The time to cut refrigeration costs to a minimum, is here at the planning stage.
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THE DELIVERY
I WAS WAITING at the delivery address in Grassington at 8.00 the following morning. I had paid extra for two of the carriers to guarantee delivery before noon (Securicor and Independent Express). Most other carriers do the bulk of their deliveries in the morning anyway, even if they do not promise to.
At 8.15am the 'phone rang. It was Independent Express calling from the Leeds depot, and asking if they could deliver between 1-2pm instead of coming in the morning — Grassington was "a little awkward". Because we had paid for a morning delivery they were, however, prepared to make the delivery if I really wanted it. I said "No, afternoon would be fine"; at least Independent had taken the trouble to find the telephone number and consult us.
At 8.24am the first parcel arrived. It was via Securicor and a bright and cheerful lady driver handed it over. Full marks for speed (21 hours 21 minutes after we phoned to request the job) but when we shook the parcel it rattled ominously. Opening it revealed that one of the three glasses was in fragments. Considering the package was wellwrapped it must have had an unlucky bounce somewhere in Securicor's night trunking.
At 9.08am the postman ar rived in his van, clutching the Datapost parcel. This was 21 hours 48 minutes after we had left the parcel at Sutton Post Office, and it was the first 100 per cent success — the three glasses were intact.
Another two and a quarter hours passed before the third parcel arrived at 11.22am. It was delivered by Courier Express and had come from the Leeds depot. The outer padded bag had been holed (and re-taped) but there was no damage to the contents. Transit time from our 'phone call to delivery was 23 hours 47 minutes.
ANC was next to deliver at 12.53pm. They surprised me by arriving in a Ford Capri 2.8i. Apparently, the parcel had been trunked to the wrong depot and this driver had brought it by car all the way from Manchester. So ANC had made a mistake but redeemed itself just in time and at its own expense. Even with this detour via Manchester the transit time was 25 hours 23 minutes and the parcel was un damaged.
At 1.00pm the Independent Express van drove past the delivery address but failed to spot
it. Five minutes later at 1.05pm Tuffnells and Lex Wilkinson ar
rived together. The Tuffnells driver had come from Sheffield in his Dodge boxvan while the Lex Wilkinson driver had driven from Leeds in his Ford D-Series boxvan.
Both their parcels were undamaged. The Tuffnells parcel had taken 24 hours 20 minutes since our telephoned request while Lex Wilkinson was slightly slower at 24 hours 50 minutes.
Independent Express found the address at 1.12pm, within the time they had promised that morning on the 'phone. The driver had come from Morley on the outskirts of Leeds. Overall time was 26 hours 22 minutes and the parcel was not damaged.
It was 2.10pm when Roadline arrived in Grassington. The Croydon branch's doubtful attitude was unfounded. The parcel was delivered in good condition and on the following day as requested. Total transit time was 26 hours 15 minutes.
Given that TNT had failed to collect the parcel in the first place, that left just one to be delivered. The culprit was Elan.
Its parcel was not delivered at
all an-that day (Friday). I contacted the collection depot (Heston) on the following Monday. I was told that the delivery depot (Leeds) had been short of drivers on Friday and used a sub-contractor. He had run out of time and brought back some deliveries, including ours. Elan told us that the parcel had been sent out again on the Monday morning.
We waited all day Monday, but it still did not arrive. On Tuesday morning I 'phoned Elan once again at Heston. The company promised to look into it and ring me back. It did not. At Tuesday lunchtime I yet again 'phoned Elan.
Once more the company promised to look into it and ring me back. It did not.
At 3pm on Tuesday afternoon I rang Elan for a fourth time at Heston and this time they told me that our parcel had been misrouted — it would arrive within 30 minutes.
Elan's parcel eventually arrived at 3.55pm on Tuesday. It was delivered by a motorcycle messenger from Pudsey.
At this point I rang Elan at Heston to say who we were and what we were doing, asking for an explanation. The parcel had taken 72 hours 55 minutes of working time, not including the weekend in the middle. It was undamaged.
CONCLUSIONS
OUT OF 10 parcels, one was not collected, one was not delivered on the prescribed day, and one had damaged contents. These three must count as failures, which gives a 70 per cent success rate for the parcels industry.
But the service provided by all seven "successful" carriers was by no means perfect. In too many cases we considered the response to our telephone request to be unsatisfactory. Attitudes were negative, we were left hanging on or the details were taken in a slap-dash way.
In our opinion only Tuffnells, Securicor, Elan, ANC (once we had been given the correct depot) and Courier Express created a good impression over the telephone. We are aware that our approach "out of the blue" as a non-account holder was not typical — most consignments are from regular customers — but in view of the fierce competition among carriers for new business we would expect a bet ter reaction than we received in some instances.
