City Link parcel delivery company.

[Baxenden Bank]

And I seem to get next day delivery via Amazon Logistics (OK, I'm less than 15 minutes from the big Ridgmont warehouse) if I choose Super Saver. No need to pay!

Neil

I usually have Supersaver (why pay more, I can wait a couple of days) and this is also often delivered next day by Amazon Logistics. Perhaps both methods follow the same pick, pack and dispatch process but Prime gets prioritised when they are busy or, once the delivery van schedule is full, supersaver gets held back one or more days until space is available?

I too think, at the point of order, I should be able to select delivery company, in the same way that I can select price / speed. With Amazon you already get numerous options (supersaver, first class, next day, collect plus, Prime etc) so why not also DPD, UPS, Amazon logistics etc? - The Amazon software already knows the size and weight of what you are ordering, and determines the box it should all be placed in by the order picker, so I suspect it could easily cope with a customers choice of courier and price accordingly.

You never know, it may well start a 'race to the top' where people are happy to pay more for a better service!

 

[edwin_m]

Giving a choice of courier would increase the supplier's costs somewhat, especially when it is someone like Amazon who would rather keep the delivery in-house than outsource it. Amazon Logistics will run on the economies of scale so the last thing they want is to give people the opportunity of opting out of it.

Similarly other suppliers may prefer to place all their business with one courier, either simply for convenience or because they get a bulk discount. So I guess the only answer is to feed any dissatisfaction with the courier back to the supplier, and hope they use it to threaten the courier with loss of business or factor it in when they next review who they use.

 

[Bletchleyite]

I too think, at the point of order, I should be able to select delivery company, in the same way that I can select price / speed. With Amazon you already get numerous options (supersaver, first class, next day, collect plus, Prime etc) so why not also DPD, UPS, Amazon logistics etc? - The Amazon software already knows the size and weight of what you are ordering, and determines the box it should all be placed in by the order picker, so I suspect it could easily cope with a customers choice of courier and price accordingly.

It *used* to be the case that by selecting and paying for First Class on Amazon you got Royal Mail First Class, and not Yodel who did Super Saver. Now it seems to be the same couriers with the same lead time... at least they seem to have dumped the useless Yodel, at least in my area. I stopped using them completely when they were using that useless mob.

Neil
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---

Giving a choice of courier would increase the supplier's costs somewhat, especially when it is someone like Amazon who would rather keep the delivery in-house than outsource it. Amazon Logistics will run on the economies of scale so the last thing they want is to give people the opportunity of opting out of it.

Amazon Logistics seems in a way to be an expensive method of sending small stuff - tracked courier delivery for books, for instance. I guess it must make sense for them, though.

Similarly other suppliers may prefer to place all their business with one courier, either simply for convenience or because they get a bulk discount. So I guess the only answer is to feed any dissatisfaction with the courier back to the supplier, and hope they use it to threaten the courier with loss of business or factor it in when they next review who they use.

The trouble is that (a) suppliers don't always listen, particularly big ones (it takes a courier as bad as Yodel to get Amazon to listen, for instance), and (b) it doesn't allow for small innovative improvements like DPD's hour slots to take hold. It's a kind-of corruption of the free market, in a way.

Neil

 

[jon0844]

The complaints on Amazon's site about Yodel were amazing. Almost universal hatred, which Amazon would have been mad to ignore.

Perhaps common sense prevailed, as I've not had anything from Yodel for ages.. Mind you, I use the lockers now most of the time and that's DHL...

 

[Bletchleyite]

The complaints on Amazon's site about Yodel were amazing. Almost universal hatred, which Amazon would have been mad to ignore.

Perhaps common sense prevailed

I believe it did. FWIW, though, this kind of thing is only a very negative response (dumping a courier because they are utterly useless, I remain amazed they are still in business) rather than allowing incremental improvements.

Neil

 

[AnonymousUser1]

I usually have Supersaver (why pay more, I can wait a couple of days) and this is also often delivered next day by Amazon Logistics. Perhaps both methods follow the same pick, pack and dispatch process but Prime gets prioritised when they are busy or, once the delivery van schedule is full, supersaver gets held back one or more days until space is available?

