Saturday 3 October 2009

New downloads- Site Upgrade

Lots of new free downloads of Games, [including 4 Free TV Channels], Home and Office Free Downloads, Free Anti Virus, and Free Webmaster Downloads. Just scroll down to the bottom of the new menu. We have even put an ‘add me button’ so you can bookmark these programs to you favourite book-marking site, or email to a friend.
The site is in the process of being upgraded, unfortunately we have had another of those busy months, and I haven’t had time to upgrade all pages. There is still a lot more free downloads to add, but these may have to wait until the Christmas – New Year break.
My last post titled Success was well received, and the link to RFT has produced several enquiries for quotes to Europe from people who have used the link [Your Company Name Here] use RFT Express Couriers for all our UK & European Deliveries With one customer who used it at the bottom of their page, saying it was already showing in Google that they now deliver their goods in Europe.
I have recently optimised RFT Express for the search term ‘Hanging Garment Deliveries in UK and Europe’ and on most of the European Google search engines, RFT Express comes up at least once in each of the top three spots on page one. This helps those people who have used this link on their pages, as it should start showing their sites along with the RFT Express listing. It also comes up on the top Chinese search engine ‘Baidu’ as well as other search engines across the world.
It always helps to link to site with a Google Page Rank, RFT Express page rank varies between 1 and 2, which when you consider this site only went live 6 months ago, is fairly good. Unfortunately the search engines don’t take into account the visitors to the blogs. This blog alone is redistributed by Google blog search, Blogger, Weblogs, Blo.gs, Technorati, Feed Burner, Syndic8, NewsGator, My Yahoo, PubSub.Com, Blogdigger, BlogRolling, BlogStreet, Moreover, Weblogalot, Ice Rocket, News is free, Topic exchange, Spin3r, Blog line, Post rank, Sky grid, Collecta, and many more. Although the readers are in the thousands, Google don’t count these visits to the site, which is stopping the page rank going as high as it should be. But they do count the links both on the blogs and when readers bookmark them on the social sites. So take advantage of the social bookmarking sites provided with the ‘add me button’ and add links to your site.
If you aren’t getting increased new business regularly from your web site, you should read the articles on our site and start spreading your name around, and climb up the search engine positions.[Take advantage of the ‘Add Me Button’ it works for your business and for social contacts.]

Article by VicFarron Staff writer RFT Express

Thursday 17 September 2009

Success

The last post Recession- How Everybody Can Profit From it created a lot of interest and raised a few of queries:
Why do we have such a large mailing list, and is it spam?
The answer is that we use our own lists, plus those of our partners. These lists are called ‘Double Opt In’. You may have come across these when you have subscribed to a newsletter. You fill a form out on a website subscribing, then you get an email asking you to confirm your subscription. This is called ‘Double Opt in’ If you have a jealous rival who is subscribing you to thousands of email lists, a ‘Double Opt in’ stops this, because the confirmation email goes to your email address, no confirmation means you are not subscribed.
Will I get lots of visitors to my site, who are not really interested in it?
The answer is No. Again going back to the email lists you subscribe to, because you were interested in a certain subject you subscribed to that list. When you place link on your site we automatically check it, and the key words related to your site, which allow us to include your link in emails to people who have shown an interested in your products or services.
Which is the best sort of link, text or image?
The choice is yours. The first thing you have to consider is if the colour of our image links will be complimentary to your sites general look and feel. A text link can appear in your general text, or at the bottom of the page. This link works for you extremely well. [Your Company Name Here] use RFT Express Couriers for all our UK & European Deliveries when you put your company name in it. This is ideal at the bottom of the page, and can increase your business. This tells your customers that you can also deliver in Europe; and it will also be picked up by the European search engines as well. It also blends in with your site theme automatically. If you want a different text link, email me.

Article by VicFarron Staff writer RFT Express

Monday 7 September 2009

Recession- How Everybody Can Profit From It !!!!!!

