PACKAGE DEAL
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In the third of CM'S annual examinations of the next-day parcel delivery business, David Wilcox tests the efficiency of 10 operators • It's been another eventful year in the parcels business since CM last ran its test of express parcels carriers (CM June 1, 1985). Some of the large carriers are among the most profitable performers in the road transport sector and huge sums of money have been
invested in the business.
For example, Mayne Nickless, the Australian transport conglomerate last year paid £16 million to buy Security Express — which includes parcels carriers Parceline and Brevitt — from De La Rue. Mayne Nicldess is now sinking a further £6 million in an automated sorting centre (hub) at West Bromwich.
In January this year American parcels giant Federal Express bought the Lex Wilkinson parcels subsidiary from the Lex Group, paying 224 millon.
Four months ago United Parcels stepped into the next-day delivery arena with the launch of the ambitious and unique Multifreight system using demountable modules that are intended to minimise the handling of individual parcels. That cost £8 million.
Naturally, all these investment decisions will stand or fall on the carriers' ability literally to deliver the goods. That is what this, the third CM trial of the nationwide express carriers, put to the test.
The formula was the same as in the previous two years. We despatched 10 identical parcels from one address to another on the far side of the country. Each parcel travelled with a different carrier whom we had phoned to request an immediate collection and subsequent delivery the following day. While we stipulated next-day delivery we did not pay a premium for a morning delivery: most carriers say that a high proportion of their deliveries are before lunch anyway, so we thought we would see if that applied to ours.
• THE PARCEL Car and truck components are regular consignments on these next-day services so we went along with that and sent parcels that each contained a water pump, kindly loaned to us by Mercedes-Benz (which runs its own parts distribution fleet and does not normally rely on express carriers). Each parcel weighed 4kg (91b) and measured 240 x 240 x 216mm (9.5 x 9.5 x 8.5in).
• THE CARRIERS We used 10 carriers, none of whom knew that it was CM despatching the parcels.
With apologies to the carriers we omitted this year, these are the 10 we used, along with the reasons for our choice: Interlink emerged as a joint "best buy" in last year's test and so was included again to see if this success could be repeated. Conversely, ANC tripped up last year by delivering one day late, so we gave it the chance to atone.
As already mentioned, Parceline and Lex Wilkinson are both in the hands of new owners since last year's exercise, so they were both suitable candidates. Multifreight's new modular handling system was also ripe for inclusion.
As the largest parcels carrier outside the Post Office, the aggressive TNT should not be ignored. Carryfast's Feltham depot last year turned down our collection request — which puzzled and upset Carryfast's head office because Feltham theoretically should have been able to handle the consignment. We therefore tried Carryfast again this year.
Network Overnight is a year-old syndicate of 25 independent carriers with a hub operation in Manchester. Unknown to the company, while we profiled it (see page 32) we also put it to the test.
City Link differs from the other carriers in that it uses British Rail's Red Star rail-borne service for the trunking part of the journeys. City Link's vans and motorbikes or local taxi companies carry out the collections and deliveries.
Finally, we added Securicor to complete the list of 10. It had impressed us last year in the way it handled our collection request. • THE ROUTE We selected a route to give the carriers a challenging but fair test. The collection address was a haulage company near Boston, Lincolnshire. It is in a rural setting, not particularly easy to find and in a thinly populated area that is difficult for carriers to serve economically. Several had a considerable journey from their depots. It is also 801cm (50 miles) to the nearest motorway, the MI at Nottingham.
The parcels were destined for delivery next day at a steel fabrication factory in Dartmouth, Devon, 65Iun (37 miles) beyond Exeter and the southern end of the M5. That is a 530km (330 mile) crosscountry route that does not coincide with carriers major traffic flows.
The object of the test was to identify the carrier who would best handle our consignment. Would the parcels be delivered the next day as guaranteed? Who would be quickest? Who would be cheapest?
THE COLLECTIONS
• We started phoning the carriers at 9.20am, speaking to their depots nearest Boston. To each we said that we are not an account holder but would be prepared (and indeed would prefer) to pay the carriage charges to the driver.
Our first call was to Multifreight whose nearest depot is at Rotherham, 100km (60 miles) away, and so we were not surprised when the gentleman who answered the phone said he was not sure if Multifreight could manage the pick-up — he would ring back. He did, explaining that Multifreight could not handle it but that he was about to drive to the Leicester depot of the sister company United Carriers and could pick it up on his way through. Once at Leicester, our parcel would be fed into the Multifreight system for next day delivery on its Dayfreight service.
