Is there a decent Courier

[Stellaghost]

Having just recently purchased an air planisher and because it was 320 miles away from me I decided to arrange collection and delivery to myself through DPD. What seemed straight forward turned out to be a bit of a nightmare experience, so much so I don't know if I will use DPD again

DPD failed to collect on two occasions ( not an inconvenience to me but @pat_pending waited in two full days ) and then turned up to collect when not expected, almost impossible to talk to someone, everything has to be escalated through online chat, 1st level cannot help at all to the point where I told them just take me to the next level because they will not be able to assist, by the way next level took an hour to answer on two occasions and then had the audacity to ask where I was after such a long wait ( I had gone after 50 min's ). I finally managed to arrange a call back, this takes up to 24 hrs and as of writing have not had a call back for 48 hrs. In a degree of fairness they did contact me via  e-mail, apologized and returned my fees, I have to say overall I am very disappointed

Does anyone have better experiences of collect and deliver courier services

For deliveries I've always used the Post Office or Parcel Force and have had no problems, although I've not used them for collection as yet, I'm thinking of giving them a try in the near future

Regards Stephen

[Escape]

I've used DPD a couple of times to collect a pallet from me (to send to UK) and that worked out fine. I booked through cheaprcargo.com and DPD came out cheapest I think. They're the ones causing the least trouble delivering stuff as well, unlike others that leave parcels out in the rain or even just throw them over the fence when you're not home. Guess you've had bad luck or possibly a lot depends on the local branch in question. I haven't needed to contact them, luckily, so can't comment on customer support.

[Gazzar]

Speedishift.

https://www.speedshift.co.uk

Vince runs the show. Delivery can be late, driver shortage, but collection was good. 

[Ed Poore]

Was going to suggest Vince's company as well. Rule of thumb is it's about £60 to send a full height pallet (up to 2t) anywhere in the country, pallet is 1.2x1x2m I think.

Vince is also used to shipping machine tools around so can best describe how to palletise stuff. The only thing is car parts must be empty of oil, he suggests putting carpet down first after draining the oil so that any drops are caught. If a drop goes onto a pallet below then you're liable for that pallet.

I think stuff over 1t they will happily transport but require a forklift / tele handler at either end as the tail lifts can't (usually) handle them.

[geoffbeaumont]

DPD are highly dependant on the local drivers. We had loads of trouble with deliveries by them (mostly claims we weren't in for deliveries when we were and the parcel had instructions saying it could be left anyway). Turned out they were short of drivers round here and sending drivers out from Liverpool - they were incapable of finding anywhere if satnav didn't take them straight to the door, and it's a rural area where it usually dumps you in the middle of the postcode. They'd just give up and record it as householder not in.

These days DPD are very reliable round here.

[Anderzander]

19 minutes ago, geoffbeaumont said:

highly dependant on the local drivers

I think that’s it for all of them isn’t it. 

For example: Yodel or Evri were always awful for everything in my experience - but they got a great driver round here for smaller parcels, and for the last few years it’s been brilliant. 
 

Whereas the Evri large parcel people lost an £800 tent - marking it as delivered, at a GPS located address 70 miles away, with a picture of a garden chair box as proof of delivery.

They then did almost the same with the replacement tent sent by the company they’d lost it for and we’d bought from. They marked it as delivered to us, with a picture of a completely different parcel outside a house we didn’t recognise. 

The company refunded us, but they lost £1600 worth of stuff and a customer - and the courier had zero interest in even listening to what had happened.

The tent company depressingly said  ‘happens a lot and with all the carriers’.

Seems like theft to me.

[Peaklander]

I’ve just had a minor annoying experience with Evri. Just when I have got comfortable with them after their unreliable times, they tried one.

I returned a box to @muddy and was careful to measure it to just achieve their maximum ’overall dimension’.

It was collected (nice option) and moved to the local depot. Then it stopped. I had to use their Chat Bot. What a waste of time these things are. 
it didn’t move. They promised to look into it. I would get a reply within 24hrs. I used the bot again. Then it was being sorted. Then after a week it was due to be delivered between x and y.

It was delivered but at the same time I was told it couldn’t be as it was oversize.

I saw the photo proof. Then I got and invoice for a surcharge. I started to argue with their receiveables people. I asked for proof it was oversize. Nothing came.

Muddy measured the box. The overall dimension was 250mm and the limit is 245.

