Pickup and Delivery vehicle

[JMN]

Do you have a set aside vehicle for pickup, or just use personal vehicles and pay mileage, is the vehicle in personal name or buisness owned. What is a preferred vehicle for doing this with the high miles it gets and needed bulletproof reliability? Stick or Automatic?

How long does your run usually take? 2-5hrs? Do you have someone as a driver only, or get someone to dovetail duties?

Just what d'y'all think of the whole mess? Our company owned jeep is dying and we're looking around for aditional options and how to best implement continued service but possibly in a different way from our side.

Thanks so much.

 

[2thm8kr]

Unicylce or sometimes hire a courier.

 

[rc75]

We have a 1998 Toyota Corolla that's designated just for deliveries. We don't deliver everyday like labs do. Our
usual delivery days are Wednesday & Thursday & are usually the whole day. The owner (James) usually does the
deliveries cause the rest of us are pretty busy. I use to work at 2 different labs. I was strictly a driver for one and
we use to be in and out ALL day. The 2nd lab I was a driver/front office and both labs you used you're own car (I had
a car just for work) They paid gas and $2 an hour more than standard starting pay at both places.

Ron
(Manager)

TD Dental Supply

 

[JMN]

Unicylce or sometimes hire a courier.

Always figured you for jet assisted roller blades.

 

[2thm8kr]

Acme brand

 

[2thm8kr]

Really, I use a courier if I'm really busy, but most times I usey vehicle and take the mileage deduction.

 

[JMN]

Gas and +$2 looks like a good idea, better than requiring a bunch of mileage logs hanging around, too much paper between us and the actual production as it is.

We keep the boss firmly affixed to his bench with 3/4" zinc coated chain, used to use 1/2" but he knawed through that one day when we didn't refill his coffee fast enough.

 

[zero_zero]

We have a '02 Dodge Neon for deliveries...our model guy does the milk run twice a day or when is necessary... bought it for about $2k two years ago... cheaper than leasing for sure... roughly $50 for gas per week...I do the oil change and maintenance...

 

[JMN]

That's how we've been doing it with model guy runing then pouring. We had a Ford Escort as a designated vehicle before, it died hard after 300,000+ miles. We got lucky with that one it seems, nothing else has lasted much more than 80,000 without big issues.

 

[lifelikedental]

I was using my CRV for delivery until I realized I was spending way too much money on gas. I bought a Toyota Prius beginning of this year. It already has 15000 miles on it and averages around 48 to 50 miles a gallon. One of the best purchase I've made.

 

[cheadlemick]

Bought a used Micra for 1,900 english pounds it was involved in a minor bump! Insurance company wrote it off as too expensive to repair got £1800 settlement bought it back off the insurance company for £100 and it is still going strong !

 

[JohnWilson]

 

[adamb4321]

I was running an Audi A3 2.0TDi for deliveries up till last week, 130 miles a day, five days a week. It was going great till the turbo exploded last week and sent a load of shrapnel into the engine. Best case is going to be £2k worth of damage, worst case it will be a write off, I was hoping to get another 2 or 3 years out of it but will have to see how bad the engine is when the cylinder head gets removed on Monday.

Other than the Audi, I previously had a small fiat which was pretty fast but not very comfy and a couple of small Vauxhall Corsa's (GM to those in the US) I've leased in the past which is ok, had maintance included in the cost so no need to budget for tyres or servicing. the cost of leasing does seem to have got expensive but you can claim the full cost of the lease against your tax bill.
It's tempting to get something cheap (maybe 1k or so) and run it till it dies, but if your sending an employee out in it it's got to be safe and reliable.

The highest mileage car I had got to 240,000 miles before succumbing to old age, the compression was only 50psi in the cylinders when it died, up and till then it went perfectly.

 

[k2 Ceramic Studio]

First lab car was a small ford fiesta, did well until the driver wrote it off. Second car was a Vauxhall corsa, great little car until the driver wrote it off, third car was a brand new fiat punto and guess what after one year the driver wrote it off, the next/best car we have ever had was a clio, fantastic car that ran forever and only cost us £35 a year in road tax and did 65 to the gallon. At 230'000 miles it died and we sold it on ebay as dead and got £600 for it, then we got a another car and the driver wrote it off after about 3 weeks. We now have an OWNER DRIVER (his car his responsibility) and guess what he has not written his own car off, fancy that someone looking after something that belongs to them Lol. I will never buy another car again for a driver to use, there are plenty of people about who own cars and are looking for employment. Why waste your own money on a car and added maintenance when someone else can provide there own. We pay for fuel, tyres, brakes and the odd service, doing it this way has saved us a fortune in insurance, tax and tyres and knocks and on and on....................

