Delivery Charges

[champs]

I need help in simplfying delivery charges. My existing courier has a lot of surcharges for scottish areas and some seem excessive. I was charged an extra £17.50 to send a fog light to the Grampians today.

I am not sure, even if I managed to create zones for every area, whether my customer would select the right one. I would prefer just to have one zone for the UK (mainland).

Has anyone got any advice on how to keep it simple?

Or alternatively can anyone suggest couriers which in turn have simple charging structures but still provide a great service?

I am wanting to send small items between 2kg-5kg to anywhere in the UK.

Any help would be very much appreciated.

Thanks,

Paul

www.allpartssouthwest.com

[Paul Bulpit]

Business Post - up to £16 extra for Highlands & Islands but fantastically detailed tracking, take multiple parcels per consignment. Problems reported by fax and but always; parcels are caged between hubs but fragile items occasionally damaged. No re-delivery fee.

DHL - same price for Highlands, only one parcel per consignment but with added benefit of taking up to 30kg per cons. (low volumetric calculation though), takes a day longer. Tracking very basic, problems never reported, very heavy surcharges if rules not followed to the letter. Initial savings totally wiped out by surcharges & re-delivery fees - not much good for Home Deliveries.

Interlink - same price for Highlands, one day longer, multiple parcels per cons., but manual handling so very prone to damage of fragile items. Basic tracking and contact by 'phone if they have a problem. If they can't deliver within five days they bring the parcel back, and charge double for the return as it is a third-party collection. Definitely no good for HomeDels.

CITY-LINK - next day for all but the very, very North, tracking not as good as BPost but updated quicker, caged parcels - NO damages so far (we ship glass vases), immediate contact by email if they have a problem.

If you go with them try this one on the sales rep. - point out from your records that the vast majority of your consignments are less than 8kg so you don't want to be paying for 'Up To 20kg' - though you might still need that occasionally. We got a rate for up to 8kg, 50p more for up to 20kg, then so many pence per kg above that.