An overview of national carriers

There's no lack of choice in carriers for packets and parcels. The trick is to find the ones that offer the best match according to the order of importance of speed, economy, reliability, comprehensive UK coverage, proof of delivery, handling returns, tracking-and-tracing, add on services and convenience.

No single carrier offers all of these at once. The premium services of the big national and international express operators and couriers, for instance, certainly iiieet the majority of these criteria. But premium
services come at premium prices, andwhile they might be ideal for high-priority hi sin ess-to-bu si ness deliveries they are not necessarily the best for reaching households or where cost is a pnrnary consideration.

Conversely, nobody can match Royal Mail on cost and universal coverage, hut the Royal Mail service quality and delivery performance have been called into question of late.
Grants like TNT DHL and UPS are renowned for their sophist icated international services. But Manish Joshi Marketing Manager of DHL, points out that domestic UK services also benefit from the process designed for the latest possible collections and earliest deliveries in Europe and across the world. 'It means our customers also get a very good domestic service as standard’, he says.
They get the automation of producjng the paperwork tracking-and-tracing and other IT-related functions which were originally designed for international traffic.’
As owners or large-scale users of air transport, die international integrators also have the ability to fly high-priority items between the UK’s more far-flung cities without bringing in airfreight agents. ‘The capability of flying late with our own aircraft gives us a time advantage’, continues Joshi.
Several carriers have introduced ‘mission-critical logistics’ where spare parts are held at centres across the country to enable companies to offer fast after-sales repair and replacement services.
A big selling point of the major carriers is that virtually all consignments are transported and handled through their own staff, vehicles and sorting centres, while the smaller operators might pass a package from one carrier to another. The majors contend that they never lose sight of a consignment and that its progress is continually tracked
Various types of money-back guarantees ire offered if delivery times are not met.
DHL refunds the whole fee, TNT refunds the difference between a premium service and a slower one, UPS will repay the fee if on-schedule delivery is not achieved by its Express Plus or Pxpress, and Securicor Omega, for its top ‘Diamond’ service, pays out £50 if delivery is not by 10am the next day.
The international integrators are busily finding added-value services, with such innovations as storage and parts replacement. TNT has branched into meeting the logistics needs of the sales, marketing and retail industries for the national roll-out of time-critical promotional print and point-of-sale display materials. Colin Dennison, Manager of the new TNT Printline division, explains:
'You typically have three or four printers plus several other partners in your supply chain. TNT Printline can manage the whole of this to ensure that all the components come together on time for fulfilment and delivery.
UPS this year launched its Return Service for businesses needing to handle and process items for return. There is also cash on-delivery. A timed delivery service has been introduced by DHL – with a choice of guaranteed delivery before 9am or before noon.
The range of next-day services offered by TNT encompasses delivery next working day before noon, before 10.30am or before 9am. Saturday delivery is also available. Even faster is 1 NT Sameday, using direct delivery vehicles to short-cut the conventional hub-and-spoke method. This service is available on demand 24-hours a day. Of course, depending on points of origination and destination, same-day is not always physically possible and TNT Sameday should be interpreted as ‘the shortest possible time’ – It is also claimed by TNT that its Supamail is ‘clear market leader’ for next-day business documents and small parcels.
There are same-day and next-day services within the UK and Ireland from Securicor Omega Express. A large part of its same-day operations, from a network of 50 branches, is ad hoc courier work. Forward planners can book timed collections and deliveries. Depending on locations there may be a door-to-door dedicated courier or, where appropriate in timing and route, use is made of the
company 's trunking services for the main section of the other with a courier at either end.
‘We always try and understand what customers wish to achieve many of the deadlines they are working to’. explains Simon Croft, General Manager of SOE's same-day unit. ‘They don’t have to fit around our schedules. And we take anything from a single document to a pallet load’.
For contract customers there are technically trained couriers who carry out low-level IT work. An example is computer monitor swaps, getting the replacement installed and running as well as delivered. This can be done on a sameday or overnight basis. There are also contract arrangements to maintain spares banks it locations around the country or emergency repairs. Where stock levels can be checked and managed remotely through SOE's website, as can bookings and track-and-trace.
Most services employ SOE's own vehicles and staff. There ire also ‘improved service partners’ (ic local firms) who can be called in for out-of-hours work or where there are sudden large volumes ot traffic SOE’s next-day operations, from a network of nearly 100 branches, are the premium ‘I 'Diamond' service for delivery by 10am, delivery by noon and standard next-day.
At Business Post there are next-day, second day and third day options at descending levels of costs. Next-day gives options of by 9am, by 10.30am, by noon or at , a specific requested time (to within an hour). Coverage is through a combination of’ 62 owned and exclusively franchised centres. Transport is by road, with air employed or next-day where appropriate over longer distances. Marketing Manager Bill Wallis claims above-average security is provided through the use of locked cages in vehicles once packages have been sorted by Postcode.
A five-year agreement was recently signed with Federal Express to handle that company’s incoming international deliveries to the UK. ‘This brings in 10,000 deliveries a day from FedEx’s worldwide network’, says Wallis. ‘At a stroke we are changing from a bit-part player to a major’.
The core UK services of Lynx Express operated by road from 35 depots, are on three levels: time-definite next-day (pre-9am, 10.30am and noon), next-day and two/three days. Additional services are in-night pre-7am guaranteed, and local storage with pick-up/drop-off locations.
It was Lynx that acquired the Red Star rail parcels services. It closed this in May and says it has 'no immediate plans’ to resurrect it. Meanwhile, a rail-based service has been revived by John Holmes, Managing l)irector of Red Star before it was sold to Lynx and now Chief Executive of the new Track E xpress.
This company was formally launched in August 2000 after a year of putting together the infrastructure and setting up agreements with the train operators. It’s a city-to-city service, with collections and deliveries by couriers at either end coordinated from a central base.
It is claimed by Holmes that not only is Track Express faster than road-based services but its also appreciably cheaper. 'Between London and Birmingham, for example, we will be half the price of most others' he contends. And he quotes two hours and 10 minutes as the typical door-to-door time on this route. The price differential against road clicks in at distances of about 55 miles, increasing steadily for longer journeys.
The limitation is that these services are confined to consignments between addresses in major Cities where there are fast, direct and frequent train schedules but you can't have everything!