a night shift manager at a Hotel which pays well but not exactly anything special. The one bonus for the job though is that I have been here for 3 years so redundancy, employee rights etc and the job is not going anywhere, its VERY safe.

I have however now been offered work at a delivery company, it would include working 2 hours more per day than I do now, but would be day work, so much better for me and I would get weekends off too which I currently don't.

How is the Delivery driver/Parcel Delivery industry at the moment? Do I run a risk of just being made redundant after christmas or are they all recruiting with the intention of keeping people on for a long time?

Also, How have others found Multi-drop driving? Is it a right pain choosing routes or is this one of the easiest parts of the job?

[TotalControl]

I found it exciting for the 7 odd months I did delivery driving, but in the end the job only relied on a sufficient amount of deliveries for me to deal with. Don't know about how secure it would be though. Depends on the sector you're delivering for I guess. How much extra is the pay. If it works better and the company can offer you job security, then go for it. But if it were me, I'd stay put for a little while longer.

[ymwoods]

The pay would work out only an extra 2k per year with the tax taken off so not a huge amount but the difference will be a lot more in the real world as I would get time and a half if I worked any weekends (which are my choice to work or not) and also shift allowance if I worked any later as I would be seen as then on the night shift. I would probably be looking to do 2-3 weekend days a month.

I also enjoy driving too (probably not the only one around here ) but I am thinking that driving the car and driving a van are going to be very different so I am trying to only let that be a small part of the reason for going.

I think I need to ask how secure he sees the business being after Christmas as although I have been offered the job I still need to come in for an interview anyway to check we both like each other etc (I was recommended)

There seems to be a lot of Parcel Delivery companies sprouting up at the moment which obviously means parcel deliveries are on the up but I cant help wondering if this will all just crash after Christmas with half of these going bust and the other half getting rid of loads of its drivers...

I think if I still have doubts after the interview I may take your advice and stay put! Not worth it I don't think...especially considering it would only be short-term until I can draw wages from my business.

[TotalControl]

Alternatively, would the Hotel not allow you to work there part time on the weekends? Maybe then you'll have a bit more security by going back to full time at the hotel if things go tits up?