Courier recommendation for long lengths, up to 3 metres

[Dr Interceptor]

Morning all,

Having just been right royally stitched up by TNT, I'm about to send my last consignment with them.

The vast majority of our parcel traffic goes out via Interlink (30-40 parcels per day), but I need a backup courier who will take longer lengths, up to 3 metres in length - interlinks penalty charges for going over a metre mean we divert anything longer onto the backup courier.

Plus it's handy to have a backup in case Interlinks booking system ever goes down....

So, recommendations on a postcard please

Jon

[Mr Overheads]

One of our clients uses Tuffnells for "ugly" freight but have switched all their standard parcels away to another courier where rates were much cheaper £3 or thereabouts for upto 20kg off the top of my head similar volume to you.

[brrapp]

I've used Net2Logistics for kayaks and paddles in the past, I think they use TNT to actually do the deliveries, but they seem more customer friendly than TNT.

[ymwoods]

To be honest with you, most courier "Naxt Day" dont want parcels of that length and so either dont accept them or charge silly money.

Reason being is that it cant be automatically sorted in the same way that a small/medium box type parcel can be where it gets put on a conveyor belt and then runs the automatic gauntlet of barcode scanners. a 3m parcel is too big to do this and so has to be handled by someone at every step of the journey and so slows down the speed of it as it progresses through the couriers network, hence why many dont want it or want more money for it as it requires more humans to process it properly.

TNT is more happy to do the bigger things as they are mostly a B2B courier...Interlink is mostly a B2C courier and as such they are set up to deliver much smaller items, I think the limit for Interlink where they consider items to be freight rather than a parcel is 1m.

effectively, what im saying is...yes I have found TNT to be fair amounts of dismall too, but you will be looking at a lot of rejections and/or very high prices from most of the other boys.

[All that jazz]

I had a nightmare time trying to find a courier to take 2x 2.02m long plastic side skirts in their original boxes which weighed a total of 8kg. The parcel price comparison sites are fine and dandy for stuff up to around 1m in length but anything over that limits your choices to about 2 couriers and the prices go up to stupid levels. It turned out that Parcelforce Large 48 were the cheapest by far at £36 and they come and collect it from your house too. TNT wanted between £54-£75. However neither would quote over 2m, so I had to mash the boxes a bit to get them down to 2m max. It also transpired as I was booking them that they don't carry car parts, but I swiftly fixed that problem by renaming them kitchen plinths . They were collected and delivered to their destination 100 miles away 16hrs later which I thought was good for a 48hr service.

I also tried some quotes on Shiply but they are off their heads on there. Cheapest quote I got was £75.

Btw Net2Logistics (and Postvan) stopped trading years ago due to their very poor service and endless complaints.

I've done driving work for Tuffnells in the past and I know they will carry large items up to 6 metres in length, but I strongly advise you to package it EXTREMELY well having seen how the stuff gets handled . Give them a ring 0114 256 1111 for a quote.

DX Freight also do oversize parcels but I've no personal experience.

Panther Logistics do a lot of oversize stuff too, mainly bed bases, mattresses, white goods, fitness equipment (treadmills), car parts (car doors, bonnets etc) and other large boxed items. No idea on prices but worth giving them a call : http://www.panthergroup.co.uk/.

Edited by All that jazz on Monday 5th September 03:23

[Dr Interceptor]

Cheers for the suggestions guys...

The items we send aren't delicate, it's 3 metre lengths of ABS and PVC pipe, scratches and blemishes aren't an issue as most of the time they're buried underground. Agree though that TNT do just make life easy, but they're unwillingness to resolve one issue in particular has left a sour taste.

I've had a favourable quote in from Tuffnells, so I think they might be getting the nod, see how they do.

[Dr Slotter]

As a regular receiver of 'ugly' goods like standard lengths of metal tube and bar, various lumps of metal etc. I would say that the vast majority turns up with Tufnell's and arrives as expected. We also used them very recently as part of a building move for non-office gear and it was fine.

[All that jazz]

Dr Interceptor said:

Cheers for the suggestions guys...

The items we send aren't delicate, it's 3 metre lengths of ABS and PVC pipe, scratches and blemishes aren't an issue as most of the time they're buried underground. Agree though that TNT do just make life easy, but they're unwillingness to resolve one issue in particular has left a sour taste.

I've had a favourable quote in from Tuffnells, so I think they might be getting the nod, see how they do.

I can guarantee one thing: No-one will get it to its destination faster than Tuffnells. It's well known in trucker circles that Tuffnells rule the roads through the night as they don't slow down for anything and have a brown envelope agreement with the Ministry allowing them to have their speed limiters set 2mph higher than everyone else.