He duly arrived in his car at lpm, collected the parcel and accepted cash payment of 29.81. He was friendly and polite, although he was keen for us to open an account, he understood when we deferred.
Next, we rang Interlink at Grantham. The details were taken in an efficient manner and a price was quoted without us having to ask. Although the lady inquired if we wanted a guaranteed morning delivery, she also added that "90% are delivered before lunch anyway." Using the two-way radio she established that the driver would be with us later that morning. He arrived at 11.25am (in a Renault Trafic) and we paid him 29.72. He had no change.
At 9.38am we spoke to City Link at Sheffield. Despite the distance, the City Link man was confident that the collection could be carried out, using a taxi company in Boston. The price, including VAT, was 216.33 but we were not permitted to pay cash — an invoice would be sent.
City Link was quick off the mark. Within 35 minutes a mini-cab from Boston arrived to collect the parcel.
Carryfast in Dewsbury was our next call, at 9.44am. The switchboard answered promptly and transferred us to Traffic. Traffic said yes, they could do the job but would have to switch us through to Sales. It took so long to reach Sales that we rang off and re-dialled. At 10.01am we tried again. Sales was still engaged. At 10.23am we tried again. Sales was still engaged. At 10.35am — success! Sales quoted a price of 216.43 plus VAT, a total of 218.89. We were switched back to Traffic who took the de tails. It needed persistance but we eventually succeeded in persuading Carryfast to take the job.
At 2.07pm Carryfast 'Traffic rang back and said that the driver's pager was faulty and so he could not be contacted. At 3.20pm Traffic rang again to say that despite leaving a message with another customer they had failed to reach the driver; many apologies but they could not collect the parcel.
Seeuricor has a depot in Spilsby, 35km (22 miles) away. The young lady who took our call asked us to pay the driver because we were not account holders. The price for the next-day Bservice was £12.53 including VAT. She asked all the right questions and even thought to get directions for the pick-up driver.
A polite, uniformed driver arrived at 3.20pm in a Ford Transit. He had a consignment note already made out and even had change.
The nearest of the 25 carriers in the Network Overnight syndicate is at Corby. The person who answered the phone did not inspire confidence. She thought Dartmouth was in Essex and that Boston was in Lancashire. When we had cleared that hurdle she proceeded to take the consignment details in a rather muddled, haphazard fashion. We were not impressed, except by the price which was £7.50 plus VAT — the cheapest yet.
At 2.15pm the Network Overnight carrier rang back to say that the driver in the area could not make the pick-up — would tomorrow be OK? We said no. The lady was apologetic and seemed genuinely concerned.
The first question posed by Lex Wilkinson's Oakham depot was Have you got an account?" For a price quotation we were transferred to another department. After a lengthy silence we rang off and tried again. "Have you got an account?" said Lex Wilkinson when we re-established contact. The lady took our company details and promised to ring back immediately, which she did, completing the consignment details but not quoting the price until we asked for one. We also asked to pay the driver but were told that we would be invoiced and must open an account. But we only have this one parcel, we said, do we need an account? Sorry, said Lex Wilkinson, everyone must open an account.
That afternoon Lex Wilkinson rang again — to make an appointment for a sales representative to call on us to open an account. More importantly, at 4.25pm a Lex Wilkinson driver in a MercedesBenz 1114 collected the parcel. He offered us no paperwork.
"Thank you for calling TNT Roadfreight Leicester" said a brisk and businesslike voice. A young lady dealt with our request in a rather too friendly, insincere manner. She remembered to ask what time we close in the evening but could not quote a price; someone else would ring back "immediately" with that.
After 30 minutes we rang TNT again and were told that our consignment would cost 214.00 plus VAT on the next-day Ovemite service.
TNT's driver arrived at 5.01pm.
Parceline's depot is at Peterborough. The telephone was answered promptly and the same person noted the collection and delivery details in a logical and polite way. A price of 28.80 plus VAT was given to us and we were told that the driver would call after 3.30pm. He arrived, in a rented Ford Transit, at 4.45pm.
Out final call was meant to be to ANC. We telephoned the Sleaford depot nine times but it was engaged on each occasion. When we did get through several days later, ANC told us that the tele
phone had been out of order and apologised for the inconvenience.
Instead of ANC we decided to use the Post Office's Datapost. In last year's test we took the parcel into the local Post Office; this time we rang Freefone Datapost and asked for a collection. The gentleman took the details, making a point of noting the post codes and asked us to pay the driver because we were not account holders.
