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but two of our parcels too ore than a week to arrive
ONCE upon a time, it was possible to send a parcel from London to the east coast of Scotland to arrive within 24 hours. CM investigated some UK parcel services in 1970, and one parcel, travelling by Securicor, was collected and delivered in 18 hours. We've repeated the exercise, this month, and there is a different tale to tell.
On the first occasion, we used British Rail, Securicor Ltd, Atlas Express Ltd, BRS Parcels (now Roadline), NCL and Tartan Arrow (now no more). The packages arrived at times spread over three weeks and in various state of order and disorder.
This latest exercise engaged 311 the 1970 carriers except
Tartan Arrow whose berth was occupied by the Post Office. Four of the six parcels were delivered inside four days, but the other two took eight days to arrive.
Same content
All parcels carried the same content, were identically packed and wrapped by the ,same person and weighed between 2Ib 10oz and 2Ib 12oz.
Each parcel contained three tumblers of good quality glass. The glasses were packed with wet newspaper and protected from each other inside the cardboard box with corrigated separators.
The boxes were then lined with newspaper, made into a parcel with brown paper and sealed with Scotch tape and
twine. They were labelled on two sides showing only the consignee's address and carried a -with care" label.
Each was letter-coded for identification.
Phone call
The movement started on Friday, July 1, with a phone call to each of the carriers, except the Post Office. The other five were asked to pick up a 2Ib 10oz parcel from Miss Knight, room 62, Dorset House, Stamford Street, London SE1 9LU.
Initial reaction from each carrier was to prove interesting and, in some cases, amusing.
British Rail Express Parcels, at Waterloo, were called first: -How can I get a parcel from south-east London to Dunfermline, Fife, please? -Oh, we don't have a service to there dear. But just a minute, I'll give you someone else.-1 Ten frustrating minutes later, we were still waiting, so we rang off and started again.
This time, it was more 'productive. The assistant was able to give us details of how the parcel would be collected and when, even what it would cost "C1.26, dear. But you can't pay the driver, we'll have to send you an invoice and your parcel won't go until you pay us.
Then, she rang off without taking collection particulars. We made contact, again, and passed on the essential details.
On Monday, July 4, the parcel was collected at 10.05. It was delivered, on July 7, at 10.10.
• Seven days after collection, we still had not been invoiced. "We knew Dorset House was a big place and the money would be safe, so we sent the parcel,said a BR employee at Water.: loo.
Well, he was, perhaps, too confident about us. But we are less so about BR, because we do not have any supporting documents at either end of the
'First First class It seems BR's administration is suspect: a pity, because their service proved first class. The parcel travelled by road from Waterloo to King's Cross, by ;rail to Dunfermline via Edinburgh and was finally delivered, by road from Dunfermline railway station. Cost: £1.26.
The Post Office parcel travelled by an identical route to the BR one except that we delivered it to Waterloo and it made the final leg in the PO van. There was no direct ;contact with the staff apart from counter staff, which seemed to save time. The postage was 86p and we have a receipt. The parcel was posted at 13.30 on July 4, and delivered at 13-45 on July 7.
Atlas Express proved very efficient on the initial enquiry. The phone call was immediately routed to the traffic office; a very confident and precise traffic operator quoted base rate, VAT, time of collection and approximate time of delivery. In next to no time, we had transmitted collection instructions and it was all over.
Four days
The Atlas parcel was collected at 11.50 on July 4, and delivered at 09.00 on July 8.
After collection, it was taken to the Atlas depot at Rotherhithe, London, loaded into a Freightliner container and sent to Glasgow, transferred to the Atlas vehicle, then to the destination. The cost, of this consignment was £4.69 including VAT. We were issued with a receipt. This parcel took longer than we had expected.
Securicor Mobile Ltd, who had made the delivery in 18 hours in 1970, were still the fastest and the most expensive on this run. The parcel was collected at 12.55 on July 4, and delivered on July 6, at 12.20. It cost £9.18, including VAT.
This parcel was taken to Securicor's south-east London depot, Wandsworth Road, at 12.30 on the 4th, it was trunked overnight to Leeds and, at 1.30, transferred to the Scottish night trunker for Edinburgh. It was, apparently, delayed there fore 24 hours before being delivered to Dunfermline, at 12.20, on the 6th.
Securicor's traffic office staff were confident and efficient and if they are trying to trace why this collection took 48 hours, they should look for note number C080970. It is dated July 3, a Sunday, but the collection was made on Monday.
Roadline were as confident and as efficient as any other carrier we dealt with. The job was accepted without delay, a rate was quoted and a delivery time of five days promised. The parcel was collected on July 4, at 11.20. We paid £1.36, no VAT, on consignment note number 006480. The parcel was not delivered till 14.20 on Tuesday, July 12.
We were puzzled that it should be collected by Surbiton branch of Roadline when there are many branches nearer us.
10 miles back
The route for Roadline's parcel, according to the headquarters operations room, was: Bermondsey, south-east London, into a Freightliner container for Edinburgh, then by road from Edinburgh to Kirkcaldy, passing through Dun fermline en route. Then, 10 miles back to the destination.
National Carriers got off to a bad start. Despite a telephone call on Friday, July 1, at 11.50, and a promise to collect on Monday by noon, they did not. We made another call during Tuesday morning and were told: "Oh we forgot and we've lost your address anyway."
The collection was made on Tuesday, July 5, at 16.00, on consignment note number 924556 and the parcel was put into a Freightliner container for Edinburgh. On arrival, it would be forwarded direct to Dunfermline, according to an NCL spokesman. However, the par
cel was not delivered till 14.15. on Wednesday, July 13.
The initial call to South London depot produced an efficient response: the clerk put us on to customer service. There the problems began.
We gave destination, size and weight of the package and asked what it would cost. "I don't know, dear, I haven't got a rate here, but you'd be better posting it."
"We want you to take it and please would you collect it." "Oh, you want it collected."
"Will you be able to call today?" "Yes dear, but only if he's got something on for Dorset House."
"Will we give the driver the money." "No, we'll send a bill and you can come along and pay us."
We have not yet been billed and we have no idea of the cost.
All the parcels were delivered in good condition and delivery times, when related to cost were more than acceptable in most cases.
Not justified
Securicor's previous service was not matched and the premium rate for a 48-hour delivery could not be justified with our package.
There is room for improvement in all aspects of parcels delivery, in our experience. It is the initial contact in some cases, delivery in others and cost in others. No service can claim 100 per cent — but none was all bad.