Couriers who is performing well

[gibby]

We have recently been quoted better prices by most of the regular couriers as they are fighting for business.

Just wondering if anyone here uses business post/UK Mail and what the service is like

thanks

G

 

[JEREMY HAWKE]

None of he big four or any better than each other its just a case of finding the best price or you may require a late collection time ..Its a buyers market

 

[stickylabels]

We use Fedex / ANC and have had excellent service with few parcels going missing or being returned. Our rates are in the region of £5.80 + vat for a next day parcel up to 10Kg - hope that helps!

 

[Idontbuy]

We use City-link and to be fair they are pretty good we probably have a 2% not delivered next day.

£5.99 upto 30 kgs next day.

DHL have just offered us a 48 hour service upto 10KGs £4.25

Not sure which way to go really, we charge customer £4.99 next day shipping so we lose £1 on every sale at the moment but i get very little hassle from customers about shipping.

IDB

 

[TimmoB]

We have tried four couriers,

Citylink were really great until our regular driver was off sick, the guy who replaced him stuck the labels on all the boxes willy nilly, we had 16 cross labelled, took 10 days to track down all the parcels and get them redelivered. Lost two big clients. Whilst Citylink helped, it was enough for me to change.

Business Post really great no damages, nice drivers, good customer service, lousy management policy ramped up their pricing, we changed.

Parcel force. Disaster zone. anything that did not fit on their conveyor system got trashed, leading to loads of reprints, the insurance claim system was beyond a joke. I refused to pay their final invoices until we came to an arrangement whereby we contra the damages cost against the invoices.

Interlink, have been and still are fantastic, in around 3000 parcels i think we probably had maybe 4 damaged. Would recommend.

Hope that helps...

Timmo.

 

[KidsBeeHappy]

Fedex, Interlink, UPS, Business post are usually the top end.
DHL is the discounter, so if you want the cheapest prices they'll be option, but expect the service level that goes with it.
Citylink have hauled their reliability rates up to 99% this year. So anyone that has had dealings with with them in the past may be worth a check again now.
Parcelforce is somewhere in the middle, and tends to vary depending on the local depot.

Business Post are c**p at delivering to residential addresses, if its a b2c operation then I wouldn't recommend. b2b they are one of the best.

Prices tend to do with reliability levels, so if you go with the company offering a 20% cheaper price, then expect a drop in customer service and reliability.

I think TNT are thinking about volumetric pricing - heard that one on the grapevine a while back, but haven't seen any movement as such, it would be a bit of a kamacaze move in current economic climate.

 

[downsouth]

certainly interested in this thread as I have just started another venture, most of my products are between 2Kg - 4Kg.

At present dont have the volume to get a decent rate, but if anyone knows a ballpark figure for postage be glad to hear about it, not too keen on using Parcel Force as I like to be able to track items but dont wanna pay their rates for tracking these size parcels

 

[dingbat]

Speaking only from experience of friends in business, it really depends on your local delivery or sorting staff for each company. Someone comes in with sticky fingers or is just greedier than the rest and you'll have a lot of problems.

 

[JEREMY HAWKE]

We have tried four couriers,

Citylink were really great until our regular driver was off sick, the guy who replaced him stuck the labels on all the boxes willy nilly, we had 16 cross labelled, took 10 days to track down all the parcels and get them redelivered. Lost two big clients. Whilst Citylink helped, it was enough for me to change.

Business Post really great no damages, nice drivers, good customer service, lousy management policy ramped up their pricing, we changed.

Parcel force. Disaster zone. anything that did not fit on their conveyor system got trashed, leading to loads of reprints, the insurance claim system was beyond a joke. I refused to pay their final invoices until we came to an arrangement whereby we contra the damages cost against the invoices.

Interlink, have been and still are fantastic, in around 3000 parcels i think we probably had maybe 4 damaged. Would recommend.

Hope that helps...

Timmo.

Nobody should be depending on the collection drivers to label up anything .This must be done by you before the driver arrives ..If you have a lot to send out then the parcel company will assist you with a computer generated system or in some cases a complete computer ...

 

[TimmoB]

Thank you for you comment Jeremy.

This was a few years ago when we had to handwrite the shipments onto a sheet, the driver would then take the parcels and sheets back to the depot where they would produce the labels. We would print our own address labels and attach them to the parcels prior to them being picked up. This is why we quit using them, the guy ignored our labels and stuck the shipment labels on the wrong boxes. I guess he must of got out of bed the wrong side that day.

As i stated in my previous post, we now use Interlink who have a very good online booking system which allows you to book, track and print labels to ensure that the cross label mistake does not happen. This is a must for a modern courier company. Certainly the one that i want to use.

Timmo.

P.S. I used to work as a courier driver for A-Z Couriers in the late 80's. So please do not think i'm having a go at all drivers.

 

[thejoshm]

We use Business Post, overall pretty good. Although obviously very annoying when parcels do go AWOL, this has got to be well well under 1 in 1000.

Prices are good too, TNT have been in recently and couldn't even get close (much to the reps disapointment). That said we are within walking distance of the depot which makes collections easy for them and means we can dispatch up until 7pm if we really need to. The consignor software is decent too.