best vehicle for courier job?

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Had a conversation with a friend and he wants to change from trades helper to a courier full-time:

-what would make sense for medical/lab courier? (I suggested him a Yaris/Prius/Fusion)
-regular courier? (I suggested him a Dodge AVP/Ram Tradesman/Ford Transit)
 
Transit Connect maybe? Kind of in between your two categories, may work fine for both.

Alas, something like Prius will likely be more economical.
 
The number of miles you have to drive a hybrid to financially be ahead of the game (realize a savings) varies depending on if it is mostly city, mostly highway, a mix of both city and highway, and the size of the vehicle. They really save money if use a lot in city driving. In general the smaller hybrids require you to drive 15K miles or more a year to realize a savings, and the larger the vehicle the more miles you have to drive to be saving money.

There are websites where you can look up different hybrid vehicles and find the number of miles you have to drive them per year to realize a savings.
 
A vehicle that does not broken down all the time.
Otherwise, he/she will spend most of his/her time delivering to the mechanics/stealership.
 
Our company has a 2016 Ford Transit Connect we use for delivery, 120,000 miles. We run Mobil 1 Extended 5w-30 every 15,000 miles (80% hwy use) and we did a trans fluid flush at 20,000, 70,000, and 110,00 miles and and a coolant flush 110,000 miles. All we have put into it, is a set of tires. We still have the original brakes.
 
Gas is heading to a buck a gallon. 1970 Buick GS 455 stage 1. May as well have fun at work.
 
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Originally Posted by sloinker
Gas is heading to a buck a gallon. 1970 Buick GS 455 stage 1. May as well have fun at work.


I've been reading that $29/barrel is the price floor and is close to the Saudi production cost so they'll just cut production if it looks to go any lower. Gas prices likely won't go much lower; $1.659 is the lowest I've seen here in the Dallas suburbs, with $1.759 being typical.

To answer OP's question: as long as you aren't transporting anything enormous or messy, I'd say any reliable midsize sedan would be fine. You can get a surprising amount of equipment and comfort in the D-class.
 
Originally Posted by Quattro Pete
Transit Connect maybe? Kind of in between your two categories, may work fine for both.

+1
If I had kids/needed a courier van etc, that would probably be my first choice.
Ya can't beat the running costs, esp. with the cheap gas prices!
 
I know a guy who was a medical courier-- actually, he drove meds daily from a centralized pharmacy to a bunch of satellite nursing homes. Was cheaper for him to do this daily vs having pharmacists on-site.

Anyway, he drove a generic subaru sedan-- perfect in Maine winters, but also not a target for robberies.

I've sold two long-in-the-tooth prii, both to Doordash drivers. One found me later to gush over the MPG in his stop & go driving. But my own prius was/is a great highway car as far as driving position, wind noise, visibility, etc. The new ones have adaptive cruise control and most of the common toys.
 
Originally Posted by dparm
Originally Posted by sloinker
Gas is heading to a buck a gallon. 1970 Buick GS 455 stage 1. May as well have fun at work.


I've been reading that $29/barrel is the price floor and is close to the Saudi production cost so they'll just cut production if it looks to go any lower. Gas prices likely won't go much lower; $1.659 is the lowest I've seen here in the Dallas suburbs, with $1.759 being typical.


Quote
At $2.8 per barrel, Saudi state oil giant Aramco has the lowest production costs in the world.


I think this is more about market share and an oil war to kill shale producers..
 
Better do a spreadsheet. Perhaps someone else has one already? I believe you are talking about an owner operator situation. There are a ton of costs such as:

Vehicle purchase or lease cost
Insurance
Fuel
Maintenance
Depreciation

One big mistake is that owner operators do not but away enough for depreciation.

Perhaps an owner operator can give us more info. I believe you are compensated by the number of packages you deliver. Correct me I'm wrong. The companies want reliability and quick delivery.

It would be great to hear of actual experience. I know of one courier who just leases trucks from Budget for this.
 
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as mentioned in above posts.. depends on cargo load. prius v would be my choice for medical courier and i believe it's a solid rear axle, so you could probably fit the rear with a more heavy duty shock absorber.
 
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Without knowing the intended cargo size weight, cant really make a recommendation.

Have experience with sprinters and have done pretty well.


UD
 
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