Couriers

Parcels from A to B

Couriers – essential delivery partners

If you have a parcel to send (business or personal) or you have online shopping delivered, then you will be very familiar with the services that couriers provide and their critical role in the logistics of moving and delivering consignments and products.

If you want to send one parcel, or many, you will need a reliable and cost-effective courier. In this section we will detail what you should consider when selecting a courier, what the watch outs are and as always, Logisto Directory will provide you with the details of how to find the perfect partner for you.

Let’s start with the basics - what are the services a courier provide?

Put simply, a courier will take your consignment from its origin to its destination. They will handle all the transport (customs if required), ensuring your product is delivered within the required timeframe. Whilst the basic premise is the same, there are many types of courier service, including:

UK courier

International courier

Express and Same day

Bicycle

Document courier

Etc.

For this section, we will focus on the UK. We have other sections within the Knowledge Centre that cover EU/Worldwide specific considerations.

What to consider when selecting a courier?

Within the UK, we are lucky that we have a safe, reliable and cost effective postal provider in the Royal Mail (and Parcelforce) that can be utilised from home or via the extensive Post Office network. Royal Mail.

Whilst Royal Mail is very good at what it does, there are a plethora of other courier options across the UK (and internationally), that will ensure your parcels arrive in their required destination, via a service that suits your budget and requirements, including next day and same day delivery.

Royal Mail Limits:

 Max WeightMax Width
Small parcel size2 kg45 cm
Medium parcel size20 kg61 cm
Large parcel size30 kg1.5 m

Couriers are generally the ideal service for parcels that are too big or heavy for Royal Mail but too small for large logistics hauliers.

What should I consider before selecting a courier?

Having asked ourselves this very question (on numerous occasions!) we decided to put together 5 questions to ask yourself that should help shape your decision:

  1. What are you shipping? Is it standard parcels? Are you sending bulky (oversize) or hazardous (perfume) products? Do they require special attention?
  2. What is your volume? How many are you shipping each month?
  3. What is the recipient (customers) expectations from the delivery? Are you sending a premium item that customers expect to be delivered a certain way? What’s the key driver – speed, service or cost?
  4. What is most important to you or your company? For example, do you want cheap shipping in order to allow your company to offer free shipping to your customer or is it about brand and retention?
  5. Do you want to send all your parcels via one courier, or split the volume? Perhaps you want some items to go via a premium service and the rest by the standard.

Once you have considered the above questions, you should be in a position to begin your search for the perfect courier partner(s). Before you do that, let’s consider the advantages and disadvantages of couriers, before looking at a quick guide to the UK’s main domestic couriers.

Advantages and disadvantages of using couriers

Advantages: One of the main advantages of utilising a courier vs. the traditional delivery network is the use of a dedicated network. When sending a parcel through the traditional network your parcel could be handled up to 10 times, increasing the risk of loss or damage but a courier network will be dedicated and will reduce handling.

Services: Couriers will offer a range of services to suit your requirements:

Collection: courier will come to you (commercial or residential) at a convenient time to collect your parcels

Speed: there are various options that can support your requirements and your customers ‘demands’

Price: likewise, there is an option to suit all budgets

Weight and size limits

Whilst there is usually a courier out there for all items, the main disadvantages of using a courier can be found when you want to ship larger, bulky items. There are size limits (usually linked to the automation restrictions in the courier's warehouse) and large items can become very expensive to ship. There are also usually weight limits associated with couriers.

Couriers will use volumetric weight to measure the bulk of an item in order to price. This is then used in replacement of the actual weight. For example, it would not be fair to charge the same courier fee for 2 boxes that both weight 1KG but one was 1m square and one was 10cms square. An example of volumetric weight used by most couriers is by length x width x depth divided by 6000. DHL are a little different in that they divide by 5000.

Weight limits will vary by courier, but a few examples of dimensions/weight limits per parcel are detailed below:

Hermes 15KG and up to 120cm long. Combined circumference of 245cm

DPD 31.5KG and up to 175cm long. Size (girth + longest side) must not exceed 300cm

When your item(s) fall in the ‘bulk’ category, we recommend that you speak to carriers/haulers detailed in the ‘Oversize’ section of the LOGISTO Directory as they can often significantly better value when shipping larger items.