This is probably the most important post you have ever read. It is the final post in the popular Recession Series, and shows you how to get yourself, your company name, or brand in front of millions of people, and companies. Best of all it’s approved and encouraged by all the search engines, and it’s FREE. Links, content, and visitors determine where you are on page 1 of the search engines. We are going to explore the SNOWBALL affect of LINKS. Just like a snowball rolling down a mountain, the number of links keeps growing.
• If you are in business with a website, and want more links, and exposure, you can use all these methods. More links means more people can find you, and most important so can the search engines. AND IT HELPS YOUR RANKINGS.
• If you are selling on EBAY, and want more links, and exposure, you can use all these methods. More links means more people can find you, and most important so can the search engines

• If you are in business without a website, and want more links, and exposure, you can use all these methods.
• If you simply want to increase your exposure on your social Facebook or Myspace, you can use all these methods.

• If you are looking for a job, or thinking of starting a small business, you can use all these methods.

• If you are thinking of going into business, you can use all these methods. And get your site get off to a flying start.

• The most important way people find you or your site is through links.

Read the full article
This is the last in a series of articles taken from an E book due later in the year.

Monday 31 August 2009

August Traditionally a Quiet Month

August traditionally a quiet month, was absolutely horrendous. Although we had two drivers on holiday during the month, both on contract runs, there runs were easily covered. What we didn’t for see was the dramatic increase in business during August. Companies who during June and July we were delivering samples to the trade shows, and the private viewings for mail order companies and department stores, all picked up increased business which resulted in the run up to Christmas starting early. With the increased practice of department stores offering privileged customers the chance to preview new season lines, it looks as though competition in the retail sector is going to be fierce. Manufacturers who ran stocks down, the race is on to restock, which means a lot of companies being dependent on the lending criteria of the banks to survive. Companies with cash reserves are now in a much stronger position than those who were trading on credit.
European runs virtually doubled this month, with Germany still contributing the largest share. Although we expected this increase in mid September, to keep up with the increased demand it has been necessary for all staff to be out on the road, resulting in telephones not being answered quickly, and some customers not being able to get through at all, resulting in more email request for loads to be delivered. RFT Express apologises for this, and trusts our customers were not unduly inconvenienced. Three new vehicles were ordered for the expected increase and should be in service over the next few weeks.
The sudden upswing in business with our customers may not be replicated nationwide, but it does lend a little bit more weight to the theory that we may be in for a double headed recession, if we come out of recession too quickly. I can see some companies who ran stock levels too low, being unable refinance stock levels, resulting in more closures over the next few months. One BBC reporter quoted the financial institutions as operating the 3-6-3 policy. Borrow at 3%, lend at 6%, on the golf course by 3.00 p.m.
The next 4 to 6 weeks should give a clearer picture.

Sunday 30 August 2009

Free Viral Advertising

This is the fourth post in the popular ‘recession’ series, following on from: The Recession-A Great Opportunity?, The Recession What An Opportunity?, Recession - Act Now
Up until the recession RFT Express was doing OK, the recession and the chance of acquiring struggling companies, was the spring board to bring forward our intention to expand our customer base. With companies closing down, many courier companies couldn’t survive if they lost one or more customers. Multinational courier and transport firms were closing non profitable sections of their businesses down, this left a big whole to fill in the UK and Europe markets . This phenomenon is typical of virtually all sectors in the market. The only way we could capitalise quickly on this was through our websites.
Why Use Google?
Google is the place to be noticed whether you have a website or not [on this page on our website you can find out how to get a web presence, without paying for it, and with no experience] We have several of these, and every month we get statistics from directories we who have replicated what they think is important on our site, and reproduce a mini site which gets us extra business, all for free. It’s a snowball effect which is generated by links on Google.
Before the internet was available to everyone, the only ways to generate business were through personal contacts, knocking on doors or paid advertising. There used to be a true saying :-‘without advertising a remarkable thing happens.....NOTHING!’ This is still true today, the only difference is the way you advertise.
Read the full article
This is the fourth in a series of articles taken from an E book due later in the year.
Vic Farron, staff writer for rftexpresscouriers.co.uk

Tuesday 11 August 2009

The Recssion-Act Now

The Recession – Now is the time to act!
This article is the third in the series, and follows on from The recession- a great opportunity? The recession-what an opportunity

