Discussion
After a successful Christmas period, my wife's online business has now grown substantially over the last 2 years.
She is sending out around 4000 parcels a month between Oct - Dec, double last year, and obviously the shipping costs are quite a significant cost. She is currently paying £4.60 / parcel with DHL on a next day service (up to 30 volumetric KG, we use to use the bag service but switched everything over to parcels. Her stock is dispatched out of my companies warehouse and we don't use a fulfilment centre. Our driver is excellent, and we have had a few issues with DHL as expected with this type of volume, so the service is OK, but wondering if we can get a better deal elsewhere..
What are others paying?
Thanks
She is sending out around 4000 parcels a month between Oct - Dec, double last year, and obviously the shipping costs are quite a significant cost. She is currently paying £4.60 / parcel with DHL on a next day service (up to 30 volumetric KG, we use to use the bag service but switched everything over to parcels. Her stock is dispatched out of my companies warehouse and we don't use a fulfilment centre. Our driver is excellent, and we have had a few issues with DHL as expected with this type of volume, so the service is OK, but wondering if we can get a better deal elsewhere..
What are others paying?
Thanks
DPD/UPS are the best in terms of the customer experience but DHL for £4.60 is good for a next day quality courier. Does this include fuel surcharges and is it the same price to residential/business addresses?
Can be done a fair bit cheaper with RM tracked 24/48 products but as we all know RM are pretty unaccountable if things go wrong. All depends in the value of the items you are sending really and if your offering a free postage as standard or the customer is paying a premium for next day. ?
Can be done a fair bit cheaper with RM tracked 24/48 products but as we all know RM are pretty unaccountable if things go wrong. All depends in the value of the items you are sending really and if your offering a free postage as standard or the customer is paying a premium for next day. ?
James_P said:
Thanks for the replies. Good to know that our rates are competitive, just curious to see what others pay!
Not going near Hermes or Yodel!!
Not tried APC but will give them a go as well as DPD and make a decision.
Thank you
My other half has an online (ebay) business and to be totally honest over the last 12 months Hermes have actually been the best of the lot ! Only 1 item lost but was insured and that was dealt with promptly. It's not at your sort of volumes, but after trying UPS, RM, DPD she settled on Hermes and so far so good .. Weird bearing in mind the usual horror stories !Not going near Hermes or Yodel!!
Not tried APC but will give them a go as well as DPD and make a decision.
Thank you
As a consumer I much prefer parcels delivered by a 'respectable' firm, such as the ones that use proper vans and drivers, not the ones delivering out of the back of a knackered Ford Focus.
Plus if they have an actual live tracking service then that really is good customer service as you are not sat there waiting in all day for a parcel that may or may not be out for delivery.
I believe some of my best experiences in recent times have been DPD deliveries.
I think that parcel deliveries are one of the things where maybe a little extra cost can be worth it for the end result.
Plus if they have an actual live tracking service then that really is good customer service as you are not sat there waiting in all day for a parcel that may or may not be out for delivery.
I believe some of my best experiences in recent times have been DPD deliveries.
I think that parcel deliveries are one of the things where maybe a little extra cost can be worth it for the end result.
ARHarh said:
If a company charged a £ or 2 more but used dpd, dhl or royal mail as opposed to yodel or hermes I would pay the extra. I have a list of companies I like to buy from as they use one of the better (in my opinion) delivery companies.
TBH, as someone who receives quite a few deliveries at multiple addresses, it’s royal mail that I always have problems with. Like you I’ll avoid businesses that use them if I can.Ham_and_Jam said:
ARHarh said:
If a company charged a £ or 2 more but used dpd, dhl or royal mail as opposed to yodel or hermes I would pay the extra. I have a list of companies I like to buy from as they use one of the better (in my opinion) delivery companies.
TBH, as someone who receives quite a few deliveries at multiple addresses, it’s royal mail that I always have problems with. Like you I’ll avoid businesses that use them if I can.Spidersleg said:
Avoid APC like the plague!
We used to use them and had so many problems with parcels not being delivered on time (next day) The problem is they use "local courier" companies that are a part of the APC group. We had continuous problems with specific areas of the country.
Funny how experiences differ! We’ve sent ‘000s of parcels with APC and had *almost* zero issues. We used to use them and had so many problems with parcels not being delivered on time (next day) The problem is they use "local courier" companies that are a part of the APC group. We had continuous problems with specific areas of the country.
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