Doing your own deliveries feels cheaper because the costs are spread across things you are already paying for. Frequently it is not, and the arithmetic is worth doing properly before buying a vehicle.

Count everything

The vehicle — purchase or finance, insurance, licensing, maintenance, tyres, and depreciation. Fuel. The driver, including the time somebody spends driving when they could be doing something else. Time lost to traffic. And the deliveries that fail and have to be repeated.

Divide by the number of deliveries you actually make in a month. That number is your true cost per drop, and it is usually higher than people expect — particularly at low volumes, where the fixed costs have very little to spread across.

Where doing it yourself wins

  • Dense local routes. Many drops in a small area is where own-fleet economics are genuinely strong.
  • Where the delivery is part of the service — installation, setup, an inspection on arrival, a relationship with the person receiving.
  • Awkward goods couriers price punitively or refuse.
  • Same-day, where it is a real selling point and customers pay for it.

Where outsourcing wins

Anything long-distance. Anything with unpredictable volume, because a carrier costs nothing in a quiet month and a vehicle costs the same regardless. Anything requiring tracking your customers can follow, which is expensive to replicate.

And anything where the driver would otherwise be you. An owner spending two days a week driving is spending two days a week not selling, and that is the largest cost on the page.

The hybrid is usually the answer

Own vehicle for local and for the deliveries that need a person, courier for everything else.

Most businesses that end up here got there by starting with a courier and adding a vehicle when a specific, measurable need appeared — rather than buying a vehicle first and finding uses for it.

If you do run a vehicle

Insure it for business use — a private policy will not pay a commercial claim. Check whether goods in transit are covered, because vehicle insurance generally does not cover the load.

Confirm the licensing requirements for the vehicle and the driver at the weight you are running, and keep maintenance records. And plan routes rather than driving them in the order the orders came in, which is the single easiest saving available.

General guidance on commercial practice, not financial, insurance or transport advice. Licensing and insurance requirements vary; confirm what applies.