Need ideas for UK courier business.

Hello,

Could anyone suggest any ideas or for
setting up a Transport & Courier business here in the UK
with particular emphasis on the following aspects: Is it
better to lease or buy a van, calculating costs & rates,
how & where to find clients, what services to offer,
strategic alliances, which businesses to partner with, etc.

Links to web sites, articles, statistics or other helpful
resources would be appreciated, as would success stories
from others already successful in this business.

Many thanks.

JR

"james" <jamesritchie@postmaster.co.uk> wrote in message
news:c81mk502n0n@enews3.newsguy.com...
>
> Hello,
>
> Could anyone suggest any ideas or for
> setting up a Transport & Courier business here in the UK
> with particular emphasis on the following aspects: Is it
> better to lease or buy a van, calculating costs & rates,
> how & where to find clients, what services to offer,
> strategic alliances, which businesses to partner with, etc.
>
> Links to web sites, articles, statistics or other helpful
> resources would be appreciated, as would success stories
> from others already successful in this business.
>
> Many thanks.
>
> JR

You will be facing more problems than just costs to buy vs. lease, etc. You
will be faced with an infinite number of rules and regulations relating to
the business of billing, customers you can serve since you are competing
with legally established entities including the Royal mail. Your best bet is
to go to work for a company doing what you believe you can do better and
make daily notes for a year of all that you are learning. As the time flies,
start your paperwork and applications through the Alice in Wonderland
bureaucracy common to the UK and the US. It will take you forever and you
need to put food on the table. This is the only way unless you have an angel
with unlimited funds willing to put them to your use in order to keep you
away from them because of your crazy ideas of competing against well
established delivery firms. You have not created anything new; you are just
emulating existing procedures. To succeed, really succeed, you need to break
from the existing paradigm and risk everything in inventing or innovating
something completely new. And nobody will believe you at firs.... but later
you will be the millionaire if your idea is worthy.

Wayne http://www.calmexnet.org/partners/wayne.htm