Hello, darlings!
I hope everyone is having a great month of March, filled with plenty of courier jobs and successful deliveries, and that you are all in as high spirits as I am!
Why am I in such high spirits, you ask? Well, because my darling Stevie showed me an article that says owner driver jobs may be taking a larger and larger share of the delivery industry away from Royal Mail, and that independent couriers are slowly becoming the main 'power' within the parcel delivery industry.
To me that's excellent news! I have nothing at all against Royal Mail (in fact, my postie is a dear, and I wouldn't dream of upsetting him!), but as someone who writes a blog about courier deliveries, and has plenty of readers who have owner driver jobs as their main source of income, of course I can't help but be happy that the tides are changing in their favour. I know some of the struggles people with this type of job go through, especially after they leave franchised chains, so it's great to hear that things are becoming easier for them.
But it's not only that; I think a fairer division of the market is a good thing. We all learn in school that a free and open market encourages competition, and that monopolies are bad, so from where I stand, giving Royal Mail a run for their money is a good thing. That way, they can never get too comfortable because they know they have to stay on top of their game to compete with the private couriers – which right now, to be quite honest, they aren't.
I know for a fact that couriers doing owner driver jobs are charging much less for the same service - and doing it much faster, too! No wonder people are going for them over the Post Office! I reckon Royal Mail got too accustomed to being the only way you could ship parcels in Britain, and they don't seem to have updated their fares or delivery times all that much. In my opinion, it's only natural that when competition came around they found themselves in trouble!
For me, though, it's not about slamming Royal Mail as much as it is about my darling readers having better opportunities in their industry. Where before they might have had the threat of the big, bad Post Office, couriers are slowly being offered a lot more owner driver jobs, and having their efforts to deliver a good service at a better price acknowledged. And that's something I can definitely get behind!
So I just wanted to let anyone out there who's been getting more work on account of this that I'm happy for you, and I hope things continue to go well for you in the future!
For now, though, ta-ra!
x