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Fastway Couriers, more recently known as Courier Operations (GB) Ltd trading as Fastway Couriers, were based in Middleton, Manchester. They ceased trading on Friday 30th September 2011. They have brokered a deal with I think APS,for their franchised drivers to continue on a similar basis ie prepaid labels.
Speaking from personal experience, having worked for them for some months on a day to day basis, the treatment given to drivers and customers by the Australian Management was appalling. I feel sorry for new franchisees, who unknowingly were sold businesses with decreasing turnover, who will have little to no retribution. They tried to sell one to me, but would not give any real sales figures, only promises of growing the business and splitting territories to make a capital gain. Their contract (or deeds as they call it) had an indemnity clause absolving the company or its employees of any legal action for whatever reason, yet their sales person asked for it to be signed in less than 24 hrs after producing it, on the basis that someone was waiting for the franchise. I would not sign it and was sacked, but sadly many did.
Each area had a regional franchisee (RF), trading as Fastway. Unfortunately they have all failed, in part not reacting to the competition but more importantly creating and continuing a very poor reputation due to poor service and customer support. The reason labels are not honoured if a RF fails is that they are independent of each other. The failed area RF has already banked the money so other RF's will not be paid to deliver their parcels.
Australian methods do not work in the UK. Not surprisingly, there is little employment law in Australia to protect employees from their oppressive practices, including unlawfully deducting money from their franchisees. They have lost a deal of money in the UK and I don't think they have figured it out yet. A similar picture has emerged in a number of European countries. Its like pyramid selling, the guys at the top are the only ones that make money at the expense of those at the bottom. In this case it looks like a bit of both. Their reputation in Australia is also poor, I have that on good authority. Good riddance.
They took my money (Bridgend Account)even though they knew they were going bust, they even went around collecting money off others the day before !!! tossers Look out for Warwick Stenson, hes the NewZealander who took my money.
AVOID FASTWAY LIKE THE PLAGUE,
Unfortunately i have fastway vouchers which i am using up slowly only sending cheap stuff as i am worried stuff wont get where its going. Last month i sent items to scotland and unknown to me the company in middleton had gone under and not paid the courier company in scotland so they didnt send items out, Fastway head office who you can not even contact (no number) are not interested and the middleton branch, who after 2 weeks fastway uk were supposed to get things worked out?????,.Never once has fastway contacted me every day i phone to find out where item is same old rubbish its on it way back????
The idiots that work there are so used to customers phoning up they could,t care less
Fastway franchises go bump all the time and if your items happen to going with them your stuffed and it wont get fixed soon. And i ,m still waiting. AVOID FASTWAY AVOID FASTWAY JOKE COMPANY FROM AUSTRALIA
This company (bust i believe) are a complete joke .. i paid thousnds for a franchise last May (2010) and regretted it ever since. They will ask drivers to lie to customers to hide the fact that they have no idea how to run a courier business.
The pre-paid ticket system in effect is not bad but they under cut all competition and leave no reward for the driver.
Please Please stay away from anything to do with Fastway or you will regret it.
PS: These comments are not through being bitter and twisted.
My husband bought a franchise with fastway 3 years ago. He worked 14hour days 5 days a week and at the end of that time decided to leave. During the 3 years little support was offered from management. He had made good relationships with his customers and was constantly in conflict with the RF's about the customer service they were receiving. Before leaving he gave the required 4 weeks notice. He was ordered not to tell his customers he was leaving as they were going to speak to them individually. They didn't contact the customers and my husband eventually, fed up of asking when they were going to contact them, told them himself. He feels really bad about this as he had a good working relationship with them and wanted to give them as much notice as possible. He can't moan about the loss of money as buying a franchise is a risk but having given the required 4 weeks notice he is now finding that the RF's are refusing to speak to him on the phone or returning any e mails. Fastway owe him 4 weeks delivery money and had promised to buy his float back. There is no central office now in England, no phone number for Australia only an e mail address to which they don't reply so in our opinion stay clear whether as a customer or a potential franchisee.
