Courierology :

If you are a courier you will know there are plenty of people after your money — for insurance, phones, satnav, van, fuel — not to mention the scams wanting you to pay to go on non–existent databases for non–existent work.

But there are also plenty of free services for couriers, and the Courier Freeway Alliance (www.courierfreeway.org.uk) has been launched to help promote them.

There are free sites for all kinds of services including:

• freight exchanges and networking sites
• forums
• directories
• books and guides
• information
• news

Some of the sites are well–established and have hundreds of members/visitors, others are new and still growing

The sites are usually run by couriers or ex–couriers who have spotted a need for a particular service. They spend time building up the site and getting visitors and members, and they are able to sell advertising space to make a profit.

The free sites can be as good as, or better than, their paid-for competitors.

For example, free guides and information sites are likely to be more up–to–date than any book you can buy. And free freight exchanges can have as many members as the well–known commercial services, and provide as much opportunity for networking as well as exchanging work.

A free site probably won't have a staffed office or a help line, and they don't usually have the capital to invest in equipment or development, so they might not provide some advanced features like digital signatures or GPS tracking with alerts.

But for the core services a courier needs, free sites can be hard to beat.

You might think a free site can't be a scam, or you've got nothing to lose.

But not everybody who sets up a free site has the best interests of couriers at heart. Here are some things to look out for:

• Any site that asks for business information and contact details could be ‘harvesting’ information which it will later use for marketing, or to use as a contact list with a book.
• A free information site could be a front for a commercial site, and persuade you to pay for services by pretending to be independent.

The Courier Freeway Alliance is a group of site owners who have combined to promote the benefits of free sites, and provide an assurance of quality and integrity.

They have a code of practice which they all agree to follow, covering things like:

• disclosure of commercial interests
• provision of site ownership and contact details
• policies on use and protection of members' information

The Alliance was set up in September 2006 by the owners of these sites:

• codforum
• courierology
• kdc couriers

Full details about the CFA, the code of practice and a list of their member sites can be found on their web site at www.courierfreeway.org.uk