collapse

Organizations daily need to send correspondence, goods and cargo using couriers. Therefore, debutant entrepreneurs are thinking about how to open a courier delivery service, bypassing the existing "pitfalls". In addition, to open and develop such a company does not need huge financial investments.

Existing services do not fully satisfy the demand for goods delivery services, therefore, such a business is a sought-after direction for novice merchants.

Often the delivery of goods by mail occurs with long delays. Good money is charged for urgency. Many begin to look for such a service, and some are thinking about how to open such a business.

Creating a company for the delivery of goods: the first steps

If you are a law-abiding entrepreneur, then you must follow the order in starting a business:

• initially it is necessary to open and visit the tax authority for the official registration of the delivery company;
• then - a bank in order to open a current account of its own service.

This concludes the basic legal formalities for business. The next stage is the solution of material issues, without which it is impossible to open a delivery company:

• office;
• equipment: computer, telephone, car;
• advertising.

The ideal office is its own space. If you do not have enough money to buy, then use the lease. To open a delivery establishment, it is not necessary to look for an office in the city center.

Without technical support the courier company will not be able to work. Computers, telephone and Internet connections, vehicles are needed. You can use your own car or rent.

But it is impossible to open or organize a profitable delivery business with one car. Several cars, mopeds, scooters or bicycles are needed. The latter will be useful during daytime traffic jams. An excellent solution is to hire couriers who have their own vehicles.

* Calculations use average data for Russia

Starting investments:

Revenue:

Net profit:

Payback period:

Courier service is a business without serious investments and requirements, so anyone can start it. The advantages of this area: high demand for services, a wide range of customers and profitability up to 90%.

Delivery service is a business that will suit both an experienced and aspiring entrepreneur. In Russia, the industry began to develop actively since the 90s and today is one of the promising areas in the service sector. The idea is attractive because it does not require large investments and at the same time guarantees a fairly high profit. You can start with a minimum set of resources and gradually develop your business. Moreover, with the growth of online commerce, delivery services are more relevant than ever. That is why starting a courier service is a great solution for an entrepreneur.

But this business, like any other, has its own nuances and pitfalls. Before throwing all your strength and money into opening a business, you need to study the main aspects of this type of activity.

Analysis of the field of activity

Relevance. According to the research agency Data Insight, online commerce is growing at least 25% annually, even despite the crisis. At the same time, most online stores attract delivery services from outside in order to save money. Result: the number of orders is increasing, and with them the demand for courier services. So now the business is relevant and will feel good as long as online commerce develops, because more than 90% of all orders for delivery services are delivered by online stores.

Advantages and disadvantages. An assessment of the pros and cons of a business allows you to make a decision about starting your own business and foresee what difficulties you need to be prepared for.

Advantages and disadvantages of courier service

Competition. The attractiveness of the business naturally led to the fact that many people came to the courier services market. Today on Russian market offers a wide range of courier services. The share of international leading companies is about 30%. New businesses cannot compete with them. Therefore, firms operating within the same city or region will represent real competition for you. The conditions for doing business are not easy: price dumping, market glut and the struggle for customers, especially for large orders.

Earn up to
200 000 rub. a month, having fun!

2020 trend. Intelligent entertainment business. Minimum investment. No additional deductions or payments. Turnkey training.

To keep afloat, courier services lead active strategy business development, offer customers more opportunities and services. Therefore, even at the start, you need to decide on the strategy of your delivery service and pay attention to the following parameters:

Business area.

cargo specifics.

Delivery method.

This is the initial data with which you will start working. They characterize your organization and determine its place in the market.

Delivery service

Types of services. The courier service provides the population with prompt delivery of letters, documents, small and bulky cargo for a fee. Depending on the scale of activity, the courier service can deliver between countries, between cities and regions, within the same city. Another important criterion: cargo specifics. Conventionally, the work of courier services is divided into the delivery of correspondence and cargo. In practice, most players specialize in both directions.

The types of services provided by the courier service may be different. The most demanded delivery of goods from online stores. Most often this is a small-sized cargo.

What options do courier services offer their customers:

pre order;

urgent order (within a day);

courier rental;

shipment insurance;

order at night - delivery of goods from 22:00 to 7:00;

lifting cargo to the floor.