This company are by miles the single worst company i have ever had the disspleasure of dealing with, they deliver parcels a week late, they have no understanding of real time and to top it off they are rude and have absolutely no grasp of running a courier business, as quoted by another unhappy customer fastway are sure to be one fastway for you to lose your money!
fastway courier are the worst couriers that i have ever come across. i no a lot of couriers say thay have deliverd parcels and thay havent but thay are never as rude as fastways. my partner phoned fastways couriers about a parcel that never tured up and she was given the drivers number witch is very wired as i was a courier for many years and never had a customer phone me thay would phone the depot and thay would sort it out. the driver was so rude f--ing at my partner and told her that she wont get the parcel. so i phoned them myself and thay told me that my partner was so rude witch i no she wasent but so wot if she was i thought the customer was right obviously not in fastways eyes. the guy that phoned back was as rude as the driver he told me that he would love me to come down to the depot witch i will be doing. the depot that im talking about is sussex&kent i think that fastway couriers should go under and never come back as they give couriers a bad name RIP ANDY AT FASTWAY COURIERS SUSSEX & KENT AND ALL THE DIVS THAT WORK THERE
We have been using Fastway Couriers for about six months and were offered Same Day service as well as the usual Next Day service. When we started using them we were told that their parcels did not go on dimmensional weight and the boxes that we were using were fine. The last couple of weeks, our local franchisee has told me that i would need to double up on the labels for the large boxes because he is getting charged by dimmensional weight which means it is costing us twice as much as we were first told. We like to have a collection from our company at 5pm which enables us to send out orders that have been purchased that day but fastway like to collect at 3pm which realy wasn't practical for us and mean't that our next day service was turning into a 2 day service. Today was the final straw as far as we are concerned. I called fastway last evening to arrange a collection for this morning (same day - as agreed when we bought the labels)to which he told me, he would be in to collect from me at 9:30am. I received a call from the courier at 9:45am telling me that he could not do the collection because he was stuck in Amazon so my customer would have to wait another day for the goods and also told me that he could only do the Same Day service as a favour when he was not busy. This is showing us that everything he promised us when purchasing the labels he has gone back on and the service we first received is now, non-existent! Once we have finished the labels we have left, we will not be bothering to use his services again.
Fastway Couriers are now trading as Best Value Parcels! can you believe it BEST VALUE as if a name change is going to make any difference my advice like so many is not to buy any labels period.
Hi
In reply to your query about you damaged bonnet, I'll think you'll find that only new items are insured. I would try and get hold of the local office (can be found on the courier website) and contact them as usually the franchisee will arrange his insurance through the regional franchise holder to get it a bit cheaper. Unfortunately the "company" offers what I call an as and when service, most things are uninsured and its not a guaranteed next day delivery service. Good luck ... I used to hold a franchise for these guys (which is no longer trading in my area) and getting rid was the best career move I ever made and I would certainly never use them to send anything.
We had an item delivered to us, from a car-breakers in Hull.
The courier came (from above-mentioned firm) and three of us heard him knock the car-bonnet over, that we had leant up in our yard, just before. The children took delivery of the item, without a signature required, I may add.
I was ill in bed, and got up as soon as possible, but the courier had gone. The bonnet had been put back in a different position, and on inspection, has numerous scratches on it.
We are very upset about this incident. We had only bought the bonnet at the week-end, ready for fitting to our car and it was pristeen, up to that point. Obviously, the 'gentleman', wasn't gentlemanly enough, to admit what he had done.
Now, we are having trouble even getting in touch with him.
I run a motorcycle parts company in central Scotland, I have used fastway couriers for about 9 months.
All went quite well until October when my usual pickup driver left the company without warning.
The pickups became quite sporadic and unreliable.
