Courier - suggestions

lakill Farm

Looking for suggestions on a courier for nationwide delivery for the following.

Private - business

Business to private deliveries

I called DHL and then only do business to business


and was using Fastways and they should buy a big tent and put circus over the door.

So any other suggestions?

jimmii

I thought the same about Fastway then for the last couple of weeks we have had GLS delivering from our main supplier and it seems they need to add some pitch markings and goal posts and call it a football pitch.

They may not have the slickest operation but our worst Fastway delivery was in better condition than the best from GLS.

Have used DPD plenty of times in the past and they have always been good as have UPS and FedEx.

lakill Farm

Our problem is we are based in the country beside a small town, and our deliveries are going to ordinary Joe soaps in most counties. IT would all be small parcels, with paperwork . Nothing big

jimmii wrote: »

I thought the same about Fastway then for the last couple of weeks we have had GLS delivering from our main supplier and it seems they need to add some pitch markings and goal posts and call it a football pitch.

They may not have the slickest operation but our worst Fastway delivery was in better condition than the best from GLS.

Have used DPD plenty of times in the past and they have always been good as have UPS and FedEx.

jimmii

How many deliveries are you going to be doing per week? I don't do much online yet and find the easiest is just to use parcel2go and go with the cheapest.

Peterdalkey

We used to use Fastway and TBH rfound them pretty good/reliable, but I know a lot depends on the quality organisation of local guy (they are all independent owner driver operations) for pick ups etc. We now use An Post Courier for the parcels as they are cheaper, there are deals to be done on rates if you have a decent volme. We do about 400 parcels per month but don't use them for pallets or larger shipments.

Peterdalkey

OP you are in Westmeath and DPD are HQ'd in Athlone... should have a great service/price offereing for you!!

lucky john

To be honest fastway seem to be the perfect fit for you. Small parcels, next day delivery nationwide, price, it will be hard to find a replacement for them. Admittedly, some of the franchise owners are well fed up with management and may be disillusioned with the job and not giving the best service. . They are been swamped with low transaction items from littlewoods and another mail order crowd. I know at least 3 lads that want out asap.

lakill Farm

lucky john wrote: »

To be honest fastway seem to be the perfect fit for you. Small parcels, next day delivery nationwide, price, it will be hard to find a replacement for them. Admittedly, some of the franchise owners are well fed up with management and may be disillusioned with the job and not giving the best service. . They are been swamped with low transaction items from littlewoods and another mail order crowd. I know at least 3 lads that want out asap.

Had a stand of with a local driver telling lies today and 2 bosses giving conflicting info. 3 days to get the item picked up:eek:, and another from a client took 2 days.

In Westmeath but along way from athlone

No of transactions wount be high but its about reliability

Peterdalkey

OP, it is far from obvious as to whether you are on here to have a bitch at Fastway or whether you really are interested in finding a reliable courier service. It is safe to assume that DPD get most of their business in Dublin, you are much nearer, easy conclusion. An Post Courier service has also been commended to you ( if only by me!). GLS got slated by one.

Message: Try out with DPD AND An Post. We are all clear, Fastway is not working out for you, so get over it and move on!

Munstermissy

Try Nightline as well, they seem to have a good reputation

freedominacup

lucky john wrote: »

To be honest fastway seem to be the perfect fit for you. Small parcels, next day delivery nationwide, price, it will be hard to find a replacement for them. Admittedly, some of the franchise owners are well fed up with management and may be disillusioned with the job and not giving the best service. . They are been swamped with low transaction items from littlewoods and another mail order crowd. I know at least 3 lads that want out asap.

I think DHL have squeezed their drivers fairly hard as well. Got this from a driver who changed from DHL to another courier in the past 12 months.

Peterdalkey

Munstermissy wrote: »

Try Nightline as well, they seem to have a good reputation

Do you use them? Can you recommend their value/service?

Munstermissy

Peterdalkey wrote: »

Do you use them? Can you recommend their value/service?

I am in the freight industry and personally don't use them but they have a good reputation throughout the business, no idea of rates, etc but most couriers are in around the same rates,

Peterdalkey

Munstermissy wrote: »

I am in the freight industry and personally don't use them but they have a good reputation throughout the business, no idea of rates, etc but most couriers are in around the same rates,

Interesting but would not be our experience (on price) at least 20% price difference would be quite usual in quotes. But if you are doing low volume, price matters not a jot! However the funny thing is, we find the guys with the best price package also give the best service.

lakill Farm

Peterdalkey wrote: »

OP, it is far from obvious as to whether you are on here to have a bitch at Fastway or whether you really are interested in finding a reliable courier service. It is safe to assume that DPD get most of their business in Dublin, you are much nearer, easy conclusion. An Post Courier service has also been commended to you ( if only by me!). GLS got slated by one.

Message: Try out with DPD AND An Post. We are all clear, Fastway is not working out for you, so get over it and move on!

I am genuine in looking for a new provider. You bitched about GLS. I was merely meriting my disapproval of both the actual service and customer service, the facts are the facts. An Post doesnt suit. I will try GLS, nightline and DPD as suggested by others.

