Do you trust your courier?

by Sarah Arrow on September 2, 2010

A New York art courier, James Haggerty, was recently entrusted with a painting worth £800k, and he delivered it to it’s destination, only to find the deal had fell through. So he took it with him when he went to a bar that evening… and the worst happened – he lost it.

He is currently being sued by the paintings owner for the loss of the painting.

Trust is very important when dealing with your courier, you have to trust that they will do as they say and you have to trust that they will deliver your consignments and they know what to do if the consignment is not accepted at the point of delivery.

So how do you know if your courier is trustworthy?

  • How visible are they?
  • How easily contactable are they?
  • Do they have testimonials?
  • Can you contact customers who have used them?
  • Do they communicate effectively with their customers and listen to feed back?
  • Do they have insurance and can you see the documents?

You may have noticed to the right of this post we have a few trucks with names on – LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook. You can contact us in a number of ways and join us on these sites as well as emailing or calling us. We are highly visible couriers who are dead easy to contact. That’s not to say your courier isn’t trustworthy because they are not on these sites; the more time and effort a courier puts into their presence online and offline will give you a clear indication of how long they are staying in business, how big their business is and who in their company you can contact.

We are open and transparent, as much as a business can be. We even sell guides to becoming a courier, so our business ‘secrets’ are in the public domain. You can see on sites like LinkedIn who has endorsed our services as well as testimonials on this blog. It’s all there if you do your research.

Ask around on forums, twitter and Facebook and get people to tell you who they use and who they value – often they are different companies.

Now here is the crux of the matter – what research did you do when booking your courier service? How did you select them? How do you know they are trustworthy? or did you just book and hope?

You can cut corners in business, but as the owner of the painting found, couriers are not an area in which to do that. Without research and conversations, you will never know how trustworthy your courier is. That can cost you dearly.

Sarah

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Delivering one last precious package tomorrow

by Kevin Arrow on September 1, 2010

The roads have started to get busier and it’s not just the bank holiday that increases traffic.The kids going back to school also increases local traffic and more people going back to work after summer breaks also increase it. Together that’s a lot more traffic on the roads.

This term we have our youngest daughter starting school and Jasmine is looking forward to it. Getting her to school on time is one of the most challenging delivery jobs we’ve undertaken ;) . Jasmine is very strong will (can’t imagine where she gets that from) and she doesn’t want to wear a uniform, even though we explained that a uniform makes you smarter, and then people will know what school she is from. We showed her our work uniforms. She’s not impressed.

How do you sell the concept of uniforms to a 4 year old? She doesn’t care if she looks smarter, or like the other children or that people will know what school she is from when she’s out. She doesn’t want to be told what to wear by other people.

Our drivers wear uniforms so that if they are delivering to vulnerable people, their uniform and ID will provide reassurance that we are genuine couriers. Often one of our jobs is to collect faulty items and return them to their manufacturers, this involves on knocking on the doors of people who are not quite sure what to expect; they are told to expect a courier and that is it.

We try to make it easier, a uniformed driver, with ID, with paperwork and everyone is happy. I know it reflects positively on our business, I wonder how it impacts on couriers who chose not to wear a uniform? Are they like Jasmine, not wanting to be told what to wear or do they have other reasons for not wearing a uniform? ? Does it make their job easier? Harder?

Anyway, wish me luck delivering my youngest precious package to school tomorrow.

Kev

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5 tips to beat the bank holiday traffic

August 26, 2010

Image via Wikipedia Yesterday I posted some quick pointers to keep you moving over the bank holiday weekend. I realised that perhaps some more in depth advice was needed if you were real traffic avoiders like I am. Go by train and hire a car at the other end – if you are driving over [...]

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Preparing for the bank holiday?

Lada with an unsecure load August 25, 2010

Just a few quick tips today to help you prepare for driving over the Bank Holiday weekend. Set off early to avoid the traffic Image via Wikipedia Take extra water with you in case we have good weather and you get stuck in a jam. Load your vehicle carefully if using a roof rack, make [...]

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Is the war on motorists really over?

August 24, 2010
No Employee parking tax

In the Telegraph today it said that Phillip Hammond had come to some decisions regarding the parking tax levy that has been proposed. Philip Hammond, the Transport Secretary, is planning new rules which would make it harder for councils to impose a new stealth tax on motorists and businesses without full consultation. Mr Hammond is [...]

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