Courier that offers AM collection

neil_g

neil_g

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Neil
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having a mare with this..

need to send a 32kg parcel from BH25 to PE13 but NEED an AM collection.

none of the big names seem to offer an AM collection other than parcelforce who are extortionate (£30 budget tops).. :|

answers on a postcard?
 
Neil, what about dropping the parcel off at the depot? I think UPS do a drop in office, I know that Hermes offer it, I can remember if Hermes are in the industrial estate like UPS though!
 
Oh b****r, try contacting Parcel2go, they have a list of vendors that might be able to help, if not there's always Parcelmonkey aswell :)
 
Darn it! And the thing is, you can never guarantee when the guys turn up, we once had TNT turn up in an artic at 19:45 in the evening, we honestly thought they forgot!
 
Yeah you will struggle to find any. Myhermes might be you best bet in the future just drop it in at a store before you go to work.
 
Agreed.....you will (sadly) struggle.
Good luck!
 
andrewc said:
When filling in a UPS online collection instruction you can specify earliest and latest collection time.

Set latest time as noon?
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Tried many times.....and failed many times.
 
neil_g said:
none of the big names seem to offer an AM collection other than parcelforce who are extortionate (£30 budget tops).. :|

answers on a postcard?
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In the morning they are delivering ;)

While we get a just after noon collection from one courier at work, that's because we are the first of his regulars coming away from the depot. The postie comes in his van to collect at 2.17pm every day as we are the second on his route.


You will struggle, I think.
 
Glad you got it sorted. I have tons of experience with couriers and I have yet to find one that offers timed pickups. The nearest is DPD who will give you a 1-hour slot, but they choose the slot time, not you.
 
It is a nuisance as you basically have to take time off work, normally I'd just take parcels on the train and either get them collected or drop off for myhermes. But being over 30kg that ain't happening.

There must be a gap in the market for timed pickups..
 
neil_g said:
There must be a gap in the market for timed pickups..
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Yes and no.

I have a timed pickup every day: my DPD driver Roger turns up at around 15:00, and if I wanted that changed to 16:00 or 16:30 then I'd just ask my account manager or depot manager. But then I am sending out quite a lot of stuff.

I think there may be a gap in the market for timed 'third party collections' - when people are sending stuff back to the main account holder, at the end of a hire, say, or if they've bought something that is faulty - and for timed collections from 'occasional' senders. If any company is going to do that, it will be DPD because they are absolutely light years ahead of all the others in terms of their scheduling capability.

But I would expect it to be expensive. Before 12:00 they are mostly making deliveries, and making collections as well could require a lot of mucking around reorganising the van so the driver can still access and find the parcels to be delivered. That would have a cost associated with it.

So maybe there isn't much of a market for this anyway. But it's an interesting idea and I'll raise it with my account manager next time I see her.
 
What Stewart said - except I call the driver and ask if they can make an exception. If they can't (and there are tricky things with the town and uni routes) then I'll leave the parcel hidden for them.

Actually Hermes offer this as a regular service - you can nominate a safe place and they will look for parcels there if you're not around. Just don't hide it in the wheelie bin.
 
Couriers that can't give you a time slot are a pain. You end up sitting in all day for something that takes 5 minutes.

I'd imagine dpd/interlink have much fewer failed deliveries as it is a lot easier for people to work their day around one hour than it is to hang around at home all day until a courier shows up. They aren't even always more expensive than the others but the service quality is leagues ahead.
 
JonathanRyan said:
Actually Hermes offer this as a regular service - you can nominate a safe place and they will look for parcels there if you're not around. Just don't hide it in the wheelie bin.
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I would never ever do this with something valuable. You get home, the parcel has gone, two days later the recipient says they haven't received it, you investigate, delivery driver says he looked in the designated place and there was nothing there, you're stuffed.
 
srichards said:
Couriers that can't give you a time slot are a pain. You end up sitting in all day for something that takes 5 minutes.

I'd imagine dpd/interlink have much fewer failed deliveries as it is a lot easier for people to work their day around one hour than it is to hang around at home all day until a courier shows up. They aren't even always more expensive than the others but the service quality is leagues ahead.
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Absolutely. And next month DPD are making it even better. They're rolling out an enhanced facility where they'll initially give you a 1-hour slot, then you can track the van on a mobile app and they'll notify you when the driver is 15 minutes away. Very impressive indeed.

http://www.dpd.co.uk/content/product-services/video/dpd-follow-my-parcel.html
 
StewartR said:
Absolutely. And next month DPD are making it even better. They're rolling out an enhanced facility where they'll initially give you a 1-hour slot, then you can track the van on a mobile app and they'll notify you when the driver is 15 minutes away. Very impressive indeed.

http://www.dpd.co.uk/content/product-services/video/dpd-follow-my-parcel.html
Click to expand...

But there are downsides to everything. The downside to the one hour delivery slot is that the driver doesn't get paid unless the delivery is within that time slot. If he's early he has to sit outside until it's time. If he's late he may as well just not bother delivering, so he can just say that there was nobody at home and that a card was left. This happens quite often.
 
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