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Harness Social Media to Increase Your Sales – Thurrock

Posted on February 25th, 2010 No Comments

Arrow Light Haulage is thrilled to be involved with the social media workshop day in Thurrock, Essex.

We are loaning KTIA and UEL our Communications Director, Sarah Arrow and she will be providing support (as well as being living proof) that social media is useful to small businesses. As you may already know, Sarah is the most followed courier on twitter, she has more followers than DHL, Fedex and UPS combined, proving that you don’t have to be big to be found, you just have to say something interesting!

Sarah tells me that communication is a two way street so she follows people back, something that a lot of social media experts have stopped doing as they have been overwhelmed by Direct Messages from their fans. You can tell what you think on this in the comments below.

If you are a Thurrock based business who wants to join in, please give Richard a call on the number below.

Knowledge Thurrock Innovation Associates (KTIA) in conjunction with Arrow Light Haulage are pleased to offer a free workshop for local businesses entitled “Harness Social Media to Increase Your Sales”. Taking place on the 4th March from 0900 until 1130hrs in Grays, the session is ideal for small enterprise owners and managers who are interested in learning more about online social media platforms and their benefits and how to design a strategy to develop a successful, enhanced and cost-effective online presence.

For more information, please call Richard on 07500 802 311 or email r.a.snell@uel.ac.uk

I wish you a great day Sarah and Richard, I know Thurrock businesses will gain immensely from attending.

Kevin

Posted in Courier Business

The courier at the gate…

Posted on February 4th, 2010 1 Comment

I recently read in an online forum about a lady who had had 30 boxes of nappies delivered by a courier service and they had left them at her gate.

: Image via Wikipedia

To make matters worse, the gate opened outwards and the boxes were stacked so she couldn’t open the gate, which meant that she had to climb over the gate to get to the nappies, move them, open the gate and then bring them in… needless to say she wasn’t very happy. At the time it was snowing and all this was done in the snow, at low temperature.

Firstly, couriers deliver kerbside to kerbside. Which means they are without obligation to lugg it up your driveway and put it in your hallway. Often the courier companies drivers will do it out of kindness. It’s nice to thank them at this point

Also it should be remembered that should a courier chose to help the customer by delivering right to the front door and through the gate, they are probably not insured. They have been instructed by their company to deliver just to the kerbside, and they know if they slip on the customer’s pathway they could be out of work whilst they recover. They may have to claim against the householder for loss of earnings if it could be proved that it was their fault that the courier slipped on the pathway.

What a nightmare! For companies that want to provide that extra bit of customer service, do they risk the customers wrath or their employees wrath? It is a rock and a hard place scenario. You understand why your postman is not delivering in the snow and the ice, but people rarely cut slack for the couriers that they are expecting.

Think back to your job, are there certain procedures that must be followed in order for you to do it? What do you have to do to prove you work in a safe manner? The chances are you know all about assessing for risks in your business, and you understand why a courier service will also assess the risks, and sometimes they will have no choice but to deliver to the exact guidelines they are issued with.

It’s not being a stupid delivery driver thats failing to understand your needs, it’s a conscientious employee doing their job correctly.

When booking your courier service we feel it’s important to have couriers that think, and understand what is going on and what the risks are. If you do too, then we’d like to hear from you.

Sarah

Posted in Courier Business, courier services

Do you currently pay a fuel surcharge on your courier services?

Posted on January 22nd, 2010 No Comments

As you may have noticed over the last 7 months the cost of fuel has risen steadily. For us couriers that means an unavoidable increase in our operating costs.

How some couriers deal with the higher fuel prices is by adding a fuel surcharge to you bill, this can be an extra 5 or 10%.

Over the course of a few weeks this can significantly increase your transport costs.

So what do you suggest we do to make your deliveries more cost effective for you?

We don’t charge a fuel surcharge, as our services are bespoke courier services, each price and quote is tailored to each delivery. As a customer that means you only pay for what you need and use

We recycle packaging for our customers too, and can return it to their depot and save them significant amounts in packaging costs.

Our drivers drive safely and as fuel efficiently as possible, and that makes a difference to our fuels bills. There is no need for us to charge extra for any fuel consumption with the price increases.

So when booking your same day courier service, remember to ask about the fuel surcharge before you get a shock when the invoice comes in!

Kevin