At the start of November the Manchester depot took over the running of the central Scotland depot as the original franchise went bust(but didn't tell anyone). At the end of November the Scotland depot closed.
Now the problem, I have two large parcels missing, know one knows where, know one really cares. The Manchester depot are ignoring my emails.
I have over £200 worth of unused tickets purchased after Manchester took over and have been told to try and claim the original franchise.(he went bust)
So the rule is stay clear of them, use Interparcel instead, you don't have to put £200 down on a book of tickets to use them, they use DHL ect who aren't going to pick up sticks and walk away with your money and your goods. Or use royal mail, maybe more expensive but they don't steal from you.
recently spoke with them regarding taking on a courier franchise. http://www.fastwaycouriers.co.uk/8FranchOpp_CF_New.html
Now, I obviously did some research online and found quite a few negative comments. It didn't bother me quite frankly as I appreciate owner drivers can whinge for Britain. There also seemed to be a few dissatisfied customers out their that had been stuck with prepaid labels they cannot use. However, I put this to the back of my mind and gave fastway couriers the benefit of the doubt as I wanted to hear what was being said directly from them.
First of all I'll tell you how fastways operates. the Master franchise has the licence for the whole of the UK. Who then in turn splits areas up and then sells them on to regional franchisees
The regional franchisees start at around £25,000 and then you obviously need working capital to subsidise the project while things get up and running which seems to be about £150,000
The regional franchisee then breaks up this area and sells them to courier franchisees which usually consists of a van and a driver covering an area.
As a new franchise the whole of the UK isn't covered so the parts that aren't covered by fastways the freight is sent through an onforwarder which could be parcelforce or DHL.
In practice this seems like a solid business opportunity but let's start picking at the cracks a little.
My feeling is that the Master franchise has no real financial commitment to the network. They are responsible for the franchise service office (fso) and the main hub which I believe is in Leicester. They do not seem to start up depots until a regional franchise has been bought and so it's the regional franchise that is spending the money on that area not the Master franchise.
Moving onto the Regional franchisee, the areas are listed for sale in various franchise magazines for £13,500 and then you're guaranteed an income of £600 for 21 weeks. If my franchise are turned over £500.00 I would receive £100.00 to top it up. If it turned over £100.00 per week I'd receive £500.00. This struck me as a little odd as the harder I worked and the more my turnover increased in those first 21 weeks the MORE I would be paying for a franchise.
A lot of people who have owned courier franchisees in the past have complained that fastways are guilty of churning. Personally I don't believe this to be the case. I honestly believe that it's just poorly thought out and the lower down the food chain you are the worse deal you get. Some more forward thinking regional franchisees (RF) offer the franchise at a lower price with less of a guaranteed income. Before one discussion thread was closed down on the businessesforsale website a RF was willing to start the right person with a van and if they turned over £xx amount within three months he would give them the area. Having said that the RF would probably be covering the area with an owner driver at his own cost so he would still be geting a good deal out of it, although this isn't to say he wouldn't have been willing to negotiate.
Another problem is regional franchisees going bankrupt, shutting up shop or dropping postcode areas. The Master franchisee is not legally obliged to install depot managers and run these areas so the national delivery network through fastways shrinks and as a result becomes less of a attraction for customers. Obviously these areas are still covered by the onforwarders but at an increased rate.
I can't say for sure how many areas have entered into bankruptcy but the numbers do seem significant.
Which brings me to the COURIER FRANCHISE.
This is the area which I looked into. Now, once your up and running it is your responsibility to look for customers. This could be a case of calling in and chatting to the warehouse lad to see if they send out parcels etc. You then fill out a FAF I think it was called which the sales team then follow up. If the customer is interested they buy a set of prepaid labels from you and that's where you make most your money.
A courier also makes money making deliveries but the amount is so low you'll be lucky to cover you're fuel costs. I am aware of the prices and percentages paid to couriers but I think it would be unfair to fastway couriers if I put this in the public domain.
