1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
160
161
162
163
164 
INTERNATIONAL DELIVERIES
Page 72
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
Deciding if the specialists are up to scratch
Every so often, when the participants are Least expecting it, CM's 'mystery shopper' tests the international parcel delivery market. Since our last exercise was in 2004, we felt it was time for a rerun...
Words: The CM mystery shopper On Monday, 1 December staff at CM's Dutch sister magazine, TTM, called some of the world's leading parcel companies to collect identical packages from its office at Doetinchem in the south-east of the Netherlands, about 20 miles east of Arnhem, for next-day delivery to the UK.
We did think about using eggs, but remembered that some boxes got a bit battered last time out, and the slowest took nine days, so decided against it on health grounds.
Instead, we reverted to two of B&Q's finest economy light bulbs per box, identically packed using four sheets of the Daily Telegraph. Each box measured 255 x 210 x 160mm, and weighed in at just under 250g. The packages were secured with one layer of standard parcel tape and one of "Fragile" tape. The destination was a residential address just outside the M25 in Kent.
Although the test format was the same as last time, we took heed of a few lessons. The Big Four — DHL, FedEx, TNT and UPS — had to be included, but since the only UK independent operator we used last time subbed the job out to TNT, we gave that idea a miss So that left the Dutch Post Office, which previously provided a great value-for-money service. However, in the intervening time, its parcel service has been taken over by TNT, but since this approach uses a different process, we took our parcel along to the Post Office the day after the others had been collected...