Would you deal with a driver who says "I know nothing about it" and next sentence "I got a bolixing 3 times on the phone yesterday from my boss about it"

And one manager saying drop it 20 mile to local town for collect at the depo are 2 days not been collected and a manager saying dont drive i proise it will be collected today and it not actually getting collected?

LeBash

Im using GLS 5 years. Onlybtime they let me down is shipping to or collecting fromthe Uk. I use DPD for that now.

We ship about 120 packets to large boxes every week and honestly i can say 99% of the time there is not issue and the few issues they have had have been understandable. Eg address mr x cavan and then mr x wont answer his phone.

Peterdalkey

lakill Farm wrote: »

I am genuine in looking for a new provider. You bitched about GLS. I was merely meriting my disapproval of both the actual service and customer service, the facts are the facts. An Post doesnt suit. I will try GLS, nightline and DPD as suggested by others.

Would you deal with a driver who says "I know nothing about it" and next sentence "I got a bolixing 3 times on the phone yesterday from my boss about it"

And one manager saying drop it 20 mile to local town for collect at the depo are 2 days not been collected and a manager saying dont drive i proise it will be collected today and it not actually getting collected?

It was not I that slated GLS, as I have no experience of them, it was Jimmii sharing his experience. As for your local Fastway, just dump them!

lakill Farm

Peterdalkey wrote: »

It was not I that slated GLS, as I have no experience of them, it was Jimmii sharing his experience. As for your local Fastway, just dump them!

Dumped and despatched

jimmii

LeBash wrote: »

Im using GLS 5 years. Onlybtime they let me down is shipping to or collecting fromthe Uk. I use DPD for that now.

We ship about 120 packets to large boxes every week and honestly i can say 99% of the time there is not issue and the few issues they have had have been understandable. Eg address mr x cavan and then mr x wont answer his phone.

Presumably shipping to the UK goes via Dublin. As I say outside of Dublin the supplier has zero issues and in Dublin it was nothing but issues it appears its just a problem with one depot.

lucky john

LeBash wrote: »

Im using GLS 5 years. Onlybtime they let me down is shipping to or collecting fromthe Uk. I use DPD for that now.

We ship about 120 packets to large boxes every week and honestly i can say 99% of the time there is not issue and the few issues they have had have been understandable. Eg address mr x cavan and then mr x wont answer his phone.

Sorry. Hijacking this a bit. How big a box will GLS collect in the uk and any idea of price?. I can send a box to anywhere in the UK for 40 euro with fastway but they don't collect. I need to be able to offer a return option for a particular product. I asked a UK contact to price over there but the best he got was 85 stg Uk to Ireland. Box is big but not heavy 25kg. 800mm x 700mm x 650mm.

galwayjohn89

lucky john wrote: »

Sorry. Hijacking this a bit. How big a box will GLS collect in the uk and any idea of price?. I can send a box to anywhere in the UK for 40 euro with fastway but they don't collect. I need to be able to offer a return option for a particular product. I asked a UK contact to price over there but the best he got was 85 stg Uk to Ireland. Box is big but not heavy 25kg. 800mm x 700mm x 650mm.

Have you thought of using parcel2go.com to arrange UK collections. Would probably work out cheaper. Could also use collect+ to parcelmotel if customers are happy to drop off parcel. I know a log of my customers in the UK would prefer collect+

Edit just saw its 25KG so that rules out collect+. But should be a few other options.

BarryM3

I run a delivery business and unfortunately it is pretty much a race to the bottom with 'cheapness' being the number one consideration. The pay off for this is, in a lot of cases, poor service.

While I only cover the Dublin area with my business I'm still in competition with the big companies and it's becoming increasingly obvious that in terms of cheapness Va quality of service payoff I must join them as I cannot beat them. While I haven't resorted to that yet most of the large players have and it's for that reason that you will find that between them there is very little difference!

highlandseoghan

For dublin I use a small courier company and find them fantastic for next day collections and deliveries. for nationwide nextday deliveries and collections I use nightline and think there the best on the market.

nightline can be that little bit more expensive but I am willing to pay that little bit extra for quality and service.

I used fastway about 2 years ago and like yourself the quality and service was disasterous.

Best of luck in your search

LeBash

jimmii wrote: »

Presumably shipping to the UK goes via Dublin. As I say outside of Dublin the supplier has zero issues and in Dublin it was nothing but issues it appears its just a problem with one depot.

The problem in the UK is they use parcelforce who according to the drivers and office not the most reliable. We ship to Germany 1-2 times a week and no issues. Anywhere in Ireland has had very few issues.

LeBash

lucky john wrote: »

Sorry. Hijacking this a bit. How big a box will GLS collect in the uk and any idea of price?. I can send a box to anywhere in the UK for 40 euro with fastway but they don't collect. I need to be able to offer a return option for a particular product. I asked a UK contact to price over there but the best he got was 85 stg Uk to Ireland. Box is big but not heavy 25kg. 800mm x 700mm x 650mm.

We have 4 standard box sizes and the large one is quite large. No idea of the size. Max weight is 30 kg in ireland and 35 outside. To be honest i never ask for prices. It is somewhere around 30 euro plus weight.