Can you provide a rough guide as to some of the main providers and what they are good as transporting?

Of course. Below, we have provided some well known UK couriers and their strengths:

Without doubt the most interconnected and well-known of all delivery and courier services in the UK, Royal Mail is the official postal service delivery across the country Monday, thru Saturday. Offering a wide range of services, their bread and butter remain domestic delivery.

Services:

Royal Mail offers wide-ranging services, depending on the required levels of service and speed:

  • Standard second class
  • Standard first class
  • Before 9 a.m
  • Before 10 a.m
  • Before noon
  • Next day (anytime)

Price: Royal Mail is certainly competitive when it comes to price. For a standard 2KG parcel you will be looking at domestic prices of between £4 (second class) and £40 (next day, guaranteed before 9 am).

Note: Royal Mail offers free weekday pickup from your business premises if you spend over £15,000 a year on shipping.

Further advantages:

Recognised brand: everyone in the country know them and trust them

Extensive network (all of the UK!) and local access: there are post offices across the country (11,500) and most people visit their post office on a regular basis.

Considerations: Whilst Royal Mail offers a good speed of service at a relatively low cost, Royal Mail is not perceived as a premium service by some consumers, with issues targeted against the company’s online services.

DPD is a subsidiary of the French postal service, La Poste, but it originally began operating in 1970 as a UK-based company called Courier Express. DPD remains a popular courier in the UK.

Services: DPD is recognized as being a premium courier, particularly with regard to next-day delivery.

  • Extensive pickup network: DPD has an extensive parcel shop network (over 2,500) across the UK
  • Convenient returns: DPD Pickup Returns allows customers to hand over returns at their local DPD parcel shop.
  • Ship to Shop: Allows your customers to route their parcel to a store, rather than their home
  • Flexibility: DPD has excellent live tracking and flexibility when a parcel is in flight. Recipients are able to divert parcels to a new location (neighbor/safe place/parcel shop) if the customer is not going to be home to receive the parcel.
  • Logistics Solutions: DPD also offers warehousing and logistics solutions for business customers

Price: DPD offers personalized pricing for business customers, based on your shipping profile. These require a contractual commitment and minimum order on your part, but might be a cost-effective solution if DPD offers all the shipping services that you are looking for.

For a next-day delivery on a parcel weighing up to 5 kg, DPD charges around £20. For around £23, you can ship a standard parcel weighing up to 30 kg for next-day delivery. This means that DPD is quite flexible in terms of its weight classes, which is beneficial if your parcels tend to be on the heavy side.

Further advantages: DPD is perceived to be the premium courier in the UK, regularly topping the charts for ‘best courier’. They are perceived as a premium brand which can help your company brand if you ship via DPD.

Considerations: DPD has broad-ranging weight brackets. This can mean that you can end up paying more than some couriers for smaller-weight items.

Evri (formerly Hermes)

Evri, is the new name for Hermes (renamed in March 2022). Hermes quickly became a household name in the UK, delivering over 245 millions parcels a year, no.1 in terms of volume. They work for a number of huge retail companies including Tesco, John Lewis, Ted Baker, and ASOS.

Services:

Discounted shipping: For any business customers, Evri offers discounted shopping for the volume of >150 parcels a week

Convenience: Evri have over 4,500 parcel shop locations across the UK

Manage my Delivery: An online service that uses GPS/photo location to provide a detailed tracking process

Price: Hermes offers discounted rates to business account holders, with prices of c. £2+ achievable if your company sends significant volume. For those sending smaller volumes, then their rates are still excellent and comparative to Royal Mail.  Next-day shipment for a package of up to 2 kg costs as little as £6, and that’s without the business-rate discount!

The company also offers very low rates on parcels sent internationally from the UK to other parts of Europe, with prices generally ranging from around £6 to £10 for a 1 kg parcel, depending on the destination country.

