Couriers!

[raja]

OMG are these guys still using city link,they are rubbish for cities

They are better than many of the others, believe me I work for one of the other complanies, I have acquaintance with many other couriers. Nationally the City Link averages are better than most other companies who employ owner drivers (I'm an owner driver).

On a given day I see at least 2 City Link drivers covering a round I cover on my own, they have less work and stress. They have also just moved back in house, so no more franchises. You may have worse results for a given area, but OCUK use them for a reason, they're the best of a bad bunch, remember they have to look at their averages, there will always be failures. Most of this is due to the lack of goverment legislation regarding multi drop couriers. I see most people slagging couriers off, many times it's justified, but if they only knew what a days work actually involves..

Although it's not posiible for every firm, epecially the larger ones, many of my smaller customers now use Couriers firms based on their service to a known location, it takes many years of sending freight to discover who's best in a district. Some customers will have accounts for three seperate firms, using the best for each area.

You can't apply this to OCUK, shipping rates and discounts are applied according to volume of shipments, they have a deal and pricing structure in place. ATM from what I know through placing my own orders, they have a set rate which covers orders over 10kg too. Although the £8 seems high for smaller parcels, it saves cost for heavier orders.
You also have to take into account that certain dispatch times are not always available with every firm. I can make some of my collections at 1.30pm, some of my customers want them @ 4.30 pm, you can't have a driver everywhere at once.

Using other firms would probably require more staff at the dispatch end, so that would mean at least another £15,000 average per annum for one new member of staff.


Raja

 

[raja]

a little xpansion for you perhaps..

 

[atpbx]

(I'm an owner driver).

Who do you drive for?

 

[Steeps]

Using other firms would probably require more staff at the dispatch end, so that would mean at least another £15,000 average per annum for one new member of staff.

why should it need more people? i've worked in a warehouse that used more than one courier and the only difference was the labelling on the parcel and where we put it in the warehouse for collection, hardly needs an extra person. (based on a warehouse with 25 staff)

 

[PureAppleJuice]

I think City Link are alright, had the worst experience with UPS, bunch of idiots, as much use as a chocolate fireguard when it comes to deliveries :|

 

[atpbx]

I think City Link are alright, had the worst experience with UPS, bunch of idiots, as much use as a chocolate fireguard when it comes to deliveries :|

UPS bought us out last year.
They are a skinflint bunch of muddy funsters as well.

 

[PureAppleJuice]

"We'll be round in 20 minutes to pick up your parcel"

7 hours later *opens door* "alright came 'ere for a parcel'" Actually stepped into my house :S

*Hands over parcel*

Just walks off, damn you UPS!!

 

[Celestial Caravan]

All couriers companys are much the same. The greatest variance is between local depots. It all depends on local management and drivers. I used to refuse to deal with a company if they insisted on City Link - they were that bad locally. But I think they've had a major change of management locally and their service is now one of the best.

 

[VeNT]

they may be good for some people but for us non city folk they suck donkey.
I've had over 100 dilliverys from companys using City link since november.
out of those MOST (over 75%) where late, damaged (packaging with foot prints etc) or both.
I even had one stupid driver card me WHEN I WAS AT HOME!
I saw the card being pushed though the letterbox, by the time I got outside he had just driven off!
I called up their depo (its in plymouth for me) and they told me that IT WASN'T EVEN ON THE VAN! he just didn't want to admit that he forget to collect that package, so he thought he'd make it my fault!!!
tbh, I don't deal with companys that use city link unless I have to, if a company doesn't employ people who can be trusted not to lie like this then they are a waste of space.

 

[raja]

I drive for Business Post, the franchise situation for deopts is not looking good. The Chairman quit just before Christmas, 20 depots have been reclaimed by Business Post over the last year. In general over the last 2 weeks most of the drivers have been getting out of the depot late, which means many failed time deliveries, most of which are worked around by people not putting the time down. With Business Post going digital signature this year, all the dirty laundry will be out in the open. I'll decide how much longer I want to drive for BP this year, depends how the integration goes, doing 70-100 stops a day requires getting out of the depot early.

 

[raja]

why should it need more people? i've worked in a warehouse that used more than one courier and the only difference was the labelling on the parcel and where we put it in the warehouse for collection, hardly needs an extra person. (based on a warehouse with 25 staff)

works fine if you can stagger the collection times, but it can be hell for the driver when everyone shows up to collect at once, specially when you have another 14 collections to do, hanging around for the mainfest ain't fun.

 

[Neoni]

That's nice dear.

thats the most well thought of post, and one of the best contributions to a thread i have ever seen on ocuk forums.

 

[raja]

yes, I wondered what his gripe was, I tried to remain balanced, but I guess some people have an inherent need to be sarcastic at the wrong time.

I only wrote the post as I had seen poeple digruntled every so often in posts, I only wanted to show that one was has to take the whole picture into account.

In theory failed deliveries can be claimed against, if not made without good reason. Obviously this will aggrevate the accounts dept at OCUK, but they are entitled to claim back failed delivery costs and pass them to the consumer.

 

[VeNT]

yes, I wondered what his gripe was, I tried to remain balanced, but I guess some people have an inherent need to be sarcastic at the wrong time.

I only wrote the post as I had seen poeple digruntled every so often in posts, I only wanted to show that one was has to take the whole picture into account.

In theory failed deliveries can be claimed against, if not made without good reason. Obviously this will aggrevate the accounts dept at OCUK, but they are entitled to claim back failed delivery costs and pass them to the consumer.

realy?
that is interesting, because if that is true I should be able to clame over £200 worth of dillivery fees!

 

[raja]

Just depends on how fast you act, if track and trace was used and you can prove negligence on the part of the Courier firm you should be able to get money back for the 'courier fault' non-delveries. They promised a service, if they can't provide it as stated you are entiltled to at least some discount.

My customers have to go through a battle, but they hold their ground, usually they are reimbursed, it's a bit of a battle and involves making phonecalls and chasing tails, worth it though when the failures run into a tidy sum.
Obviously the level of claim varies from between companies, but the account holder does have the right to refuse to pay for negligent failures.