Business area. At the initial stage of work, it is better to focus on work within the same city. Get good reputation, gain experience - and then gradually develop. For a good start, you will need to find 2-3 large clients with whom you will cooperate on an ongoing basis. Qualitatively fulfilling these orders, you can count on a stable profit and invest it in further development.

Cargo specifics. Immediately decide what kind of cargo you will work with. Because the organization of all activities depends on it. Help you make a decision comparison table, where the characteristics of different types of cargo are given.

Comparison of areas of work of the courier service

	Correspondence	Small cargoes	Small cargoes
	Not required	Required	Required
Car park	Not required	Required	Required
Loading and unloading equipment	Not required	Not required	Required
Material liability		Low/high
Security and alarm costs	Minimum	Minimum	Depends on the size and workload of the warehouse

An ideal option for a beginner in this business: delivery of correspondence and small cargo around the city. It will be much cheaper and easier. The specifics of the delivery of oversized cargo has its own difficulties, which will not only “eat up” part of your budget, but also require certain experience, skills and responsibility. In the future, of course, it makes sense to add cargo delivery to the services and expand the geography of activities.

Method and type of delivery. Also, choose in advance what type of delivery you want to deal with. Limit the scope of the target audience and develop a profitable offer for your potential customers.

The cargo service industry offers many options: online shopping products, delivery of flowers, gifts or food, important documents etc. You can combine several directions.

To decide, study the demand in your city. What is missing in the courier services market? What niche is free? What can be improved in this area? What problems do your future clients face? When you answer all these questions, you can choose a promising direction.

Every day, many companies and people use the services of courier services. Your potential clients are:

online stores;

cafes and restaurants;

flower shops.

Today, almost all online stores cooperate with courier services and use their outsourcing services. Moreover, many prefer to conclude contracts with local small firms.

Ready-made ideas for your business

Another large segment is cafes and restaurants. Almost all catering establishments provide a delivery service to their customers. And this is also done by a third-party courier service.

Separately, it is worth mentioning about flower shops. Many of them trade through social media and offer delivery services. But it is not profitable for them to keep their courier on staff, so they resort to outsourcing.

Almost all large companies need couriers to deliver various documents. In addition, there is such a service as "courier rental" - i.e. an employee can not only deliver documents, but also perform additional assignments. For example, stand in line at tax office and hand over / pick up documents. Thanks to this service, the client saves time, and you get additional profit.

Ready-made ideas for your business

So the range of potential customers of the delivery service includes an unlimited number of private and legal entities. Courier services are in demand in all areas of activity.

After you decide what we will deliver and who will be our client. Now we need to figure out how to deliver it. The method of delivery depends on the specifics of the order, and on the territory, and on your strategy. Let's consider in more detail.

Possible delivery methods

Pedestrian courier. If you are working within a small locality, you can get by with a pedestrian courier. The method is reminiscent of the classic image of the postman. You can also use bicycles, mopeds, scooters. It is clear that only correspondence and small parcels will be delivered in this way. This may not be a very profitable solution.

Courier with car. First, the volume of initial investments will increase. You will need to purchase a car or hire a courier with a personal vehicle (and this is paid extra). Secondly, fuel costs will increase. But on the other hand, you will get a faster delivery method, more orders and the ability to deliver large and heavy packages. In addition, you can use unusual delivery formats. This will allow you to stand out and form a competitive advantage.

bike mail. Fast delivery documents on small vehicles (bicycles, scooters, mopeds). It is cheap, environmentally friendly, and in the case of traffic jams, even faster. Also, for example, argues the American express mail UPS, which delivers parcels on bicycles with a trailer. Students can be hired. One downside is seasonality. It is not very comfortable to ride a bike in rain or snow. But this method of delivery can be made an additional service in the warm season.

Congratulatory courier service delivers flowers, Balloons, gifts and other holiday paraphernalia. The services of such an organization are used by people who cannot personally congratulate their loved ones. The courier service does it for them. At competent advertising the service will be in demand. In this case, great marketing ploy there will be a bright design of the courier car, so that it is immediately clear: "this car is carrying a holiday."

Round the clock delivery. Not every courier service provides such a service. Therefore, you can occupy a free niche and start with less competition. Delivery at night has many advantages: the tariff for such orders is higher, and they are delivered faster (because there is less traffic and traffic jams). The downside is that you will have to hire additional employees for shift work.

