A job you cannot cover
A customer books a van from Bristol to Glasgow for this afternoon. All your drivers are committed. The controller posts it on a courier exchange such as Courier Exchange, gets a bid from a firm they have not used before, rings them, agrees a price, emails the job details and hopes for the best.
At the end of the day nobody has the POD. The customer wants it. The controller chases the subbie by text. Three weeks later the subbie's invoice arrives with a price that does not match what was agreed on the phone, and a waiting charge nobody discussed.
Why subbed work is messy
Subbed jobs sit outside your normal systems. Your own drivers use your app; the subcontractor does not. The job lives on the exchange, in the controller's call log, and in a few emails. Checking that a new subcontractor has the right cover is a manual step that gets skipped in a hurry.
| Step | How it usually happens |
|---|---|
| Find a vehicle | Exchange posting or ringing round |
| Agree the price | On the phone, noted on a pad |
| Check insurance and credentials | Maybe, if there is time |
| Pass job details | Email or text |
| Get POD | Chase by phone after delivery |
| Match subbie invoice | Weeks later, against memory |
What the mess costs
Margins eroded by invoices that do not match the agreed rate. Customers waiting for PODs that you cannot provide. Real exposure if a subcontractor without adequate cover loses or damages goods. And controllers spending their time chasing rather than planning.
It also hides how much work you sub out and to whom, which is useful to know when deciding whether to take on another driver.
Your customer sees none of this. As far as they are concerned, they booked you, and if the subbie turns up late in an unmarked van with no paperwork, it is your name on the complaint. Without the job details and tracking passing through your own system, you cannot give them the same updates they get when your own driver does the work.
And the margin on a subbed job is thin by nature. You are taking a cut between the customer's price and the subbie's, so an extra charge on the subbie's invoice or a missed extra on your customer's can wipe out the whole point of taking the job.
The subcontract flow we build
- A 'sub out' action on any job in your system, linking the subcontracted job to the customer's booking.
- A subcontractor register holding company details, insurance certificates with expiry dates and any other documents you require, with warnings when something is missing or expired.
- Agreed price and terms recorded on the job at the time, and sent to the subcontractor as a written confirmation.
- A link for the subbie's driver to update status and capture POD, signature and photos, without installing your app.
- POD passed automatically to your customer's tracking or invoice, the same as for your own drivers.
- Subcontractor invoice matching against the agreed price, with differences flagged before payment.
Posting and bidding can stay on the exchange you use. The flow picks up once a subcontractor is chosen.
What your controllers get
Subbed jobs visible alongside your own, with POD captured the same way. Subcontractor paperwork checked before a job is given, not after something goes wrong. Invoices that match what was agreed. And a record of which subcontractors are reliable.
Signs subbed work needs this
- Prices agreed with subcontractors are only on the phone.
- PODs from subbed jobs are chased by text.
- You are not sure every subcontractor's insurance is current.
- Subbie invoices arrive weeks later with surprises.
- Subbed jobs are not in your main system.