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With the majority of couriers, prices are quoted based on the miles covered between delivery and collection. This is quoted normally as Pence Per Mile and varies mainly due to the size of vehicle required to accommodate your request. For example the price of a small van to move say a small office desk will be cheaper than a large van having to move several large desks.

For a courier to operate effectively and to remain profitable they must be able to cover their outgoing costs but for a courier these can be very expensive. A courier must have a van to use (ok a bit obvious), fuel, and insurance. On top of this there will be the drivers’ wages, consumables for the vehicle plus other expenses like stationary and utility bills. All of the above are factored in when you get a quote.

Another factor to consider when booking a courier is you are paying a premium for a service of a dedicated man or woman, van and their time. The dedicated courier will turn up at your collection address then go to the delivery address in the quickest (legally allowed) time possible.

So what tips are there for obtaining a courier quote?

1. Make sure you have all the delivery and collection details to hand.
2. If you see any delays in loading or unloading the vehicle let the courier know in advance as a courier may and possibly charge for waiting time if there are any delays in loading or unloading a vehicle.
3. Be clear about what you want to moving and if possible the dimensions to hand. If you think it might fit in your choice of van size and it doesn’t then you might end up paying more than you anticipated for a bigger van to attend.
4. If you need your goods moving the same day you need to be prepared to pay a premium for it. The same can be said for weekend or Bank Holiday.
5. If you don’t need it moved the same day how about being flexible with delivery and/or collection dates. Some (not all) couriers will map out their work days sometimes weeks in advance and could offer a slightly reduced rate if they are able to do your request along side someone else’s. It is logistically more difficult to achieve but it can reduce the costs if you believe that the same day route is too expensive.

Finally, don’t expect a dedicated courier to be anywhere near as cheap as Royal Mail, DHL or any other parcel carrier. The above companies operate in a totally different way to a same day courier and operate based on volumes of items moved at any given point. Calling a courier and asking for your newly purchased bargain from eBay to be delivered from London to Glasgow for £10 will be generally met with a bit of light laughter and then the phone going dead.
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Only 7 out of 8 First Class mails arrived on time last year

Royal Mail's "quality of service" figures were based on 960,000 sample letters, parcels and packets sent to thousands of test addresses throughout the year.

So, apart from the "test" letters, it prompts the question, "Just how many more don't get delivered on time that Royal Mail are simply not aware of?"

One more reason to use a dedicated courier service like CID Couriers to ensure your precious delivery gets to it's destination both on time and intact!]]> http://www.cidcouriers.co.uk/blog/index.php?entry=entry100524-215055
That was my first thought, and then after a little consideration, I came to the conclusion, why not?

So what benefits will this bring to the customer, myself or the plain nosey? Well, of course, it will make it easier to find out where I am, and more importantly to the customer, where their goods are, but is that it. Hopefully not, as an ever increasing number of independant couriers are looking for ways of reducing fuel use and eliminating unnessessary journeys, what better than to have information on hand about vehicles that could possibly be used instead of them going home empty or adding another vehicle to the road making a similar journey.

With modern smartphones employing GPS receivers and mobile data, tracking has never been easier. Here at CID couriers, along with a few other couriers, we are working towards tracking each others movements as a way forward in reducing fuel waste while at the same time giving customers that little bit extra info.]]> http://www.cidcouriers.co.uk/blog/index.php?entry=entry100401-135109
In a statement BT said it could not predict when either service would be restored. "Tens of thousands" of customers have been affected, said the firm, with the majority in north and west London. "A lot of traffic has been re-routed, There's a lot of work going on".

BT confirmed that some mobile phone services may be affected by the incident, which also caused a fire. London Fire Brigade attended the scene at 7.30am on 31 March. The flood was caused by an electric fault.

Customers as far afield as Potters Bar, Hertfordshire and Nottingham were reporting problems with Pipex UK broadband coverage. Pipex UK's parent company TalkTalk said that its service had been affected by the incident.

BT has published a list of 437 exchanges across the UK it says have been affected. Managing Director Dr Peter Gradwell told the BBC that some of the company's 45,000 Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) telephone customers had also reported problems.]]> http://www.cidcouriers.co.uk/blog/index.php?entry=entry100326-235311
For the Road Transport and Haulage industries the top two costs are employment costs and fuel, both of which are frequently targeted by the government and have over the last decade seen an ever increasing upward trend.

The Transport and Road Haulage industry lobby groups have been quiet over recent months, concentrating on getting their members and the industry through a recession. However, a budget which sees increases in both Fuel Duty and Wage costs isn't going to be well received. Measures sought by the Road Transport industries and Freight Associations for a level playing field regarding tax and duties for foreign vehicles continue to ignored, and the Freight Transport Association continues to stress that hundreds of their members are facing bankruptcy.

I receive emails almost daily from other couriers saying they are no longer trading, and that they have left the courier and delivery industries. Bank recoveries and profits are all well and good, but there are literally hundreds of thousands of small business owners operating at a sole trader level that never seem to make it into the governments' statistics, and these businesses really are struggling, like the FTA we know that hundreds of our courier members will be closing their businesses this year. The budget has put forward no proposals that will help these small businesses, and for the small courier companies, the one man van drivers who work for themselves end up taking home far less than the minimum wage, there is nothing in this budget that is going to make life any easier. It's a missed opportunity"]]> http://www.cidcouriers.co.uk/blog/index.php?entry=entry100324-220742
However, this still means that after the full 3p increase, the fuel duty will still have increased by over 17% over the past 13 years, and this is a huge burden on the UK's transport industries. The spreading of the increase over the next 10 months will maybe head off some of the immediate criticism but the underlying increase still shows that the Government continues to look at fuel duty as a quick and easy way to raise money, with little consideration of the impact that it has on the UK's businesses.

Increasing fuel costs simply mean increasing costs for all business and for all products, and once again, it increases pressure for the government to introduce a fuel tax rebate for the haulage, delivery and road transport industries that the UK, under the economic recovery, is completely and utterly reliant on.]]> http://www.cidcouriers.co.uk/blog/index.php?entry=entry100324-085258
The most obvious answer from the average man in the street is simple: everything I enjoy will go up, beer fags, petrol and taxes. Well, doesn't it always? And they've somehow got to get more money out of joe public to pay for their £1K pay rise.

This is just one of the opinions I've heard this week while talking to various people, and of course, we all know that no matter how cleverly worded and how well disguised the speech this afternoon has been put together, this will be the most probable outcome.

Will there be a rise for fuel duty? Bit of a dodgy area here, who has forgotten that when VAT was reduced by 2% to 15% an extra 2p was put on fuel to "balance" the books - was the 2p taken back off the cost of fuel when VAT returned to it's original 17.5% - NO, and it's also scheduled to rise by 3p on the first of April as well.

Also, the MP's are awarding themselves £1K pay rise, giving the pensioners £2 per weeek while in most cases their rent goes up by £1, so in effect those that need the money the most end up with just £52 extra this year - not even enough to fill their car with fuel!

Let's see what this afternoon brings....]]> http://www.cidcouriers.co.uk/blog/index.php?entry=entry100323-235700
Writing in a letter to The Times, the doctors argue for more anti-smoking legislation to address the serious health problems caused by passive smoking.

The signatories, including 13 presidents of medical royal colleges, urge the Government to bring in laws prohibiting all smoking in vehicles and in public places visited by young people such as parks and playgrounds.

The letter recommends a comprehensive strategy to cut adult smoking and children’s smoke exposure outside and inside the home. About two million children are exposed to cigarette smoke at home, with a child twice as likely to take up the habit if a close family member smokes.

More... ]]>