City Link launches service offering two-hour delivery windows
UK parcel carrier City Link has launched a new service offering customers a two-hour delivery slot and the option of rearranging deliveries if they cannot be available to sign for them. The company said its new “On Our Way” service is primarily aimed at improving the delivery experience for consumers receiving parcels. But, it will also improve the level of control that account customers have on their shipping.
It will be offered free of charge with the roll-out beginning this month for expected completion in the early summer.
City Link, which became independent of parent company Rentokil Initial last year, said the new service was one of a number of enhancements being rolled out designed to provide customers with a greater level of control over their shipping.
The company is also making improvements to its IT infrastructure, parcel tracking systems and international offering.
The On Our Way service hits back at rivals such as DPD, which has had great success in the UK offering a one-hour delivery window for customers, and last year introducing real-time tracking that allows recipients to see where their parcel is on a map.
City Link said it believed its new service would drive up first-time delivery rates as well as customer satisfaction with deliveries.
“Major milestone”
David Smith, the City Link managing director, said the new service was a “major milestone” for his company, transforming the level of service for customers and the consumer.
He said: “This innovation brings us right up to speed with the best consumer offerings out there and we’re already working on ways to further improve the service and make it truly transformational both for business customers and for consumers.”
The company said initial trials were held back in November and through the Christmas peak, allowing consumers to check their predicted delivery time at the City Link website or by contacting the carrier’s customer care team.
City Link said the trials proved popular enough to extend the pilot so that it provided text message and email alerts as well as online delivery scheduling.
Control
With the full service being launched, subscribing City Link account holders will have to provide their customers’ email address or mobile number when placing an order in order to receive the On Our Way service. City Link will then sent an alert the evening before a delivery advising of an estimated delivery slot. Another alert will go out the morning of the delivery.
Consumers finding the delivery slot inconvenient will be offered a range of re-delivery options including their choice of the subsequent three days, leaving a parcel with a neighbor or in a safe place, collection from a City Link depot or returning to sender.
Smith said his company was confident of hitting its promised two-hour delivery windows.
“We recognise that today’s consumers want to be in control of how they receive their deliveries. Gone are the days when consumers were content to know their delivery would arrive on a particular day,” he said.
“They now want to know when and how their deliveries will arrive, and they want the flexibility to take control and change things to suit them.”
City Link will make information on On My Way delivery windows available to all customers, with large corporate customers receiving it via a data file transfer process, while SME customers will have information made available online. The company said it is also working on a “major” upgrade to its My City Link reporting system so that On My Way data is included in reports for account customers.
