I read in a newspaper a while back the UK’s Post regulator was asking companies to consider using an alternative to the Royal Mail for there business post. I’ve been thinking for a while that maybe there’s a better solution to what I’m using at the moment.
History Note: A while ago my better half setup a website to sell posters of anything that moves and pretty much anything that’s standing still. We (I) setup a business account with the Royal Mail, basically we fill a bag with poster tubes and head off for the post office once or twice a week. When we get there we get harrassed by the counter staff as they claim “We don’t usally do this”, so who does? We’ve been going to the same post office every Saturday morning know for over 6 months. The Post office have an additional “pick up from your door” service for an extra £260 a year, which isn’t bad, we just think we didn’t need that level of service. Plus Kim uses the Saturday morning mail run as the ideal way to get me in a town center on a Saturday.
Currently we pay £1.09 to send a poster to anywhere in the UK, and around £1.44 for Europe and USA etc.
While surfing around for alternatives I found this post on Ebay (Big URL) GREAT! I thought surely there’s a company that can do it better.
So I started.
ANC Express
Website: No pricing information to be found, contact page had a server error. This isn’t looking good.
Phone: Got transfered 3 times to there local depot and then the girl with the prices was on another call, they called back pretty quick. OK! what’s this going to cost? They didn’t have prices for sending mail to residental addresses so I could only get the business rate. B Service as they call it will cost £5.60 a poster to the UK and they didn’t have International rates while on the call.
Not a bad price, but I’d have to process each poster individually, this could take a while.
Challenger Security Services (Admin) Ltd
Website: Doesn’t say much about mail
Phone: Confirmed they don’t do mail, but the nice guy did tell me to try TNT.
Moving on slowly
Citipost AMP Limited
Website: Again no prices and no mailing information
Phone: The sales guys not in the office, calling back in two days
OK, that’s enough of that, time to wheel out the big guns.
TNT
Website: No prices, no information about business mail, just sales junk.
Phone: Line busy, Line busy, Line busy, don’t they have two phone lines? Gave up
Only got 2 left, there must be something out there to rival the Royal Mail.
Fedex: If they lost Tom Hanks what chance have my posters got, anyway.
Website: Oh, a price calculator, whoopie we’re getting somewhere. CLUNK! They don’t shipping for the UK to the UK. Strange but true.
Phone: For the laugh I had to phone, “give us a rate for a poster to go from West Scotland to Italy.2 £42.86 (and that includes VAT) adding that postal price to a £4.50 poster doesn’t seem like good business practise.
Rolling on to the last as I’m losing the will to live.
DHL:
Website: Good information, apparently they can save me 15% on my business mail. This is sounding good, opps what’s that, minimum number of items to be shipped is 15,000. I give up!
So, Following the post regululators advice didn’t do me much good. In fact I’m now stressed with the fact that no one can out do the Royal Mail, there is no competition. So time to get used to lost mail, strange looks in Post Offices and the counter staff asking me every week for a “yellow docet” which I don’t have and have no idea where to get.
Robert
July 17th, 2007
Why don’t you try this company??
Social Media Optimization
July 17th, 2007
Our Company uses UPS regular mail to ship from Southern Asia to the rest of the Word, it has worked great for us so far, maybe you would like to check it out.
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PDF Guide to Social Media
Adam Christie
August 1st, 2007
You’re spot on. My wife sells camping and travel gear online and Royal Mail is the only way she can send to all her customers, especially when couriers want big supplements for sending to the Highlands or Northern Ireland. Our post office is happy for us to show up a few times a week with 10 or 20 parcels. Their attitude is “Use it or lose it” – implying that they’d be in line for the chop if they didn’t have customers like us. The only people who are unhappy are the people in the queue behind us, but I can live with that.
