i recently looked into purchasing a fastways courier franchise, the fastway couriers are franchised to the local region which may also be a franchise of the franchisor which i am not totally sure of. this is the reason i din't take one as i would need to sell the delivery franchise if i wanted out. a mate is a poste haste contractor, if he wants to get out of it he just has to give a certain amount of notice before stopping being a contractor.
as for the franchise group i work for, there are vast differences in locations due to the owners ability, there are 4 really great branches but the rest are ok or very poor. it is directly relevant to the person owning/running it. in saying that what we do is very technical, not as simple as couriering or other franchises.