FedEx Dropping Prices

[dovroc]

I have heard from out current courier that FedEx is going around undercutting their competitors on UK deliveries.

Does anyone use FedEx for smaller UK consignments?
What experience have you had with them?

Thanks

[wfl]

Dream on!

For several years wE have used ANC, who were bought by FedEx last year.

This year we have had 3 rounds of price increases from FedEx but have managed to reduce them by about 50% under threat of loosing the business.

We do understand some of their external pressures but it is those self same pressures that are causing us to re-evaluate our costs including shipping contracts.

[ackerman]

I am suprised about the 3 rises. Our price was fixed for a year - apart from fuel surcharge.
Fedex is the best service we have used to date. We get a collection everyday, and manifests are done online, making everything trackable.
I think the costs are reasonable. We pay about £6.30 up to 25klgs, and small packets are cheaper. European delivery is also very reasonable too.
Brian

[grantglendinnin]

I very highly doubt you'll get any courier delivery prices cheaper than those offered by DPD. We paid just over £7 up to 30kg's with CityLink - the same service, up to 31kg costs approximately £5.

Don't expect the world from them, though

[Nita1184]

Grant, how did you get that rate from them?

We have spoken to them, but can't get anywhere near that.

How many parcels are you shipping through them a week?

Thanks

Nita

[grantglendinnin]

Nita,

Which region are you based? Our price was determined on £5 per consignment upto 31kg's, £5.50 for an express parcel (ie. one of the plastic bags), with no second re-delivery charge (unless it's sent back to us after 2 unsuccessful attempts). When the initial contract was drawn up almost a year ago, we were shipping approx 8-12 parcels a day. Now we're almost double that rate, but with Business Post, at £5.25 upto 20kg's, £0.32 per kilo thereafter.

What I would advise with DPD:

Do not use them if your items can be broken relatively easily. That includes anything with glass or plastic parts.

Do not use them if you dislike people with attitude problems. That's all they have.

Do not use them if you want a courier to give your customer a 'Sorry we missed you...' card for re-delivery. Although they are supposed to (ultimately you pay them to!) - they never do - and subsequent unscheduled redeliveries occur too frequently for my liking.

Finally, the pros:

Do use them if your item cannot be broken. They were able to deliver covers for garden furniture, at best, without breaking them.

Do use DPD if you like your delivery costs to be cheaper than chips.

[Badger]

Well put Grant.

[Firecom]

We got a good price off of fedex, infact they were the only ones to come back to us. guess there must be no recession for the other main delivery firms in the uk!!!

the fedex rep even turned up at our office on spec to go over pricing etc. excellent service tbh.

[Stereo Steve]

Try DHL. You can look at about £3.30 up to 31.5kg if you have the volume.

[Firecom]

dhl didn't bother to call back at all either. puts me off doing business with companies like that when they can't be bothered to follow up on sales enquiries.

althou £3.30 is a damn good price

[Stereo Steve]

The problem with DHL is the reps. Although, ours is great now that we have found a good one. It took us 6 months to get a contract signed from initial contact and another few months to get the IT installed and collections going.

Hard work but worth it in the end.

[bamboo]

Just spoken with my Fedex traffic manager this morning as they are doing away with pre printed labels & going all online so they had to come & show me how to use the new system, rocket science it ain't but at least I got to talk to a Fedex guy from the sharp end not some sales rep.

He said that the price Fedex quotes anyone is based entirely on the volume of packages that company ships over a given time. He wouldn't elucidate what that 'given time' was but he said if your volume goes up it is always worth seeking a better price or if you have had a better quote on your current volume then again try asking for a better price.

He didn't get into dogging off other couriers but he did share a couple of interesting titbits.
Firstly his depot has over 1000 consignments per day through it & has on average 2-3 damaged packages a day which are usually down to the way the items have been packed.
Secondly he revealed that what Fedex were after when they bought out ANC was ANC's network which was the most extensive in the country. They have invested millions in machinery, vehicles, equipment & training in developing this network & they now have a very comprehensive service in place.

This wasn't a sales rep it was the traffic manager telling me this.

[Folk]

We are with DPD (Interlink Express) after leaving City Link last year. Our Bag price is £4.75 + Vat. Ive had a quote from Fedex and they can beat that price however they seem to charge the earth for anywhere north of Glasgow.

Folk