I ordered a fridge online from appliance world. They phoned up to arrange delivery and suggested the following day. I said ok but it would have to be early as I had to be out of the house by 10:30. 9:30 driver phone to say he was just turning into the end of the road. Being central London it was another 30 minutes to cover the 100m to my door.
This is a major drawback with any stuff that has to be delivered. I can rarely predict my whereabouts more than a day ahead, so unless I get next-day delivery, it's abybody's guess if somebody will be in to accept the delivery.
With more on-line shopping, e-Bay and Amazon etc, this is going to be an increasing problem for many people. Furthermore delivery companies don't usually deliver out of office hours, when most consumers will be at home.
The time is long overdue where an alternative delivery service needs to exist. I would suggest that Tesco might be a likely business to do it. They already have timed delivery to homes, computer infrastructure, logistics to shift goods around the country and a national network of premises where customers can take things or collect them.
I could envisage a service where goods get sent to your home and when you are contacted about delivery time, they could offer to deliver shopping for free at the same time if you order 4 hours in advance. Alternatively if you elect to collect the package from the nearest store, they could give you a voucher for a few quid instead.
eBay sellers might also take packages to their nearest store for delivery to the buyer.
It seems like a service that will have to happen one day, it just remains to be seen who gets their act together. It's the sort of enterprise that I could imagine Virgin or Stelios doing too.
Not referring to Screwfix, but I find all the various carriers that deliver here quite consistent on the actual time they'll be here - which of course varies according to which carrier. Parcel Force are always very early - before 8 - while Omega round about 12. Etc. Perhaps it's living in London where each driver has a 'round'.
There U go, a good bizz idea, just needs "someone" to do it!......
Mmmm..... The only trouble I see here is the type of customer - consumers.
The larger web based traders have reinforced consumers' expectations of getting cheap or free delivery. Let's say that an order for £100 is placed - a reasonable ASP I would imagine. The consumer would probably expect to pay 0 - £5 for delivery, not really any more.
For a service having out of hours delivery or one with more accurate timing, there is extra cost and a price premium. Would consumers be willing to spend £15 on a £100 order? I'm not sure that most would....
But but tagging the service onto an existing delivery service, such as Tesco's existing home delivery service, the costs are drastically lower. Furthermore, there are opportunities to entice recipients to make additional purchases to be delivered at the same time and have them delivered for free. It also makes the delivery service more widely used.
They already offer out of hours groceries delivery and if a parcel service proved to be popular, they could offer round the clock deliveries, the actual time agreed with the recipient and as I previously mentioned, costs could be further reduced by the recipient opting to collect from a specied store. That would considerably reduce the operating costs.
If you look at the model that Stelios uses for his Pizza delivery operation, the delivery charge is variable and is lower if you book well in advance, or opt for a less popular time. That principle could also apply for home deliveries of this nature.
In my example of Tesco, they could offer to give the recipient something like a one pound voucher if they accept delivery at a less popular time, or the sender can be charged less if the delivery is restricted to a less popular time. Deliveries in the evening may well be more efficient anyway as traffic is likely to be less heavy, so a driver might reasonably expect to complete more drops per hour.
Hmm.... OK. I see what you're saying. Question is whether Tesco would want to deliver for third parties, although you're right - supermarkets are basically logistics and dispensing operations.
Are you talking about the Reading branch?
I find it very rapid, much quicker than Argos.
For example, I went in for a 3 port zone valve this Sunday morning. There were about 10-15 people in the shop, mainly browsing the catalogues. I walked up to the queue and was served within one minute. I then went for a (free) hot chocolate and the goods arrived before I was halfway through the cup (about 3 or 4 minutes).
Do you go in with large orders?
I must admit I tend to use it for topping up. I think the most I've ever ordered is 10 items or thereabouts.
Christian.
Yes, it was awful.
Could be they were understaffed on the day, but the whole procedure of entering and checking stock availability and then waiting for the goods to be picked took ages
This was what I was doing - normally I do an on line order but thought I'd try this vs. going to a shed for a change for topping up.
Think the idea of using the same principle of piece rate delivery with vans as they do with totally untrained and dangerous moped drivers fills me with terror.
You may have had a bad experience, then. I've been in, perhaps, ten times. The idea of it taking an hour is completely beyond my experience.
I don't know the total time I was in there, but I know I took 1.5 hours total to change the 3 port valve, including draining down, refilling AND going to screwfix. I suspect I was in there 10 minutes tops. That has been my typical experience, too.
I tend to be in on weekends. I don't know what the queues are like mid week.
Christian.
That's pretty good. I may give them another go. It would be useful to be able to check stock amd have it picked before setting out to go there, though....
Yes, I imagine that would be a popular service. Particularly good if you want to do a complete "weekly shop" without having to wait in for a courier.
Christian.
They might not use vans. Question is, would radiators arrive less bent from travelling on the back of a moped than they do having suffered Screwfix's usual couriers?
Owain
It's even better than that - not only can you reserve your items beforehand but armed with the reservation number for the order you can bypass all the queues by paying at the 'EasyPay' (or whatever they're called) terminals (assuming you can pay by card). I have often been in and out of there before the queues have barely moved!
Mathew
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