Speed Looking at transit times the picture is better. Excepting TNT and Elan, the time between our telephone call and delivery ranged from 21 hours 20 minutes to 26 hours 22 minutes. All of these eight carriers therefore fulfilled the next day delivery promise. The difference between first and last is immaterial, and depended on the order in which we rang the carriers and the work they had on that particular day.
We requested a morning delivery in only two cases, Securicor and Independent Express. Securicor did this and Independent could have done had we insisted. (Will our morning delivery premium be refunded?) Courier Express and Post Office Datapost arrived in the morning anyway, while the noon-2pm period was the favourite time for the majority of deliveries.
Price The carriage charges varied enormously. It is difficult to see any justification for this, except where our 1kg parcel to North Yorkshire fell just above or below a charge band.
Lex Wilkinson's £26 plus vat would have been astronomical and we fail to understand why the company insists on a 20kg minimum consignment for this journey — the other nine carriers did not. The equally-drastic 50 per cent first-time discount cut the cost, but still left Lex Wilkinson as one of the more expensive carriers for our parcel.
Even more worrying was the fact that Roadline charged us £18 when we had been quoted "about £12.50 plus vat" two hours earlier over the telephone. Why the discrepancy? This may have been an error, but it meant that Roadline was our most expensive carrier.
If we had paid, TNT would have been around £15 (including vat), similar to Lex Wilkinson. Most of the other carriers came in the £9-£12 range. Independent would have been very competitive had we not asked for a morning delivery.
Cheapest was the "Big green parcels machine" — Tuffnells, with a price of £7.36 including vat. Taking the parcel round to the Post Office did not make Datapost much cheaper than average.
For comparison, if our parcel had been sent through the usual Royal Mail it would have cost £1.62. The whole price comparison would be distorted if we were account customers and able to negotiate some rate-card discounts from the carriers.
If our parcel had been heavier it would have excluded itself from the conventional mail system and been more typical of the traffic moved by the carriers.
Our Best Buy?
Ruling out the carriers who failed to collect, failed to deliver on time, broke the goods or gave a poor account of themselves on the telephone, that leaves just three who performed better than the rest — ANC, Tuffnells and Courier Express.
ANC seemed to get its depots confused, having first given us the wrong one to contact and then trunked to the wrong one.
But in both cases they made amends with helpful people at Tonbridge and Manchester depots. Maybe this example illustrates both the weakness and strengths of the ANC franchise system, where each depot is a separate company.
Tuffnells and Courier Express got it all right. Tuffnells were particularly cheap, but we would have welcomed a more willing acceptance of cash by the collection driver and a receipt. We had to pay cash to four of the 10 carriers.
Courier Express gave the impression of a very slick and professional operation that could not be faulted, although the price was higher than Tuffnells.
It must be pointed out that CM's test was fair to all 10 carriers concerned, but cannot be expected to reflect the total picture. TNT alone currently handles around 65,000 parcels each night on its Overnite service and so our single parcel was distinctly unlucky in being one that was overlooked.
If we repeated the test next week the outcome might well be different — maybe all the parcels would arrive, or perhaps different carriers would get it 'wrong.
But one aspect that most definitely should change is the technique and attitude of some of the people who take the telephoned delivery requests. One should not have to be transferred to the sales department before speaking to, someone who appreciates the value of a customer.
REPERCUSSIONS
TO ITS CREDIT, TNT reacted swiftly and decisively when we contacted the company after its failure to perform. It said that a series of "fail-safes" built into Overnite did not function due to human error and so the non-collection of our parcel did not come to light until we cornplained.
Normally, said the company, the error would have been detected and rectified using the TNT Sam eday service so that the parcel would still have arrived on the prescribed day.
As recorded, Elan's Heston depot did not give a satisfactory reply when we enquired after the whereabouts of our parcel; we had to ask several times.
A company spokesman was at least honest about it: "We do it right thousands of times — this was just the one we screwed up." He apologised and our carriage charges have already been refunded.
Securicor broke one of the three glasses, so I contacted the Croydon depot that collected the parcel for advice. I was told that I should write to the depot with the details and these would be forwarded to the Securicor head office for consideration for compensation.
Coincidentally, Courier Express changed its name on the Monday following our survey. The company is now called De La Rue Parceline and the nextday service that we used is known as Parceline 24.
As promised, Lex Wilkinson sent a salesman round to our offices on the following Monday. Full marks for the keen followup; he was ready with pen poised to open our account. I still did not tell him about the survey, but said that we found the 20kg minimum unacceptable.
He did not like that and asked how heavy our parcel was. When I told him it was 1kg he retorted that the average weight on Lex Wilkinson's Nightline is 70kg: "One kilogramme is the sort of thing you ought to send by Datapost." Maybe we will next time, Lex Wilkinson.