To quit retail job and become a Hermes courier ?

[ZombieOnTheLawn]

Is anyone on here a Hermes courier and can give me the pros and cons of the job?

I know they don’t have a great rep I’m forever reading stories of them chucking fragile parcels over a wall and so on, but I’ve never had that experience when Hermes delivered our parcels, quite the opposite.

Online deliveries are through the roof thanks to Covid so business will be good for several months yet.

I have morning school runs to cover, so the flexible hours would be ideal.

For example as it’s self employed, are you given enough work from the start to scrape a living? Or just given work as and when it’s available?

I don’t think the hours are as flexible as people think, although no experience I did read this recently

www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.cheshire-live.co.uk/news/chester-cheshire-news/hermes-courier-quits-after-pressure-19419068.amp

Minimum wage retail and self employed Hermes courier are about the same level of utter shitness job wise. Just in differently awful ways.

@QueenOfLabradors It can’t be any worse than the particular retailer I work for. At least I wouldn’t have to deal with dishonest managers, health and safety flouting and corporate bullying.

I don't think they pay enough per parcel to be worth your while. Where we are the courier changes every few months presumably after they've had their pound of flesh :( horrible company

Is this a weird sort of advert? It's zero hours/ performance related minimum wage work. Of course you will have every negative associated with an employer that treats employees as replaceable.

They chuck things over the fence because they are under so much pressure and overworked. The local Hermes bloke has his wife help him at this time of year, she doesn't get paid.

Retail you work your hours you get paid. Hermes you get paid peanuts per parcel, and have to keep going til you’ve delivered them all (or “delivered” by Hermes low standards at least).

Given a choice, I’d much prefer retail!

My friend looked into it. As you have to provide your own vehicle, use your own petrol, pay your own (extra) insurance etc, he realised he would barely make anything at all. And the pace is unrelenting.

@D4rwin Well, it’s certainly not an ‘advert’ for my current retail employer

No, it’s because Hermes have a very quick application process.
I’m fine with the pressure, I’ve done time sensitive bike courier work before. I’m just fed up working indoors, and fed up with my company.

I’m hoping to get a reply from a current Hermes courier who can give more detail on exactly how it all works, ie people state ‘you’re paid peanuts per parcel’ but how do you know that, who told you what they’re paid per parcel, someone you know?

I don't think you would be better off.

I was in a shop earlier and heard the staff talking about a load of Hermes parcels found in a local field. Hermes doesn't have a great reputation.

What about becoming a postie or working for a better retailer like Waitrose or Lakeland?

I have no experience, but would like to say, like you, my Hermes delivery driver is great, same person about 95% of the time - older lady though so I do worry that it’s hard on her, or maybe cus she’s a much older woman people who would usually be aren’t as rude to her?

My friend worked for them for two weeks. Until her first paycheque came in. She was ‘supposed’ to be doing just a few hours to start and it would ramp up. She got her parcels at about 4pm and was still delivering past 10pm most days. She said it didn’t even cover the petrol. Our area is rural though, so lots of distance- could make a difference. Only repeat Hermes I see here have massive vans, I guess do they can take lots (they don’t seem to group them by sub-area or anything per courier, she was driving all over our county and the next one over).

I'm not sure how many parcels you'd like to/will be asked to deliver a day but one thing to think about is your car/van

Normal insurance won't cover this work and then there's the wear and tear and fuel. You want your drops to be as close as possible otherwise you're driving and not delivering and using more fuel

Google COD forum (Courier owner drivers) and on money saving expert's forum in the employment section I've seen quite a few posts about being a courier

My local Hermes courier always seems completely rushed off his feet. Luckily a young guy in good shape so he can easily run around but still just seems constantly knackered. I don’t think I’d enjoy the job personally but if you’re up for it why not. Do have to use your own vehicle. Where I used to live the courier roped in his wife and teenager to help.

I can't comment specifically about my Hermes, but I have done Amazon delivery instead.
I didn't stick at it long.. You had to look on the app each day to see if there were any shifts (and they usually finished after 1600 so don't for around the school run).
It was okay if you for a run near the depot... But I would get sent to area an hour + away... So a 3 hour delivery shift automatically went up to 5 hours (but only 3 are paid). Between that, the fuel costs, insurance etc it just wasn't worth the time or the hassle. It worked out at well below minimum wage and there was no guarantee of work when you wanted it.

The newspaper article I read, said 50p per small parcel and £1 per large parcel. The poor courier was having to take undelivered parcels home and store them in her lounge overnight.

All I have ever heard about any deliver service like this is bad things. Too many parcels, too little time, high stress, low pay, ruins your car!

Amazon Flex might also be worth looking into - it’s paid per shift rather than per package but you can’t work more than a certain number of shifts a week. The shift is assumed to take around 4 hours but often doesn’t take that long but the pay is the same. But if you are looking for full time work this may not bring in enough for you.

My experience with Hermes is they are the worst courier company and I would never ever use them.

I was one for about a year/eighteen months, stopped about three years ago.

It was honestly pretty awful.

You get a set route, with no idea whether you’re going to have 28 parcels (which because you need to sort them and load up pays way under minimum wage) or 128 (which means if you rush you might get them all out in time)

You lose bonuses if you don’t get them all out in that day, which again takes you to under minimum wage.

Depending on your route, more than half his people you’re delivering to aren’t in, you get complaints if you leave them with a neighbour, complaints if you leave them in a shed or garage and complaints if you take them away to redeliver another day... you’re somehow supposed to just know what each person wants done with their parcel.

You get people ranting at you about how long something took to arrive when it’s literally arrived with you 2 hours ago...

You have to arrange your own cover if you want any time off, I know of people having being threatened with losing their route if they didn’t turn up after not managing to find cover... even when the time off was for things like their wife’s funeral. If your cover stuffs up or stops coming in, you also lose your route.

If the equipment they give you is faulty, you never get a replacement - but they’ll stop your bonuses if the faulty equipment can’t record that you delivered on time.

You get calls hassling you to go back out after you’ve finished to redeliver parcels to people who weren’t in when you attempted delivery earlier - especially if they paid for a certain time slot, you went for that time slot and they got in after you’d been.

Oh and the phone number on the cards... that’s your own mobile number you’re having to put through people’s doors...

Hermes is only as good as your local courier. Ours is really good, she does always look exhausted though

“Normal insurance won't cover this work and then there's the wear and tear and fuel. You want your drops to be as close as possible otherwise you're driving and not delivering and using more fuel”

They do separate insurance - it’s a few pounds every day you work straight out of the money before you get paid.

It does kill your car though, actually it’s not distance that’s the big issue, it’s stop start constantly.

“The poor courier was having to take undelivered parcels home and store them in her lounge overnight.“

Yep, anything you don’t deliver, either because they weren’t in and there’s no safe place or it’s signed for, or because you run out of time has to be stored in your house.

[quote ZombieOnTheLawn]@QueenOfLabradors It can’t be any worse than the particular retailer I work for. At least I wouldn’t have to deal with dishonest managers, health and safety flouting and corporate bullying.[/quote]
I think you might find you might sadly! Check very carefully, a lit of courier firms say you either have to have your own van/ transport, or have to hire from then at a fairly high cost. Insurance is sky high, you may be liable for any losses/ claims the damaged parcels etc. It's a really stressful job