courier for long items (2meter)

[Karimbo]

Hi

I'm importing something for china for my own use but found that there is lack of these items being sold on ebay (people are currently buying the item from a polish seller at £20 delivery per item).

So great opp for me to get stuck in and sell on ebay myself.

The trouble is this item is 2m long. It can be cut to 1m and sold like that, however would be better to sell as a complete piece.

Trouble is can't find a budget courier to send these cheaply.
Minimum on parcel comparison site is £15.99 per item (the item will sell at £10 a pop, so not keen handing over bulk of the sales to courier).

Curious if anyone is aware of a budget courier that will take these long items that may not be on these affiliate comparison sites.

 

[AMS79]

TNT and Tuffnells will carry items of that sort of size however you will need an idea of volume to be able to access discounted prices. Remember that the comparison sites take their pound of flesh too and you are much better off going to the carrier and going onto contract rates... but.. you will need volume. I can't imagine you'd get much change from £10 on something that size though.

 

[Karimbo]

Thanks, I am with interlink and I believe they do take items that big, (they deliver aluminimium extrusions to me that are 2m long. But not sure if they'll let me send these outbound as Im a low volume seller)

I think 2m is just going to be too expensive to post leaving a small margin for me. I'll just cut these down to 1m and sell them short. at 1m I can send them very cheaply.

 

[Bill1954]

I Had Interlink on the phone the other day trying to sell me their service and the girl did mention that they don't volumise parcels so give them a call.

 

[Karimbo]

my items are long and thin so may qualify. But they do have something called volumetric weight.

http://www.interlinkexpress.com/content/product-services/restricted_items.jsp

 

[Dnallov]

Have a look at Tufnell’s. We buy 3m straight lengths of channelling & pipework, and it’s always delivered via Tufnell’s on a flatbed.

You going have to accept that unusual shaped items are going to occur extra charges, especially if you’re a small volume user.

 

[Justin Smith]

Thanks, I am with interlink and I believe they do take items that big, (they deliver aluminimium extrusions to me that are 2m long. But not sure if they'll let me send these outbound as Im a low volume seller)

I think 2m is just going to be too expensive to post leaving a small margin for me. I'll just cut these down to 1m and sell them short. at 1m I can send them very cheaply.

We send quite a lot of stuff out which is regarded as "over length" by most carriers. We`ve used TNT for years and years partly because they didn`t charge any extra for items up to their maximum length (3.6m). However, in July this year they introduced a surcharge (£4.95 + VAT) for all items over 1.6m. I spent quite a lot of time researching all the other couriers but in the end stayed with TNT. Partly because they give us a good price on our consignments (I don`t like their residential suppl though ! ) and partly because their service is reasonably good, and they pay for stuff they damage. We fell out with APC when they told us they didn`t pay for damage even if it was them who caused it. Nearly all the other carriers I tried had maximum length at between 1 and 1.5m, the only exception was Tuffnells, but they`re quite expensive, have loads of supplements for other things and I`ve heard not altogether positive things about their service.
The problem we have is we send enough to get a reasonable price with one carrier but if we split it between 2 or more carriers then the volume declines too much to get a good price. Many small businesses are in this particular boat.....
Anyway, my thought for you is why don`t you offer your product at 1m and 2m, with extra carriage for the latter, and the customer then has the choice ?

 

[HFE Signs]

As above, we use TNT for larger parcels