Ask the Expert: How Much to Charge Per Mile for Delivery in the UK

No one can say that courier driving is easy. The key to making money as a courier driver is to make sure you know what to charge per mile. Doing so makes your life easier.

But if you ever wonder how much to charge per mile for delivery to make it all worthwhile, then you’re not alone.

And it’s not always that straightforward. It depends on whether you are driving as a subcontractor for FedEx, Amazon, Hermes, or another multi-stop courier delivery company – or whether you’re doing delivery for one of your own customers.

So what should you know about how to cost per mile and whether you’re charging enough?

In this post, I’ll teach you all about what you can expect to charge per mile for each type of courier delivery. It helps you make delivery a little easier and, ultimately, increase your earnings by making sure you:

• choose the right type of delivery service
• charge the right amount
• leverage tools to reduce time on the road

How Much to Charge Per Mile for Delivery

This is part of a series of regular posts from Pete the Courier Driver with hints and tips for delivery drivers. If you’re new to delivery driving, make sure to also check out How to Make Money as a Courier.

How Much to Charge Per Mile for Delivery if you subcontract with a company

If you’re doing delivery as a subcontractor, the person who gives you the job is going to want their share of the fare.

So, if you got the job through somebody else, you can expect:

• Small van, truck, or car, 50p a mile.
• Small van or truck 65p a mile.
• Medium wheelbase, about 80p a mile.
• Long wheelbase, 90p a mile.
• Extra-long wheelbase, £1 going up to £1.10
• Luton £1.20
• Curtain, tail-lift £1.30.
• Lorries £2.00+.

How Much to Charge Per Mile for Delivery: Subcontract for yourself

For your own customer, you should look to add at least 50% again.

For a small job, I recommend that you charge £1.00 a mile – 65p to cover the truck rental and 35p for you.

With a larger truck, you can expect £1.50 to £2.50 per mile.

How much can you get?

Your own customers can be very difficult to find. But they tend to be loyal once you have them.

And some customers will pay more than others.

You want to charge them a competitive rate so they don’t go off to somebody else. But at the same time, you don’t want to charge less than they are willing to pay. You don’t want to charge them £1.50 a mile when they will happily pay £2.00.

Also bear in mind that if you give them a good service, they will hopefully become repeat customers.

Include a minimum mileage fee

Suppose you have a small truck and a customer wants you to take their cargo three miles down the road. Don’t just charge them £3.00. Because you’ve got to send the truck there, you’ve got to wait for the load to get on board, you’ve got to ship it, and you got to unload it.

This all takes time.

It’s going to take at least an hour, plus diesel, plus your truck rental. So the minimum price on a job should be £25.00 up to about £65.00, depending on the size of your vehicle.

How Much to Charge Per Mile for Delivery: Multi-stop delivery

Of course, you don’t have to do it by the mile. You can do it as a multi-stop job.

There are advantages and disadvantages. The disadvantage is the more stops you have to find, the more difficult the job is.

This is why I’ll always say that I recommend you get a decent route optimization app. The advantage of a multi-stop job is you’re not going to be doing that many miles.

You will charge them probably about £1.00 a stop. But you’re going to make a stop every three minutes, or so. And you can do an awful lot of stops in a day if you are efficient.

The advantage with this is you won’t be doing anything like the amount of diesel.

Suppose that you’re going to do a large truck job that’s a hundred miles there and back. That’s 200 miles in a loop, it’s going to be half a tank of fuel. That’s probably going to cost you around £50.00.

Whereas, you can run around town all day if you have your routes optimized properly, on a tank of diesel twice a week.

The other advantage you’ve got with multi-stop is that you can use smaller vehicles. It’s just convenient that you’ve got the family car or something like that you could use to get started. Plus it’s far easier to park in some residential situations.

How Much to Charge Per Mile for Delivery: Driving it home

There’s your long and short of it.

You’re going to be looking at a small van, 50p a mile, going all the way up to medium truck at £1.10, £1.20 a mile. Just don’t forget about your minimum charges between £25.00 and £65.00, depending on the size of your vehicle.

For a multi-stop job, you’re looking at around about £1.00 a stop, getting in about 200 to 250 stops a day, if you can.

Now that you have seen how much to charge per mile for delivery, install Circuit for a free trial now and make delivery easy by saving an hour a day.