Your delivery area is run like a milkround so you'll go through a set routine in the morning, return to base at lunch at swap any parcels you have for local deliveries with other drivers for sameday PM delivery and then repeat the process in the afternoon. This was my first concern, if you're driving all the way back to your depot with one local parcel it's not financially viable. I am told that some RF have now dropped this idea but it does then lead to inconsistency throughout the network.
My second worry was the delivery of my parcels. The parcel industry would be an easy business if we didn't have to deliver parcels but unfortunately we do so what would happen if a parcel had to be delivered in the sticks taking the driver 20 minutes to do. With the amount they receive for deliveries then it's my opinion that this wouldn't get done until the driver had the volumes to do so. From a financial standpoint that makes complete sense and at the end of the day we all work to put food on our own plates not somebody else's. So the network is only as good as it's weakest link. I may have the greatest customer in the world who's making me a fortune but if I'm being let down by the delivery drivers at the other end I stand no chance.
INSURANCE
Covered up to £500.00 which is a huge amount for the parcel industry. Unfortuately as an courier driver I would be responsible for paying half the excess which is £100.00 split between myself and the RF. I struggle to see how when I'm receiving substantially less that 50% to collect the parcel I should be liable for that when things go wrong. This would also wipe out a substantial amount of profit should a claim have to be processed
Finally, when you buy your franchise it's from the RF if they go bankrupt remember as I said previously the Master franchise has no legal obligation to keep the depot running. If you take over an area that has previously had courier franchise that has gone bankrupt and left customers with tickets you'll be expected to honour these
In conclusion the company on paper seems like an excellent investment but unfortunately I believe that the lack of investment from the top is hampering it flourishing. If you had the volumes and depots in place this would be a profitable little business for a courier franchisee. The MF and to some extent some regional franchisees are not willing to subsidise in the short term for greater rewards in the long run.
Add a comment about this blagger
Visitors to the site are reminded that the details contained within user comments are uncorroborated and as such should not be read as fact but as the opinion of the person who left the comment.
Comments:
Speaking from personal experience, having worked for them for some months on a day to day basis, the treatment given to drivers and customers by the Australian Management was appalling. I feel sorry for new franchisees, who unknowingly were sold businesses with decreasing turnover, who will have little to no retribution. They tried to sell one to me, but would not give any real sales figures, only promises of growing the business and splitting territories to make a capital gain. Their contract (or deeds as they call it) had an indemnity clause absolving the company or its employees of any legal action for whatever reason, yet their sales person asked for it to be signed in less than 24 hrs after producing it, on the basis that someone was waiting for the franchise. I would not sign it and was sacked, but sadly many did.
Each area had a regional franchisee (RF), trading as Fastway. Unfortunately they have all failed, in part not reacting to the competition but more importantly creating and continuing a very poor reputation due to poor service and customer support. The reason labels are not honoured if a RF fails is that they are independent of each other. The failed area RF has already banked the money so other RF's will not be paid to deliver their parcels.
Australian methods do not work in the UK. Not surprisingly, there is little employment law in Australia to protect employees from their oppressive practices, including unlawfully deducting money from their franchisees. They have lost a deal of money in the UK and I don't think they have figured it out yet. A similar picture has emerged in a number of European countries. Its like pyramid selling, the guys at the top are the only ones that make money at the expense of those at the bottom. In this case it looks like a bit of both. Their reputation in Australia is also poor, I have that on good authority. Good riddance.
Unfortunately i have fastway vouchers which i am using up slowly only sending cheap stuff as i am worried stuff wont get where its going. Last month i sent items to scotland and unknown to me the company in middleton had gone under and not paid the courier company in scotland so they didnt send items out, Fastway head office who you can not even contact (no number) are not interested and the middleton branch, who after 2 weeks fastway uk were supposed to get things worked out?????,.Never once has fastway contacted me every day i phone to find out where item is same old rubbish its on it way back????