Other advantages:

1st time delivery: Hermes has excellent Service Levels with regards to the delivery 1st time.

Considerations:

Whilst Hermes is undoubtedly one of the most cost-competitive carriers in the UK market, its reputation as Hermes was sometimes mixed, leading to some premium customers being put off from using Hermes. However, with the new branding and a new approach, this is potentially going to change.

Parcelforce is a subsidiary of Royal Mail that is dedicated to the shipping of parcels. It specialises in fast delivery, with most of the parcels in the UK being delivered in under 2 days.

Services:

Vast pickup and delivery network: Complete overlap with the Royal Mail delivery network, including access to 11,500 UK post offices

Rewards4U program: Shippers enjoy 15% savings when they ship more than one parcel a week.

Express deliveries: Fast deliveries throughout the UK, even on Sundays.

Generous insurance coverage: Included as standard with all delivery options, plus the choice to purchase additional cover for even higher-value items.

Price: Parcelforce’s is certainly price competitive in the UK market, often with identical pricing to Royal Mail (however, it should be noted that Parcelforce does not offer standard (slow) services. For a 2Kg parcel, you will be looking at approximately £12 for a 48 hour delivery SLA.  prices are similar (and, in some cases, identical) to those of Royal Mail, although it does not offer standard (slower) delivery services within the UK.

International shipments with Parcelforce are usually delivered within 2 to 4 days. Prices are determined according to a ‘zone’ system, with each region around the world being categorised into a specific zone. For all Western European zones, shipping a 2 kg parcel ranges in price from around £20 to around £55, depending on selected speed of delivery. Prices are higher for other parts of the world (around £33 – £68 for shipping to the US, for example).

Considerations:

Despite Parcelforce being competitive in terms of cost for express shipments, these can still be more expensive than other couriers, especially if you are willing to increase delivery times. Parcelforce is not the most popular courier in the UK, which means it should probably be considered an option for your retail business, rather than the sole delivery option.

DHL is a global name and well respected logistics firm, operating across over 220 countries. Whilst DHL primarily handles UK parcel carriage, DHL Express will support international requirements.

Services:

DHL is a popular choice for e-commerce businesses, due to their extensive domestic and international coverage.

MyDHL portal: Business account holders have access to a special dashboard where they can manage and track all their inbound and outbound shipments, and find support for the documentation required for customs clearance (which DHL can support, for a fee)

Very flexible pricing: The DHL pricing chart is one of the most detailed in the UK, with prices based on very specific weight categories and shipping zones GoGreen Climate Neutral: Offer your customers environmentally friendlier shipping for just a few extra pence on each kilo of shipping weight.

  • Vast depot and pickup network:DHL operates over 3,500 ServicePoints in the UK, which means it has better coverage than some other UK couriers

Price: DHL offers special volume-based discounts for business customers. Domestic shipping within the UK for a 2 kg parcel, for example, is:

  • around £3 for next-day delivery from a DHL depot to another DHL depot
  • around £7 for door-to-door shipping (collection from your location and delivery to the customer’s address)

These low prices, combined with DHL’s fast delivery service, make it an appealing choice for online retailers in the UK.

Like Parcelforce, DHL uses a ‘zone’ system to categorise each destination country around the world. Depending on the zone, it can cost anywhere from around £50 to around £70 to ship a 2 kg package using DHL’s Economy Select service.

For DHL Express Worldwide shipping, prices for a 2 kg package range from around £53 to around £106.

Considerations:

DHL offers competitive prices (especially for the level service) for domestic UK shipping. However, international shipping prices can seem expensive vs. other couriers. That said, DHL and DHL Express have a great global presence and they can be trusted to effectively deliver your packages to and from almost any location in the world.

Much like DHL, UPS are a global presence, operating in the same countries and offering comprehensive services in these countries. UPS have become increasingly established in the UK domestic market and are now a trusted partner for a number of retailers.

