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Do you trust your courier?

September 2, 2010 By

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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Recorded or Special delivery – what’s the difference

July 7, 2010 By

We are often called by people who don’t need a same day courier but who actually need recorded delivery or special delivery mail services.

Here’s how they work, so you can see which option you need:
Recorded delivery:
When using recorded / signed for delivery you are only covered up to £41, and you can track online whether a signature was obtained on delivery. So if you are sending low value goods then this is a good choice of delivery for you. Also good for sending job applications and other paper documents that need a proof of delivery. Bear in mind though, if the delivery window is tight, and the documents urgent, then a same day courier is what you need rather than recorded delivery.

Special delivery
Special delivery items get there the next day, you are covered up to £2,500 plus you may be entitled to compensation if it is not delivered next day. This service is perfect for sending birthday cards with gift vouchers or tickets in – double check the small print first, as with all small print some items are not covered by this delivery service. If there is no one to sign for the delivery, then the guarantee is no longer valid, and the item will be redelivered at a later date.

Price comparison: – Recorded delivery for 1 kilo package £4 / Special next day delivery £6.70

Claiming if your recorded delivery parcel is not delivered:
08457 740740 call for a claim form, you will need your receipts from the post office. Remember the person you send the item to may not be the person that signs for the item, and the loss of item may take place after the delivery aspect.

Depending on what you are sending, and how you package an item will depend on whether it reaches it’s destination – many poorly packaged items come apart as they go through the mail sorting systems. It’s nice to blame Royal Mail for this, but as the sender it’s your responsibility to see your package is strong enough to survive delivery – if it isn’t strong enough or you item is that fragile, you need a same day courier.

Kevin

Same day courier services

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What is a courier service?

July 6, 2010 By

Working on our latest ebook, one of the questions that came up in the feedback was “What exactly is a courier service, and what are the differences?”. So I thought I would start of with the easy one ;-)

What is a courier service?

A courier service  according to Wikipedia is

A courier is a person or a company employed to deliver messages, packages and mail. Couriers are distinguished from ordinary mail services by features such as speed, security, tracking, signature, specialization and individualization of services, and committed delivery times, which are optional for most everyday mail services. As a premium service, couriers are usually more expensive than usual mail services, and their use is typically restricted to packages where one or more of these features are considered important enough to warrant the cost.

Simple really… except for the small fact that there are many types of service and used for many different things. All have their unique points and advantages for the customer, hence the writing of the ebook, which will make courier services easier to distinguish from each other as well as save time and money for the customer.

At this stage I would like to give thanks to two people who have helped me no end in clarifying the ebook project in my mind – Ann Godridge and Mike Korner.

Now, I must stop getting distracted by making the Forbes top 100 websites for women list and Stephen Fry commenting on a blog of ours and get to work on the book :)

Of course, if you would like a copy, you are welcome to sign up for our newsletter where we send monthly parcel discount codes, packing tips and other useful information. The link for this is under Kev’s photo.

Sarah

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Can frames and framed art be delivered by a courier service?

July 5, 2010 By

One of the perks of being a sameday courier is that we get to deliver some amazing works of art for art galleries and for people who have made private sales. Art is fairly easy to deliver and goes on a dedicated vehicle as they are the only ones to have enough insurance normally to cover the value.

Art delivery by courier services include:

  • Paintings, portraits, canvasses
  • Sculpture
  • Equipment (we have delivered a cement mixer for an artist once!)
  • Materials

Frames can be the most awkward part. Too fragile to go via the post and not cost effective enough to go via a dedicated delivery.

The secret to almost all safe courier deliveries is the packaging and if you skimp on the packaging you are going to have problems.

People think that by saving money on the packaging and recycling they are doing the planet some good as well as saving some money. When packaging frames or small paintings, you need strong rigid packaging and recycled card has lost some of that strength. The frame or painting will need support, rigid polystyrene is best but poly chips will suffice. Rigid tubes should be used to provide support and bubble wrap to hold it all together.

When your frames or paintings are wrapped, send it by the best service you can afford. The better the service the more likely you are to get your item to it’s end destination.

  • Remember, glass is not covered by any courier and not by any postal service that I have come across yet, despite what they say – check the small print or you will be out of pocket.

If it were down to me, I would advise the galleries and framing shops to send the paintings/frames out weekly and to send them via a dedicated vehicle for the day. It may work out more than the post, but the savings made on packaging and breakages will more than make up for it.

Kevin

Same day courier services

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Using a courier for awkward deliveries

May 28, 2010 By

Sometimes there are scenarios that you need to use a same day courier for rather than your own transport. This can be for a few reasons the most common is you don’t have the correct size vehicle or the right type of insurance  and it is ADR Courier serviceseconomically more viable to use a same day courier rather than hire the correct vehicle and get the correct insurance. The time taken and cost involved don’t make it a practical use of your companies time.

Increasingly of late, we are getting more enquiries for ‘awkward deliveries’. These are the kind of loads that other same day couriers just can’t cope with. They are the ADR jobs, the medical couriering jobs and the too-big-for-a-small-van jobs. Other same day courier companies term them awkward because they are not prepared to do them. Our enquirers are telling us, that their original courier company no longer delivers items that are above a certain size or just don’t deliver the small things.

For us, our whole business is based around delivering items that people cannot or do not want to deliver themselves.

I get surprised when I meet other couriers and I shouldn’t really, when they reel off a whole list of what they Won’t deliver. That is items they choose not to, not items they are not legally allowed to move. Although I am still trying to get over the courier who rang us and asked what to charge to move the remains of a deceased family pet, from the home to the vets, as the client did not want to make a mess in their car. Understandably so, but you need a licence from Defra for that. It just amazes me that they would consider that, but completely blank moving a summer house or gazebo as it’s too awkward.

Which leads me to my next point, if you are stuck and need to deliver something awkward, have a good search through this blog site. Many of our posts explain how to deliver items with ease, so even if you do decide to do it yourself, you will be able to do it correctly.

Sarah

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