How to make even more money on Courier Exchange
Being a self-employed courier driver has its perks. You set your own hours. You call the shots. And best of all, no-one takes a cut of your income.
But let’s say you’re just getting started as a courier. You’ve joined CX and, after 3 months, you’ve made your money back (like 89% of new members). And you’ve started to wonder…
How do you make even more money on CX?
There are at least seven ways to make more money on Courier Exchange:
- Be available
- Get good feedback
- Offer specialist services
- Use Future Positions
- Use Future Journeys
- Use TEG PPM
- Expand your service area
In this post, we’ll look at each in detail.
1. Be available
There are two ways to get loads on the Exchange.
The most common way is using our live loads map to find bookings: you search the map and, when you see something interesting, you contact the load poster offering to help.
Find loads
Thousands of loads to choose from
On CX, the most common way to get loads is by using our live loads map.
The second way to get loads on the Exchange is by direct bookings. Here, instead of you contacting load posters, load posters contact you directly.
To receive direct bookings, you need to be available… which is a setting you set through our app.
The more available you are, the more chance you have of getting direct bookings, which means more money in your pocket. And all it takes is a few phone taps…
2. Get good feedback
In a recent survey, we asked load posters what they looked for when choosing carriers and drivers.
Good feedback was their number one response.
Simply put, when you have good feedback, you can expect to make more money on the Exchange. You can expect to get more bookings. And you can expect to make more per mile. The question is: how do you get good feedback?
Well, load posters want to work with companies who deliver loads on time and in a good condition. They also want to work with companies who go above and beyond and communicate well. (Using our app can help here – you can share your live location, which keeps customers updated of your ETA while you’re driving.)
But what you really need to do – and what most people don’t do – is ask for feedback. So, once you’ve delivered a load, ask your customer to write about it on our platform… especially if you’ve gone above and beyond.
3. Offer specialist services
If you have specialised skills or expertise, you can charge higher rates for your services.
For example, if you’re experienced in handling fragile items, you may be able to offer a premium service for delicate packages. Similarly, if you’re trained in transporting hazardous materials, you can offer a specialised service that commands a higher price tag.
By offering specialised services, you can work with load posters willing to pay more for your expertise.
4. Use Future Positions
On the Exchange, most members looking for loads tend to look for loads in their current location as and when they need them.
That’s great, but it’s limiting. After all, if you know you’re going from Brighton to Birmingham, do you really need to wait until you’re in Birmingham to get your next load?
The answer is: not when you’re on the Exchange.
One of the Exchange’s lesser-known (but most powerful) features is Future Positions. With Future Positions, you can plug in where your vehicle will be at pretty much any point in the future. As soon as you do, you can get notifications of available loads that fit your future position. Better still, load posters will know where you’re going to be and when – so they can book you direct in advance.
Let’s say you’re travelling from Brighton to Birmingham tomorrow, arriving at midday, and returning at 3pm. Using the Exchange, you might set your future position as in Birmingham from 12.30pm to 3pm. You can then get notifications whenever load posters post loads with pickup points in and around Birmingham exactly when you’re going to be in the area. Even better, load posters searching for drivers will be able to see when you’re going to be in Birmingham so they can book you direct.
Future Positions allows you to plan ahead, and it can reduce your dead miles. All in, that means you can make even more money on the Exchange.
5. Use Future Journeys
Future Positions is very smart. But even smarter is Future Journeys.
With Future Journeys, you can let the Exchange know not just where you’re going to be, but where you’re travelling to. Continuing the example above, if you know you’re leaving Birmingham at 3pm tomorrow to head back to Brighton, you can plug your upcoming journey into the Exchange. Once you’ve done that, you can get notifications of jobs that take into account your future journey.
You might get something from Birmingham to Oxford, say. Then, you might grab a load to transport from Reading to Brighton. It’s on your way. So the Exchange will tell you.
Future Journeys is yet another way to reduce your dead miles so you make even more money on Courier Exchange.
6. Use TEG PPM
To make more money on the Exchange, you need to get your pricing right. That’s hard when prices:
- Vary based on you vehicle type
- Vary based on your location
- And change constantly due to fuel price changes, demand changes, economic changes, and many other factors
Luckily, with TEG PPM, pricing isn’t guesswork.
TEG PPM averages and categorises almost all the journeys on the Exchange to give you a good idea of current prices per mile.
As you can see, TEG PPM shows you prices per mile for specific vehicles in specific locations. It gives you guidance on pricing so you can make informed decisions.
Even better, TEG PPM updates weekly, so when prices change – you know about it.
7. Expand your service area
If you’re willing to cover a bigger area, you can access more jobs on the Courier Exchange.
