As we sometimes focus on the daily business of finding loads and back loads to keep our businesses running, it’s easy to start to lose sight of the economic and political backdrop to our business.
You can probably guess what’s coming next – yes, another rant about fuel duty in the UK.
However, this one really is [...]

It’s amazing how often someone’s early chat up lines includes some reference or other to their occupation. That also holds true for the average courier. In fairness, this isn’t always their absolutely first opening gambit.  The days of the “how would you like to see my etchings” opening as an icebreaker [...]

There probably isn’t a great deal that the courier industry can do to affect the deliberations of OPEC or the great global markets that define, ultimately, the price of oil once it reaches our shores. We also probably have even less influence over the price of petrol and diesel at the [...]

Many people working in the courier industry have had the experience of being unable to deliver their package or packages. Some of those experiences are relatively routine and can be put down to things such as having the wrong delivery address, the wrong consignee, or a squabble between the sender and [...]

Even in the 21st century, the weather can still have a big effect on the life of a courier. If you are a courier of the two-wheeled variety, then you’ll know just how discouraging it can be to wake up in the morning, look out of your window and see the rain lashing down. Even [...]

When you spend the major part of your waking life in the cabin of a big rig (or even a little one for that matter) fulfilling contracts for haulage companies, it can sometimes get a little lonely. To relieve some of the solitude, it’s not unusual for a driver to pick up a hitchhiker to [...]

Back in the 70’s and 80’s, movies like Smokey and the Bandit, Breaker Breaker and Convoy spawned a craze of outrageous and sometimes risque call signs (or handles), that truckers and haulage companies used like their own private language. Mobile phones have all but put an end to the CB phenomenon, but around the world [...]

Private clampers certainly make carrying out courier jobs that little bit harder, as you struggle against the clock to deliver a parcel, all the while praying that the clampers don’t spot your white van parked on their private driveway or office block car park. However, it has recently emerged that private wheel clamping could very well [...]

In my line of work you get to meet a lot of people from all walks of life. I love the way that one day I can be driving from Budapest airport to city hotels with a young couple on their honeymoon; and another day I can be transporting a load of young men here [...]

Every now and then, there’s a high chance that your delivery work might take you over the waters into Europe. If and when you do cross the channel, there are a few rules of the road that are well worth remembering.
Left is Right and Right is Left
The first rule of doing delivery work in Europe is [...]

For commuters and those in the delivery and courier industry, traffic jams are part and parcel of the daily grind. But what are the causes of jams? Now there is scientific research to add to the anecdotal evidence of everyday drivers everywhere.
It’s enough to make your heart sink. You’re on the motorway when the all-too-familiar [...]

Whenever you get a group of people together who drive for a living – be it carrying out transport contracts, couriering parcels, or delivering people in a mini cab – the talk is going to turn to the weird and wonderful stories that evolve from spending so much time on the road. Many tales are [...]