The best UK Courier?

[Woodfinish Man]

I would be delighted to see if there is a general consensus of the best UK Courier. We've tried many over the years and although I appreciate the difficult job they have, they all seem as bad as each other. Am I wide of the mark? Am I expecting too much? We send parcel consignments anywhere in the UK between 1Kg - 100Kg and I get fed up with having our good reputation being affected by an external source.

Ian

 

[Stu_2]

Not that I want to jinx it, but I've always been happy with City Link, up to now.

 

[wizard]

i have used them all and been let down lots of times apart from UPS using http://www.interparcel.com/

 

[RogerP]

I send 7/8 parcels a week by either Royal Mail or Hermes both UK and international.
Not had any sort of problem at all in many years.
My eBay feedback is full of "fast delivery", "quick" etc

 

[marcros]

Why not look at offering a couple of options. That way people can choose their local preferred option. You can compare performance of one against the other at your end and you can use it as a negotiation tool on price. I send a few each week using my hermes or Royal Mail. No real issues except my hermes leaving stuff in odd places.

 

[Mark A]

I've found that all the main courier companies are just as good or bad as each other, regarding speed of service.

If we're talking about damage, unfortunately it's down to the individual drivers and warehouse staff to be careful, though in my experience most simply aren't. I've visited depots all over the country and the rough treatment I've seen packages subjected to has made me wince. Most smaller firms are pretty good; it's the big companies (the likes of City Link, DHL etc.) who are the worst offenders.

Royal Mail are just as guilty of this too. Where we used to live the postman was really great. Now we've moved house and this postman's a moron - on two occasions he's thrown packages up onto our first-floor balcony; one of which was a new Sky router and it was soaking in the rain up there for three days until we returned from holiday #-o

 

[nev]

from a recipient point of view, DPD would be my choice. emails and text the day before giving a half hour window for delivery and option to change, and then a message in the morning confirming said time and then turning up on time. What more could you want
http://www.dpd.co.uk/

 

[Baldhead]

i have used them all and been let down lots of times apart from UPS using http://www.interparcel.com/

+1 I have used them about 20 times for the two day service, 18 times the parcel was delivered the next day, and our local driver is a very nice bloke.

Baldhead

 

[Spindle]

Hi

I think this thread demonstrates that the best option is to allow the purchaser to specify which courier is used - so much depends on the local driver's knowledge and integrity. If a driver doesn't find my property and returns the delivery to the 'local' depot I have a 70+ mile round trip to collect :evil: :evil:

Regards Mick

 

[Harbo]

+1 what Nev said DPD are great for the recipients.

Rod

 

[Peter Sefton]

We use a variety of companies for our deliveries, the main one is UPS who we have found to be very good. Occasionally we and the customer have been let down by the local driver from which ever company we have used.

We also use the post office for small parcels and have to use a range of companies for our overseas and less populated areas.

We may send out anything from a few sheets of Scary sharp or a couple of magnets through to 92" Incra rails for table saw set ups, very different delivery issues and associated costs.

Sorting out the deliveries takes a fair among of time and is one of our biggest expenses but is a crucial part of the customer experience.

The problem is that it is out of the suppliers control the minute it leaves the premises so I fully understand your concerns Ian.

If you find the answer please share it with us

Cheers Peter

 

[woodshavings]

"from a recipient point of view, DPD would be my choice"
+1 John

 

[Spindle]

Hi

There you go - UPS service is absolutely abysmal to my area, I will not buy from dealers who insist on using them.

It's all down to the local service which in a large part is down to the driver.

Regards Mick

 

[Higon]

It depends so much on the delivery driver. I've had real problems with some of them but there are one or two companies who have great people. Does anyone else try to find a supplier that offers those as the courier and avoid buying from a supplier who only uses the bad ones?

It has sometimes meant not buying from the cheapest supplier, but even a couple of quid difference on cost is a small price for avoiding the aggravation of trying to resolve any problem with courier companies. I have a problem with a delivery at the moment, 4 days of chasing, hours hunting down obscured contact details and still no nearer getting the package.

 

[RogerP]

My wife and I between us get many deliveries, something most days, we don't experience all these problems.

Stuff just arrives - usually on time and always undamaged.

We must just be lucky

 

[MIGNAL]

I've used a few:

Citylink: Hopeless, regularly fail to show.
DHL: As above, possibly worse.
UPS: Have never let me down, thus far.

 

[Woodfinish Man]

Great feedback...thanks everyone.

We currently use two couriers XDP Express and to a far lesser extent Citylink. The later bought over Target express a few years ago and we stuck with them as our sole courier, unfortunately after the merger service levels plummeted and we estimated one of our secretaries were spending on average 8 hours a week chasing deliveries, trying to make claims and dealing with invoicing problems! We changed over to XDP 18 months ago and started off well but things have been slipping recently. I've been impressed by UPS deliveries into us so will probably try them now especially after the majority of you have good experiences to report.

Not sure we'll ever find a nationwide courier that deliveries every single order on time, undamaged...it is just asking too much.

 

[Newbie_Neil]

from a recipient point of view, DPD would be my choice. emails and text the day before giving a half hour window for delivery and option to change, and then a message in the morning confirming said time and then turning up on time. What more could you want

+1 for DPD. We have deliveries from most of the carriers and DPD stand out for their customer service.

Neil

 

[Kingy00]

I'm with Nev, DPD text you an hour time slot so no more sitting around waiting all day, couldn't be easier

 

[DiscoStu]

I don't send much but get a lot delivered and UPS gets my vote.