Mail Order couriers / post office etc

[Graham]

Hi, As part of one of our companies we're looking to expand the parts side using the internet. Now the techy side of that ( both IT and product ) we've no problem the area of expertise we're lacking is the use of couriers and the post office.

The sort of things we'd be sending out range from small sensors and books up to body and suspension parts.

Now to do all this effectivley and more importantly make money ( to spend on race cars ) we need to get the courier deals sorted. Im expecting to need more than one courier for different types of package. Does anyone have any experience / advice they'd be willing to share

Cheers

Graham

[vex]

Everyone has thier stories and nightmares.

With the consolidation that is going on in the courier industry at the moment, you should be able to find one courier to do all your shipment. National, International and even sameday.

Personally we use ANC, who have just been bought by Fedex (iirc) and they have been exellent, but just one depot that we ship to is less than useless so for that area we use City Link.

Shipping about 50 - 100 packs a month and we pay under £6.00 for up to 10Kg nextday delivery.

[Graham]

Did it take much negotiation to get the kind of rate or do they just need to see what sort of volumes your doing and then re negotiate.

I take it city link are more expensive hence only using them for the one depot.

does local depot loaction make much difference. on the local industrial estate we have city link and tnt to my knowledge.

I've always found city link great for delivering to me, even to the extent they usually phone us before they deliver, but thats probably just a local thing..


cheers

G


edited to see ANC are on the same estate mmm

Edited by Graham on Monday 23 April 13:09

[vex]

If you are shipping stuff at the moment then just show them the volumes going out .

Our initial rate was a bit different based on our forcast of increased business, however after a year our volume split between the rates was different to our forcast. At that point our rates went up and I asked them to relook at it.

With out any negotiation we were offered our sub £6.00 price which I was happy with. Interestingly we now only ship stuff in boxes, regardless of the size or weight to be able to maintain our rate.

Every depot is different and that is why Citylink is used in one location. Our depot is very good and they have a lot of drivers out on routes, so if we are running late one call has a different driver coming in at 5pm rather than 3.30pm, number of drivers coming past you or the closeness of the depot is a big consideration if you run late (like we do about once a week!!!)

Edited by vex on Monday 23 April 13:18