The idiots that work there are so used to customers phoning up they could,t care less
Fastway franchises go bump all the time and if your items happen to going with them your stuffed and it wont get fixed soon. And i ,m still waiting. AVOID FASTWAY AVOID FASTWAY JOKE COMPANY FROM AUSTRALIA
The pre-paid ticket system in effect is not bad but they under cut all competition and leave no reward for the driver.
Please Please stay away from anything to do with Fastway or you will regret it.
PS: These comments are not through being bitter and twisted.
FROM NICK
After much searching I found a number for the head office and called them.
Surprise, surprise they will not honour the tickets and satchels that I have already bought (this is a pre-pay srevice).
My advice to anyone considering using Fastway Couriers in the UK is not to do it.
I found Fastway Couriers a fast-way to lose money!
In reply to your query about you damaged bonnet, I'll think you'll find that only new items are insured. I would try and get hold of the local office (can be found on the courier website) and contact them as usually the franchisee will arrange his insurance through the regional franchise holder to get it a bit cheaper. Unfortunately the "company" offers what I call an as and when service, most things are uninsured and its not a guaranteed next day delivery service. Good luck ... I used to hold a franchise for these guys (which is no longer trading in my area) and getting rid was the best career move I ever made and I would certainly never use them to send anything.
x-fastwayman at 14th Apr 2010, 05:31PM
The courier came (from above-mentioned firm) and three of us heard him knock the car-bonnet over, that we had leant up in our yard, just before. The children took delivery of the item, without a signature required, I may add.
I was ill in bed, and got up as soon as possible, but the courier had gone. The bonnet had been put back in a different position, and on inspection, has numerous scratches on it.
We are very upset about this incident. We had only bought the bonnet at the week-end, ready for fitting to our car and it was pristeen, up to that point. Obviously, the 'gentleman', wasn't gentlemanly enough, to admit what he had done.
Now, we are having trouble even getting in touch with him.
Can anyone help?
Upset Family :(
All went quite well until October when my usual pickup driver left the company without warning.
The pickups became quite sporadic and unreliable.
At the start of November the Manchester depot took over the running of the central Scotland depot as the original franchise went bust(but didn't tell anyone). At the end of November the Scotland depot closed.
Now the problem, I have two large parcels missing, know one knows where, know one really cares. The Manchester depot are ignoring my emails.
I have over £200 worth of unused tickets purchased after Manchester took over and have been told to try and claim the original franchise.(he went bust)
So the rule is stay clear of them, use Interparcel instead, you don't have to put £200 down on a book of tickets to use them, they use DHL ect who aren't going to pick up sticks and walk away with your money and your goods. Or use royal mail, maybe more expensive but they don't steal from you.
Now, I obviously did some research online and found quite a few negative comments. It didn't bother me quite frankly as I appreciate owner drivers can whinge for Britain. There also seemed to be a few dissatisfied customers out their that had been stuck with prepaid labels they cannot use. However, I put this to the back of my mind and gave fastway couriers the benefit of the doubt as I wanted to hear what was being said directly from them.
First of all I'll tell you how fastways operates. the Master franchise has the licence for the whole of the UK. Who then in turn splits areas up and then sells them on to regional franchisees
The regional franchisees start at around £25,000 and then you obviously need working capital to subsidise the project while things get up and running which seems to be about £150,000
The regional franchisee then breaks up this area and sells them to courier franchisees which usually consists of a van and a driver covering an area.
As a new franchise the whole of the UK isn't covered so the parts that aren't covered by fastways the freight is sent through an onforwarder which could be parcelforce or DHL.
In practice this seems like a solid business opportunity but let's start picking at the cracks a little.
My feeling is that the Master franchise has no real financial commitment to the network. They are responsible for the franchise service office (fso) and the main hub which I believe is in Leicester. They do not seem to start up depots until a regional franchise has been bought and so it's the regional franchise that is spending the money on that area not the Master franchise.
