Alternatives to Royal Mail for packages?
Posted by: JamieL_v2 on 21 March 2011
I want to send a small package of presents to a friend for his newly born daughter, and I wondered what alternatives there are in the UK for inland delivery at around £5.00 per package.
I know I could pay that to have the packet registered (tracking through the system, harder to steal), but frankly I have ad enough of the Royal Mail, and do not wish to pay a company that employs thieves, and have to pay extra for them not to steal the package.
Any suggestions? DHL, TNT, others?
Sounds like you've been very unlucky or live near the wrong sorting office. I do a lot of online shopping and exchange presents with relatives etc. and have never had anything not arrive. I suspect the amount of complaints you see about a particular company reflects that company's market share as much as anything else, but FWIW I've used and been sent things via TNT and DHL without a problem so if you want to use someone else you could try either. Might be dearer though - this seems to vary a lot depending what you send and where. There's lots of websites which will offer quotes for various couriers if you google them.
I use them every day. They are just a broker for the likes of TNT, DHL, FED Ex, etc..
They also have some budget options too.
Nice & easy website too.
Never had a major problem with them - odd thing gone missing etc. but nothing major.
Once had a two-week odd argument with TNT about a package - then they eventually told me it had been delivered to wrong address but person had taken it in!
Never found that person.
If you want guaranteed delivery you're going to have to pay a bit more. Depends on what you think it's worth paying really.
Remember - some delivery companies will not deliver if there's no-one in and then charge for re-delivery.
Good luck on it!
As an employee of Royal Mail, I take exception to your comments, implying that we are all thieves.
Jamie,
Very sorry to hear you’ve had another packet go missing in the post. If this is a ongoing problem then perhaps the reason is nearer to home (your local Post Office or Sorting Office), or maybe another common factor involved such as your missing packets are all addressed to the same postal area.
Royal Mail has a huge infrastructure which employs a couple of hundred thousand individual people, mostly with good work integrity which includes an honest nature.
But as with any large firm which has a great number of employees there is unfortunately a very small minority of rouges who need weeding out the system.
Defecting ones loyalties to TNT, DHL etc is no help for this situation either, they do not have the infrastructure to collect-process-deliver the mail, and after collection the mail their only responsibility is (often hold it for a couple of weeks and..) to dump it on the nearest Royal Mail distribution office for Royal Mail staff to sort out and deliver. Most of these other couriers have been given the rights to set up for political reasons to deliberately undermine the successful public ownership of Royal Mail, and as such the private couriers are making a lot of money by undercutting big-business mail costs - because by the daftest of laws they are allowed to keep the money and dump this mail on Royal Mail who are forced to sort it at a great loss.
Also, it must be concluded that TNT, DHL, City Link, etc are also not short of a few rouges within their employee ranks.
In fact from what we hear, they have a far worse problem than Royal Mail!
Debs
I am now retired but I was once a Purchasing Manager in the Royal Mail and I set up contracts for independant agencies to carry out checks on the mail and parcels to verify levels of late delivery and missing deliveries.
The level of missing deliveries was so low that there aren't enough decimal points on a calculator to illustrate the percentage rate.
Also the Royal Mail had the lowest rate of missing deliveries than any other Postal authority in Europe as well as in America.
Regards
Mick
The problem is that there are a few individuals who know they are hidden by the size of the organisation, and also the organisation's inability to take any responsibility when it fails to provide a service.
I strongly suspect that there is a problem with my local delivery office, or perhaps the city sorting office. If you try and report this, you are simply told that you need evidence of where the package was, and those who are stealing know the system and where the holes are, so the proof can not be found. Those who you could make the report to are not interested in taking any action, as they see no simple solution.
Debs, I know that the Royal Mail has been undermined by various governments, either through lack of interest, or deliberately moving custom to profit making companies, in which some may have an interest. I also know that morale in the postal system is very low, and consequently generates little loyalty or inspiration to do well. It is a bad way of running s service which can only help improve both society and industry, but that would need some sort of long term foresight that is sadly lacking from politics these days.
My problem is that now there have been a number of missing parcels posted to my address, so that when I want to send something special in which I have made an emotional investment to celebrate the birth of a friend's child, I simply do not wish to entrust it to the postal system, or pay for a premium service which is simply an admission of incompetence.
I would rather start from scratch with another option. I will have a look at the recommendations above and see which works out the best.