12-01-2021, 09:42 PM
Having owned a sports equipment on line business for over 20 years operating out of London and Edinburgh and serving the UK and further afield, we had a constant stream of courier companies chasing our business. We made a policy of reviewing eveny 18 months and would invite several to quote for the work. We quickly learned to avoid the cheapest and of course the technology of booking shipments and keeping customers informed by text/email has developed over that time. Customer expectations have moved significantly as well.
Ones that do well for a while fall away and otheres come through. A lot depends on the management of the firm and with so many self employed drivers, some of whom sub contract deliveries, can be a nightmare in certian areas. Funny how problems seemed to be in the same areas all the time.
I would say that for consistency DHL, UPS and FedEx have faired well with collections and deliveries. Parcel Force fell out of favour early on. Would never use Hermes based on the piss poor performance of parcels other people sent to us.
I have no idea how many parcels you ship out on average per day Tony (and other cherished suppliers) but volumes dont need to be high to get good service at a reasonable price. We found that customers were happy to pay at the higher end for post and packaging (not forgetting that packaging materials cost money) for a reliable 24/48 hour trackable service. If they have a good experience in the service they will come back.
Speak to a couple of them and see what they can offer is what I would suggest. Nothing to lose.
Paul
Ones that do well for a while fall away and otheres come through. A lot depends on the management of the firm and with so many self employed drivers, some of whom sub contract deliveries, can be a nightmare in certian areas. Funny how problems seemed to be in the same areas all the time.
I would say that for consistency DHL, UPS and FedEx have faired well with collections and deliveries. Parcel Force fell out of favour early on. Would never use Hermes based on the piss poor performance of parcels other people sent to us.
I have no idea how many parcels you ship out on average per day Tony (and other cherished suppliers) but volumes dont need to be high to get good service at a reasonable price. We found that customers were happy to pay at the higher end for post and packaging (not forgetting that packaging materials cost money) for a reliable 24/48 hour trackable service. If they have a good experience in the service they will come back.
Speak to a couple of them and see what they can offer is what I would suggest. Nothing to lose.
Paul