This is perhaps one of the most commonly asked questions and in all honesty, it is a very legitimate question. Why? Because both business models offer a delivery service to the intended recipient. And maybe you have already twigged that a courier service must offer more than a delivery service, or else it wouldn’t have a different name. Here we should point out that when it comes to a delivery service, we are not talking about food delivery businesses such as Deliveroo, Just Eat and Uber Eats. No. Here we are talking about parcel and package delivery companies
What does a delivery service require, do and offer?
- You are usually required to take the item you want delivered to a ‘depot’ or ‘relay point’ where it will then be collected by the delivery company.
- You will be restricted in the size and weight of items you send, primarily because such a delivery service involves one single person.
- Once your package or parcel has been collected, it will be taken to a central depot and then distributed to the depots nearest to the recipients’ address.
- Once at the final depot, the parcel will be allocated to a delivery driver who will take your parcel, along with approximately fifty others, and will deliver it at some point during the day. Certain delivery companies will notify you in advance of a time window of between one and two hours when the parcel will be delivered.
What are the disadvantages of a delivery service?
- In many cases you are responsible for taking the parcel or package to a depot for collection. A few delivery companies offer a collect and delivery service, and while they try to provide an accurate time for collection, it is usually a wide window and often they are late, leaving you unable to go anywhere.
- A same-day delivery service is only offered by a specialised few delivery companies, and they usually only offer a very narrow radius for such a delivery.
- Often the recipient may not be at home and therefore packages aren’t signed for, their condition can’t be checked, and often the parcel is just left by the front door, letting passers by know nobody is at home and providing temptation for an opportunist thief to help themselves. Beyond that, many delivery companies will send you a photo showing the package has been delivered, so if you can’t find it when you get home, the delivery company will wash their hands of the problem as they fulfilled their side of the ‘deal’.
- Because these businesses deal with massive volumes of packages, some get lost, some get damaged, some are delayed by several days. To a degree you are ‘in the hands of the gods’ once you hand over responsibility for the delivery of your parcel or package.
- If you suddenly receive a call from a customer who urgently needs a spare part for a machine, delivery of that part will likely take a minimum 24 hours if it is not close by. Major delivery companies have their strict schedules and you have to fit in to them.
- You have to ‘dance to the tune’ of your chosen delivery company. In other words, you have to fit in with their requirements and rules, not the other way round.
What does a courier service demand, do and offer?
Here we are going to reference Distribusha as the courier service.
- What you want delivered will be collected either from your own premises, or from any location chosen by you. It may be that you want something collected from an airport, ferry port, manufacturer or importer’s premises. Distribusha will collect from anywhere in the UK and deliver to any premises in the UK.
- The distance that can be offered for a same-day courier delivery service can be huge. In the case of Distribusha, we can collect the item as early as you will allow us to, and deliver it as late as necessary in the day or evening as long as there is someone available at the other end to take delivery and check the consignment.
- Unless we have very specific instructions, we rarely, if ever, deliver products where there is no recipient available to take delivery. This is primarily because of the value of products we transport.
- If you have a client who urgently needs a spare part delivered, a courier service is your best option. Here at Distribusha, we have wonderfully flexible staff who will always help out in a crisis, so we will do everything we can to get that spare part delivered within a matter of hours, not days.
- In the case of Distribusha, we have never lost an item that has been consigned to us for delivery, and if we offer a same-day delivery service, then we stand by that description. Our staff are highly trained to ensure that products are not damaged in transport and we can provide clients with regular updates on the location of their delivery. We will be honest and say on very rare occasions we may deliver a product at a later time than scheduled, but this is usually due to excessive traffic, road delays as a result of an accident, or adverse weather conditions such as snow or ice. However, we will always keep the intended recipient aware of any delays as soon as they are anticipated.
- If you have a bulky or heavy item to be delivered, we are usually able to help as we can provide up to three members of staff as part of what we call our ‘pallet courier service’. We will use a forklift trolley or have you use one of your forklift trucks to load the item into the back of one of our wagons, and we can use a forklift trolley and the hydraulic tail lift on our truck to offload the item at the other end if they do not have their own forklift truck available.
- A courier service is usually a bespoke one. In other words, this is a very flexible service that can be perfectly adjusted to meet your specific requirements. Here at Distribusha it is very much a case of us asking you what you want and need, rather than us telling you what you have to do. In our eyes, offering a courier service means we have the staff, the experience and the vehicles to provide a unique service to each and every one of our customers, because in your own right, you too are totally unique.
In summary, a delivery service tells you what you must do, a courier service asks you the question: “What would you like us to do for you?”. For example, a technical courier or a medical courier offers a bespoke door-to-door service. If you have an exhibition to attend, our exhibition courier service could be the ideal solution. Need a document delivered, signed and returned – our document courier service is perfect for you.
Are you getting the picture now? If you need something delivered, ideally with a ‘personal touch’, you need a courier service like the one offered by Distribusha!
Got any questions? Call us: 01923 828460 – it costs nothing to talk – or
Email us: info@distribusha.co.uk and we’ll get straight back to you.
Need a quick quote? Use our Quote Form for a rapid response.
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