Delivery of auto parts, building materials, assistance with moving. There are very few companies that would provide such services, but there is demand. The car broke down on the road, you need to transport things or Construction Materials for building or renovation. In all these cases, you will need the service of your courier service. But then you have to buy trucks and hire movers.

As you can see, the delivery service is a very variable business. You can combine characteristics in different ways: type of cargo, target audience, delivery method - and look for the “formula” that will be successful for you.

Business registration

From theory we pass to practical actions. The first serious step to start is the registration of a business.

The courier service can work both in the status of an individual entrepreneur and an LLC. Most often, small firms prefer to work as an individual entrepreneur - there is less paperwork with him. To register, you must write an application in the prescribed form and attach to it a receipt for payment of the state duty, which is 800 rubles. The following should be indicated as types of activities according to OKVED: 64.12 - Courier activities. You can immediately enable additional codes:

52.61.2 - Retail through teleshopping and computer networks(electronic commerce, including the Internet)

63.40 - Organization of cargo transportation

64.11.11 - Activities for the reception, processing, transportation and delivery (delivery) postal items

74.82 - Packaging

74.84 - Provision of other services

So you surrender Required documents for registration of IP documents and after the period specified in the notification, pick up from tax statement from EGRIP. On the same day, it is recommended to write an application for the transition to the selected tax regime. You can choose STS 6% of income or STS 15% income minus expenses.

Premises and office

The courier service belongs to the category of business where the location and office do not play an important role. In this case, you will need a mini-office for receiving corporate clients and entering into agreements with them. You can also place a small warehouse there.

An office for a courier service does not have to be located in the city center. For the client, it is more important how quickly you can deliver the package and how much it will cost. Therefore, the ideal space for an office is 20 sq.m. with internet and telephone, away from the city center. In the office, it is enough to equip one workplace for a manager who will look for clients, communicate with us, distribute tasks between couriers, control the timing and payment of orders. The set of equipment in the office is minimal: a computer, an MFP, a telephone, a document rack.

When looking for a suitable office, pay attention to various business centers where you can find a premise already furnished and equipped with all communications. The cost of renting such an office will cost you about 10-15 thousand rubles per month. It all depends on the city and the territorial location of the building itself. Also, do not forget to buy stationery for your office: paper, pens, paper clips, tape, etc.

Equipment

The main production equipment in this case is a car. Well, of course, if you have not decided to open a bike mail. The choice of transport on which orders will be delivered should be approached with special attention.

How to choose a car for a courier

Characteristics. To begin with, let's define the main characteristics that an ideal car for a courier service should have:

low fuel consumption;

low cost maintenance and repair;

small dimensions of the car: compactness and mobility makes it easy to park and move around the city faster.

So the main requirement for a courier car is efficiency and mobility. This way you save money and time.

Models. Based on these characteristics, we will give examples of popular cars that are most often used for delivery services.

If you give preference to the domestic auto industry, then the suitable options are:

• OKA (VAZ 1111).

If you choose among foreign cars, then this:

German cars (Skoda Fabia, Volkswagen Golf, Opel Corsa,);

Korean (Kia Picanto, Hyundai i20, Daewoo Matiz, Hyundai Getz).

French (Citroen C1, Peugeot 107);

Japanese (Toyota Yaris, Toyota Vitz, Nissan Cube, Nissan March, Honda Fit);

Italian (Fiat Panda).

All of these cars have a small engine capacity - this allows you to save on fuel consumption. average cost a car for a courier is 400 thousand rubles. You can save money by renting a used car. But keep in mind that in this case you risk buying a car that will often break down. And delays in the work of the courier service can lead to serious consequences.

Scheme of the courier service

Before proceeding to the selection of personnel, you need to draw up a detailed scheme of the courier service and prescribe the functions of each employee. The general scheme of work looks like this:

An order is received from a customer.

The manager accepts the order, negotiates the amount of payment with the client, records all the necessary data (name, contact phone number, order parameters). Next, the manager passes the task to the courier.

The courier, according to the received task, goes to point A to pick up the correspondence/parcel and payment. Then he takes him to point B, where the receiving party signs the acceptance certificate, thereby confirming the fact of receipt.

The courier calls the manager, and he, in turn, notifies the customer about the receipt of the parcel or envelope by the addressee.

