FYI
My local Best-One shop has just started with a parcel delivery service.
Just sold a green Bosch SDS on EBAY & the cost to send it to Bedfordshire is £5:99 - which I reckon is a good deal.
Collect+ have been doing this for quite a while - at least a year. And for a pound less it can be collected from a convenience store at the other end.
Given that Royal Mail have just moved their delivery office from half a mile away to about 7 miles (partly in heavy traffic) away, I'll be using it more.
Never heard of them, so thanks. Three stores near me!
For a laff I thought I'd try and find the nearest one to me. I can't, the silly google maps thingy doesn't update if you zoom out. For example put in Hexham and zoom out to include Newcastle. Nothing shows, put in Newcastle and you'll get half a dozen or so...
This one at least does find places without a silly map but it works on "as the crow flies" distances to give the nearest. It says that the one in Appleby is the nearest at 14.1 miles, TomTom tells me it's 29.8 miles... Not so bad for Penrith 15.5 against a real 22.2 or Stanhope
16.56 v 21.7.
I'm not sure that 'nearest' translates to 'most convenient' anyway....it may involve crossing a town or whatever. I usually pick the one I will be going past - although I do have two within a mile or so!
Several of the online clothing retailers seem to use them for delivery (and collection of returns) often just a person using their own car doing the rounds.
I wonder how that person gets paid, a forty or fifty mile round trip costs a good =A310 in fuel alone, the other car running costs will doubl= e that... Or are these "couriers" freeloading? Wonder if they are insured =
correctly as well?
Wouldn't surprise me if it's a fixed amount per successful delivery, they're quite happy to leave parcels e.g. in the garage without a signature.
That though had crossed my mind ...
It's a bit odd, to say the least - I've occasionally had fairly heavy parcels collected from my home by these outfits after ebay sales (booked very cheaply via
David
I've used Collect+ successfully a few times although they seem to get some pretty damning reviews --- perhaps in certain locations.
Well that''s equality for you. Her we seem to have the idea that women members of staff can collect post b= ut not parcels, not sure how they can come out with such things when they'r= e going on about equality and equal oppontuniies, what wrong with giving wo= men the chance to get paid to carry heavy stuff ? =20
I always thought that the Hermes van would do a local delivery to them, so that they could then deliver in the evning.
Yep, that's how it works (or did a year or so ago).
My sister was doing it for Next clothing deliveries. Something like 40p per delivery, and then an additional 20p for a collection IIRC.
Her area was fairly small, and most of it she did in the morning using a small trolly. Best customers were apparantly people who order a load of items, in various colours/sizes. Several of them would regularly order
10 - 15 items, then go and try them on while she had a cup of tea. She would then collect the returns.She gave it up when the weather got crap, and she needed to use the car. Once you let the insurance company know you are using it for delivery, and take into account the milage it's less impressive.
I'd imagine most don't bother with the insurance, and steer clear of tax...
Darren
Badly. They lose money if they have to come back out here in the sticks. ISTR Panorama found out it was 50p/item a while ago.
Who knows. But I did notice a while back that HMG use them to deliver newly issued *passports* back to their owners. I was amazed at the rusting semi-derelict state of the "Couriers" vehicle (a private car).
Regards, Martin Brown
I think it does, if you're looking at their on-line tracker, it gets delivered to the depot, then goes out for delivery to the local bod+car, then the bod delivers it by car ... including on Saturday which is useful.
I used MyHermes, via Parcel2Go, for the first time last week. Took the parcel to the collection shop at 14.30 and it sat there for 24 hours before they did anything with it. Was supposed to be a 48 hour service, Leicester to Carlisle. Tracking:
Timestamp Description Details
21/08/2012 11:46:35 Signature From Customer COU21/08/2012 08:35:46 Courier Received COU
21/08/2012 04:16:00 Out For Delivery DEP 9221/08/2012 03:46:00 Out For Delivery To Courier DEP 92
20/08/2012 22:01:00 Processed at Depot DEP 9220/08/2012 21:36:00 Receipt at Depot DEP 92
20/08/2012 10:59:00 Hub Trailer Via Sorter HUB 0520/08/2012 10:58:00 Hub Sorter Receipt Scan HUB 05
18/08/2012 10:19:00 Return - Processed By Depot DEP 9617/08/2012 15:09:00 Collected from ParcelShop PSP
16/08/2012 15:45:47 Order Generated16/08/2012 14:27:00 Customer Sent via ParcelShop PSP
16/08/2012 14:27:00 Missing Pre-Advice PSP
I got an email off parcel2go last week telling me very similar, even had a map showing my nearest 'general store' that operated 'my hermes' is less than a mile away. It's open 7-11 every day of the week so I'll prob be using that from now on - arranging pick up is a ball ache when everyone works weekdays.
My nearest is seven miles away, I really don't see the sense or economics of driving seven miles to collect or post a parcel.
At 40p/delivery a trolley would be the only economic method. 40p will ge= t you about a mile in most cars...
So 60p for maybe 30 mins or =A31.20/hr. What is the minimum wage?
Loss making I would say, even in a urban area unless your "patch" is ver= y small. Wouldn't work out here we are 1/2 mile from the nearest neighbour...
Quite, the retailer/courier is freeloading.
If everyone ordered one thing, yeah. It was 40p per item delivered (I wasn't clear, sorry).
no, 10*40p + 8*20p (say).
Still not a great salary, but it was a bit of spending cash earned while walking the kids to school.
The area was small, but very densly populated. I was amazed at the number of people who order stuff from Next :-)
In many cases, yep...
As I say, this was a bit of pocket money and excerise by taking a slightly round about route from school in the mornings
Some people take on many "areas" and deliver hundreds or parcels a day. I guess it can make enough to be worthwhile (particularly if you don't pay tax).
Darren
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