interparcel - am I missing something?

[ChemicalChaos]

Evening all,

I have a very heavy metal casting to post to someone in Dorset. At 20kg, its too heavy for Hermes who are my go-to courier. If I go to a direct quote from Parcelfarce and enter the weight and dimensions, they want £25+ to deliver it. however, after googling and finding inter parcel, putting in the same dimensions give a parcel force quote of £8, for a normal drop-off-at-post-office job with a preprinted label. Am I missing something here? The last thing I want to do is lose the thing in the post with an unreliable cheap courier

[VEIGHT]

Nope - inter parcel are very good.

[eliot]

try parcel2go.com and select one of the well known couriers such as UPS/TNT/DPD

[My Evil Twin]

Used both lots getting bits sent over to me from UK.. never had an issue with either.. cheap too, 3-5 day delivery was about £28 for a box under 19kgs.

[16v_paddy]

Because Royal Fail/Parcelforce are thieving barstewards

Same thing if you go to the post office, more expensive for no reason whatsoever. I wanted to send a car part to Portugal, went through Interparcel, P2G etc and it turned out Parcelforce were the cheapest at £16, so instead of booking it there & then I went to the post office. They said that'll be £33 via Parcelforce & when I told them about the online price through Interparcel they said oh no that's wrong, can't be right that.

So I went back home, booked it for £16 with Parcelforce via Interparcel, printed the label then dropped it back off at the post office.................fking idiots

[mph1977]

16v_paddy said:

Because Royal Fail/Parcelforce are thieving barstewards

Same thing if you go to the post office, more expensive for no reason whatsoever. I wanted to send a car part to Portugal, went through Interparcel, P2G etc and it turned out Parcelforce were the cheapest at £16, so instead of booking it there & then I went to the post office. They said that'll be £33 via Parcelforce & when I told them about the online price through Interparcel they said oh no that's wrong, can't be right that.

So I went back home, booked it for £16 with Parcelforce via Interparcel, printed the label then dropped it back off at the post office.................fking idiots

and what kind of volume do you think the brokers are putting through the various couriers ?

do you think that the catalogue companies or high end retailers that put work through the couriers are paying the same price as you'd pay for the equivalent package over the counter ?

funny how screwfix , RS etc can send stuff that is too big / heavy / hazardous for the over the counter service ... ( but then again when you have a direct feed account with tens of trailers a day ... )

[sparkythecat]

I ran an ebay business for three years and used Interparcel for hundreds of parcels, most of which were bulky. They were brilliant and never lost a thing.

[hairyben]

mph1977 said:

and what kind of volume do you think the brokers are putting through the various couriers ?

do you think that the catalogue companies or high end retailers that put work through the couriers are paying the same price as you'd pay for the equivalent package over the counter ?

funny how screwfix , RS etc can send stuff that is too big / heavy / hazardous for the over the counter service ... ( but then again when you have a direct feed account with tens of trailers a day ... )

couriering's a weird business. I had a client change his mind over an air conditioner I sorted for him so retailer asks me to sort sending it back, only every courier stated no A/C, including 5hitylink who delivered it - had to get the retailer to arrange for 5hitylink to collect it

[mjb1]

They are cheaper. They are also awful/impossible when things go wrong.

[gregs656]

I use ParcelForce regularly as often the parcels I post are too large/heavy to go through the UPS or Hermes drop off services (I hate waiting for couriers)

Never just walk into the post office and use them, and check the standard level of cover; not all the 3rd parties offer the same rate, and the cost for increasing it varies as well.

[BenLowden]

+1 for Interparcel, I've used them loads for probably over 3 years now and they've 100% reliable for me. Same service from all the main couriers, just at much better prices.

[Nickyboy]

16v_paddy said:

Because Royal Fail/Parcelforce are thieving barstewards

They're not though

The reason you're paying half the price is because you're paying Interparcel not Parcelforce. Interparcel get a corporate rate whereas joe public at the counter gets full rate. Same principle with wholesale buying, buy one item and it's £xxx, buy 5000 items and it's £xx each.

Interparcel for the record put over 5000 pkgs a day through UPS

[Gareth79]

I have used ParcelHero for a few things recently, I think one thing I sent was 2kg to west coast US next-day pre-noon delivery for something stupid like £25. For air mail parcels it's critical to get the size as small as possible.

Edited by Gareth79 on Thursday 10th March 10:31

[andye30m3]

Another thumbs up for inter parcel, I've used them for years for large or overseas parcels and always been great.

[227bhp]

Gareth79 said:

I have used ParcelHero for a few things recently, I think one thing I sent was 2kg to west coast US next-day pre-noon delivery for something stupid like £25. For air mail parcels it's critical to get the size as small as possible.

Edited by Gareth79 on Thursday 10th March 10:31

Why was that stupid? (Given you missed half the relevant info from your post making it pointless).

[Vaud]

Nickyboy said:

They're not though

The reason you're paying half the price is because you're paying Interparcel not Parcelforce. Interparcel get a corporate rate whereas joe public at the counter gets full rate. Same principle with wholesale buying, buy one item and it's £xxx, buy 5000 items and it's £xx each.

Interparcel for the record put over 5000 pkgs a day through UPS

How do they get such a good price? Are they buying the "spare capacity" in the big carriers and assuming they can get x amount each day - and so offer a slightly longer delivery time, but buy on a capacity/price basis?

[anonymous-user]

Vaud said:

Nickyboy said:

They're not though

The reason you're paying half the price is because you're paying Interparcel not Parcelforce. Interparcel get a corporate rate whereas joe public at the counter gets full rate. Same principle with wholesale buying, buy one item and it's £xxx, buy 5000 items and it's £xx each.

Interparcel for the record put over 5000 pkgs a day through UPS

How do they get such a good price? Are they buying the "spare capacity" in the big carriers and assuming they can get x amount each day - and so offer a slightly longer delivery time, but buy on a capacity/price basis?

answer is in the reply above :

Interparcel get a corporate rate whereas joe public at the counter gets full rate

[Vaud]

MDMA . said:

answer is in the reply above :

Interparcel get a corporate rate whereas joe public at the counter gets full rate

I wasn't intending to compare joe public with corporate.

I was trying to understand how Interparcel can undercut UPS (i.e. buy from capacity from them and still make a profit after cost of sales, etc)... do these intermediaries buy committed volumes? Buy spot capacity?

[Evoluzione]

Vaud said:

MDMA . said:

answer is in the reply above :

Interparcel get a corporate rate whereas joe public at the counter gets full rate

I wasn't intending to compare joe public with corporate.

I was trying to understand how Interparcel can undercut UPS (i.e. buy from capacity from them and still make a profit after cost of sales, etc)... do these intermediaries buy committed volumes? Buy spot capacity?

I doubt you'll find the answer to intricate multi million business plans on here, but they must block buy. Bulk, no frills is cheap.
If you're alluding to them buying 'what is left over' then no, no matter what time you book, UPS will come and pick up and that includes their busiest time - Christmas.

[Gareth79]

227bhp said:

Gareth79 said:

I have used ParcelHero for a few things recently, I think one thing I sent was 2kg to west coast US next-day pre-noon delivery for something stupid like £25. For air mail parcels it's critical to get the size as small as possible.

Edited by Gareth79 on Thursday 10th March 10:31

Why was that stupid? (Given you missed half the relevant info from your post making it pointless).

Stupidly cheap I meant, about half what you'd pay elsewhere, and far less than over the counter at the post office.