At the end of the working day, the courier delivers the signed documents and proceeds to the manager.

This scheme is not generally accepted and the only correct one. You can customize it to suit your business concept.

Courier service staff

An entrepreneur can open a courier business on his own. It is quite possible to combine the functions of a dispatcher, courier and director. At the initial stage, when there will be few orders, you can handle it alone. This will help save on salaries for employees. But then you still need help. By the way, replacing the entire staff of the courier service is a very useful experience. You will feel the business “from the inside”, understand the process of work, learn the nuances and then be able to better navigate the business.

The staff of the courier service usually includes a dispatcher (manager), courier drivers, foot couriers and an accountant. If you plan to deliver bulky goods, you will have to hire movers. Students can be hired as walking couriers: they are usually paid from 300 rubles a day - the costs are small, but their work relieves the volume of orders well.

Ready-made ideas for your business

The main requirement for courier drivers is that they must be able to navigate freely in the city. But you can not rely only on the ability of drivers. Be sure to equip courier vehicles with navigators. For small firm two couriers will suffice. Their salary usually consists of a fixed salary and a percentage of the amount of completed orders. If you want to save money, you can find employees with a private car. But then you have to pay them more.

Try to find employees with similar experience. In the early stages, their experience will help you, especially if you are new to this business.

You can assign the functions of an accountant to yourself. There is nothing difficult in the IP documentation to understand and maintain accounting on your own. There would be a desire and time. Because your main function in this business is management. You must monitor the work of all staff, coordinate their actions, solve problems that arise, look for new customers and promote your business.

Advertising courier service

It's time to ask the question "where to look for customers"? Let's try to figure out where you can meet your potential customers and how to attract their attention.

Participation in tenders. On the Rostender website you will find many offers to conclude a contract for the provision of courier services. Contract amounts vary from a few thousand to millions of rubles. It all depends on the capabilities of your courier service. Please select the region where you plan to work, check the terms and conditions of current offers, make sure you meet the stated requirements and apply. At the end of the tender, the results will be posted on the site and you may receive this order.

Electronic reference books. If your activity is limited to the territory of one region or city, then you can use electronic directories. Find the phone numbers and e-mail of those companies that are your target audience. Call or send an electronic proposal for cooperation. Try to compose Commercial offer reflecting the individual needs of a particular business.

Announcement Sites. Place ads about your services on various resources such as Avito. There you can also study the demand for courier services and respond to the application.

Intermediary sites. You can use third-party portals - for example, You Do. This platform is an intermediary between those who are looking for certain services (including courier services) and those who provide them. Register on the portal as an executor-courier.

Printable advertisement. Use brochures, business cards, flyers. Make flyers describing your services and a great offer. Arrange to place them on stands near cash desks in stores, in organizations, on bulletin boards.

As you can see, there are many channels for promoting courier services. Engage everything at first available ways advertising. Plan marketing expenses right away to get orders from the first month of work.

financial question

When an aspiring entrepreneur seriously thinks about starting a business, he is interested in two main questions: how much should he spend and how much can he earn? Let's figure it out. The table shows the main items of initial expenses. Based on this, in order to open a courier service from scratch, you will need at least 260 thousand rubles.

Initial investment to open a courier service

In addition to the initial investment, plan monthly expenses. The table shows an approximate calculation fixed costs. In the first months, when you will work independently, such expenses for wages will not be. However, when drawing up a business plan for a courier service, be sure to include this article.

Fixed costs of courier service

Now that you've got your costs figured out, let's move on to the fun part of planning: calculating your expected profit. To do this, you need to know how much courier services will cost and the number of orders. The cost of delivery depends on many factors (city, cargo specifics, route complexity, additional options, delivery time, etc.). Therefore, it is difficult to give any exact figures. On average, one order for the delivery of correspondence will cost 80-100 rubles in the city; delivery of small cargoes is approximately 250 rubles, and a contract concluded with one legal entity. face will bring already 20-30 thousand rubles.

Having a stable flow of orders, a courier service can earn 100-250 thousand rubles a month. Of this amount, you will be left with 50-150 thousand rubles of net profit. The profitability of the business reaches 90%.

Thus, the approximate indicators of business profitability will be as follows:

Revenue - 250 thousand rubles per month

Net profit - 150 thousand rubles per month

Profitability - up to 90%

Payback period - 4-5 months.

