DropLaneGuide · Worked example · September 2026
What a courier round really pays per hour
Takings are the number everyone has. The hour after costs is the one that tells you whether the day was worth it.
£179 for the day sounds fine. Whether it was fine depends on two things the takings never mention: how long it took, and what it cost to earn. Most couriers know the first roughly and the second not at all, which is why two drivers on the same round can disagree about whether it is worth doing. Here is the sum, with real numbers.
The sum
Takings − fuel − parking and tolls − the day's share of the fixed costs
÷ hours on the road, including the waiting
= what the hour paid
One real day
This is a day out of the app: three drives, 312 miles, eight hours and forty-three minutes from pulling away to parking up.
| Earned | £179.01 |
|---|---|
| Fuel, parking and the day's costs | − £45.49 |
| Kept | £133.52 |
| Time on the road | 8 h 43 m |
| The hour paid | £15.32 |
Thirty-four pounds an hour before costs became fifteen after them. The day was still worth getting up for. The point is that the driver knew that at the end of the day, in the van, not in January.
The costs that hide
Fuel is the one everyone half-knows. At £1.45 a litre and 40 miles to the gallon it is about 16p a mile, so a 312-mile day burns roughly £51 before anything else. Most people guess lower.
Fixed costs are the ones nobody puts on a day. Say insurance is £1,800 a year and van finance £300 a month. That is £5,400 a year. Spread over 230 working days it is about £23.50 every day you go out, whether the day was busy or dead. Add it to the sum above and the hour drops from £15.32 to about £12.60. That is the true figure, and it is the one worth knowing.
Waiting counts as time. Forty minutes at the depot and ten at each drop are hours you sold, and they belong under the line, not outside it.
Why miles alone mislead
Two days from the same week. Tuesday: 96 miles, three drives, £99 kept. Wednesday: 62 miles, two drives, £116 kept. A mileage app will tell you Tuesday was the fuller day, and it is right. Wednesday paid more. Miles are the easy half of the picture, and the half that tells you nothing on its own.
What to do with the number
- Compare rounds, not rates. A better rate per drop on a round with long empty legs can pay less per hour than a worse rate on a tight one.
- Price a job before you say yes. If you know your hour is £15 after costs, a run that will take three hours for £40 is a loss, however it is dressed up.
- Watch the trend, not the day. One bad Friday is weather. A month of falling hourly figures is the round changing under you.
Where DropLane comes in
DropLane records each drive itself, with the stops and how long you sat at each one, so the hours are real. You put in what the day earned and what it cost, or set the price your fuel card charges and log the litres. Fuel, finance and insurance are spread across the days you work, and the hourly figure on the Insights screen is the one after all of it.
The fuel price, mileage and fixed-cost figures above are worked examples, not averages. Put your own in; the sum is the same.