I challenged them that +5mm was splitting hairs and that their original claim that the driver didn’t have the correct sized van was unreasonable.

They cancelled the surcharge. 

[smallfry]

Have had problems with DPD here too. Used to have great driver (Polish) who had been doing this area (rural) a long time. No problems whatsoever. He left to work for a timber company at double the wage. Ever since, we get "cannot find the address" or "no one at home" or they just don't turn up, probably because they have  run out of time.

Only ones we have no problems with are ANC, DX, and Parcel Force.

BiL never received a six cylinder engine block for his Renault truck, that was strapped to a pallet. Tuffnells lost it, and the sender never got it back ! How they could lose that beats me.  

[simonr]

All the couriers are pretty bad - but the industry is so competitive on cost that they have to cut corners!

The best option is to find a local company.  Even if they hand over to one of the big couriers for long distance, they move enough parcels to both get a good deal and for the courier to worry about giving them a good service.

I (X-Eng) used to use https://www.eezehaul.co.uk/ for pallets and they were fantastic!  Never had a problem with them.

For parcels I tried most of the options, ending up with Fedex for UK & European and UPS for rest of world - they were the least-worst option, but not the cheapest by any stretch.

These days I use Interparcel who are just an intermediary but like using a local courier, they get a generally better service than if I book directly.  Parcel2Go are similar.

The worst experience I had was with Parcel Force who were delivering a large consignment to a freight forwarding company - to be shipped to Australia.  They had to wait until the forwarder opened - and then a random guy rolls up in a white van, says they're for him!  The Parcelforce driver helped load the van - which then drove off.  The whole thing was caught on CCTV.  Police said the van was stolen.

Parcelforce took the view that they had delivered to the correct location and had a signature to prove it - they refused to pay for the loss.  I lost enough to almost cripple X-Eng!

Needless to say, Parcelforce are not my favorite option - however, it could just as easily been any of the other couriers.

[muddy]

At work we use DPD to send out around 100 parcels a day, over 99% of these do make it and in our experience they are the least worst especially as we are a perishable account. 
 

All couriers are battling with one another and I think a collapse is on the cards from one or two, many have now withdrawn the expensive hand held computers and are making drivers use an app on their phones.

 

DHL coming into us are very good, however we have had countless nightmare story’s from suppliers who use them, one of wich was basically put out of business by them not collecting when they should have. 
 

It’s an absolute minefield is all I can say.

[Snagger]

20 hours ago, simonr said:

All the couriers are pretty bad - but the industry is so competitive on cost that they have to cut corners!

The best option is to find a local company.  Even if they hand over to one of the big couriers for long distance, they move enough parcels to both get a good deal and for the courier to worry about giving them a good service.

I (X-Eng) used to use https://www.eezehaul.co.uk/ for pallets and they were fantastic!  Never had a problem with them.

For parcels I tried most of the options, ending up with Fedex for UK & European and UPS for rest of world - they were the least-worst option, but not the cheapest by any stretch.

These days I use Interparcel who are just an intermediary but like using a local courier, they get a generally better service than if I book directly.  Parcel2Go are similar.

The worst experience I had was with Parcel Force who were delivering a large consignment to a freight forwarding company - to be shipped to Australia.  They had to wait until the forwarder opened - and then a random guy rolls up in a white van, says they're for him!  The Parcelforce driver helped load the van - which then drove off.  The whole thing was caught on CCTV.  Police said the van was stolen.

Parcelforce took the view that they had delivered to the correct location and had a signature to prove it - they refused to pay for the loss.  I lost enough to almost cripple X-Eng!

Needless to say, Parcelforce are not my favorite option - however, it could just as easily been any of the other couriers.

I would hope that you’d have won any legal claim against them, but it’s not an easy thing to instigate when you are already taking a huge financial hit from the theft.  The PF driver should have been held accountable for giving your stuff away, forcible sale of whatever possessions he owned to compensate you.  I’m sick of this zero-accountability culture the UK had adopted.

[hurbie]

it doesn't only happen in england , i'm at home at the moment , recovering from a knee surgeree , and my wife was feeding the birds outside and noticed a box on our frontdoor.

it turned out to be a fruitbasket from work (nice gesture !) , it has been outside at least a full day in the pouring rain .....

i'm at home (never been out the door) and have seen nobody put it there , so they didn't even bother to knock on the door ....