<snip>

!

PFW treat everything the same at the hub until they start running out of space at which point they will start pulling 48 hour stuff off the belts into roll cages or onto a different loading belt ... i suspect that most of the operators do the same at one or both of hub and local depot where there are pressures on space etc.

 

[starrymarkb]

The complaints on Amazon's site about Yodel were amazing. Almost universal hatred, which Amazon would have been mad to ignore.

Perhaps common sense prevailed, as I've not had anything from Yodel for ages.. Mind you, I use the lockers now most of the time and that's DHL...

In Devon the lockers are serviced by TNT. So it seems to vary by area with Amazon

 

[Busaholic]

With the comments prevailing about Tories and their newspapers, perhaps some forum members are unaware that the Tories as such as a political party no longer exist and have not done for an extremely long period of time.

Perhaps we shall soon see comments in postings about which newspapers are supporters of the Whig party, as this thread progresses..:roll:

Tory is a shortened version of Conservative and many of the latter party are happy to use the term to describe themselves, although I agree it is sometimes used pejoratively, just as the word socialist used to be often used to attack members of the Labour Party, although neither its most vocal critics nor supporters would accuse them of socialism now.

I always used to think of the Rt Hon Jeremy Thorpe as a Whig and, if anything, any recent 'revelations' about him have confirmed my view.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Tory is a shortened version of Conservative and many of the latter party are happy to use the term to describe themselves, although I agree it is sometimes used pejoratively, just as the word socialist used to be often used to attack members of the Labour Party, although neither its most vocal critics nor supporters would accuse them of socialism now.

I humbly beg to differ with the start of your posting. If you do a little historical research into the word "Tories", you will find that they were indeed a named political party in their own right starting in 1678 when they opposed certain Whig bills.

They were then superceded by the "Tory" party in later years and that named party were in power from 1783 to 1830 when the Conservative party began. The "Tory" party as such was dissolved in 1834, some 180 years ago.

 

[DownSouth]

The trouble is that (a) suppliers don't always listen, particularly big ones (it takes a courier as bad as Yodel to get Amazon to listen, for instance), and (b) it doesn't allow for small innovative improvements like DPD's hour slots to take hold. It's a kind-of corruption of the free market, in a way.

But you can influence the free market as well - by voting with your feet and switching your purchasing to a more agile business which is small enough to care about customers as people instead of as statistics. Don't just complain about the race to the bottom, do something about it.

It really does work. In Australia, the big four banks have become more customer-friendly over the last five years and they now compete on service provision. Why? Because they were charging ridiculous fees and losing thousands of customers to the smaller banks and the credit unions (different to the UK concept of credit unions) who were better at customer service and deficient only in the number of branches they had operating.

 

[Oswyntail]

I humbly beg to differ with the start of your posting. If you do a little historical research into the word "Tories", you will find that they were indeed a named political party in their own right starting in 1678 when they opposed certain Whig bills.....

I don't know how the transition was made, but the word "Tory" originally referred to Irish robber bands, and then to supporters of Royal prerogative. But we digress...

 

[Senex]

I too think, at the point of order, I should be able to select delivery company, in the same way that I can select price / speed. With Amazon you already get numerous options (supersaver, first class, next day, collect plus, Prime etc) so why not also DPD, UPS, Amazon logistics etc?

I agree with this, despite the additional complication for the seller. The main reason why I do not shop on line more is the delivery problem. One or two carriers do now let you know precisely when they expect to arrive, so the technology is there to do it. If I could always specify them, I would. At one stage one always knew roughly when Royal Mail would delivery, so that was a safe bet, but that is no longer the case when they can turn up pretty well at any time within about a three-hour frame.

The couriers who still specify just a day are a total pain, especially given that they tend to have gone even before one can get to the front door. They seem to work on the basis that there is still a housewife -- or perhaps even a housemaid -- in every home just waiting for them to deign to turn up. CityLink was one of the very worst, because they would try only two home deliveries and the second would be carried out automatically unless one was in touch with them before 11 pm on the day of the first delivery. After that it was up to you to get to their depot (on the assumption that everyone has a car, of course).

