You are here: Home / Archives for Insurance

Couriers for fragile items

November 20, 2009 By

There is an art /skill to delivering fragile items and as a supplier of fragile mirrors, glass and bathroom ceramics you need to establish what type of service you require. Using cheap can be a false economy here.

parcels on a conveyor belt..
Image by Getty Images via Daylife

Small items less than 25kgs in weight, well packaged can go through a parcel carrier. The key here is well packaged. Polystyrene rigid supports as well as bubble wrapping in a strong cardboard box is well packaged. We have seen fragile items wrapped in bubble wrap and then parcel paper and marked fragile – that is not enough. Fragile items need more support especially when using a parcel carrier as they use cages, conveyor belts and will trans-ship the goods several times before it reaches your customer. Your parcel is going to be squashed, thrown, pushed and pulled and it needs to withstand it all, if not then the item breaks or cracks and you will be sending out another to your customer.

Bear in mind, almost all parcel carriers offer very little or no insurance for glass, mirrors and ceramics, you will need to check the small print. So a parcel carrier could cost you twice the amount of postage and the cost of the item, twice. That’s why packaging is so important. Saving on packaging can cost you dearly, so get it right first time.

For larger fragile items a pallet network may be an option, again your item needs to be packaged really well.

If your item cannot go buy parcel (too fragile, too valuable) or by pallet network then an express or same day courier is another option. Your item goes on a dedicated vehicle. This means your fragile item is the only item that is being delivered, the driver who collects it, will be the driver that delivers it (no trans-shipping, no conveyor belts, no throwing the item about – none of this happens when you use a same day courier). The overall cost is more expensive. Your items are delivered safely and without worry, no extra costs and no extra deliveries leaving you with happy customers and unbroken, fragile items.

Regards

Kevin Arrow

Reblog this post [with Zemanta]
Email
Filed Under: Sameday Courier Tagged With: , , , , ,

Getting the right delivery service

July 26, 2009 By

I have taken to following a new blogger, a gentleman I call the Gordon Ramsey of Change Management, Gerald Price. To make matters worse I can never recall whether he is called Gerard or Gerald, so I have christened him Big G as he is tall. It has been pointed out that at 5′ 2″ tall and most of the adult population is taller than me but the irony was lost ;-)

I asked why I would need this service; no amount of insurance payout could ever replace a lost passport – I’m not even sure what its monetary value is – but she insisted that it would offer ‘peace of mind’ considering that the contents of the envelope; the passport and the information on the application form would be of huge benefit to an identity thief, apparently.

Maybe.

The Royal Mail is a courier. We pay them to take our letters and parcels form one place to another. Now we may choose to pay a premium for our missives to be delivered more or less promptly but I utterly fail to understand why we should have to pay extra to ensure that the people we entrust our letters to don’t steal them and use the contents against us and to our detriment.

Protection Racket by Gerald Price

Well, Royal Mail is a postal service primarily and a courier service secondly. When an item is priceless the best option is a same day courier. This is considerably more expensive than ‘Special Delivery‘ but the plus points to the Courier service are

  • The courier that collects it, will be the one that delivers it
  • Its delivered directly to the correct department and not the reception area
  • If it gets ‘lost’ you will know about it that day. Royal Mail says you have to wait for 15 days before a item of mail is officially lost
  • Have you ever tried to claim on their insurance?
  • Passport / Identity theft is virtually nil when delivered by a professional courier

When an item is priceless or the loss of it would cause a great deal of aggro then don’t take a chance with it, send it with someone who cares and has the systems in place to deal with an item of value.

If you have the time to sort out a duplicate form, an insurance claim and don’t mind the hassle then £4.95 is a small price to pay and if next day delivery isn’t essential, then 39p is an even smaller price to pay!

Hope it was delivered safely for you Gerald.

Sarah

Passport collections and deliveries – for when it’s urgent

Reblog this post [with Zemanta]
Email
Filed Under: Sameday Courier Tagged With: , , , , , ,