The first article was an attempt to put you in the right frame of mind to succeed. If you don’t believe you can succeed, you won’t. The first article showed how easy it is to set up a small business, with little or no capital. With the current climate you have very little chance of borrowing from you bank, but it always worth a try. There are other ways of raising capital if you have to. There are grants available from many organisations. A search of the internet will reveal some of these, in additions some local authorities will help with premises, and business rate reductions. Your local Business Link and local Chamber of Commerce will help by pointing you in the right direction, and information can also be obtained from your local library. If everything else fails try friends and family, you never know, you might even end up with a partner.
Your bank is still the first place to try, even though they may not lend you any money, they do provide some support, and a lot of literature which can be helpful. You will need a business plan and a profit and loss forecast as well as a cash flow forecast, and a projection on turnover. Your research will give you some indication of what these figures should be. The second article dealt with forecasting your turnover and cash flow.
Read the full article.....
Vic Farron staff writer for RFT Express

Thursday 6 August 2009

UK EX-PATS Pension Rule Changes

There have been one or two changes to the UK pension entitlement during the last 18 months, and with the number of requests for information we are receiving from people living abroad, it seems an appropriate time to outline the changes. . There is a link on our website, where you can get a figure for your pension entitlement, and a PDF download, in case the page isn’t always live,

Firstly if you are entitled to a pension, YOU WON’T GET IT UNLES YOU ASK FOR IT! Carry on reading.

Sunday 19 July 2009

UK Gov. Plans for Greener Future

The UK Government has announced that personal car travel produces 13 per cent of the UK's total greenhouse gas emissions. It also contributes to local air pollution and congestion. The type of car you own, the way you drive it and the fuel you use can make a big difference to your impact on the environment. They also confirm that the Scappage scheme is only temporary.
Buying a new car can reduce the carbon emissions, how long it takes for the reduction in carbon emissions, to out way the emissions discharged in the manufacture of these new cars hasn’t been taken into account. But at least this initiative is encouraging people to get into more debt, and helping to increase foreign car imports.
The Government state that around 20 per cent of the yearly emissions cuts between now and 2020 will be achieved by cleaning up the way people in the UK travel. By 2050, road and rail transport will be largely decarbonised and aviation and shipping will have become more efficient.
They have also announced new measurers detailing what kinds of electric and plug-in hybrid cars could qualify for the £2-£5,000 incentives expected to apply from 2011

Vic Farron RFT Express

The Recession – A Great Opportunity?

Recession has gripped the world creating depression amongst the people. Fear of losing their jobs and homes, spreads doom and gloom every where. If you believe this; you are already halfway down the slippery slope to the bottom of the pit of despair. What you want is P.M.A.
Adversity brings out the best and worst in people; make sure it brings out the best in you. In business you plan ahead for all possible scenarios, or should do, fail to plan means you plan to fail. For the majority of people i.e. those not in business simply plan their finances as best they can, and because times have been good, the thought of losing their job has not entered the equation, hence the doom and gloom.
But all is not lost, you can usually find free debt counselling, this tends to delay the immediate problems and consequences, but doesn’t cure the problem. To a lot of people the idea of using a stranger to sort out their debt and their lives is an acknowledgement of failure.
You can do something about it yourself.
Losing your job doesn’t mean you are a failure, it means you have been given choices.
Read the full article
This is the first in a series of articles taken from an E book due later in the year.
Vic Farron, staff writer for rftexpresscouriers.co.uk

Sunday 12 July 2009

How to Lose A Customer in 1 Easy Stage, a True Story Based on Fact.

It is with some shame that I recount my experience of last week.
On Thursday evening a neighbour came round, asking a favour. The neighbour works for a company we have been trying to get in with for some time. The neighbour wanted a pallet of hair products moving from Bradford in the Uk to somewhere in Holland. The Dutch customer was screaming wanting the delivery the next day, but the neighbour said the load had to be thoroughly rechecked, and wouldn’t be ready until Friday afternoon [presumably because the first load was not up to spec, or had been damaged in transit]... Read the full article
Vic Farron RFT Express staff writer.

