Best delivery company for a small business

[OurDayWillCome]

Convid ‘the job destroyer’ has claimed my wife’s 9-5 and she has decided to start a small business - fair play to her! At the moment it will be the odd small box being posted out, but it could go crazy - I’m really impressed with the product she has sourced, (ironically it’s Convid related!). Does anyone send out small parcels daily? Too many to just drop off at the PO, or local corner shop! So many companies to choose from, haven’t got a clue who is best/most reliable. Any advice gratefully received :-)

[sarahbell]

I used Herpes to send a parcel to my mum. Success. Herpes again, sent a parcel to someone in Surrey. It never arrived.
Not a huge sample but...

I paid via parcel2go 
Was really simple and lockers at the local supermarket outside. 
but not getting the second parcel there was shite. I did insure it but didn't pay for the 'refund postage if you don't deliver it in a few days' option on the second one. I wondered if that made the difference. 
Friend says Herpes locally are shit.

Our normal Herpes guy is excellent but a different one dropped a parcel for us at the far end of the street and didn't tell us. Eventually this person dropped it off at our house but had expected us to know it was there.

[Royston]

Royal mail are usually best on price for small packets, if there's not many at the moment then surely she could drop them at the nearest Post Office or Delivery Office?

Royal Mail are also starting a parcel collection service next month where you can hand over up to 5 parcels a day to your postie or leave them in safe place for him to collect. I think there's a collection fee on top of the postage,  not sure how much. 

If the business really does "go crazy" you could have a bulk business collection from Royal Mail.

[Nippy]

8 hours ago, sarahbell said:

I paid via parcel2go

I've had a rubbish experience using Parcel2Go.
When I subsequently looked into them, I found these reviews---I don't think I've ever seen a film/product/firm achieve '1 star' so consistently.
The service is cheap, but they just farm the work out to conventional household-name courier firms, so I can't understand how the packages seem to take so long to be collected or to be delivered. According to the reviews, no-one has ever managed to claim compensation for loss damage, or delay, and one reviewer reckons P2G claim the compensation from the underlying courier and retain it for themselves. My parcel still has not been delivered after a week, despite it going via a 24hour service!

[dgul]

Don't buy the cheapest option -- it'll cause problems and cost more in the long run.

Royal Mail is usually best.  You should buy online 'click and go' (unless you've got massive volumes).

I'd suggest that you get a 'workflow' for labels -- buy a label printer and set it up to print directly from the click-and-go page output.  It is the little things like this that make the business of 'sending stuff out' far easier.

If you register with Royal Mail they send you free stuff for posting (eg, labels, bags).  If you want to use this (I think you'll need 'sufficient volume' to make it worthwhile (but it isn't much volume -- you should check this) get a Zebra GK420D as that's compatible with the free Royal Mail labels (other models might be as well, but I've no experience of those).

The Zebra printers are rather expensive (£250 or so), so if you're 'testing the water' you could get a cheaper label printer and upgrade if things work out.  I used a Brother QL550 for ages -- cost me about £30 and it did the job perfectly.

[OurDayWillCome]

Thanks for the replies, much appreciated :-)

@dgul Thanks for the label printing info.

[Wight Flight]

On 07/09/2020 at 11:39, dgul said:

If you register with Royal Mail they send you free stuff for posting (eg, labels, bags).  If you want to use this (I think you'll need 'sufficient volume' to make it worthwhile (but it isn't much volume -- you should check this) get a Zebra GK420D as that's compatible with the free Royal Mail labels (other models might be as well, but I've no experience of those).

Royal mail post may be OK but their commercial service is absolute shite at the moment.

Six weeks in and I still having got someone to add a service to our account as they need someone with the proper authority.

Royal mail daily collection is also expensive at £20 a day unless you are spending a lot - I think £15k per year.

A lot of it depends on the value of what you are sending. If you can easily replace it for little money use the cheapest, if not, use DPD.