Hi, I'm Pete the Courier Driver. And this video is, what's the best way to go about
buying a van if you're thinking of starting as a courier driver? Just to say briefly,
you might be thinking about buying or leasing. I would always go with the buy,
definitely because if you're going to be going into something you're not 100 percent sure
about what you're doing, you're going to lease yourself a brand new shiny van,
realise you've leased the wrong one, and then you're stuck with it for three years.
And also when you're getting something new and shiny, the overheads are dear.
If you go into something you're not 100 percent sure about, I recommend to buy.
I'd also recommend that you don't buy a brand new van for the same reason. You get stuck with it,
you've got to do a load of money the second you've driven it off the forecourt, and it might turn
out not to be the right van for you. So let's assume you've got your budget, and everyone's
got their own budget, you've got a few quid, you want to buy yourself a decent secondhand van.
So where do you go? I would say the first place to start is eBay. Also a lot of the van traders, a
lot of the used van traders, advertise on Gumtree, but the Gumtree stuff also turns up on eBay.
So you work out the kind of van you want. You might want a Ford Transit long wheelbase,
you might be looking for a Mercedes Sprinter, you might be liking for a Transit Luton. Type that one
into eBay, see what comes up. And that way... I'd also recommend that you put countrywide.
If you're going to be spending some money on something you're
going to be spending the next two, three years in,
it's worth a travel. If you live in London and there's the perfect van in York, give them a ring.
Say, "Is this van everything it says it is?
Is this got the right mileage. Has it got paperwork with it?" You want to try and get one
with some kind of degree of pedigree, and then if they say yes, say, "Look,
I'm coming up to look at it. And if it's wrong, I'm going to be very cross with you guys."
That's not to say that you will have to travel. If you put in your parameters, put in the van
you want, put in the idea of van you want, see what's around you, then do the checklist.
How many miles has it done? You want as low a miles as possible. Has it got service history?
Has it got all the bits you want? That van's lovely for me. It's got the curtainside,
but it hasn't got a tail. I'm going to have to stick some money putting
a tail on it. Then you've got to factor that one into the equation.
It's not always easy to find the right van, the one you exactly want,
but you'll come close. And the other thing I will say also, you don't just have to go down the eBay
route. There's the Auto Trader route. Facebook and surrounding areas. You can get some bargains
on there. Talk to friends and family, see if anyone else there, see if there's anyone...
Oh, your Uncle Brian's working at a place and they're about to upgrade their fleet. You want
to give Paul a bell, who's the fleet manager, and see what he's going to do with the old motors.
Auctions are possible as well. You can go down to them.
Auctions tend to be a bit painful, particularly as we've had the lockdown thing. But even still,
a lot of the time someone puts a van into auction, the reason they're putting it
into auction is they don't want to sell it to someone, because they don't want a phone call
two weeks later when a guy's ringing up screaming, going, "This van stops every ten minutes."
So maybe I would say if you can, from a dealer is better. Secondhand car dealer and van dealer is
better. Private is fine, get as much pedigree as you can, get as much paperwork as you can.
And work out what it is you want the van for. If you're going to do the multi-drop route,
you probably don't want too big a motor. And if you are going to do the multi-drop route,
don't just buy yourself a van, get yourself a decent app to go with it. I recommend Circuit,
it's very good. It will save you time and money in the long run. If you're going down the haulage
route, get yourself a bigger van. There's more money in haulage in bigger vehicles.
But ultimately, the van will jump out at you. So what will happen is, you'll be going, "Well,
I really want a Sprinter. I want a Sprinter, long wheelbase," and every one you look at,
"Oh, that's a bit rusty, that one's done 350,000 miles,
that one's got a headlight hanging off," and then there's a long wheelbase VW Crafter.
The next thing, you go, "Hang on a second. This one is exactly... It's the same price as all the
ones I'm looking at. It's only done 50,000 miles and it's got a full service history."
The van will jump out at you. So try to be a little bit open-minded, don't be 100 percent, "I
want the black Ford custom because it looks cool. I look like something out of The A-Team."
They don't always carry that much and they cost a lot of money. So try to be open-minded.
But like I say, write it down a piece of paper, do your little checklist.
Check out your eBay, check out your Gumtree, check out the family, check out the Facebook.
And the van will go 'bang' and you'll go, "That's the one for me."
And at the end of the day, if you don't do too much money on it,
and you're sensible with it, and once you've got it, just maintain it, make sure it's cool.
But if you've run it for a little while and you're thinking, "This ain't working for me,
this is a pain, it's too big, I can't get it into little parking spaces when I'm doing my drops."
Sell it. Sell it and get another one. Keep going until you get it right.
But hope that helps. That's today's video. There's going to be a lot more videos to help.
If you do like the videos, if you could please subscribe to the channel, that would be much
appreciated. And also bear in mind, I've got my own channel as well, Pete the Courier Driver.
If you type that into YouTube, there's some more videos on courier driving there also.
Take care, take money.