Wednesday 8 July 2009

New Digital Strategy for Britain

Prime Minister Gordon Brown said: "Digital Britain is about giving the country the tools to succeed and lead the way in the economy of the future.The report shows how we will ensure we have a world-class digital and communications infrastructure, that we promote and protect talent and innovation in our creative industries, that we modernise our TV and radio frameworks and support local news.
The Government are investing in areas such as broadband access for every home and business and the move from analogue to digital technology will bring benefits across the board, driving growth, enabling businesses to thrive, and providing new opportunities and choices for households right across the country. It is an essential part of building Britain’s future
More news

June has been a funny old month

June has been a funny old month, as the temperature went up, the visitors went down. I assume they were all outside soaking up the sun, and the drink.
With the death of Michael Jackson, a few ‘news sites’ which were associated with the entertainment business just crashed through the number of people trying to get on.
Talking of sites crashing, one of our sites www.yorkshirecourier.com has been crashing lately with, according to the server, too much traffic. I am assured the site will not crash again, but if it does, you should be able to find the information you want at www.rftexpresscouriers.co.uk

Free Downloads

The good news is we have added quite few new free software downloads, webmaster downloads, and some awesome free games sent in by our visitors. You can access these from http://www.rftexprescouriers.co.uk/ Providing the free software is our way of saying thank you to our visitors and clients. The downloads are proving very popular, with the majority of downloads being articles relating to the Courier industry. On the 18th June we had 835 visitors subscribing to our blog feed in one day.
The serious industry blogs are on the way, in the meantime here is a bit of fun to test your mind.

You are stood in a one roomed building with 4 sides. On each side there is a window. No matter which window you look out of, you are looking south. A bear walks passed one window and looks in at you. What colour is the bear? [Answer in the next blog]

If you think you know the colour mail me.

Article by Vic Farron http://www.rftexpresscouriers.co.uk/

One law for the rich, one for the poor.

The UK government has announced new fixed penalty notices for failing to wear a seatbelt, or putting illegal plates on a vehicle have increased to £60, up from £30 at present. You could argue that having to wear a seat belt, could infringe your civil rights.
As for the illegal number plates, some are so confusing, that if you spotted one in a hit and run, you wouldn’t be able to tell the police the correct number. For years these illegal number plates have been a compulsory fail on an M.O.T. test, but the Government has always taken a soft approach to this. If they made this fine £6,000 instead of £60, it might stop this practice, as it is most people will gladly pay the fine, why not, it is less than you would pay for being caught by a speed camera., and no penalty points.
Better still a £6,000 fine, and the vehicle confiscated would be more appropriate. Check out what the Government say http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Nl1/Newsroom/DG_178975?cid=rss
Do you have an opinion on this?

Britain, a Nation of Animal lovers.

All the world is of the opinion that the British think more about their pets than they do about people. The world is wrong, it is only the British Public who own, or have owned a family pet. A pet is a loyal companion, your children’s best mate, your protector and your comforter. That’s why we have the R.S.P.C.A., and the R.S.P.B. to protect our animals, and they do a better job of protecting our animals, than the authorities do of protecting our vulnerable children.
The UK Government allow you to have your pet put down if it is terminally ill or in extreme pain, when there is no chance of a cure, in fact they will prosecute you for causing your pet undue suffering if you don’t. Poor Granny in pain, with a terminal illness, bedridden, unable to feed, clothe or wash herself, with no quality of life, the Government says she must suffer a long, painful, lingering death.
It is understandable why the world are of the opinion that the British people, and the British Government think more of our pets, than of people. On the news yesterday it was reported that a Police Dog handler left two Alsatians in a Police car, outside a Police Station where they died. The Police chief said on radio that they had spent hundreds of thousands of pound building suitable accommodation for their animals, and said it would not happen again. The R.S.P.C.A were quick to take the animals for post mortem, at least we can satisfied that if there is a case to made, they will prosecute. There was no news about how many old people died of heat exhaustion.

