User Review
It’s well known throughout the industry that The Courier Exchange, or CX (as it’s known to many) is the current leader in available delivery work. Most of the UK’s larger courier companies are on here and their overflow gets posted here first.
CX has been a clear leader in this industry for a long time and it shows through the scale of their software and app development.
As soon as you log into your account portal on the desktop website you have a wealth of features available to tailor the service to suit your own business. You can define where you are, where you want to source work, your fleet (if you have one) and much more.
The ‘LOADS’ page is where you want to spend most of your time if you’re looking for work. It features plenty of filters and sorting controls. These allow you to match your vehicle to the most appropriate loads. From there on you can either call or enter an electronic quote for the jobs. If successful, the seller books the job through to you and off you go.
Most of these features are also in the CX Mobile App. This is an essential addition for life out on the road. You bid for work, and can log and report every stage of your bookings back to the office that assigned the load.
Your vehicle can be tracked in real time and this helps match you with loads available wherever you find yourself once empty again.
I don’t know the exact numbers, but at any one time I think there are over 6,000 members on the Courier Exchange. That means a whole lot of networking opportunities. With relevant industry contacts.
If you manage to get bookings from the same company a few times, and do a good job, you’ll probably get regular direct work with them.
I’m sure we’ve all heard that quote that goes “With great power, comes great responsibility”. That should be the case with the Courier Exchange.
For far too long they have had it really easy, with almost complete control of this market. Very few competitors have truly challenged their dominance. That’s starting to change with the arrival of sites like Same Day Courier Network.
CX have done well to continue innovating, but it seems like there is a lot more than can be done. Especially given their resources. I personally think the interface needs another update to improve the layout and responsiveness.
There has always been a lot of discussion from the owner drivers that the rates the selling companies are willing to pay are not great (most of the time).
This could be down to a lot of reasons. Maybe the selling company priced the job too low to begin with? Maybe they have lots of bids and one of them is a driver going home that just needs their expenses covered. Depending on the area you’re in, there could be a lot of competition for the work.
The fact is, sometimes you’ll get a good rate, sometimes you won’t. It’s up to you to decide the price you’re willing to do a job for. If the seller doesn’t want to pay that, then move on to the next.
The bullet-points below are some of the main factors that I considered from CX’s website when weighing up their platform.
I agree that it’s definitely the most trusted platform available to owner-drivers at this time. With regards to their claims of over 170,000 loads listed per month – well that would be very hard for me to verify, but averaged out across a 12 month period they probably are right.
The feedback system is a good way to protect yourself from ‘dodgy’ operators, although there’s never a 100% guarantee you won’t get stung by a non-payer from time to time.
And the accounting module is a good setup – which is also being improved for 2021 according to the recent members meeting.
The Courier Exchange has established itself as the Number 1 network, operating since 1999.
Typically over 170,000 loads listed per month throughout the UK and EU, meaning plenty of opportunity to find work.
Get a little more peace of mind by checking how good the people are that you're working with.
Always know where your accounts are at with instant invoicing and a 2-way diary.
Monthly
£56.95 (owner drivers)
£99.95 – £189.95 (companies)
Annual
£683.40 (owner drivers)
£1199.40 – £2279.40 (companies)
If you’re a new driver starting out or an established business looking for extra loads, then this is your strongest chance of finding more work, but you’ll need to be quick and win as much work as you can to make it worthwhile.
Click here to visit the CX website
CX has been the leader for a few years now, and probably will be for another 12-24 months at least. It has the most users and the most jobs posted per day.
But there is some strong competition developing in this market and it will have to move with the times to retain top spot.
Do I think the Courier Exchange is worth joining? Yes, especially if you live in a busy area (such as a major city like Manchester, London or Birmingham). There’s work available, but it’s up to you to try and win it. Otherwise it will be another expense adding to your monthly outgoings.
This review is the personal opinion of Stuart, written for publication on Couriers TV.
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