Moving onto the Regional franchisee, the areas are listed for sale in various franchise magazines for £13,500 and then you're guaranteed an income of £600 for 21 weeks. If my franchise are turned over £500.00 I would receive £100.00 to top it up. If it turned over £100.00 per week I'd receive £500.00. This struck me as a little odd as the harder I worked and the more my turnover increased in those first 21 weeks the MORE I would be paying for a franchise.
A lot of people who have owned courier franchisees in the past have complained that fastways are guilty of churning. Personally I don't believe this to be the case. I honestly believe that it's just poorly thought out and the lower down the food chain you are the worse deal you get. Some more forward thinking regional franchisees (RF) offer the franchise at a lower price with less of a guaranteed income. Before one discussion thread was closed down on the businessesforsale website a RF was willing to start the right person with a van and if they turned over £xx amount within three months he would give them the area. Having said that the RF would probably be covering the area with an owner driver at his own cost so he would still be geting a good deal out of it, although this isn't to say he wouldn't have been willing to negotiate.
Another problem is regional franchisees going bankrupt, shutting up shop or dropping postcode areas. The Master franchisee is not legally obliged to install depot managers and run these areas so the national delivery network through fastways shrinks and as a result becomes less of a attraction for customers. Obviously these areas are still covered by the onforwarders but at an increased rate.
I can't say for sure how many areas have entered into bankruptcy but the numbers do seem significant.
Which brings me to the COURIER FRANCHISE.
This is the area which I looked into. Now, once your up and running it is your responsibility to look for customers. This could be a case of calling in and chatting to the warehouse lad to see if they send out parcels etc. You then fill out a FAF I think it was called which the sales team then follow up. If the customer is interested they buy a set of prepaid labels from you and that's where you make most your money.
A courier also makes money making deliveries but the amount is so low you'll be lucky to cover you're fuel costs. I am aware of the prices and percentages paid to couriers but I think it would be unfair to fastway couriers if I put this in the public domain.
Your delivery area is run like a milkround so you'll go through a set routine in the morning, return to base at lunch at swap any parcels you have for local deliveries with other drivers for sameday PM delivery and then repeat the process in the afternoon. This was my first concern, if you're driving all the way back to your depot with one local parcel it's not financially viable. I am told that some RF have now dropped this idea but it does then lead to inconsistency throughout the network.
My second worry was the delivery of my parcels. The parcel industry would be an easy business if we didn't have to deliver parcels but unfortunately we do so what would happen if a parcel had to be delivered in the sticks taking the driver 20 minutes to do. With the amount they receive for deliveries then it's my opinion that this wouldn't get done until the driver had the volumes to do so. From a financial standpoint that makes complete sense and at the end of the day we all work to put food on our own plates not somebody else's. So the network is only as good as it's weakest link. I may have the greatest customer in the world who's making me a fortune but if I'm being let down by the delivery drivers at the other end I stand no chance.
INSURANCE
Covered up to £500.00 which is a huge amount for the parcel industry. Unfortuately as an courier driver I would be responsible for paying half the excess which is £100.00 split between myself and the RF. I struggle to see how when I'm receiving substantially less that 50% to collect the parcel I should be liable for that when things go wrong. This would also wipe out a substantial amount of profit should a claim have to be processed
Finally, when you buy your franchise it's from the RF if they go bankrupt remember as I said previously the Master franchise has no legal obligation to keep the depot running. If you take over an area that has previously had courier franchise that has gone bankrupt and left customers with tickets you'll be expected to honour these
In conclusion the company on paper seems like an excellent investment but unfortunately I believe that the lack of investment from the top is hampering it flourishing. If you had the volumes and depots in place this would be a profitable little business for a courier franchisee. The MF and to some extent some regional franchisees are not willing to subsidise in the short term for greater rewards in the long run.
My advice would be to stay clear at the moment
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