At 11.38am, just 36 minutes after our telephone call, a Datapost Ford Fiesta van arrived from Boston, 10km (six miles) away. The driver mentioned that our Freefone call had been taken in Birmingham. The carriage charges on our Datapost parcel were £13.20.
Due to the failure of Carryfast and Network Overnight to collect, we despatched
eight out of the 10 parcels. However, we had written evidence of sending only four; Interlink, Multifreight, Securicor and Datapost were the only carriers to give us a copy of the consignment note.
SPEED OF DELIVERY
11 During the night wc "passed the parcels" and were awaiting their arrival at Dartmouth on the opposite side of the country at 8.30am the following day.
First to arrive was City Link, even though this parcel had come by the most tortuous route. The Boston taxi had put it on a London-bound train at Boston and then it had travelled by road from Kings Cross station across London to Paddington. The train took it as far as Totnes where a second taxi took over for the final delivery to Dartmouth, where it arrived at 10.20am.
Next, at 11.17arn, a Post Office Sherpa arrived with the Datapost parcel. Datapost had therefore carried out its recently-made promise; three months ago the Post Office uprated the service and now guarantees "Before 10am delivery" for two-thirds of the country's addresses. Dartmouth deliveries are guaranteed "Before noon".
Multifreight delivered at 11.23am, followed by Interlink at 11.30am. At 1.00pm Parceline delivered in a Mercedes-Benz 3071). The sixth parcel to arrive was courtesy of TNT Overnite (in a Bedford TK) at 1.20pm. Lex Wilkinson arrived at 3.03pm, leaving Securicor to bring the eighth and final parcel.
When this had not arrived by 5.15pm we rang Securicor's Exeter depot. Our parcel was not there and the Securicor man said that it must have been left off the night trunk at Spilsby. "It's a difficult area, Boston," Securicor made the delivery at 10.05am the following day.
With Carryfast and Network Overnight failing to collect and Securicor failing to deliver the next day, as a group the carriers scored a 70% success rate — well below what each would claim individually. This was also the poorest result in the three years CM has carried out the test. The remoteness of our pick-up address no doubt contributed to this; an unknown customer wanting an immediate collection when the driver is already out on the road tests a carrier's flexibility.
Four of the seven parcels were delivered before lunch on the next day even though we had not paid the premium for a morning delivery.
We are critical of the lack of consignment notes given to the customer. Lex Wilkinson, TNT, City Link and Parceline gave us no evidence of having accepted the parcel, which cannot be right.
VALUE FOR MONEY
• The carriage charges for our 4kg parcel varied greatly, as the accompanying table shows. Multifreight, Interlink and Parceline were all good value at around 0-210 including VAT. Datapost enjoys the Post Office's exemption from VAT (for the carriage of mail) but this advantage does not really show in its midrange price. This includes the 22.50 collection fee that could be avoided by taking the parcel to the nearest Post Office.
Lex Wilkinson and TNT Overnite were not really competitive on price for us as a one-off, non-contract customer.
Although failing to deliver on the required day, Securicor did not offer to refund all or part of the carriage charges.
Using two dedicated taxis, trains and a van sounds like a costly way of transporting a parcel, and it was; City Link was our most expensive carrier.
Interlink's charge of 0.72 inc. VAT is for parcels up to 10kg. That is fortunate because the collection driver produced a pair of bathroom scales to find the weight of our parcel, concluding that it was eight kilograms — double its true weight.
Compared with two years ago, the carriers offer far better value. When we first ran a similar test in 1984 we paid on average a higher price for a lighter parcel over a shorter toute.
ARE YOU BEING SERVED?
• We put great emphasis on the carriers' telephone technique and the way in which they dealt with our request. The most tiresome of them all was Lex Wilkinson with its relentless bludgeoning to open an account. We understand the purpose but the hard sell method has exactly the opposite effect on us — first prove you can deliver some parcels quickly, reliably and at reasonable cost, and then we might open an account.
Interlink, Securicor, Parceline, Datapost and City Link all handled our telephone request rather better. We were not passed from one department to another and they managed to convey an air of efficiency. Datapost was best of all in this respect because the person manning the Freefone centre in Birmingham remembered to ask what time we closed at night and if we closed for lunch. He also quoted the price without us asking and he took directions for the collection driver.
The Network Overnight carrier's apparent lack of geographical knowledge was not a good omen. Carryfast, TNT and Lex Wilkinson prolonged the telephone conversations by switching us from one department to another, sometimes losing us in the process. Dividing the various elements of answering the telephone, taking the details and quoting a price may be easier for the carrier but it is frustrating for the customer.