We contacted 20 leading parcels carriers and asked them if
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they could take a parcel from Newcastle to Stuttgart by next morning. Only six said they could. This is how they fared.
• The challenge we gave international parcels carriers in this, our first European parcels survey, was to deliver a lkg air filter from Newcastle to Stuttgart in Germany the next day. We called 20 companies anonymously. Only six would guarantee a drop within 24 hours. They were DHL, Datapost. Federal Express, XP, UPS/Atlasair and TNT.
We recorded not only price, collection and delivery times, but also the appearance of the drivers, whether the company offered additional services and the state of the parcel when it arrived. We also noted telephone manner and the condition of vehicles.
As with our established UK parcel survey, we made every effort to make the contest.as fair as possible. We phoned the six companies within an hour-and-a-half period. Our requests to each carrier was: "We must have this parcel in Stuttgart by tomorrow; can you deliver it for us?"
The six we picked were those who had said during earlier calls that they offered an overnight service.
However, when we called them with the specific request, some claimed that problems with customs could cause delays. In fact, only two out of the six made the delivery deadline.
We have awarded points for speed, price and service. Obviously, the last two are irrelevant if a parcel does not arrive on time. Price is inevitably a major factor in choosing a carrier, and of the two which made it the next day, one charged four times as much as the other.
Service was generally good, but there were wide differences between the best (friendly on phone, smart employee and free plastic consignment envelope) and the worst (delays on phone, non-uniformed driver and a long wait for collection).
TIIE CALLS
Our pick-up point was Mercedes dealer Bell Truck Sales on an industrial estate, outside Newcastle Upon Tyne. The estate was on a main road, so none of the carriers should have had difficulty finding us. We posed as Mercedes staff.
We began our calls at 09:20. First was Datapost. The receptionist was friendly but, contrary to what Datapost had told us earlier, told us a delivery to Stuttgart could not be guaranteed by the next day. Because of customs problems, it could take up to three working days, she said. Sheasked if we had Post Office customs forms. We said we did not. She said it would not be a problem and quoted us a price of £21.
Next was DHL at 09:25. The person who answered was slightly hesitant, and told us we must fill in four pro-forma invoices, containing the name and address of the recipient, the value of the package and its country of origin. Each had to be on company headed paper and contain an original signature. The price was 224.40.
We called TNT at 09:45. Although we were put through to the wrong extension, and had to be transferred three times, the sales department turned out to be friendly and efficient. Staff said they would ring back in 10 minutes with a quote. When they did, true to TNT style, they asked if we sent packages abroad regularly and suggested sending a salesperson around to discuss setting up an account. TNT's telephone manner was flawless. Its price, however, was £83 — four times as expensive as UPS and Datapost, and twice that of the next dearest carrier, XP. We also had to fill in pro-forma invoices.
Five minutes later we phoned Federal Express. It said it could not offer a next day service from Newcastle. The parcel would have to go to Birmingham airport and would not reach Stuttgart until close of business on Monday. Its computer would have details on us if we had used Federal Express before, we were told. We said we had not. It said it would provide special packaging and a serial number to help monitor the parcel. Its price was 223.10 and we were told we could pay this by cheque, cash or by opening an account. We called XP at 10:15. The receptionist was friendly (even if she couldn't spell Mercedes) and stressed that next-day delivery was guaranteed. We were told we could pay by cash or cheque on collection.
Our last call was to UPS/Atlasair at 10:45. The person who answered was pleasant. "We don't like the word guaran
teed'," she joked when asked if the parcel would definitely be at its destination the next day, and said the recipient could pay.
THE COLLECTIONS
At 10:20, before we had even finished our Datapost arrived in a liveried Escort van to pick up our parcel. The uniformed driver said we did not need pro-forma invoices, although we had to fill Datapost's own customs forms. We paid and were given an invoice.