 

[JMN]

First lab car was a small ford fiesta, did well until the driver wrote it off. Second car was a Vauxhall corsa, great little car until the driver wrote it off, third car was a brand new fiat punto and guess what after one year the driver wrote it off, the next/best car we have ever had was a clio, fantastic car that ran forever and only cost us £35 a year in road tax and did 65 to the gallon. At 230'000 miles it died and we sold it on ebay as dead and got £600 for it, then we got a another car and the driver wrote it off after about 3 weeks. We now have an OWNER DRIVER (his car his responsibility) and guess what he has not written his own car off, fancy that someone looking after something that belongs to them Lol. I will never buy another car again for a driver to use, there are plenty of people about who own cars and are looking for employment. Why waste your own money on a car and added maintenance when someone else can provide there own. We pay for fuel, tyres, brakes and the odd service, doing it this way has saved us a fortune in insurance, tax and tyres and knocks and on and on....................

I can see the appeal, does it get odd if your designated driver/keeper is out?
I just can't comprehend the mentality that causes people to behave like that, I was raised that you take at-least-as-good-as-if-not-better care of something thats not yours.

Can you ask for driving record/report for your employees in the UK?
Seems like that would give some clue to the mentality of your drivers and employees overall. When I helped hire and site-trained armed and unarmed security officers (yeah ex-rent-a-cop) it was the first thing we asked for (aside from training credentials) as it shows what respect you give to laws, ethics, lethal force objects, and others in your area of operation.

 

[JMN]

I was using my CRV for delivery until I realized I was spending way too much money on gas. I bought a Toyota Prius beginning of this year. It already has 15000 miles on it and averages around 48 to 50 miles a gallon. One of the best purchase I've made.

Do they work well on mountain climbs? I've heard that they require some retraining of the driver to get good results and wondered if that was accutrate.
How does the maintenance work out on a hybrid? Is there enough in your area that the dealer isn't using your vehicle as a learning tool? Do you need to change out battery packs every 5+ yrs or is that anti-electric misinformation?

Thanks!

 

[JMN]

Bought a used Micra for 1,900 english pounds it was involved in a minor bump! Insurance company wrote it off as too expensive to repair got £1800 settlement bought it back off the insurance company for £100 and it is still going strong !

Wow! That was a good trick.

 

[JMN]

I was running an Audi A3 2.0TDi for deliveries up till last week, 130 miles a day, five days a week. It was going great till the turbo exploded last week and sent a load of shrapnel into the engine. Best case is going to be £2k worth of damage, worst case it will be a write off, I was hoping to get another 2 or 3 years out of it but will have to see how bad the engine is when the cylinder head gets removed on Monday.

Other than the Audi, I previously had a small fiat which was pretty fast but not very comfy and a couple of small Vauxhall Corsa's (GM to those in the US) I've leased in the past which is ok, had maintance included in the cost so no need to budget for tyres or servicing. the cost of leasing does seem to have got expensive but you can claim the full cost of the lease against your tax bill.
It's tempting to get something cheap (maybe 1k or so) and run it till it dies, but if your sending an employee out in it it's got to be safe and reliable.

The highest mileage car I had got to 240,000 miles before succumbing to old age, the compression was only 50psi in the cylinders when it died, up and till then it went perfectly.

The safe and reliable is our current issue, I've had to drop everything and go waste 2-4 hrs getting the driver, and getting the poor jeep towed, then to the dealership, then they don't know because it works fine there, then send him out with it staying running and lock the doors, then go get him/it again, .....
WWWWWAUAUUAUAUAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGHHHHAAAAA!
Don't have time for this crap! There are teeth to fake!


Right now it's at the mechanics hoping and praying it will be fixed (fixable?) as we left it Thurs afternoon and they got all Friday and today with it.
raylease please please please please

 

[martintay]

Bought a used Micra for 1,900 english pounds it was involved in a minor bump! Insurance company wrote it off as too expensive to repair got £1800 settlement bought it back off the insurance company for £100 and it is still going strong !

We had a Citroen ZX years ago - someone gave it a rear end shunt and creased the boot pan. The insurance company wrote it off and we bought it back for a similar price and fixed the bumper back to legal. This little baby proceeded to clock up over 400,000 miles with little servicing ! It was diesel and did about 50 to the gallon. Buy the way for you US folks diesel is £1.40+ per LITRE here

 

[cheadlemick]

Wow! That was a good trick.

actually the girl who was working for me at the time got £1400 for whiplash as well! No wonder insurance premiums are so high!