Courier Cost Cutting Feedback/Discussion thread

johnniegif

Can anyone recommend a courrier to post an item longer than 1.5m in the UK? I'm selling a boot cover from my old Volvo which is about 1.65m long and less than 20 x 20cm deep & wide once packed. I have checked Royal Mail, Parecelforce & Parcel2Go but they all say the parcel must be no longer than 1.5m. They mention the width + girth must not exceed 3m, but this doesn't help me.

I would appreciate any advice. I did a search on this forum but didn't come up with an answer. Sawing it in half is not an option

Thanks for your help.

Johnnie:beer: :question:

ArmitageShanks

johnniegif wrote: »

Can anyone recommend a courrier to post an item longer than 1.5m in the UK? I'm selling a boot cover from my old Volvo which is about 1.65m long and less than 20 x 20cm deep & wide once packed. I have checked Royal Mail, Parecelforce & Parcel2Go but they all say the parcel must be no longer than 1.5m. They mention the width + girth must not exceed 3m, but this doesn't help me.

I would appreciate any advice. I did a search on this forum but didn't come up with an answer. Sawing it in half is not an option

Thanks for your help.

Johnnie:beer: :question:

Volumetric wise its fine, I'd just send it on a standard service.

princess_loki

johnniegif wrote: »

Can anyone recommend a courrier to post an item longer than 1.5m in the UK? I'm selling a boot cover from my old Volvo which is about 1.65m long and less than 20 x 20cm deep & wide once packed. I have checked Royal Mail, Parecelforce & Parcel2Go but they all say the parcel must be no longer than 1.5m. They mention the width + girth must not exceed 3m, but this doesn't help me.

I would appreciate any advice. I did a search on this forum but didn't come up with an answer. Sawing it in half is not an option

Thanks for your help.

Johnnie:beer: :question:

hello,

i would try ups

Tom_Hanks

ArmitageShanks wrote: »

Volumetric wise its fine, I'd just send it on a standard service.

For ugly freight, I would recommend FreightSearch.com. Long stuff is usually handled best by TNT or Citylink and I know these guys use both of these carriers!

ArmitageShanks

Tom_Hanks wrote: »

For ugly freight, I would recommend FreightSearch.com. Long stuff is usually handled best by TNT or Citylink and I know these guys use both of these carriers!

True, I know TNT have a much larger maximum length than most couriers, around 3m'ish?

custardy

http://www.cheapestparcels.co.uk/

i cant vouch for this in any way
so treat it as a new provider
saw it on a car forum i use

Rughead

Fenris wrote: »

Hi all,

Just a word of caution if using DHL/parcel2go (apologies if this has already been mentioned, but it's a really long thred!).

I've recently sent two parcles via DHL: one a printer and one a hi-fi unit, both sold on eBay.

The printer arrived at it's destination with the print-head damaged beyond repair and the hi-fi looked as though it had been dropped from a great hight. Bits broken off all over the place and the CD changer tray snapped right off. This dispite more bubble-wrap than I thought it needed, plus air baggy things and some more bubble-wrap for safe measure! Unhappy? You betcha!

These were both collected from the Norwich depot so it may just be that they're really awful in Norwich, but having read a comment on P1 of this thread about the staff wrestling with Plasma TV's etc I'm begining to think it's a nationwide problem with DHL. Please just be aware.

Obviously I won't be using them again!

Fenris

I used to work for a van rental company years ago and we used to hire vehicles to the courier firms. I have been on the deck of many of the top names (parceline,nightfreight,TNT,Tuffnels etc) And what I saw on all of them was pretty much the same.

The "loaders" used to load by standing on the deck and throwing the parcels into the back of the lorry (a 7.5ton truck has a 20foot load space). If it said "handle with care, Fragile etc" it was drop kicked in and not thrown in.

Now this was 10 years ago and things may have changed back then the guys in the hubs work late nights and got a really low wage with lots of time constrants so probably wasnt the happiest guys in the world.

Moral of the story is doesnt matter who you use they will still get abused.:mad:

Kayster

I just found and read through a lot of this thread and someone asked about DPD and european deliveries. Heres my experience.
I used Pharos and UPS for a long while until two weeks ago when their prices rocketed and then the website stopped giving quotes.
I looked around and found DPD and I sent a small parcel last week to Finland using DPD and it went well so on Thursday i placed an order for a big parcel to go to Austria.
Paperwork arrived Friday at 11am for me to print out and it had the wrong collection address on it. Post code was correct but the wrong house name so i guess someone either at DPD or TNT had picked the wrong house name from a list of addressess. I emailed DPD and TNT straightaway to tell them of the mistake - no response from either and no collection Friday.
In the evening i tried putting the consignement number from the TNT paperwork into TNT system to see what it said. It said the parcel had been collected on 11th July and delivered on 14th july in germany. I tried it three times and both typed it in and copied and pasted it so i have the number right. Also the parcel weight i gave DPD was 20kg (or 19kg i forget now) whereas the manifest says 10kg.
I do not know who has fouled up here - could be DPD or TNT or both and of course being weekend no one is around to help me and this was an urgent parcel and it it sooo frustrating waiting in for nothing to happen.
I'll post again when i know the outcome but i do not think there is anything more i can do at the moment.

Kayster

Me again.
I had a phone call from DPD who left a message as i was not in at the time. They apologised and say TNT fouled up the address and the collection is rebooked for Monday.
I want it to go OK as the prices are good for Europe.
No one else has ever called me back out of hours when a wheels come off a delivery so that is reassuring.
I'll let you know if it turns out good (or bad)

ArmitageShanks

Your 'story' is about as convincing as when gordon brown says 'he's the right man for difficult times'.

....so I'm sorry to say your umpteenth marketing ploy on this thread has been yet another abject failure.
____________________
Perhaps you could also answer this....

joe_public wrote: »

hi we would choose the best carrier for the job in hand and the cut off times are 11am for uk deliveries and 10am for the rest of the world.

Can you explain to your customers why you have gone 'offline' for significant periods without any prior warning, and will this be a continuing trend?