Courier driver - WIBU?

[Sweetbabycheezits]

I work in a secondary school as a member of support staff. I have a PhD qualification in the area I am working, however, the role in this particular school doesn't require any qualifications, and so the pay scale is pretty low. It's an 'easy' job, and it works really well with my children, I'm out every day at the same time and get all the same holidays.
I am increasingly frustrated with the management of this particular school, and am feeling undervalued and unimportant. Before you ask why I don't find a better position with my qualifications...my DH is the main breadwinner, and his job doesn't offer a lot of flexibility in terms of flexible hours and childcare. He also travels frequently, so we decided early on that any job I take would work with the kids, which I am completely fine with.
Anyway, was talking to a friend recently; her husband quit his full time job to be an amazon delivery driver. He is considered self employed, so he works when he wants to, and he makes just slightly more a month than I do, but works less hours.
I keep imagining how lovely it would be to drive around all day, music on, on my own...I know it isn't the most glamorous job in the world, but would I be unreasonable to pack in my desk job and deliver parcels all day?

Well to make the money he does, isn't he working school holidays and weekends?

What about cover when you're ill? Holiday pay?

I ccan't see how anyone can make a living as a courier.

Courier work is bloody awful. You're promised the earth and you get peanuts.

Until recently you were penalised if you were off sick, they actually charged you money for days missed. They only stopped it when a DPD driver died as a result.

He doesn't work weekends, but he does work school holidays...which I could, as well(my DC are11 and 12), I'd just have to reduce hours/days those weeks.
To be clear, I don't 'need' to work, except without even my small salary, the DC would miss out on extras...sports clubs, school trips, holidays...that all comes out of my earnings, so I don't want to give up work totally.

In our immediate area its not so bad as there are places to park, 2 minutes away and you would have to take all of your parcels a long way or risk a parking ticket - days wages gone!?

Yikes, Baggy pants!! That's awful! Is that for self employed drivers as well?

I'm always a bit suspicious of some of the numbers people think they are making with driving jobs especially if they are providing the vehicle.

I see jobs advertised at £15 an hour as an independent contractor but when you take into account that there's no sick pay, holiday pay etc. the rate doesn't look so tempting.

Then there's the additional insurance you need (your current policy will not cover you) which comes out of your pay, plus the increased wear and tear on the car (which can be treated as a business expense).

If you go into it with you eyes wide open to the costs and risks. e.g. If your car breaks down you're going to need to get it fixed ASAP or source a replacement as you're not earning while it's not on the road.

I'd also balance it out with sitting in traffic, carrying heavy parcels, people moaning at you, getting in and out in the freezing cold rain, minimal toilet breaks and struggling to park.

Could you go on the road with friend's DH for one day and see what you think of it?

My dh got made redundant from a 6 figure salary job. Used some of the redundancy pay out, got his class 1 truck driving licence and has been happy as a pig in shit driving a hgv for the last couple of years. His flexibility he gets with the job has allowed me to further my career and move up in my job

Is that for self employed drivers as well?

It's only for self employed drivers, it wouldn't be lawful to do that to an employed driver.

Drivers are self employed because it suits the employer, not the worker.

simple that isn't a bad idea, actually...I suppose I can ask him if I can do a ride along and see what it's like.
I realise that holidays and sickness aren't covered, but the school I'm in only offers limited child sickness days anyhow, so I don't get paid when the kids are I'll anyway.

I'll give it some more thought...I was really hoping I'd get loads of responses saying it was fabulous😊 Ah, well...thank you anyway!

Maybe it depends on where you live but I can't imagine it being such a great job to be honest. Driving in bad weather, getting stuck in traffic jams, carrying and handling heavy parcels, people who are not at home, delivering to dodgy blocks of flats, no loos or break area to have a cuppa... And don't they have a huge number of parcels to deliver each day?

What about something like UberEats food delivery if you have them in your area? As far as I know it's more flexible, you can "log in" to be available when you want to.

Also deliveries can often be up to 9pm. Would you be okay working until that time? Especially in the dark winter months.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-37912858

@Sweetbabycheezits

I don't think you were ever going to find many people saying it's a great job.

The fact is that jobs which don't require any difficult to obtain skills rarely pay well as the amount of people who can do them is high versus the demand.

You'd make more getting a forklift licence and doing warehouse work.

I really wouldn't do it.

I work in retail and we get deliveries everyday so I've spoken to loads of delivery drivers over the years! We're on our third driver this year (all of them have left due to stress), and we had another two leave the previous year too. I think it's getting worse, not better.

They have to stick to certain times, end up driving in loops most days because they have a collection in place A and another in place B, which are five minutes apart in reality, but the collections are hours apart and they can't collect unless they're in their "time slot".

You can't just go home at 3pm because you need to collect your kids - if you've been stuck in traffic and are running late, then you need to work until you're done. It's not the flexible job you think of it as - if you have 50 parcels to deliver and it's 3pm and you've only delivered 35 - tough.

Amazon are notorious for treating their staff poorly and working them into the ground paying them as little as they can get away with.

The only people that are happy doing this are the ones doing it for some extra cash, one of DP's colleagues does it and he said it worked out well, but he was only doing some casual work.

The friend's husband's experience with Amazon is why I started thinking about it: there are 3, 4hr slots you can choose to work, and each slot pays £52. So, if he chooses a 9-1 slot, he is paid for the whole 4 hrs, even if he only delivers 2 packages. The area he covers never runs over time, so even though he may have lots of deliveries, he doesn't ever run past his 4 hours. That's what was appealing to me, that I could choose the time.
However, I don't assume he gets a break during those 4 hours, which is a downside, and you're right about the holidays and sick pay, etc.
I'm just sick to death of working in education; I used to be a teacher, but I don't want to go back to that...it's worse than what I'm doing now (and at least I leave free and clear every afternoon). Fed up of bad management, being expected to work above and beyond for no more pay, and no mobility. I took this job hoping that with my quals and experience I'd be able to drive some real change, but without the support of senior leaders, it's not happening. I suppose I'm just grasping at straws trying to find something with flexibility where I can make a bit of money. Easier said than done!

I really appreciate you all taking the time to respond.

I know someone who started work as this, they had to drive 30 miles each day just to pick up their van as they weren’t allowed to take it home. They then had to take it back before going home.

I’ve genuinely never heard someone say they enjoy it, only ever seen horror stories. What about a post round?