David Fiske
August 21st, 2007
Not sure if this helps but http://www.parcel2go.com/ partners with DHL and you can send as many or as few items as you wish. I’ve used them a few times but they’re not as cheap as Royal Mail
Denise from Tunbridge Wells
October 8th, 2007
I have had the same experience as you as I send about 5-10 parcels a day, most of which are quite light and I pay on average £2-3 for each to send each by first class recorded delivery. I am really happy with the Post Office prices and service except when they are on strike like now. I have also failed to find alternatives which only favour the big companies. No-one wants the business of small companies like us so we are dependent on the Post Office. I am currently losing 90% of my sales because of the strike and it is affecting us very badly. We have no idea how long it will go on either.
Parcel2go seems to have the lowest rates at £5.99 but only from residential to residential address – which I don’t understand because surely it is easier to pick up from and deliver to a business address as there is always someone there? From a business address it’s £10.99 plus VAT And it costs over £20 to Northern Ireland.
Incidentally when you state that the UK’s Post regulator was asking companies to consider using an alternative to the Royal Mail for their business post, it does actually say small to medium sized companies sending more then 500 items per day.
Fiona in Ayrshire
October 8th, 2007
I live in Ayrshire also, and I am exasperated by this current Postal Strike. You would think this was an ideal opportunity for Courier companies to offer an alternative postal service. Just a point of note: FEDEX has taken over ANC and although they act as independent operations the parent company is FEDEX.
Could Tesco be an alternative to the Royal Mail and Post Office? | Boyd of Ayrshire
October 8th, 2007
[...] As you will see in my previous post there is no alternative to the Royal Mail, although it’s not looking fit for a queen at the moment. Bookmark to: Sphere: Related Content [...]
DAVID GARRETT
October 10th, 2007
Denise from Tunbridge Wells is “right on the button”.
We have built our website business up from nothing two years ago to now spending over £12,000 per year with the local post office. All we seem to be doing is keeping Crozier & Co. in meal tickets.
I would not trust these misfits to deliver my post let alone run the place.
We are suffering big time – I cannot wait for the day of judgement to come when we leave the fools behind and get into a bracket where we can use the services of a courier – this time next year – goodbye Crozier and His msfits.
Brian Goulding
October 16th, 2007
Hey Guys. I run a small business and have always been happy with Royal Mail. The cost is pretty good and service was definately improved. This strike though shows how things can go wrong. It has severely damaged me, but I can’t see where you get an alternative supplier. It will happen, but not just yet…. Meanwhile, use those local POs to try and keep them going.
Nici Jones
October 20th, 2007
Hey,
I agree with all of you. I run an online business designing and selling wedding and evening invitations and stationery.
It’s not the cost that’s a problem and I have to give credit to the staff at my local post office as they are really friendly but my business is suffering severely due to the delays and increase in items going missing during the strikes.
I am going to check out a few of the suggestions above but I feel the Royal Mail really needs some competition.
Denise from Tunbridge Wells
October 20th, 2007
Hi again
I’ve just signed up for http://www.businesspost.biz
Upsides:
1. they collect from you
2. No minimum amounts of parcels – 1 a month is fine
3. No minimum contract period
4. Next day delivery
5. Excellent price £4.79 plus VAT for parcels up to 5 kg
6. Online ordering and tracking with signature
Downsides:
1. Recipient has to wait in from 9-5.30 (there are morning only options but these cost more)
2. £5 redelivery fee if person is not at home
3. Only serves mainland England and Wales and southern Scotland – other areas such as NI, Northern Scotland and islands are very expensive
On the whole I think this is a very good service compared to others.
Hope this helps.
A. Grant
October 27th, 2007
Hello
Well whatever you do *DO NOT USE* Parcel2Go.
I run a small business and used them for the first time this week as per the recommendation above.
All I can say is it has been painful!
Parcel2Go makes the Royal Mail look professional even on days of Industrial action.
In future I will stick with http://www.wedelivertheworld.co.uk which is what I have been using for months now with no problem.
Issues with Parcel2Go:
1. Booked my parcel online on the 24th Oct 2007 for collection and delivery to Leicester.
2. Parcel2Go sent me 3 emails – ok not a problem – but only 1 of them contained the actual DHL information the others were newsletter updates which I did not sign up for.
3. The DHL person that came to collect didn’t even ring the door bell or knock on the door he simply pushed a note through the mail slot saying “Failed Collection” When I actually saw him do this from my window I ran to the door he got in his van and took off.
