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The Delivery Dame
02-17-2015, 07:23 AM
Hi, I'm not sure if this is the correct area for this but I'm a little lost here and am not sure where to turn.

A little about me. I own a very small courier service. I have four independent contract workers that work for me. Right now with what we currently focus on delivering my contractors mainly work during the hours of 10:00 AM to 1:00 PM. We average a profit of 47% which is what I take home as pay. I have incorporated the business as an LLC as well.

The problem is that even with 47% profit I, and my IC's are just not making enough money because our total revenue is too low. This is not a problem of pricing or with pay. This is due to the volume of orders and the time in which the orders happen. This is unlikely to change due to the nature of my business.

I've been wanting to expand to other aspects of the courier business. One area I've considered expanding into is the legal sector. Now, we are not interested in Process Serving or Skip Tracing as I know that myself and my IC's are just not prepared for that. We would like to move into documents and filing for law firms.

My problem is that I know very little about the legal sector. So, my questions are as follows:

What kind of needs do legal firms have for couriers?

What do legal courier's normally charge for their services?

What do legal firms need from a courier service before they will hire them?

Do we need to be bonded? We are not yet because we have been told repeatedly that there's no point in getting bonded because the things we deliver are not really insurable.

Any other documentation or insurance that legal firms might require of a courier service?

I'm just trying to go into this with the most information possible because I do not want to look like I don't put effort into my business. Thank you for any help you can provide.

vangogh
02-17-2015, 11:19 AM
Welcome to the forum The Delivery Dame. I can't help with specifics, but I'll share some general thoughts. First I would't be so sure that changes in pricing or pay wouldn't make a difference. You might be doing the same thing everyone else in the industry does, but that doesn't mean it's the only way something can be done. You know you're business better than I do and are probably right, but I've learned never to assume things have to be a certain way. They almost always can be done differently.

I would think legal firms are among the businesses that have the most need for courier services. The industry deals with a lot of documents and needs a lot of signatures. I don't think the legal industry has gone 100% paperless. I have no idea what you would charge them. It shouldn't be too hard to find out though. I searched "courier services rates" and there were a lot of results. I'm sure you can find how much companies like UPS and FedEx charge to deliver documents and how quickly they can deliver them.

I'm not sure if you'd need to be bonded or insured, but I would think given the nature of the industry you would need to do something more than show up. I'm guessing you have to register and maybe get licensed by the state. Legal firms might add their own requirements, though if they do, the requirements could be unique to each business. Insurance would seem like something you'd want in a courier business. Bonding too. Again I don't know if either is a requirement, but both would help make your business more attractive to customers.

Hope something in there helps.

The Delivery Dame
02-17-2015, 11:33 AM
Thank you. I appreciate it. So far, in my research it's seeming like my are has gone to in house couriers. I think I do need to get bonded and insured. That has been a plan for a while but I can't ask my drivers to get bonded and insured at this time because the cost would be too much for how much they are making. Once again I'm going at this from both ends and trying to make it work. It's pretty crazy. So far we haven't needed insurance or bonding so we'll have to rectify that soon. Uhg. I feel so frustrated right now.

Freelancier
02-17-2015, 11:57 AM
Here's why you may need to be bonded: your courier hits a car, your courier gets hit by a car, your courier gets mugged. All of those situations would keep your courier from completing the job. It doesn't have to be a big surety bond, but it's also a good way to lower the client's perceived "risk" that you're just grabbing the money and not completing the jobs. It's good marketing.

The Delivery Dame
02-17-2015, 12:07 PM
I totally see that. Right now, I don't get paid if we don't complete a job or something happens. I tried to call and get bonded once and they told me there was nothing to bond bc we deliver food mostly. The other thing is each driver has to get bonded because they are independent contractors. I can't ask them to do that unless I can give them more hours. That's why I am trying to figure out how to diversify. I feel like I'm stuck between a rock and a hard place. I want to get them bonded and everything but we need more work first.

Don't think I'm arguing with you guys. I'm just kind of going through everything as we talk.

MyITGuy
02-17-2015, 06:01 PM
There's more to courier work then food and legal. I know my brother in law's business does well in the medical (shipments to hospitals, pharmacies and to the home), hospitality (Deliveries between hotels and businesses) and government (School's and other entities) areas. If your in a large metro area, near an international airport, or can target these markets then your prospects open up significantly.