Fifteen minutes later DHL turned up (we still had not yet had time to call UPS). The driver had a company Escort van, and was in a uniform with a photoidentity badge. We paid cash and were given a receipt.
After a wait, it was Federal Express' turn at 12:05. Again the driver, who wore a uniform and drove a Mercedes 307 van, put our parcel in a special company envelope but took a lot of time over the documentation and seemed unsure about the price. "If that's what you were quoted. then it must be right," he said.
There was a minor panic when TNT arrived at 12:10, while the Federal Express driver was finishing his forms at the reception desk. The boiler-suited driver had a rather scruffy MAN 17-tonner. We had to ask for a receipt and were told we would be billed for the consignment later.
The XP driver came at 14:30, He was businesslike, smartly-dressed and his Transit van was liveried. He gave us additional information on the company, we pd f39 cash.
li 15:20 we were getting worried about ( ur last parcel and called UPS again. The receptionist remembered our call, apologised for the delay and explained the driver had made a trip to Middlesbrough and would pick up from us on his way back to Newcastle airport. Ten minutes later he arrived; not uniformed, hut in a liveried van. He did not ask for money.
THE DELIVERIES
A giant Mercedes-Benz three-pointed star dominates the skyline, and we pass Mercedesstrasse and Benz Strasse on the right before turning through the security gates of the company's Niederlassung parts depot.
The weather is sunny and warm, overnight flying conditions were excellent and, according to the city's airport information desk, there were no delays or air traffic problems the night before. Our parcels should have had a trouble-free flight.
Horst Schielein takes its down to the goods-in bay where the parcel vans will have to register and we settle down to wait for parcel number one to arrive . . . 08:00, 09:00, 10:00, 11:00 . . . noon. Time drags by. Schielein keeps tapping his wrist watch and shrugging his shoulders. Intrigued drivers and secretaries pop down to see how the test is going. "It isn't." we reply.
At 12:27 we decide to slide off for a spot of lunch. It always works — just as we round the corner a TNT van comes charging through the security gate and heads for the goods-in entrance.
A smart and friendly driver in a red uniform jumps out of the TNT-liveried Fiat Ducat° van and brings across the package. It is in pristine condition and was flown in overnight via the company's air base at Cologne.
After lunch a brown United Parcel Service van arrives with another friendly driver, this time dressed in matching brown uniform. Schielein signs the delivery note as he did with TNT and tells the driver that UPS has passed the test. The driver nods and says "of course."
He tells us that the UPS depot is at Wendlingen near Stuttgart airport on the south side of the city. Like the TNT depot at Leonberg, north-west of the city, it is next to the busy Autobahn 8 which runs through Stuttgart. UPS has wrapped the parcel in an outer plastic bag and it too is in pristine condition.
Nothing else happens and nothing else arrives, apart from a pair of Jack-the-lads in a Mercedes-Benz convertible who insist that we take their picture posing on the bonnet, Miami Vice-style. We are invited to their hot dog stand in Stuttgart's main pedestrian shopping street that evening. At 18:00 we collapse into our taxi and head back for the city centre.
The missing parcels all arrived the following working day. As far as we are concerned they had failed the test, but w have included their arrival times on the tables below.
CONCLUSIONS
These are short and sweet. TNT offers reliable, efficient friendly service to Europe in keeping with the high standard it maintains within the UK — but UPS is just as reliable, just as efficient and just E friendly for a quarter of the TNT price.
Datapost, UHL, Federal Express and XP were all much cheaper than TNT too but what is the point if they do not get there on time?
THE WINNER
United Parels Service wins the first Corn mercial Motor European parcels survey hands down on price, and more than matched its nearest rival TNT on telephone manner, personnel efficiency and careful handling of the package.
If UPS continues to develop its British parcels operation through Atlasair, the market is going to have to contend with another top quality and highly ambitious competitor. UPS has an enviable reputation in the American parcels market: it could easily lead the parcels market in tit brave new "United States of Europe".