{"id":5145,"date":"2020-12-10T15:23:50","date_gmt":"2020-12-10T15:23:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.deliveryquotecompare.com\/news\/?p=5145"},"modified":"2025-04-02T11:28:41","modified_gmt":"2025-04-02T10:28:41","slug":"the-rise-of-self-employment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.deliveryquotecompare.com\/news\/the-rise-of-self-employment","title":{"rendered":"The rise of self-employment"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Being your own boss <\/a>may sound like some people\u2019s idea of a perfect job. Keeping your own hours, answering to no-one else and deciding what work to do may seem ideal, but the rise in self-employment in the UK has less to do with the quest for independence and more an economic necessity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 According to a\nreport by the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS),<\/a> the percentage of UK workers has risen from 8% in 1975\nto 14% in 2019. Since the financial crash of 2008, the amount of solo\nself-employed people has risen sharply too. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Solo self-employed means someone who works on their own, with no employees. A courier<\/a> is a good example of a solo self-employed worker. They work alone and contract their work out to certain delivery companies. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the job market in the UK becomes\nmore diverse and non-traditional, the rise of self-employment looks set to\ncontinue. Although market forces may dictate this trend, there some areas of\nself-employment which prove attractive to couriers in particular.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Opportunities<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

People are self-employed for a number\nof reasons and often not by choice. While we may think of a sole trader as\nsomeone who runs their own business, the reality is that a solo self-employed\nperson often has to rely on contract their services to whoever is willing to\nhire them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The rise of self-employment is\ntherefore more a reflection of the changing economic landscape and the growth\nof what has become known as the \u2018gig economy\u2019. People are often forced into\ntaking short-term jobs because that is what is available to them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the case of self-employed\ncouriers, this can be quite lucrative as it is an industry that has benefited\nheavily from the surge in online shopping. With eCommerce companies\nconsistently seeking logistics solutions when it comes to fulfilling increasing\ncustomer orders, delivery companies will need more couriers, increasing work opportunities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Flexibility <\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Self-employment, no matter the line\nof business, affords more flexibility. A sole trader can essentially keep their\nown hours, within reason that is. Many people who work as self-employed\ncouriers, for example, are bound by delivery schedules, but within that, there\nis a degree of flexibility about when they work. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some couriers who are self-employed work <\/a>on a part-time basis to supplement their primary income or simply because they don\u2019t want to work full-time. Being self-employed allows them to make that choice. It also allows them to decide which jobs to take on or not. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Work close to home<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Many self-employed couriers are\nattracted by the fact they can work close to home. This a good option for those\nwho considered working in deliveries, but have been put off by having to drive\nlong distances. Many delivery companies will seek to enlist couriers for\nparticular areas and regions. This ensures that their deliveries are being\ncarried out by people with knowledge of that particular area.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From the courier\u2019s point of view, it\nreduces the amount of time they have to travel between each delivery and allows\nthem to complete their deliveries quicker.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Being your own boss may sound like some people\u2019s idea of a perfect job. Keeping your own hours, answering to no-one else and deciding what work to do may seem ideal, but the rise in self-employment in the UK has less to do with the quest for independence and more an economic necessity.  According to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[434,36,49,40,65,114,1],"tags":[55,299,100,243],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.deliveryquotecompare.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5145"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.deliveryquotecompare.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.deliveryquotecompare.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.deliveryquotecompare.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.deliveryquotecompare.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5145"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.deliveryquotecompare.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5145\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6138,"href":"https:\/\/www.deliveryquotecompare.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5145\/revisions\/6138"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.deliveryquotecompare.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5145"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.deliveryquotecompare.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5145"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.deliveryquotecompare.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5145"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}