Postage cost (And who to send with)

[Westfield]

Hi there,

My company has been growing considerably over the last year and a bit. But, the one thing we don't seem to have evolved much with is cutting back on postal costs; we got a franking machine and that has helped a lot with smaller packages and letters, but anything over 2KG? We've not moved on from that.

We use Parcel2go.com and that has worked really well, with only a few missed collections, but all rectified the next day. But if it's at all possible we'd really like to be able to offer customers something cheaper, because we're sure there has been a number of cases where we've lost sales because of the weight/price issue on orders over 2KG.

Soooo, I have three questions, if you have the time

1) Is there a cheaper way to post things than using a contractor like Parcel2go.com? We've talked to most of the couriers direct and had their reps around and the whole shebang, but to get even close (read: not as cheap!) to parcel2go's prices we need to be shifting out thousands of orders a day, it's not realistic for us.

2) 25kg+ orders. We get a few of them and end up splitting the order: Does anyone know of a reliable service that will take more than 25KG collections/deliveries that CAN'T be split (Example: A tent)?

3) How many of you lose a bit of money (Not overall, just on the amount you charge for p&p) on postage costs you charge to the customer? For example, our highest band is £4.95, it really costs £7, but we accept that the products they're ordering warrant being shipped by a proper courier so bite the bullet on the postal cost loss.

Sorry for the long winded questions, I am terrible at explaining/explain too much!

Thanks for taking the time to read them

 

[Lord of the Teapot]

Hello Westfiled
Postage and to some extent packaging, has always, and will always, be a major factor (Concern) for any one using any service. I wish I could offer more help and/or advice but you seem to be doing every thing you can. I'll be keeping a watch on this post to see if any one can offer more help then I. Good luck

 

[matt.h]

Have you looked at the parcel carriers for your over 25kg products i.e. Tuffnells?

 

[Progress]

Try using a search engine and be sure to find a cheaper alternative. But take a attention to the quality of service.

 

[Westfield]

Have you looked at the parcel carriers for your over 25kg products i.e. Tuffnells?

Hi, Matt,

We have looked at the ones that will deal with us (Distance/location is an issue as we're in the middle of nowhere

The cheapest we've been able to source direct from a carrier is ParcelForce for £34.99 which is just not on

 

[Westfield]

Try using a search engine and be sure to find a cheaper alternative. But take a attention to the quality of service.

Have been, for well over a year, cheapest we can find is Parcel2go.com and was simply wondering if there was any alternatives to this for volume.

Thanks

 

[Amethyst]

Most our parcels are large letters and small parckets and we set up a Packpost account with Royalmail. For big parcels occasionally, we use parcel2go too. Not really can help anyway, just wish you good luck!

 

[alanc]

Why do you have a 2kg limit on Royal Mail parcels? Is this a franking limit? If you switch to a PPI or PacketPost account you can send heavier parcels using RM. The only limit is parcel size.

This won't help with a tent, though

 

[Spapro]

We use APC Overnight.

We are low volume and we pay £8.95 for Next day for up to 10 kilos which is mostly fine for us.

Looking at my pricelist they charge 30p per kilo over 10 kilos (up to 100kg) so a 30kg parcel would cost £8.95 + £9 = £17.95 plus VAT.

We use Royal Mail for smaller parcels like you but anything over 2kg goes by APC.

We have found APC to be very, very good - clearly you would need to checkout their full T&C's but maybe worth a look if they operate in your area.

 

[wormcity]

Hi
We use parcelforce on a contract and apart from city link, they are the cheapest for us (and we have seen them all)

City link works out cheapest for anything upto 10kg, after that you start having to add per kilo, which is a real pain, as a lot of our items are over this weight.

We have found that if you do lots of Scotland / Ireland deliveries any other courier really seem to charge the earth for these areas.

APC are excellent, and we have a per consignment rate, (we don't use them very often as parcelforce have quite generous size / weight limits)
but it would be good for you if you need to send 8 parcels to one address, then you would pay by weight.
However they do charge extra for scottish lowlands, so anything to glasgow (normally zone 1) does cost.

Postage costs are a big factor, 24 & 48 costs the same for us, so we don't hike the price up for next day delivery.

we charge our customers £6.95 for next day delivery - we do loose out on it, as it costs us more than that.

Best of luck

Ronnie

 

[nwsuk]

We use packet post / ppi with royal mail

Seems to be the most effective way to send items out below 500g.

Also works on average weight per bag, so you can for example, send 50 items out at 75 grams and 50 items out at 125g. Lump them together and you will be charged for 100 items at 100 grams (the royal mails lowest charging level).

Also unlike franking, you dont need to do each item to get it franked individually. We simply print out thousands of sheets of sticky labels (each sheet has 21 labels on it). Staff attach them as they pack. That way its quick, its easy and you can also monitor how much work your staff are doing. With a cross check between number of labels they use and the amount in the bags.

