Be Excellent To Each Other

It seems that the Royal Mail will be suffering from yet more strike action:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/8296660.stm

As a user who relies on their service to make a living I have to look for alternatives. As I imagine there are a number of people who use alternative delivery services can I get some advise on the best to use?

I'm looking at an alternative to the Recorded Delivery service so it would have to be similar in price. I obviously expect it to be more but it can't be a huge increase. It also needs to be easy and quick to set up deliveries. Any practical advise on the differences between UPS type services would be welcomed. Thanks.

For general post office ranting or abuse see the Post Office thread.

Problem is, all "business mail" type services (UKMail, TNT) are delivered by... the postie!

That's why I'm looking at courier type services with their own vans i.e. UPS.

Actually, we use DHL every now and again. Hm.

No clue why or what price, though.

Email?

Email?

Email.

Otherwise, DHL, through parcel2go. Very good value on large items, and there's a discount for multiple collections.
DPD might be worth a try too but you have to open an account and probably need to be doing some volume.

Not quite Ninja Edit...

Malc

Ninja skills Malc.

I'm obviously sending physical goods. Obviously....

At work we use DPD, their 24 hour service costs £5.10, and once you've set up an account then collections can be organised really easily through their website. Depending on the size of stuff you send, that might be far more than you want to pay or it might be barely any more than Royal Mail prices. That price covers packages up to 30kg.

Satnav and Kalmars Ecowarrior fleet?

DHL are good. But make sure you have a tape measure as they want you to measure your box.

UPS insist on doing this too IIRC.

Oh errrr etc.

We use DPD an send out about eight items on average a day. They are very good and have excellent customer service. We used to use DHL and they were a fucking nightmare.

I used to get things delivered to me via ParcelLine but every one seems to have now changed to this DPD.

What size and weight and quantity of things are you sending anyway? And where to?

Because if it's small packet sized to UK addresses, you're not going to get anywhere near as good value as RM unfortunately. Most of the carriers don't even bother with a sub-parcel tariff.

DPD are a German company who bought out Parceline, as far as I'm aware.

DPD seem fairly efficient but they're a nightmare for getting them to leave deliveries if you're not in. You actually have to write a letter authorising it, there's no way of doing it by phone or web.

I believe this is correct; they certainly used to operate under a different name, I think it was Parceline, although it could possibly have been Omega.

Kalmar> if Craig is doing the shipping then that is hardly an issue for him is it?

No offence Zardoz, but please die.

Top tip, if laying on a buffet where DLT will be attending, ensure you lay on a veggie option.

Well, it was a general comment, and I've already recommended them, but it is an issue if you don't want your customers phoning up to mither about getting it left or sent to another address.

If you're sending using them, make sure you provide a means for the customer to add a "delivery note" about what to do if they're out.

Think of me as your Mummys friend.

Have you been watching me shower again? I wondered what that tape measure was for.

Parcel2go just sent me "Beat the postal strikes with our new £3.99 lightweight parcel service"

There is a collection charge also so it's handy if you're sending a few items at a time (you didn't say).

I'll be using that anyway, because sending things signed for is costing me about 8 quid a time at the moment, so it'll be cheaper too.

Thanks Kalmar. I currently thinking of offering Special Delivery (as I assume that service will still work during a strike) or the £6.99(ish) DHL service, increasing the price payable by the customer accordingly.