[Ean218]

Dr Slotter said:

As a regular receiver of 'ugly' goods like standard lengths of metal tube and bar, various lumps of metal etc. I would say that the vast majority turns up with Tufnell's and arrives as expected.

As a similar regular receiver I can say without a shadow of doubt that the Tufnells delivery team in our area are the worst of any carriers in Britain.

Next day delivery to a factory seems to mean they can turn up at 6pm expecting goods inwards to be open with a fork lift ready. Of course there isn't anyone here at all.

They then say it is on an am delivery the next day but it will arrive about 4pm, and the driver has already forged the receipt note to say it was delivered at 11:59.

Every single bloody time and Tufnells don't care to do anything about it, they obviously haven't got enough drivers/vehicles to do the round properly.

We use DX for outgoing.

[Dr Interceptor]

I think we all have fun with different carriers... We have one driver who drives for Norbert / XPO, or whatever they are currently called.

He parks in the middle of the road on a junction, despite there being complete unobstructed access to the kerbside. He unloads two pallets of Sodium Hypochlorite (15% strength bleach) and leaves it a cars width from the kerb in the line of traffic. Refuses to take it up the dropped kerb into our yard - then calls me a prick when I won't sign for it.







Other drivers from other firms manage all this without any fuss.

[All that jazz]

In fairness, manual pallet delivery with a pallet truck is ALWAYS to kerb side only and will say as much in your contract or on the delivery T&Cs. The fact that other drivers will pull it into your yard is purely down to them being obliging. Those pallets will be about a tonne a piece so if that dropped kerb isn't completely flat with the road it will probably require some force to get them up it which, if you or your yard foreman are not prepared to assist with and/or have a stty attitude in general is likely to be the reason why the driver leaves them there. Be nice to us and we'll help you (up to a point) but don't expect it.

Refusing to sign the POD doesn't work with me either - all that would achieve is your 2 pallets going back on the truck to our warehouse and you being charged daily storage and redelivery fees, leaving you desperate for your stuff in the meantime. Most companies will back the driver on this so I'd advise you to be careful !

[Dr Interceptor]

All that jazz said:

In fairness, manual pallet delivery with a pallet truck is ALWAYS to kerb side only and will say as much in your contract or on the delivery T&Cs. The fact that other drivers will pull it into your yard is purely down to them being obliging. Those pallets will be about a tonne a piece so if that dropped kerb isn't completely flat with the road it will probably require some force to get them up it which, if you or your yard foreman are not prepared to assist with and/or have a stty attitude in general is likely to be the reason why the driver leaves them there. Be nice to us and we'll help you (up to a point) but don't expect it.

Refusing to sign the POD doesn't work with me either - all that would achieve is your 2 pallets going back on the truck to our warehouse and you being charged daily storage and redelivery fees, leaving you desperate for your stuff in the meantime. Most companies will back the driver on this so I'd advise you to be careful !

They are 800kgs a pallet - we always order them as 32's not 40's which would be a tonne, just to keep them easier to move.

It does take two people to bring them in safely - and I have a storesman just for that purpose. Because the driver wouldn't assist him, and because I was unavailable, they sat in the road. The other staff here are females, who I wouldn't ask to move the pallets.

We have made a section of the kerb 100% ridge free just for that purpose.

We have four of these delivered a week by various couriers, just this one driver causes us issues.

[All that jazz]

Like I say, it's entirely the driver's prerogative whether he chooses to go beyond his duties to help you. The fact that all the other delivery drivers drag your deliveries in to your premises is irrelevant I'm afraid. The rules are kerb side delivery only and you need to remember that. Personally I would be happy to move it the short distance into your yard judging from the picture, especially if you're happy to offer assistance. There's just as many miserable, unhelpful drivers as there are miserable, unhelpful customers with attitude that take great delight in telling me what my job is (in their (wrong) opinion) and expect me to drag their tonne pallets up and down steep slopes, over cobbles and then put the stock away for them as well. You only need a few of those for the teddys to be out and it happens more often than you might think.

[Ean218]

All that jazz said:

The rules are kerb side delivery only and you need to remember that.

That does not look like kerbside to me!

[Dr Interceptor]

Ean218 said:

All that jazz said:

The rules are kerb side delivery only and you need to remember that.

That does not look like kerbside to me!

...and that's why I wouldn't sign for it. Knowing my luck I'd sign for them just as some poor soul stoves into them, and I end up with a rather substantial claim against me/my company for leaving them in the road.

[MadProfessor]

That's nowhere near the kerb, and therefore surely an offence under both the Highways Act and the Road Traffic Act, possibly even the Environmental Protection Act.