Couriers & Postage

[PhotoStuff]

Hi there all,

Very new to this forum and due to a short conversation started in my introduction thread I thought I should ask the question here and maybe get some interesting answers.

• Does parcel or postage delivery play a big part in your business?
• Who do you use for your parcel or postage delivery?
• What frustrates you about courier and postage firms?
• If parcels or postage is not delivered on time, does it effect your business in a big way?
• Who is the most competitively priced parcel carrier?

I am sure you can add more and get a good thread going.

Mark

[1clickprint]

Hi Mark,

A few answers to your questions below

Does parcel or postage delivery play a big part in your business?
- yes we are internet based and almost everything we produce is sent out via a courier of somekind.

Who do you use for your parcel or postage delivery?
- we use royal mail for small inexpensive items or city link for all other deliveries

What frustrates you about courier and postage firms?
If parcels or postage is not delivered on time, does it effect your business in a big way?
- I'll answer these two together as the answer to the first question IS the second one. I dont think our business is hurt directly although as far as the customer is concerned its our fault and not the courier. Rightly so i suppose although it can be very frustrating when you have bent over backwards to do a job for someone, turned it around in half the time it should have taken only to be let down at the last hurdle by couriers.

Who is the most competitively priced parcel carrier?

Not sure who is the most competively priced, i think it totally depends on volume and maybe the cheapest is not the most competively priced.

Let me explain .....

We now use city link, although not the cheapest and i am splitting hairs as there is only pennies really between them. We havn't really had many issues with products getting lost / broken. The drivers are Ok to hang on for a while if were running late, they will give you a call generally if they are running late and they have never failed to turn up.

Then you have our other courier, ( ex courier ) a little cheaper than above but with 1 in 20 of our products getting damaged or being lost then they work out far more expensive as they will not pay out for damages , and more importantly you loose credibility with your customers.

What makes me laugh or cry , whichever way you look at it is the way couriers try to charge YOU insurance incase they loose or damage YOUR products, and then they will only pay the actual cost of materials.

Ian

[PhotoStuff]

Thanks for your response Ian and very interesting indeed. Firstly just like to say nice website and some good products available. Just out of interest, is your t shirts done externally or do you produce them?
May need some flyers soon, so may be in touch.

Insurance on delivering parcels seem crazy, I remember a while back I sold something on ebay and had to deliver it, was asked a series of questions trying to sell me insurance whilst sending it. If i took out insurance it was not worth selling this item.

Parcel delivery is something I need to do further research in before making a choice.

Mark

[1clickprint]

Hi Mark,

We produce the t shirts in house using either vinyl transfer for text or DTG ( direct to garment ) for images and logo's etc.DTG is fantasic for full colour runs upto around 100 shirts, above this you would be better off with a screen printer. Give me a call or a PM when you need your flyers and i'll look after you.

Back to couriers, if you are after a cheap decent local courier then give these a try

Fastway Couriers - Courier Services - Franchise Opportunities - Ireland

( it says ireland i think this is the franchise company, they should be able to give you number of local agent)

we dont use them ourselves to often as they don't cover all of the areas we do although they are owner operated so actually care about your business as it effects theirs if you leave them and offer local delivery from £2.95. Not sure if they will cover you but worth a try.

All the best

Ian

[Printing&Postage]

We ourselves provide mailing services both to business and home users.

CFH background:
Our company provides printing & mail fulfilment and document management solutions.
We're able to provide cheaper postage as a Down Stream Access (DSA) provider,
making use of our existing mail volumes to save you money.

The DocMail service:
Aims to save time and money.

For letters post (no parcels at this time), our DocMail service offers cheap postage,
with printing included from just 25p (plus VAT) for a single-sided black and white print,
that's printed & delivered in the same time as 2nd class post from just 25p.

The item price is he same for 1 letter or 1000+, so you can even individual letters.


We currently use DHL Global Mail to carry our postage to Royal Mail and find them very reliable.

Cheers.
(just google for CFH DocMail)