Parcels over 2kg

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head

Just paid £6.49 for a Tracked 48 medium parcel with Royal Mail, value was too much to risk 2nd Class especially with the bad weather. 

Looking on Parcel2go there are a few drop off options that are cheaper, although only by £1 or so, but the drop off points are all really far away where we live. 

What services do people use for parcels over 2kg please? 

Emmia

I always use Royal Mail, mainly as I can book a collection at the same time as buying the postage, plus there aren't the same horror stories you get with Evri, Yodel...

FFHillbilly

would be helpful if you say which drop off points are "too far away"?
Evri do one for £5.64, upto 5kg, max parcel dimensions 245cm.

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head

FFHillbilly said:

would be helpful if you say which drop off points are "too far away"?
Evri do one for £5.64, upto 5kg, max parcel dimensions 245cm.

All of them!  Evri, Yodel, Fedex, Inpost are all cheaper than the Royal Mail medium parcel but between 15 and 20 miles away, need to double the milage for the return trip.

Emmia said:

I always use Royal Mail, mainly as I can book a collection at the same time as buying the postage, plus there aren't the same horror stories you get with Evri, Yodel...

I prefer Royal Mail as well and the price for say close to 5kg is pretty good, the parcel sent was only a couple of hundred grams over the 2kg (wasn't possible to get it under sadly), frustrating to pay so much for that and I wondered if there was anything I was missing to save a few pennies. 

Emmia

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head said:

FFHillbilly said:

would be helpful if you say which drop off points are "too far away"?
Evri do one for £5.64, upto 5kg, max parcel dimensions 245cm.

All of them!  Evri, Yodel, Fedex, Inpost are all cheaper than the Royal Mail medium parcel but between 15 and 20 miles away, need to double the milage for the return trip.

Emmia said:

I always use Royal Mail, mainly as I can book a collection at the same time as buying the postage, plus there aren't the same horror stories you get with Evri, Yodel...

I prefer Royal Mail as well and the price for say close to 5kg is pretty good, the parcel sent was only a couple of hundred grams over the 2kg (wasn't possible to get it under sadly), frustrating to pay so much for that and I wondered if there was anything I was missing to save a few pennies. 

It sounds like the cost of getting to a drop off point for Yodel/Evri would outweigh the saving on the postage.

RFW

For just a one off parcel that's not a terrible price with tracked.

I paid a fair bit less with DPD but was sending 9 parcels to one address. Only 8 arrived, but that's another story. 

Evri's parcel drop off lockers are pretty good but their delivery can be hit and miss, I used them a tiny bit over Christmas, there were some delays but nothing lost. There are parcel lockers popping up all over, so you may have one nearer than you think. One near me is hidden at the back of a pub car park. DPD have started putting up lockers too.

It might be a question of looking around and see if you have any drop off points for couriers and trying to find a good price.

se2020

Evri offer collection. 
I expect most of the others do as 

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head

Emmia said:

It sounds like the cost of getting to a drop off point for Yodel/Evri would outweigh the saving on the postage.

Yes pretty much sadly. 

se2020 said:

Evri offer collection. 
I expect most of the others do as 

They do but prices are higher than Royal Mail.

Thanks @RFW I'll keep my eyes out but innovation seems to take it's time to reach our sleepy corner of the country, nice in one way but frustrating in others. 

Local town has 2 shops that would offer this kind of thing but one has a Post Office, the the DPD (don't get me started on DPD!), I assume they have to be exclusive. There was talk of the PO in general expanding to accept other couriers but I think it will take a while to reach to reach the town. For the village PO it's only open 2 hours a day in the morning and Evri do the rounds here at 9 o'clock at night so can't see how they'd ever make it work. 

I guess in away that small parcel rate is a very good price and the 2kg+ is more the going rate. Once the parcels get longer than 60cm that's when the prices really seem to get high, appears to be a case of Parcelforce at around the £10 mark.

None of this is too bad but if you sell on eBay that £10 then becomes arounds £11.50 by the time you add their a cut on top as well, plus the packaging and it's nearly 15 quid to post something that is long.