Risk factors

When compiling your business plan, be sure to pay attention to the risk component. Think about the risks you may face when providing courier services and how you can avoid losses. Any risk is a loss of profit. Therefore, precautionary measures should be taken to avoid problems.

What you need to pay attention to the owner of the courier service:

High competition. Earlier, we talked about the fact that there are many participants in the courier services market that a novice entrepreneur may encounter. Solve the problem of competition you can still at the level of choosing a strategy, if you correctly identify your target audience, form an interesting and profitable offer for it. When you become a full-fledged market participant, you can attract customers by providing additional services for favorable prices by properly advertising their services.

Dependence on weather and transport conditions. The quality of the courier service does not always depend on internal factors. Bad weather or traffic jams in the city can prevent the courier from delivering the order on time. It is almost impossible to solve this problem, as well as to insure against it. In addition, under such conditions, there is a possibility of damage vehicle. For example, sudden ice can lead to an accident. All this will bring you unforeseen expenses. The use of various programs to identify traffic jams and competent logistics solutions will help reduce the risk.

Personnel problem. The courier delivery business is characterized by high turnover. The salary is small career development often not, the work, albeit simple, but dreary. It is not uncommon to accept students who consider the work of a courier as temporary. Therefore, be prepared for the fact that you will often have to look for employees, and these are also certain costs. If you are interested in employees working in your company for a long time and with dedication, set a decent salary, ensure good conditions labor, use various methods of motivation. Or be prepared to be constantly on the lookout.

The advantage of the "messenger" business is that it does not require deep special knowledge and vocational education. No significant equipment required. Although, like every business, the courier business requires knowledge of some subtleties.

You can organize a courier service on a territorial basis. You need to start with deliveries within a relatively small area. It may include a city, a defined urban area, or a rural area (up to 100 km in diameter). As experience is gained, the number of clients and couriers increases, the service area will expand. During the first year of operation, you should not go beyond 3 hours of driving.

First of all, you should be puzzled by finding useful customers. These can be considered corporate (companies, organizations, etc.) and in particular - companies that need your services daily or regularly. Servicing a large company will also help you find new customers.

Advertising is very important. The best ways selling your services is direct marketing, advertisements, company phone calls and personal visits. Focus first on one, relatively small geographical area and look for clients there. This will allow you to quickly declare yourself, gain fame and establish the best ways for fast and reliable delivery of the order. You must offer only quality service, reliability and speed to the market. These are the factors that will attract customers.

Invest a small amount in making attractive flyers or leaflets that colorfully describe your services. Contact your local publishing company. Potential buyers can be found in the Yellow Pages of the telephone directory or by purchasing commercial listings mailing lists - if a courier service already exists in your city.

Send out your information, and then call the recipients or pay a personal visit. And try to communicate with decision makers - top managers and company executives.

More often than not, small business owners do not have sufficient funds to purchase additional services, and therefore personal visits should be limited to large companies. For small businesses, direct mailing lists and advertising in the media.

Place line ads in the most popular local papers, and don't forget the newspaper free ads. As soon as possible - post a telephone directory.

Most companies do not have a dedicated shipping department. This task, as a rule, falls on the shoulders of employees whose main duties lie in another area. Therefore, employees are forced to engage in delivery, breaking away from their main work. Not free, of course. In addition to salary, companies are forced to pay extra to these employees from 20 to 35% of their salary. Use this factor when discussing working conditions.

Remember that the main key to the success of your courier business is the quality of service. Satisfied customers are a great source and recommendations that will ensure a reliable flow of customers. Send out a short newsletter to regular customers. This will help create a flow of orders.

Improve!

The courier business can be considered an ideal home based business. Your set of professional business tools is simple and straightforward. These are a telephone, a pager, an answering machine and a car (sometimes a motorcycle and a bicycle). Many courier services operating in major cities, bicycles are used in good weather. But, as a rule, a reliable car is indispensable.

It is highly recommended to use mobile communication and necessarily - paging. Installing car radios will significantly reduce your costs: they are inexpensive to maintain and may well replace cell phones.

It is extremely important to carefully develop the optimal and, most importantly, the fastest routes within the city. At the same time, it is desirable to organize notification of your couriers about the occurrence of traffic jams and congestion. This is where mobile communications help a lot.

