An Post For E Commerce Site Delays

irishmoss

Is An Post Express Post next Day guaranteed? I asked customer service at Christmas if we sent stuff out on the Wednesday would it be delivered by the Saturday and I was told there was no guarantee it would be delivered!

We are experiencing delays again with our standard mail (not tracked) so I am considering moving possibly to Fastway

We ship 2000 parcels a year so I know I will get a good rate and it will all be tracked but worried about deliveries to remote areas of the country. I would consider staying with An Post if they could guarantee their express service as there is no point telling me they will refund the shipping cost if it does not arrive next day as promised as that is no good to any business, I just want guaranteed times for the the rate we pay

L.Jenkins

I'd consider all your options. If An Post is unreliable, it may hurt your business. So you should look into Fastway and other couriers. You'll more than likely have to factor in the cost of a variety of couriers and give your customers the option with a warning that there maybe delays in delivery which are out of your hands upon dispatch.

CeilingFly

Fastway??? Seriously?

If you are delivering mainly to businesses and main town / city areas, then maybe. But if you are delivering to small rural areas / villages, forget it.

An post express post does not guarantee next day delivery and neither does Fastway, dpd or any other carrier unless you pay a huge premium - eg ems or fedex guaranteed services

2,000 is a small but decent number of parcels. We send about 15,000 and I consider we are a small company but potential to be medium size.

We've tried Fastway, dpd and years ago, GLS. We have used an post for 4 years now and their tracking and delivery service is superior to others - though about 50% of our deliveries are to rural addresses.

You are probably of a size that you can have a parcel account and have parcels collected each day especially if there's growth prospects.

Your local parcel account manager will be listed on the an post website.

For me, next day delivery is probably about 98% excluding peak times like Christmas / black Friday. But even at these times its over 90%.

Second best for me is Dpd.

irishmoss

CeilingFly wrote: »

Fastway??? Seriously?

For me, next day delivery is probably about 98% excluding peak times like Christmas / black Friday. But even at these times its over 90%.

Second best for me is Dpd.

Thanks Ceilingfly, maybe I should stick with An Post. They seem to be having serious problems at the moment though, several small business's I know are waiting over a week for the shipments to be delivered. Guess it's a backlog from the snow

Graham

L.Jenkins wrote: »

you should look into Fastway

:eek:

Autocorrect on my phone changes fastway to castaway.

In my experience, it's a fairly accurate summary.

somahoney74

Hi there I'm a Fastway Courier Franchisee. I have owned my specific area for 4 years now. In Fastway we are only paid for what we deliver. I have a 98% next day delivery rate. The national rate is 95%. Obviously there are times when delivery rates can be affected. Illness, broken down vehicles etc. The main reason for delivery issues are incorrect address or wrong phone numbers. The new postcode has been a great help. If I were you I'd try Fastway. What have you to lose. We are all small business owners who in the main, do our very best to get your parcels delivered the next day, with a smile

Graham

In fairness to the franchisees, my experience with Fastway is limited to that of a recipient and the problems I constantly experienced were all down to packages being misrouted to the wrong depot before being handed over to the correct local guys.

I switched to using parcel motel as a result so it's entirely possible things have improved since then.