For small items Click & Collect is a marvellous solution, but some of us can't quite manage to carry a microwave or a TV home from the nearest Click & Collect point. Some other countries use groups of postal lockers in the street for groups of houses/flats? Is there a way forward there?

When couriers dealt largely with businesses, then no doubt all was fine, as most businesses have a staffed reception-point open throughout working hours. It's the attempt to extend exactly the same model to private customers, many of whom cannot stay at home all day long that raises the problems (and even if you can stay at home for perhaps two or three days in succession you can still miss your delivery if you happen to be making use of the toilet at the time .....).

 

[Bletchleyite]

But you can influence the free market as well - by voting with your feet and switching your purchasing to a more agile business which is small enough to care about customers as people instead of as statistics.

Only if such a business exists for the thing I want to purchase. It doesn't always.

Neil

 

[Senex]

Only if such a business exists for the thing I want to purchase. It doesn't always.

Neil

Too true!

 

[Busaholic]

I humbly beg to differ with the start of your posting. If you do a little historical research into the word "Tories", you will find that they were indeed a named political party in their own right starting in 1678 when they opposed certain Whig bills.

They were then superceded by the "Tory" party in later years and that named party were in power from 1783 to 1830 when the Conservative party began. The "Tory" party as such was dissolved in 1834, some 180 years ago.

I think you took my posting a little too literally, Paul. I only meant to indicate there has been a smooth transition from Tory to Conservative over the years. History was my favourite subject at school and the A level syllabus I studied had just two components, viz British history from the English Civil War to the (very) early twentieth century and the Russian Revolution and its aftermath, so I am (or, more correctly, was) au fait with Whigs and Tories, the Pitts, Corn Laws,etc. While some Conservatives are prepared to refer to themselves as Tories and even Norman Tebbit doesn't object to the BBC's political editor using the term I think it's OK for the rest of us with a mind to to do the same.

Where I think there is perhaps a confusion is in reference to 'Tory grandees' where a study of history taught me the real grandees were Whig almost to a man and why I, a 'leftie', find the Guardian almost unbearably pompous and smug. My history teacher taught me to admire Disraeli far more than Gladstone.

 

[ExRes]

Make your own minds up

http://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&rc...XFgJAD&usg=AFQjCNH6XrgQDc1cGI3rkDXBZt45HSybrw

http://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&rc...XFgJAD&usg=AFQjCNHHjjMXlreJyMRez6S29CEwOS_WQQ

that's if you haven't already of course

 

[Busaholic]

What exactly are we meant to make our minds up on? It would be like going to a trial and hearing only the defence statement and then getting the jury to pronounce a verdict solely on the basis of that!
As you choose to present a Daily Telegraph account I will go back and see what else they've had to say on the matter, because I've read their reports and they were exceedingly critical of Mr Moulton and his company.
Two things of note in the Telegraph link - Brian Binley MP's comments and also that it us us poor saps who will pay any outstanding wages, even if including overtime. By the way, one of the previous Telegraph reports alluded to how all drivers were 'encouraged' to become self-employed, this intensifying AFTER the time when on Moulton's admission they had told the Dept of Trade the likelihood of going into administration: this also meant providing their own vans in Citylink colours, and tose who were self-employed will not receive a penny from the government scheme.
More anon.

 

[ExRes]

It's pretty simple really, many offerings on this thread blamed Moulton for anything and everything because he has money and he is/was the boss, can't blame anybody except the nasty evil boss who must be responsible for it all

He raised and put up the cash to keep the company running and put money in the employees pockets, he could, and probably should, have said no from day one and let the company go down, all that would have meant was the employees losing their jobs a lot earlier and 'us poor saps' footing the bill at that time, so what are your thoughts on that ?

The employees who went to being self employed could, believe it or not, have said no and found a job elsewhere, they had a choice and chose to go down the route they thought was best at the time, if the investors had chosen to sink, and lose, more of their money then I doubt the self employed would be hanging their heads in shame and saying how sorry they were that Moulton and the other investors had lost money

As for your childish 'choose to present a Daily Telegraph account', they were the paper that made the effort to report it so shall I apologise on behalf of all the other newspapers that couldn't be bothered ?, if you open your eyes you'll also see the BBC link