Pre Pack Insolvency

In my post on the 8th June headed ‘The changing role of the courier’ I mentioned pre-pack insolvency, the response from people who have been lucky enough to not to be a victim of this loophole, I will attempt to explain how it works. Principally it is the same as a normal insolvency, except that the current owners take the assets of the company, and agree to pay for them at a knock down price in the future.
Let’s assume you have a company with a large client base, plenty of assets and principally a good name, but with a cash flow problem, i.e. you can’t pay your bills when due. A lot of companies try and trade their way out of insolvency, which only compounds the problem, then take the route of ‘pre pack insolvency’. They call in their chartered accountant, show him the figures and suggest that they make an agreement to keep existing staff on, buy the company assets at a later date, and start trading again from the same address, same staff, same phone numbers, but with a very slight change to the company name. The accountant contacts the largest creditors, if they agree that they will accept payment in full or part at a later date, then the accountants set everything up, sends letters out to the other creditors, notifying them after the new company has started trading, that the old company has been liquidated. The new company trades with the same directors as before, the same cash flow policies, but now debt free totally or in part.
Most ‘Pre Pack insolvencies’ struggle, or are unable to get credit, ask yourself would you deal with a company who did this, with the consequences that they do go bankrupt before too long.
Article by Vic Farron www.rftexpresscouriers.co.uk

Is The UK Coming Out of Recession?

During this week we have heard the Governor of the Bank of England , Mervin King announce that the UK could be coming out of recession due to the policies put in place by the Bank of England, and Quoting the fact that the Honda plant is re-opening. The following day the Prime Minister Gordon Brown said the same thing, this time quoting the measures he had put in place.
I think they read my post of the 28th April [some hope!!!!]Reproduced below.
Green Shoots Of Recovery?
April 22, 2009 04:14:00
Posted By vic farron
I am not a politician, but there is still the possibility that this article could still come back and bite me in the future. Never the less the information coming out of some companies does give rise to the need to convey the good news.
In RFT’s biggest sector, the print industry, some firms are reporting increase in sales, with firms who previously were shedding staff like a tree in autumn, are now scrambling about trying to find experienced temps, while other companies are reinstating shift working, for some departments, or at least considering this possibility .
Carry on reading......http://www.rftexpresscouriers.co.uk/courier%20info.htm

Staff Will Walk After Recession

Some companies are using the recession to impose pay freezes or even pay cuts, as well as increasing workloads on staff to cover for redundancies. With some companies no longer allowing 'tea breaks', and forbidding workers to eat or drink while working.
Changing staggered meal breaks for different departments, into the full factory having the same half hour meal breaks, has meant that many workers are spending their meal breaks queuing for their full break period to get into canteens unable to accommodate so many extra people.
Pressure to work longer hours is also demoralizing staff, and reducing productivity. Companies adopting this Victorian style of dictatorship management, will find that when the recession is over, those once loyal and experienced staff, will register their disgust of the treatment metered out to them, by using their feet and walking into better companies.

RoSPA LAUNCHES NEW VERSION OF DRIVER PROFILER

RoSPA has launched an improved version of an award-winning psychometric risk assessment tool to bring new benefits to organisations wishing to gauge the strengths and weaknesses of their employees’ driving. Driver Profiler 2 is an online software package that assesses the risks associated with an employee’s use of the road, enabling informed decisions to be taken about training that might be required Go to RFT Exress Courier info, scroll down to Try it online Here

SAFED Safe and Fuel Efficient Driving

This guide is part of a series of publications produced by the Department for Transport to encourage safe
and fuel efficient driving under the Freight Best Practice programme. Go to RFT Express Courier info to Download PDF

Total UK CO2 emissions = 542.6 million tonnes for 2007

Latest figures in the UK Transport and Climate Change data factsheets - 26 March 2009, show that in 2007 the UK produced over 540 million tonnes of CO2.
Transport producing 173.2 million tonnes of CO2.Of this 173 million tonnes, private cars were responsible for 44.3%, HGVs were responsible for 15.2%, and vans were responsible for 8.3%.The Government use a ‘basket’ of six Green House Gases consisting of carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide, methane, sulphur hexafluoride, perfluorocarbons and hydrofluorocarbons.
The provisional data for 2008 show CO2 emissions to be 531.8 million tonnes.

Saturday 13 June 2009

Changing role of the courier

The recession has brought changes to the courier industry, some good some bad. Recessions have always been a challenge and an opportunity to companies, depending on management.

In the courier industry, over manning by courier companies has largly not been a problem, with most companies employing their own staff and vehicles for prestige customers, and the excess workload has been covered by self employed couriers