Fastway Couriers

[sandmaster]

Has any aber been or is a regional or courier franchisee for Fastway? What was your experience?

[nelson2008]

i worked for fastway and my experience is ..... i have never known a more miserable bunch of drivers that for some reason have no knowledge of customer service or how to find the most easiest of addresses, they totally re-lie on sat nav and if its a named house then forget it. most leave when it gets busy leaving most of the parcels in the depot for agency staff to clear up. leaving the depot at 8am and most came back at 3.pm only delivering what they could be arsed. the courier franchise manager at the depot i worked at was a nice enough chap but the claims for lost and damaged parcels he didnt give a hoot about. i had a call from a customer that the driver had put a lap top in the dust bin only for the bin men to empty the same day, i was told to tell the customer to f*$k.....very nice . try parcelforce at least they care about customer service.

[buildersmate]

Be very careful Sandmaster.
There are several Regions with no regional franchisee holder (including London - bizarre and worrying is that), and then within the established Regions, there are area slots. Think very carefully about the area you are considering in terms of the business development opportunity in that area.
I know nothing about Fastway's business model; others I have seen work well for those who have a reasobable prospect of developing new business from established businesses in the area. There is a payment to the pick-up provider and another for the drop. What happens is the originator gets lots of parcels at customer pick-up, but the drop gets a mish-mash of parcels to deliver all over the place - to customer addresses - either busines or household. So if one runs a rural area, you get lots of the latter, little of the former.

Also check out how they link the Regional Depots together? - no mention of this in the website.
Many of these 'National' carriers run a central hub, often in the Stoke area, where transport from the out-of-Region parcels get sent for an 'exchange' - this is the way the whole country is covered.

[sandmaster]

Nelson - if you are still reading this thread - were you a Courier Franchisee or a contracted driver? I'm surprised that CFs would be so cavalier with the parcels. Thanks Buildersmate - a reasoned answer as usual!!