You will have to spend a lot of time behind the wheel, which is why professional driving skills are so important. The car must be in good condition. After all, an unexpected stop can bring a lot of trouble. Then your financial losses will far exceed the cost of repairs. As a rule, limit the delivery time to a few hours.

The courier business is characterized by an extremely high rate of return - up to 90%. Payment for services depends on many factors and ranges from 5 to 50 dollars. for delivery. Make a discount permanent companies who use your services daily or several days a week. After all, they are the main market for sales of courier services.

As it grows, there will be a need for independent employees working under the contract. You pay them a certain percentage of the shipping cost (up to 50%), while they are fully responsible for delivery, storage, travel expenses, etc.

In most cases, you will find that couriers work tirelessly, since their real income is in direct proportion to the speed of delivery. This will also increase your income, although the overhead will also increase. If employees use their own vehicles, ask them to purchase insurance in a persuasive and assertive manner.

As your business grows, you will acquire specialist knowledge: how to common ways management, as well as the management of the courier business in a particular area. Continually work to increase operational efficiency and reduce costs. The higher the efficiency of work, the higher the income. As the business expands and the number of employees increases, a separate office should also be considered.

Most of your clients, especially businesses and companies, will need a loan. This will require well-organized bookkeeping. When working with loans, the following should be taken into account: if the client has not paid the bill within 30 days after the work was completed, you should call and remind yourself. If payment is not received within 60 days, cross this company off the list and continue looking for new clients.

This is the general scheme of work in the courier business. The rest depends on your diligence, imagination and local conditions. Good luck!

The courier business can be classified as a type of business with a low level of investment. The courier can carry important documents, small parcels, even flowers.
The most important thing that separates this type of delivery from the business of large courier companies, this is delivery on the same day and any hour.
Although large companies can guarantee next day delivery, small courier services usually work within one business day.

This may mean that all shipped shipments will be delivered on the same day. The key to success in this business is timely delivery and careful handling of packages.

Business features:

There are a few things to think about at the very beginning.

• First, think about the location. Small towns and rural areas are not suitable for this type of business.
• Second, think about the specific cargo you would like to start with. Some couriers carry only medical packages or only documents.

Finally, think about the dimensions of the vehicle you will need. Large vehicles can carry large loads, but they use more gas than small cars.

Tasks and skills required to start a business:

Specific tasks to be solved:

• customer service
• planning
• billing
• Accounting
• advertising/marketing

Industry tasks:

• Operation and parking of vehicles in high traffic areas
• Use of GPS and/or maps
• Time management
• dispatch control

Approximate Daily Hours Required:

Main Business Hours: While most deliveries take place during regular business hours, 9am to 5pm, deliveries can be made any time of the day.
The time required for preparation is approximately an hour for paperwork, technical inspection vehicles and cleaning, before or after each working day.

Employees needed to start a business:

During the Start Up phase: You can start this business on your own.

Once your business is up and running successfully, you may need:

• Drivers
• mechanics
• Dispatchers
• accountant
• Secretary

Requirements for employees for this business:

Drivers:

• Good driving and paperwork skills
• Ability to work with GPS

Dispatchers:

• Planning Skills
• Good communication skills

Approximate minimum cost of starting a business:

The average startup cost can be very low if you already have a reliable car and GPS. However, it can cost several thousand dollars for a new car, GPS, and necessary equipment.

Necessary equipment and materials to start a business:

• Reliable vehicle(s)
• A uniform

Optional equipment:

– Equipment you can purchase once your business is up and running:

• Special software
• Warehouses
• Storage equipment

Monthly expenses:

• Fuel
• Vehicle insurance
• Office and parking rental
• Public utilities
• Cell phone service
• Wage
• Stationery
• Advertising/Marketing

Additional costs may be:

• Cargo insurance
• Dangerous Goods Certification

Pros and cons:

Pros:

• Courier service is in high demand
• You can set your own opening hours
• Low cost of starting a business
• Low operating costs

Minuses:

• Might be long trips
• High vehicle depreciation and fuel costs
• Increased risk of accidents

What kind of clients can you attract?

These can be banks, law firms, various offices sending documents.
These may be factories that need Express delivery, as well as other types of businesses that need fast courier delivery.
You can conclude contracts, both with the Internet and with ordinary stores that deliver goods to your home.