Let’s Talk About It: You Can’t Scale Playing Small
One of the most dangerous things you can do in business, especially as an independent courier or logistics entrepreneur, is undercharge for your services. I see it all the time: smart, talented people stuck in the same cycle month after month, wondering why their bank account doesn’t match their hustle.
Here’s the truth: scared money doesn’t scale.
If you’re pricing out of fear, fear of losing the client, fear of being “too expensive,” fear that someone else will do it cheaper… you’re already losing.
Pricing is Not About Being the Cheapest
Let’s get one thing straight. Your goal is not to be the cheapest delivery company in town. It’s to be the most valuable, the most reliable, and the most profitable.
When you lowball yourself to win contracts, you’re setting the tone for the entire relationship, and it’s rarely one that leads to respect, sustainability, or real growth.
You end up:
- Resenting your clients
- Running yourself (and your drivers) into the ground
- Operating on razor-thin margins
- Having no room to hire help, invest in tools, or scale
And let’s be honest, you can’t serve your clients well from a place of burnout and financial strain.
Where Courier CEOs Go Wrong With Pricing
Here are some of the most common pricing mistakes I see courier CEOs make (and yes, I’ve made some of these myself in the early days):
1. Guessing Instead of Calculating
You can’t pull prices out of thin air or copy what someone else charges without knowing your numbers. Your expenses, your market, your delivery zones, your fuel, your time, all of it matters.
In Why I Stopped Using Load Boards, I break down why letting platforms dictate your rates is a recipe for broke. Pricing needs to be intentional.
2. Letting Clients Lead the Price Conversation
If you’re asking, “What’s your budget?” before you even share your rates, you’ve already given away your power. Position yourself as a business, not a gig worker looking for a favor. Confidence is currency.
3. Charging Just Enough to Cover Costs
If you’re only charging enough to break even, what happens when something goes wrong? What about profit? What about growth? What about retirement? Your rates should reflect your value and fund your future.
I go deeper into this in 3 Things That Keep You Broke in Business, where I talk about the mindset traps that stall business growth.
The Mindset Shift That Changed Everything
I have clients who think, “If I just keep my prices low, I’ll get more clients.”
But more clients at low rates just means more stress, more hours, and less freedom.
The shift happened when I started thinking like a CEO instead of a courier. I began asking:
- What are my services worth to the client?
- What level of service am I providing?
- What do I need to earn to pay myself and grow my business?
And then, I built my pricing around that, not around what others were charging or what I thought people could “afford.”
Stop Hoping and Start Calculating
If you’ve been winging your prices, hoping that the volume will make up for the margins, I want to lovingly say: that’s not a strategy.
It’s time to:
- Audit your current pricing
- Define your profit goals
- Understand your costs per mile, per route, per delivery
- Create tiered pricing models for different client types
This is what we dive into inside Routes to Riches: Mastering Courier Pricing, my workshop for courier business owners and 1099 drivers who are ready to stop playing small and start getting paid what they’re worth.
Routes to Riches: Learn to Price for Profit
This workshop isn’t fluff. It’s real-world, real-money strategy.
You’ll learn:
- How to create a rate sheet that matches your business goals
- How to pitch and position your rates with confidence
- What to charge based on delivery type, zone, and urgency
- The hidden costs you’re probably forgetting
- How to negotiate without sounding desperate
This training is for you if:
- You’re tired of barely covering fuel
- You’re ready to stop working for peanuts
- You want to grow a team, but your margins won’t allow it
- You’re done letting fear run your business decisions
Final Word: Be Bold Enough to Believe You’re Worth It
Every successful courier CEO I’ve coached had to make this shift: from undervalued contractor to strategic business owner. The biggest difference? They stopped letting fear set their prices.
You can’t build a six-figure business on scared money. And you shouldn’t have to.
Ready to learn how to price like a pro?
Let’s make sure the numbers make sense and that you finally get paid what you’re worth.
Your logistics mentor,
Coach Roslyn