4. I tried to call Parcel2Go but to no avail. The have an automated service where you enter you P2Gnumber. Within 3 mins I received another lot of useless emails from them.
5. I called DHL direct and spoke to a human being who rearranged for a collection the following day.
6. I received another email from Parcel2Go saying that there was a “Failed Collection” and that I have to rearrange another via their website. Thank Goodness I called DHL direct.
7. I contacted Parcel2Go – the only way you can contact them is by CHAT to find out if I required anything for the parcel to be collected. She said no and ended our chat even though I had one more question for her.
8. Yup you guessed it!
Another email from Parcel2Go saying that another collection had been arranged.
9. The DHL man collected – and I received another email 5 mins. later to tell me that.
10. This morning I try to track my parcel via Parcel2Go and I get an error message. So I call DHL direct and they tell me that the manifest & JD00 number that the DHL man had given me does not compute… “the computer says NO details are available” The DHL lady says I need to contact Parcel2Go as there may have been another number assigned to my collection.
Parcel2Go are not open at the weekend – I have to wait until Monday.
I have paid very little for Parcel2Go’s lack of service, no help from DHL no tracking and sheer annoyance.
I would NOT recommend Parcel2Go at all and for the extra cost I will be using http://www.wedelivertheworld.co.uk in future.
They come and pick up at a time suitable to you, never had problems with them and when I did I spoke to DHL direct as they give you ONE waybill receipt and that’s it. For a couple of quid extra I get a quality service & my customers get the service they asked for.
NO to PARCEL2GO unless you like hassle and frustration!!!
HTH
Pauline
September 17th, 2009
Hi,
I have been at my wits end today before coming across your site. I phoned to complain to Royal Mail regarding the high incidences of delayed and undelivered items over the past couple of weeks (in particular a 1st class Recorded item posted a week ago that only had to travel 100 miles in an area unaffected by strikes).
I have a small business sending around 100 parcels per week and can find no viable alternative to Royal Mail. Not surprising, then, that the Royal Mail representative I spoke to was completely unsympathetic, unapologetic about the mess whilst smugly telling me that items are merely “delayed” until 3 weeks (15 working days) after posting and if I want to ensure my parcels get there timeously I should consider Special Delivery as an alternative to ordinary 1st Class or Recorded. She also pointed out that I would be “foolish to replace items before this time as they are only delayed and may turn up”. Try telling that to the customers who have been waiting for items they’ve paid for. Vicki reckons customers just need to be understanding !!!
Royal Mail are very aware that, for the vast majority of their customers, there is no alternative and therefore despite all our wishes to go elswhere, they will still have our business when this chaotic mess is cleared.
It is very frustrating !
Lina
October 20th, 2009
There are lots of alternative providors advertising offers on http://www.senditquicker.com
Adam Brockwell
October 23rd, 2009
I am an accountant trying to send on average 10 small and large letters per day to H M Revenue or individual clients across the UK. There does not seem to be an alternative to Royal Mail unless someone knows otherwise?
Sandra Patterson
November 5th, 2009
Hi, I’m from Sunny Ayrshire too!!
Well, it looks like they may be close to a deal that would see the end of the strike.
However, i’d be wary about thinking that this is the end of the matter. This row was about modernisation, and the big thing over the next 2-5 years will be the closure of the local mail depots and the building of new “superhubs”. The first is already up and running in Daventry.
The idea is to move mail sorting out of victorian buildings built up in the middle of town centres and one way systems, out to new purpose built facilities, located better for motorways and access.
This is all great in theory, but the reality of it means that they’ll be shedding jobs locally, as they close several smaller local depots and shift (fewer) worker out to the new hubs further away from their homes/towns. The Royal Mail anticipated that this program will likely see 48k out of 160k jobs cut. So don’t expect the posties to take this lying down.
Also, worth thinking about, that if there are no local mail depots, and less mail workers working locally, then it means that us as customers are going to have to travel further to collect things when they’re not delivered. More of an issue here in Scotland where quite a few businesses chose to collect their mail from the local depots.