Advice and help needed for young entrepreneur

[lily price]

I'm setting up a small delivery business with very competitive prices working business to business to begin with. My prices are much cheaper than larger companies like Hermes etc. and I have quite a few business already interested in working with me.

For the drivers I was initially thinking to hire 'man with van' services to keep the capital low in case it doesn't work and i have loads of vans on my hand... But i was also thinking of employing people on a 0 hour contract to do some deliveries also but they would need to use their personal car and I need some help on understanding how employing people would work... what are the legal requirements and how would i go about employing people? Also with them using their own car what can legally claim back from my business? This may sound silly for some people but I've never gone about hiring someone before!

 

[Scalloway]

Government advice on employing people.

https://www.gov.uk/employing-staff

If you are going to have people using their own vehicles then you should make them produce insurance documents that prove they are covered for business use of the vehicle they will be using. They should complete a mileage log and you can reimburse them at an agreed rate per mile. HMRC allow an employee to get 45p per mile without them paying additional tax.

 

[lily price]

Thanks thats helpful

 

[profitxchange]

Paying them mileage presumes you are not paying them by the delivery? It might get difficult to manage if you pay both. You can find samples of Zero hour contracts on the web. Even though they may be zero hour contracts - as they rack up working hours you need to consider all the usual legal obligations of holiday etc.

 

[cracklepop]

the insurance premiums for something like this can become very expensive

 

[lily price]

what insurance do you mean? Products or employee?