Forum Moderators: buckworks
We currently use I****Link, who have been very good - they deliver on time and rarely damage things.
However, they have decided from now on, they will use either the volume or weight of the parcel to calculate the carriage, depending which is higher. This will make them very expensive.
So I'm looking for recommendations, can anyone suggest a reliable UK carrier?
That said, my orders are different from yours, averaging less than 10kg and far smaller.
it is a very hard question, there are few good ones
We use Royal Mail for anything 2k and under, and ParcelForce for anything 2k - 30k, we pay £7.95 flat charge whatever the weight within UK for a 48 hour service.
We have similar difficulties sending internationally due to the volumetric pricing of couriers often being more expensive than weight.
miam
ParcelForce for anything 2k - 30k, we pay £7.95 flat charge whatever the weight within UK for a 48 hour service
We tried ParcelForce a while ago. The driver would walk in, pick up the parcels one by one, and drop any which he decided were too heavy, even though we weighed them before hand and they were below 30kg.
We said "OK we'll give you a lift" - his reply "you can't do that its against our Health and Safety rules"
It was left that the ParcelForce office said he should lift them, but he still refused. So we moved on to a different carrier!
Two couriers I will advise against from our experiences over the last few years:
1. TNT E*pre** for the ridiculous % of damages and never, ever paying out any one of the 15 odd claims totalling £20,000 over two years.
2. Amtr*k for the completely cr*p service of individual depots run by franchisees, the inability to get through on the phone to most depots, their bordering-on-criminal lack of customer service and the cheap tricks they play. Sticky me for more.
Business Post and UPS came top of the list in my research.
TNT wanted £130 to deliver a two parcels measuring 1.2 x 1.2 x 0.5m and weighing 40kg each. Interlink want just over £100.
Pallet carriers are much cheaper, we sent the above on a pallet, using a local company for under £50.
It looks like we will have to palletise everything in future, it's a pain, but several carriers told us that goods on pallets are less likely to get damaged.
The only hassle I get (frequently) is where the customer isn't at home and they don't put a card through the door (lazy drivers). After a couple of days, it gets returned then you have to send it out all over again! Apart from that, no problems (or damages)
We get a REALLY hefty discount off of their tariff rates which works out at around £6.50 for anything up to 5kg.
You need to make contact with a business development representitive an explain you are doing xyz number of parcels etc, and how you plan to grow that amount over the coming months.
Our guy was quite happy to give us 59% discount for our first year...by the end of which we'll be easily doing 10 or more parcels a day.
Give them a phone - see how you get on.
Cheers
Rich
They managed to get substantial discounts on their standard rates by negotiating with a sales rep, so it's worth speaking to them before you jump out of the frying pan :)
It almost ended in a court battle.
They destroyed / lost hundreds of pounds worth of my goods.
Can someone explain where there's a good depot?
(I don't have sufficient expletives to explain my full opinion of BusinessPost (B*sildon Depot)
Regards.
It may be something to do with that name. We're with the B*sildon Depot of Shamtrak... and I feel the same way as you do.
I've sent about 2000 orders with them in the past year, and I've only had about three problems. These have been sorted out in the end.
