Large Parcel Delivery

[bennyhillslovechild]

I was wondering if anyone had any experience with large (not necessarily heavy) parcel delivery. We have a garden centre and we're now starting up an e-commerce store. We currently use UPS but extra charges on larger items (such as swing hammocks and benches) soon get prohibitive. We don't feel we can charge a huge delivery fee either, as a lot of our competitors offer free postage over a certain threshold - as do we.

Can anybody recommend a parcel-delivery service that's good for larger items (up to 2m long and 40kg in weight).

Thanks in advance for your time and advice.

Regards,
Marc.

 

[IanDade]

Uk Mail will handle larger parcels for you. But beware, all parcel carriers will charge you the price for either actual weight or volumetric weight, whichever is the GREATER. This can catch a lot of people out and end up costing you a great deal.

Our contract with UK Mail is a set cost for parcels up to 20kg then £z per kilo or part kilo above that.

We have one item which we sent out for a client of ours which only weighs 11kg, but has dimensions of 130cm x 70cm x 35cm. Using UK Mails volumetric calculator this has a volumetric weight of 63.7kg.

This means we are paying set cost + (48 x £z) to send this item. This is a great deal more expensive than the set cost (almost 5 times as much added on top).

Most carriers will carry large items, but be warned on how they calculate the cost.

 

[jamie1183]

We use City Link, we send various sizes mainly upto 30KG and are very well priced, however they price based on your volume but we always had a great service from them.

 

[YourProcurement]

Hi,

DPD offer very competitive rates for parcel services, especially if you will be sending these in volumes - They also offer some unique tailored solutions for secure packaging and courier options.

Might be worth a call?

Regards,

David

 

[IanDade]

Hi,

DPD offer very competitive rates for parcel services, especially if you will be sending these in volumes - They also offer some unique tailored solutions for secure packaging and courier options.

Might be worth a call?

Regards,

David

David you are absoultely correct, we use DPD for 99% of our parcel traffic and their service and prices for standard parcels is hard to beat. But their prices if you stray from the remit of standard prices is high. No higher than other couriers admittedly, but high non the less. I am afraid that non of the carriers want to handle this "ugly traffic" as it is termed as it does not fit down their conveyors and therefore does not allow for auto routing in the hubs.

These large parcels have to be manually routed, hence why they charge you more.

Home Delivery Network will handle large products using the Mid Range service, up to 2.75m maximum length and maximum cubic voume of 0.45m3, but you pay for this service. I am not sure if you stioll need minimum volume levels to use HDN, you used to, but they may be worth a call.

 

[bennyhillslovechild]

Thank you all for your advice. Much appreciated. I'll speak to the companies suggested and see what they services they offer.

Regards,
Marc.

 

[IanDade]

No problems. Hope you find someone to help you at a reasonable cost.

 

[mdj101]

If you really can't find anyone else. Nightfreight specialise in big, awkward sizes.

 

[John_F]

City Link.