DHL? Good, bad or indifferent?

[TraceyHand]

Hubbies work is changing their courier service as new UPS guy came along and raised their charges from £7 to £15 per full size box, upto 20kg (330 somethings, can't remember what..LOL) and they send hundreds of these PER WEEK!
Needless to say UPS have now lost their business and so far DHL have seemed the most competitive.
Anybody use/used them on a regular basis and able to comment on their service?
Their rep mentioned that they have bought out Securicor (as was!) and that doesn't fill me with confidence knowing how shoddy their service was.

Any comments? TIA, Tracey (starting to think that delivering these prams and pushchairs myself might be easier!)

[chris ashdown]

I would suggest you check out the items in the forum as we had quite a discussion about who to use about a month ago

I have a feeling JAN was asking the original question,

It does depend on your local area as to who is available at the pick up times you require, but some of the firms are real cowboys

My own favorite is Initisl City-link who I find very good, but what I guess you want to no is who are the bad ones.

Chris

[Jan]

It was me, I ended up using ANC, their rates were the best for low volumes. I started using them yesterday and it is just so easy, even the collection chap is really cheerful, despite that fact that he had never heard of Giggleswick until yesterday - it is a sort of weird if you buy it they will come sort of scenario, the only thing I ship is paper and while this has been getting sorted out paper sales have been really slow but since signing on the dotted line I have shipped numerous parcels.

The thing that was hard with ANC was getting hold of someone to talk to set up the account because they were mostly out.

The thread was:

http://community.actinic.com/showthr...?threadid=6023

You might want to ignore my opinion though because my only other shipping experience (apart from post office stuff) was to use securicor to retrieve an essential but forgotten teddy from buckinghamshire - they impressed me as well, returning said teddy within 24 hours, intact and just as we left him. They obviously did not impress you though.

Regards,

[TraceyHand]

Actually, I DID read all the previous posts. The search was the first hting I did.
What I wanted though, which I didn't get from any of them, was opinions on DHL itself.
Cheers anyway
Tracey

[NVL]

Been there, bleached the T-Shirt...

Our shipping volumes are massive, so far we've used nearly all the major carriers and each has their own unique brand of good and bad.

UPS - Great online tracking and booking, rates ok but penalty charges for domestic address and fuel surcharges (eh?). However service efficient, saying that when it does go pear shaped it's a fiasco as you can't speak to the depot and managers call you back hours later... classic call centre blues. Trace, we paid £5.64 at 1Kg - £29.88 at 100Kg so I'd barter those rates a wee bit, always use L x B x H divided by 6000 to calculate volumetric weight.

CityLink - Avoid at all costs, franchise operation with poor continuity of service... We actually had a phone call from one depot where a member of staff had been cuffed to their desk via handcuffs we were shipping, yes the box was sealed so you can figure the scenario. There were many "x-files" issues with these guys and mishandled freight related loss or damage.

ANC - Also a franchise op but keen to raise the bar. We've only just split between UPS / ANC last week so early days, however other than loss of online tracking etc and old-style paperwork thee ability to pick up a phone and deal direct is refreshing. Rates under £7.00 to 10Kg + £0.28 which can be beaten but between hassles and pennies more, we'll pay for service...

Lynx, Parcel Force - Arghhhh..... no comment.

DHL / Securicor whom I used to work for when Securicor took over Scottish Express... Expect problems as the US management style is apparently not going down too well with the workers, same for UPS when they broke into the UK market so DHL are a company to watch for the future.

IDEA : You suggest delivering yourself. If you have ten plus despatches per week why not hire a van once a week, buy a handheld GPS from Halfords and do that...? Then hub / spoke your out of area logistics...

Saying that Whisky always helps to deal with shipping issues...!!