Bidding for owner driver jobs can be frustrating at times, not to mention very challenging; there are plenty of others who want the same thing as you, and may go to great lengths to undermine you and get the job for themselves. Worse yet, you may even find yourself in an unprofitable situation if you make a bidding mistake and forget to include certain vital considerations during negotiations. The following are the three most common mistakes you can make when bidding on that much sought after job.
Lack of anticipation of delays
As a courier, being late on package delivery is bad enough, but what about delays caused by a “bad” or unprepared customer? It happens too often: You arrive on time to pick up the parcel or parcel, only to be informed that the parcel is not ready yet, and you will have to anxiously wait a few precious minutes to wait for it. Those few minutes matter a lot because the delay can trigger a “domino effect”: you’ll be late for your other pickups or deliveries. That’s why when bidding on owner driver jobs, especially online, you need to specify this particular condition, and what it means for the client that causes a delay. Failing to address this possibility from the start could disappoint the customer, even if they are at fault. But saying it clearly when you’re making an offer can work for you, not against you, especially if you offset the warning with something to sweeten the deal.
delivery schedule
Usually, in our rush to get as many owner driver jobs as possible, we tend to overlook simple facts that might not otherwise escape our attention. The delivery schedule requested by the potential client, for example: if the delivery falls outside of your usual hours, you can charge an additional fee or refuse the job. The specific time matters too: if your regular hours are 8am-5pm, and the requested delivery is after 5pm but not after midnight, then you may be able to add a small additional fee. However, if the delivery happens late at night or in the early hours of the morning (this is unusual, but it does happen), you can charge more. The same goes for deliveries on weekends or scheduled to coincide with a holiday.
delivery speed
The verifiable ability to commit to ‘super fast deliveries’ is one of the main reasons couriers exist in the first place: if you can’t deliver fast, what’s stopping the customer from simply using the postal service? But again, when bidding on owner driver jobs, you have to remember that there are set hours, even for couriers. Special requests outside of established hours must come with compensation proportional to effort, or you will have to decline the job. For ‘urgent’ deliveries, it is customary to charge an additional 10% fee; in addition, ‘rush’ with collection should also have a different price.