Forum Moderators: buckworks
We use Business Post at the moment, but have been shoping around to see if we can get a better deal. I have approached ANC who have offered us some pretty good rates... I really haven't had any experience of their service - has anyone had any experience with them?
With the exception of Parcelfarce, who I would never use whatever even if they offered a staggeringly low rate, I'd be happy to try most of the others including ANC if the incentive to move was there by saving significantly on courier charges.
I look for the following when negotiating couriers:
- late collection time to offer customers next day delivery as late in the day as possible
- check insurance policy and how they deal with claims
- no redelivery surchage (particularly when sending to consumers homes - some couriers now try to make extra charges if they are not in of a few pounds!)
- check you can use their IT systems or easily follow their proceedure for preparing and documenting deliveries
- negotiate on premium services (such as before noon, saturday delivery, highlands, northern island, IOW, 3rd party/remote collections etc..) before you sign a contract ;)
- check if you are paying per box or per consignment. e.g. if you get a rate for 15kg but you generally send out in 3 boxes each delivery you may find you get charged 3 times
- check if the rate quoted is based on real weight of volumetric weight (some couriers are moving to this method - even royal mail plan to do so also)
As a guide, obviously depending on the number of parcels you send, but anything between £5 to £6 is typical for a next day service on a 10Kg parcel.
jules.
To be honest, I'm very happy with everything they're offering and I can pretty much tick every box on your checklist.
I guess they're a fair bit smaller than the other couriers since I've never used them or come across anyone that does use them! Which is why I was asking the question in the first place. Anyway, they did their first collection on Friday, so I'll see how I get on! So far so good!
To throw a spanner in the works, the sales guy from Business Post was on the phone pleading with me not to leave and is offering me lower rates to compete with ANC! :) I think I fancy a change though...
Not to be confused with Parceline
...who use green and white vans - and are reliable.
They have a reputation for being expensive, but this isn't what i have found. I like the fact that what i pay is what i get charged with no hidden nasties (and loss / breakage less than 0.2% - even then they pay fast).
No, the upfront price may not seem the cheapest, but my courier costs are 20% down on BP taking into account loss / breakage /returns etc. I would say we only hear from 1 in 200 customers about a delivery (delay / loss /damage) and on a daily basis this makes a huge difference. One tip i would say is bump up your expected spend, UPS expect this and the price we were quoted expected us to be 30% below what we told them (and we are and they haven't said a thing!).
£5 - 6 for overnight on a 10kg parcel is a fantastic quote. I've been using Interlink Express for 2nd day UK deliveries, but they start at £14 for the first 10kg with another £0.60 per 1kg thereafter.
However, we are based in Northern Ireland - the Irish Sea is a very expensive stretch of water. Do you know if ANC ship from Northern Ireland to UK mainland?
I think with the exception of ParcelForce all the courier companies charge a massive surcharge from the UK to Northern Ireland. ANC want £18.90 for over night or £14.65 for a 3 day service, which is still less than I used to pay Business Post! They do have a depot in Belfast, maybe it would be worth calling them (I'll send you a sticky ;) ).
Jonathan
You should check everything of course but don't expect that what they say happens when there's a claim is what actually happens. Don't trust the sales guy on that, speak to someone who's actually put in claims and had them paid.
Rep: "You put in the claim and we pay it in about 2-4 weeks, it works very smoothly"
Real life customer: "The ******* bas****, they keep asking for supporting documents, say they haven't lost the parcel and that it may turn up in the next few months, they keep losing the documents I send - they took six weeks just to send me the claim form - and they don't answer the phone. I've spent the better part of 20 working days trying to get them to pay me £200, now I'm going to give up in disgust. I think that's what they were hoping for."
I've had awful experiences with shi-ttylink and shamtrak.
When everything goes smoothly there is no problem with the delivery. but I think the low rates mean that when it goes wrong it goes really really wrong.
They tend not to contact me or the customer when a parcel goes missing. Even though my account details, and the customers phone number, is on the parcel. So if my customer is doen't realise they're missing a delivery it can be a couple of weeks before they contact me to ask about the delivery. Then ANC have tried to claim that they will only deal with claims up to 14 days after the parcel is lost. Each time I have managed to get them to pay out but only after explaining that the 14 days has to start when we all realise there is a problem.
It is my opnion that no-one in the depots ever looks for the lost parcels.
Their data input and invoicing system is hell, though it is starting settle down now. If you put a wieght that is say 3.2 they will often charge for 32. My advice is to round up all your parcel weights, since it is a flat rate for most of the time, I now also write them in words: three.
Have you signed up for a direct debit? In which case watch the paymets like a hawk. In my experience about half of them will be wrong.
The pickup in my area is great. They have often come out twice to get late orders, or not moaned when we have called them out by mistake.
Their pone system takes ages to que. Try and keep track of who your account manager or someone useful is - at some point you will need them.
All the staff are really nice and try their best to be helpful, but they work for a badly organised company and there's a limit to what they can do for you.
After starting me on a pricing system they changed everything a few months later and put the prices up by a few quid. I pointed out to them that I would leave and they brought it down to a reasonable level, but don't get comfy with what they sold you on. Keep the business post man sweet, you might need him again!
Interesting that bsiness post offered you cheaper rates to keep you I've never been able to get them close to what ANC charge - if I could get them, I'd change.
So you think business post are not very good then?
So you think business post are not very good then?
To be honest I don't have any major complaints about them. It's just I was after a better deal on pricing, and ANC were offering this :)
A lot of what I sell is either heavy or bulky, so it needs to go with a courier. But also a lot of what I sell is not especially pricey and don't make masses of profit, so keeping delivery costs down is very important for me.
They tend not to contact me or the customer when a parcel goes missing.
The only thing I can think of with Business Post is that sometimes they didn't use their initiative to either try phoning the customer or me if they couldn't deliver. They'd just return the parcel to me and charge me £17 odd quid for the privelidge!
Interesting that bsiness post offered you cheaper rates to keep you I've never been able to get them close to what ANC charge - if I could get them, I'd change.
Actually, the Business Post guy hasn't got back to me yet with prices - I guess maybe they decided they couldn't compete after all!
Their data input and invoicing system is hell
Yep, I always round up my weights to the nearest kilo. But it is true, that they're offering me flat rates anyway :)
Their pone system takes ages to que. Try and keep track of who your account manager or someone useful is - at some point you will need them.
I haven't had any trouble getting through to ANC on the phone, although maybe it's because we're using different depots.
The pickup in my area is great.
Like you say, the collection driver is great and is happy to come late in the day.
Anyway, so far I'm very happy with them :)
I think that since starting my website I've realised that couriering is one of the worst industries in the UK - though part of this might be to do with their profit margins, customers don't want to pay loads for delivery and for this I am sympathetic.
Certainly nobody else had managed to fulfill my delivery breif, otherwise I'd have moved!