 

had the same happen with a lot off parcels , being at home and never seen anybody , only to find out on the parvcel tracker that "there was nobody home" , so go collect your parcel from a drop off point.

or they just leave it at neigbours 4 houses away without telling you they did ....

[Snagger]

You are quite right about that.  The delivery guys here are highly variable in quality, and most seem ok,  but Amazon+ delivery staff have recently taken to just throwing packages over the individual villas’ gates in our compound, even though they are overwhelmingly left unlocked by the residents so that they can access the front yards and knock on the door.  This includes packages with electronic devices.  We have it on camera and called their customer services.  Others did the same.  The good news for us is that the staff are easy to replace here, so they were probably fired in minutes - the very limited regulations regarding employee protections here can be used correctly, unlike the abuse of them across Europe.

[JeffR]

I use couriers a great deal in my day job. None of them are trustworthy:

Parcel Farce once lost a roof rack for my 110

DHL (Deliberately Horrendous Logistics) lost a bed

DPD (Destroying Parcels Daily) delivered an empty box when they lost the contents

Yodel took 3 weeks to do an overnight delivery

Evri (well if you use their old name, Hermes lost his sandles

and not to forget

Royal Fail ( 24hrs means 48, 48hrs means 72 and 72 means thats the last you'll see of your parcel in this life time, perhaps they need to feed their carrier pigeons more often).

 

[Snagger]

For international packages there is less choice, but it may be significant that UK authorities are using FedEx to send me documents.  That suggests a little more faith in that organisation.

[Retroanaconda]

There are no good couriers, only some good drivers - who may work for any courier!

[landroversforever]

Never a good idea to get @Hybrid_From_Hell started on couriers  

[geoffbeaumont]

7 hours ago, landroversforever said:

Never a good idea to get @Hybrid_From_Hell started on couriers  

"Bloody hell mate, what's this made out of? Ooff!"

[Escape]

18 hours ago, Retroanaconda said:

There are no good couriers, only some good drivers - who may work for any courier!

Very true! I always try to be polite to the drivers and you can see some really appreciate a kind word in a no doubt very busy schedule. Like the lady (from DHL I think) that turned up around 19h and was very happy to find me still open, the only one in the industrial estate. That saved her a trip back next day.
But being friendly only works if they take the trouble of actually delivering in person and not just throwing it out of the van.

[Daan]

I have different experiences with couriers; Evri used to be good, then non-existent (the courier left the job, and they had no one to fill in) some stuff was 5 weeks late as a result, it's ok-ish now. I ordered a few Christmas presents 4 weeks early, but some arrived with new year!

The others are ok normally

The problem is in the competition; we all want the best deal, so the competition is absolutely murderous. The result is these pay rates:

Delivery driver salary in United Kingdom (indeed.com)

Those drivers have to do 100-odd drops a day, so no wonder they are rushed, don't wait for someone to answer the door, and just drop it where ever.

With that salary, recruiting people will be hard, it is not a good deal for a highly stressed job and you will have a big turnover of staff I reckon.

Complaining about couriers is easy, but I couldn't do the job myself.

[Anderzander]

We are all saying the same thing.

Interestingly the decent Evri drive we have - works hard but makes the time to take care and have a word … and as a result when he fell and broke his leg recently, and everyone found out his contract meant he didn’t get paid if he wasn’t working, someone set a crowdfund and raised enough money to tide him over until his leg got better. 

Hidden benefits to taking care and smiling at people. 

[ThreePointFive]

36 minutes ago, Anderzander said:

We are all saying the same thing.

Interestingly the decent Evri drive we have - works hard but makes the time to take care and have a word … and as a result when he fell and broke his leg recently, and everyone found out his contract meant he didn’t get paid if he wasn’t working, someone set a crowdfund and raised enough money to tide him over until his leg got better. 

Hidden benefits to taking care and smiling at people. 

Of course, the problem here is that it took crowd funding to allow him to recover. What is this, America?

Until industries of all types look at the whole picture of recruitment and retention, they should be made to think again before complaining about staff shortages. Or, people wanting pay that reflects the nature of the job, if you want to give it its actual name. 

[Gazzar]

100%.  If they don't pay much, why should the employee do much?

[Anderzander]

Totally agree.

[pat_pending]

6 hours ago, Gazzar said:

100%.  If they don't pay much, why should the employee do much?

Turning up, not stealing things and not leaving parcels in random locations, is that too much to ask whatever the pay?