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Burrito
Original Poster
1,204 posts
89 months
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One for the Mail Order lot.
We're going to be shipping in much greater volumes to the states from August and need to make some decisions on new boxes to stay within Royal Mail's max dimensions: 900mm (H+W+D) and no single length greater than 600mm.
We've designed a box which is bang on these dimensions, which is all good, except there are a few products which are just beyond these sizes and would have to be shipped by courier, which has a huge impact on costs.
So my question is, how stringent is RM on these dimensions? Can I get away with an extra 20mm providing I stay within the 600mm max single length?
Thanks in advance.
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Burrito
Original Poster
1,204 posts
89 months
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Bump for the Saturday lunch crowd 
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einsign
2,619 posts
115 months
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High volumes of nice neat box sizes, consider Fedex or UPS. Once your package hits the US these can be the cheapest option as they are so strong on their home turf.
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Burrito
Original Poster
1,204 posts
89 months
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einsign said: High volumes of nice neat box sizes, consider Fedex or UPS. Once your package hits the US these can be the cheapest option as they are so strong on their home turf. DHL is working out cheapest for us at the moment (I understand they're discounting to claw back some market share), but still considerably more expensive than RMI. Even on their Global Mail service, which is the equivalent to a domestic mail service, they're more than RM without any added value.
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Nickyboy
3,384 posts
103 months
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Burrito said: DHL is working out cheapest for us at the moment (I understand they're discounting to claw back some market share), but still considerably more expensive than RMI. Even on their Global Mail service, which is the equivalent to a domestic mail service, they're more than RM without any added value. They're discounting because they don't deliver their own volume in the US anymore. UPS had been delivering most of it since they all but shut down.
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Burrito
Original Poster
1,204 posts
89 months
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Nickyboy said: They're discounting because they don't deliver their own volume in the US anymore. UPS had been delivering most of it since they all but shut down. Is there a reduced QOS because of this or we will still see 2 day deliveries and good delivery rates?
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Nickyboy
3,384 posts
103 months
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UPS cover far more than DHL ever did in the US so if anything the service should be better. DHL still have presence in the major business areas but it is small and everything in between is now outsourced.
Apparently negotiations with UPS for a 10 year deal to deliver DHL's volume failed and for now they have gone back to using ASTAR Air Cargo and 3rd party agents in the US
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Burrito
Original Poster
1,204 posts
89 months
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Ah, well that's not so good. We're only testing this year, so as the DHL solution is already integrated we'll stick with them for this campaign and see how it goes.
Any experience with Royal Mail International? Specifically boxes at the edge of the max published dimensions?
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robnokia
75 posts
39 months
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They are not very stringent on the size. We push it by about 20 percent and rarely get any returned. Aything a meter long is almost a sure fail though for us
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Burrito
Original Poster
1,204 posts
89 months
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Thanks. Can I ask what kind of volumes you're shipping?
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robnokia
75 posts
39 months
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International around 100 Europe 50 row per day
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Burrito
Original Poster
1,204 posts
89 months
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robnokia said: International around 100 Europe 50 row per day Cheers 
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robnokia
75 posts
39 months
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International around 100 Europe 50 row per day
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Chris200
396 posts
106 months
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You know it makes sense to use DHL The UPS thing is not in place and never was. It was looked at around 3 years ago, but nothing was ever agreed. The DHL UPSP service has also been suspended as it did not work well. DHL are still delivering direct into the US and in major towns and cities it is a DHL branded vehicle but a lot of the vehicles, drivers and depots are franchise. You still get the full level of tracking and POD's no matter who actually makes the final mile delivery. Of course Fedex or UPS would be a better option, but the costs are just so much more. USPS are probably the worst postal service in the world, but what you are looking for, should work ok, but no idea on sizing limits and flexibility but I know a lady who might.
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Burrito
Original Poster
1,204 posts
89 months
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Cheers Chris.  Unfortunately DHL for our smaller Items isn't viable, so RMI will have to be used.
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