City Link collapses, 2700 jobs at risk...

Companies charging what CityLink did are always playing with fire. The margins when you get that low are miniscule if they even exist at all.
 
atpbx said:
They were charging £4 a consignment.

Doesn't matter how many million parcels you move, at £4 there isn't any money for anything once operational costs are taken out.

I went into a guy who sent flowers out with them last year, he had them refunding the cost of delivery AND the invoice cost of goods on any damaged parcels.

He was actually in profit using them to the tune of £100 a month or so.
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How do DPD do it then? They pay a driver £1.70 per drop.
 
Quite a few of my ex colleagues have left for a City Link in the last few months, so I hope things work out for them.
 
Ev0 said:
They probably charge more than £4 per consignment?
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Average charge I come up against is £4.34 For the first box then 50% of that for the second.
City link, FedEx , APC, tuffnelss and TNT charge by the consignment up to x number of kilos then x pence per kilometre re after.

DPD, interlink and UPS charge mainly by the box.

So if you you send out lots of single parcel deliveries the price is ok, once you start sending multi part, or deliveries to domestic addresses or anything over 20kgs, they absolutely screw you on surcharges.

There's only a couple of UK companies actually make any money.
 
Noxia said:
I believe DPD are charging by volumetrics in the near future.
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Lots already are. A lot of consumers are in for a shock over the next few years as the industry gets increasingly competent at volumetric charging.

Shipping in the UK is too cheap. The market needs to change but some carriers will cling on to the cheap end of the market to pander to consumer demands. Most of them will probably end up going pop.
.
 
Lopéz said:
Lots already are. A lot of consumers are in for a shock over the next few years as the industry gets increasingly competent at volumetric charging.
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Yes we have already prepared for this by revising our carton specs. Not much else to do.
 
atpbx said:
Average charge I come up against is £4.34 For the first box then 50% of that for the second.
City link, FedEx , APC, tuffnelss and TNT charge by the consignment up to x number of kilos then x pence per kilometre re after.

DPD, interlink and UPS charge mainly by the box.

So if you you send out lots of single parcel deliveries the price is ok, once you start sending multi part, or deliveries to domestic addresses or anything over 20kgs, they absolutely screw you on surcharges.

There's only a couple of UK companies actually make any money.
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tuffnells make money cause they'll take anything and everything. lampposts to boxes of screws to half a car fasten to a pallet, yep I seen it all in my 3 years there. lol
 
I've actually been asked as of half an hour ago if I can cut my holiday short and go in on Monday and start hovering up their customers in our area.
 
It's really bad new for the poor staff, especially at Christmas.

We never really had an issue with City Link here, but there always seemed to be more problems with them that I heard of, than with most of the other couriers.
 
I've had an absolutely terrible experience with them in the past couple of weeks but I do feel sorry for the people losing their jobs. My wife was made redundant on Christmas Eve last year so I know it's not a nice thing and the time of year is terrible :(
 
Christmas is a horrible time to lose a job, But citylink are deserving of this they are hands down the worst i used. I once ordered a PC for Christmas off OCUK, And Citylink asked me to drive up to the mainstreet and collect of a driver on xmas eve!!


They were going to let it sit over XMAS, So we passed the parcels on the main street of the town like oddballs. Another time they simply left stuff under door mats.
 
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