It’s rare you’ll need to do this. But if and when you end up getting a second or third vehicle, you may wish to expand your service area to see what else is out there. (Just be sure to factor in the cost of fuel and other expenses when doing so.)
To sum up…
Once you’re off the mark, there are a few things you can do to try to make more money on the Exchange. Availability, feedback, specialised services, Future Positions, Future Journeys, informed pricing and an expanded service area can all help.
It’s easy to ignore these tactics. After all, running a courier business is hard enough as it is. But then success as a self-employed courier requires hard work, dedication, and a willingness to go above and beyond for your customers. And if you already have those qualities, then the above tactics shouldn’t be too daunting at all.
If you’re not currently an Exchange member and would like to see how it works, simply register your details below.
You might be a self-employed courier looking to make more money. Or your multi-van courier company may need more loads. Either way, at some point, the question will have crossed your mind:
How much money can you make on Courier Exchange?
How the earnings calculator works
The Exchange earnings calculator uses averages. First, it considers loads delivered via the Exchange in the last week. Then it groups the loads by vehicle type. So it groups small vans together, Lutons together, and so on.
At that point, it can calculate the average price per mile for a specific vehicle delivering a Courier Exchange load. It uses that figure show you how much you could earn on Courier Exchange.
Other factors that affect CX earnings
The earnings calculator is a handy tool. Still, to get an even clearer picture of how much you could make on the Exchange, there are a few more factors you should consider.
1. Your location
The Exchange earnings calculator uses averages, which aren’t perfect. In certain areas of the country, prices per mile vary – so your earnings might vary depending on where you work.
If you’re in a high-demand area, you could earn more than the calculator suggests.
Tip:
Prices per mile vary between locations. If you’d like to know average prices per mile in your area, register your details and our team will show you.
2. Hotshots vs backloads
Something else to consider is whether you’ll be delivering hotshots or backloads.
On CX, hotshots are ‘regular’ loads. These loads usually need to be delivered quickly. When you’re booked to deliver a hotshot load, you’ll most likely drive to the pick up point straight away. (Or, if you’re a transport manager, you’ll send one of your vehicles to pick the load up).
Backloads are different. Backloads are what what they sound like: loads you collect as a bonus, usually after you’ve delivered a load, simply because you’re heading in the direction of the drop off point anyway. Backloads aren’t time-critical so you should be able to collect backloads at some point in the future. This is one of the reasons Courier Exchange is so popular: once you’ve arranged an initial, outbound load, you can find a backload before you set off.
Because backloads are an added bonus, the prices per mile for backloads are usually lower than prices per mile for regular loads.
(Of course, as a Courier Exchange member you can still quote for hotshots when heading back home. There’s nothing stopping you. In fact, doing so makes good business sense.)
3. Specialist services
Another thing to consider when thinking about how much you can earn on the Exchange is what you can offer.
Are you licensed to carry hazardous goods? Can you or your company transport chilled goods? Or oversized loads?
These kinds of loads aren’t your everyday loads so, if you can collect and deliver them, your prices per mile will almost certainly be higher than average. And if your prices per mile are higher than average, you can expect to earn more money than average when you join the Courier Exchange.
4. Feedback
Some couriers think shippers just want a good price for delivering loads. But that’s not strictly true.
In the past, we’ve surveyed shippers (at CX we call them ‘load posters’) to see what it is they want from Exchange couriers. And what they want more than anything is a courier in a good location who has good feedback.
That means if you have good feedback, load posters are happy to pay a little more for your services. So, if you’re a good courier or courier company, you can make more than average on the Exchange.
5. Direct bookings
On the Exchange, you can search our live map for loads. But that’s not the only way to get loads.
As well as searching for loads, you can share your availability with other Exchange members. Exchange ‘load-posters’ can then search a ‘live availability map’ to find you. And when they do, they can book you direct.
Tip:
The map below shows available vehicles right now. Load posters use the map to book vehicles directly. So, when you join, set your vehicle (or vehicles) to available to get direct bookings.
Find vehicles
Browse available vehicles
Prices per mile for ‘direct’ bookings are often greater than average prices per mile. This once again reinforces the above point: load posters are willing to pay a little more for a good courier.
So, how much can you really earn on the Exchange?
To sum up:
- Couriers looking for loads can use our earnings calculator to see how much you could earn on Courier Exchange
- The earnings calculator is based on average prices per mile
- How much you could earn depends on your location, whether you’re delivering hotshots or backloads, your services, your feedback score, and the percentage of direct bookings you receive
- You could earn more than the earnings calculator suggests
- To find out average prices-per-mile in your area (and see how much work is available) register your details and our team will show you