For parcels we use interlink at present, but we wil be shopping around shortly.

 

[Westfield]

We use APC Overnight.

We are low volume and we pay £8.95 for Next day for up to 10 kilos which is mostly fine fo....

Hi
We use parcelforce on a contract and apart from city link, they are the cheapest for us (and we have seen them all)

City link works out cheap....

Thanks guys, food for thought

Hopefully I'll have a few hours at the end of the day to get into contact with some more couriers - Hard to find the time sometimes, but I'll make time!

 

[APC Nexday Overnite Ltd]

Westfield going off your last post if you're going to try APC Overnight look at our website www.apc-overnight.com. Type in your postcode/town on you'll find your nearest depot!

 

[bennyhillslovechild]

We've been using CCL-Logistics, they got us a deal with UPS (although I think they have dealings with many others) where anything up to 30kg is £4.45 (plus £2 surcharge for residential deliveries) + VAT which I didn't think was too bad. Plus they will take up to 70kg (albeit at a higher cost: £16.62 they quoted us).

The rate is quite good on multiple parcels too.

It's good as long as your parcels aren't too massive max length is 270cm (a surcharge if longest side over 150cm) and max girth (2x width + 2x height + length) is 330cm. If over that a big £32+ surcharge is added. If your parcels fall under that, which most of our do, then most of our items cost us £6.45 + VAT for next-day-delivery.

If you happen to find anyone for bulky/long parcels (not necessarily heavy) I'd love you to let me know - some of our furniture is over the 330cm girth and costs like that sooner eat into profits.

 

[tranmereED]

Have a look at collectplus.co.uk, I was looking at it the other day and thought it looked quite good. But, Im not sure how it would be if you were sending out a large volume of goods. It is £4.99 for up to 5kg and £6.99 for 5-10kg.
Hope thats some help,
Edward.

 

[SamBRT]

Hello,

Try parcelforce, we negotiated a good rate for sending roughly 25 parcels per day. We charge £7.95 for delivery which covers up to 30kg and up to 1m x 1m x 1m. We charge £7.95 that covers all the costs including packing and labor, we don't lose out but we don't make money.

The service is excellent they have never missed a delivery and any mistakes made by them are rectified very quickly.

Sam

 

[thecyclingartist]

I've started using parcelmonkey.co.uk for international at least - cheaper than parcel2go or interparcel for me. Haven't checked their domestic pricing.

Tina.

 

[DEFENDAPACK]

Hi There!

We are actually a Packaging manufacturer, and we also offer a courier service.

We specialise in parcels between 2kg and 30kg and can offer extremely competitive rates.

Give us a call on 02476 466000 and we would be delighted to see if we can help.

Kindest Regards

 

[TSUK]

You can post with my hermes from 2 to 15 kg for prices between £4.99 - £6.99

 

[belmorefinance]

Hi there,

My company has been growing considerably over the last year and a bit. But, the one thing we don't seem to have evolved much with is cutting back on postal costs; we got a franking machine and that has helped a lot with smaller packages and letters, but anything over 2KG? We've not moved on from that.

We use Parcel2go.com and that has worked really well, with only a few missed collections, but all rectified the next day. But if it's at all possible we'd really like to be able to offer customers something cheaper, because we're sure there has been a number of cases where we've lost sales because of the weight/price issue on orders over 2KG.

Soooo, I have three questions, if you have the time

1) Is there a cheaper way to post things than using a contractor like Parcel2go.com? We've talked to most of the couriers direct and had their reps around and the whole shebang, but to get even close (read: not as cheap!) to parcel2go's prices we need to be shifting out thousands of orders a day, it's not realistic for us.

2) 25kg+ orders. We get a few of them and end up splitting the order: Does anyone know of a reliable service that will take more than 25KG collections/deliveries that CAN'T be split (Example: A tent)?

3) How many of you lose a bit of money (Not overall, just on the amount you charge for p&p) on postage costs you charge to the customer? For example, our highest band is £4.95, it really costs £7, but we accept that the products they're ordering warrant being shipped by a proper courier so bite the bullet on the postal cost loss.

Sorry for the long winded questions, I am terrible at explaining/explain too much!

Thanks for taking the time to read them

Hi there

It sounds like you may need some cost optimisation.

This is a process that offers you cost alternatives and cheaper solutions to your needs. It is a good way of increasing revenue and improve productivity.

Please PM to offer you a few more details.

Cheers

 

[Westfield]

Planet Parcel is definitely a delivery company worth checking out, really good prices starting at £5.99...also they give you free insurance to the value of £50 which is great, and 5% off for regular users!
I'd say the best site to use if you're sending parcels very regularly

They are excruciatingly expensive

£11 (inc VAT) to send a 5kg 35x35x35 box with DHL/Yodel's standard service, it's almost cheaper to contact them directly and do it!

Thanks for the input, though