Services:

  • Flexible international shipping: Of all the major couriers operating in the UK, UPS offers the widest range of international shipping options, with as many as seven different levels of service to choose from.
  • Supply-chain management: UPS offers customs clearance and supply-chain management services designed to lower your business’s time to market.
  • Sizeable pickup network: Though not as large as some other UK couriers, UPS maintains a network of around 2,800 Access Point pickup locations in the UK.
  • Predictable pricing: UPS uses aspecific formula for determining its prices, based on the parcel’s destination zone and billable weight.

Price: In terms of price, UPS is quite comparable to DHL, though slightly more expensive in some cases. For a domestic shipment of a 2 kg parcel in the UK, prices range from around £4 to around £12, depending on the selected level of service.

For next-day door-to-door delivery, the 2 kg parcel would cost around £9 to ship using UPS (compared to only around £7 using DHL).

International shipping with UPS from the UK to another country is relatively expensive. UPS also uses a ‘zone’ tariff system. In addition, it offers a wide range of service levels with various delivery times and other conditions:

  • For UPS Standard service, the price for shipping a 2 kg parcel internationally from the UK ranges from around £29 to around £92, depending on the destination country’s zone (with Western European countries all falling into the cheapest zone for shipping from the UK).
  • UPS Express international shipping for the same 2 kg parcel costs between around £53 and £130.

Special services: UPS is a trusted name for retailers around the world. Will its special services make it a good fit for your e-commerce business?

  • Flexible international shipping: Of all the major couriers operating in the UK, UPS offers the widest range of international shipping options, with as many as seven different levels of service to choose from.
  • Supply-chain management: UPS offers customs clearance and supply-chain management services designed to lower your business’s time to market.
  • Sizeable pickup network: Though not as large as some other UK couriers, UPS maintains a network of around 2,800 Access Point pickup locations in the UK.
  • Predictable pricing: UPS uses aspecific formula for determining its prices, based on the parcel’s destination zone and billable weight.

Considerations: UPS offer flexible domestic shipping at competitive prices. In some cases UPS rates seem higher than others but they are undoubtedly a strong provider, with aspirations to develop further in the UK market.

Fedex is already a huge courier in the United States and they are now expanding throughout Europe. Along with its subsidiary, TNT, it is a popular solution for UK retailers for both domestic and international shipping.

Services:

Personalised quotes: Fedex provided discounted rates for business account holders, based on requirements

FedEx Global Returns: An online portal that allows you to easily manage return shipping, including customised templates

Price: FedEx is more difficult to determine pricing and UK businesses need to set up an account to determine rates

For international shipping, a next-day delivery of a 2 kg parcel shipped from the UK to a Western European country, FedEx charges between £92 and £118, making it clearly more expensive than other couriers.

Considerations: FedEx is a little more expensive for international shipping than its competitors. With the UK market, the lack of clear pricing makes it difficult to fully compare with others.

Yodel is a UK-based provider of low-cost shipping that caters specifically to retailers who ship smaller items (under 25 kg in weight). Their focus is certainly on the UK domestic market and they have become increasingly popular due to their affordability and digital focussed offering.

Services:

Clear and concise: Yodel are transparent with its pricing, offering no frills service at a competitive price

Water deliveries: The only major UK carrier that handles water-based products (e.g. bouquets of flowers in water)

Integration: Yodel are a digital-first provider, with the ability to integrate with third party tools and customers platforms, leading to more seamless delivery management

Price: Yodel offers either next-day or two-day delivery, with both starting at prices around £6 (next-day delivery is around 25 p. more expensive than two-day delivery).

It also offers international shipping starting at around £9.50 for delivery within 3 to 5 working days.

Considerations: Yodel service offering may not be as appealing to customers as other couriers, with less inflight options and flexibility for the customer's delivery. However, its low prices are undoubtedly competitive and are appealing to retailers and e-commerce sellers.

Where to find the perfect courier partner?

Logisto has compiled a directory of national courier providers and their details can be accessed here. We recommend visiting their courier focussed pages (provided) to find out more and to choose your partner.

If you are looking for couriers to support one-off parcel delivery, then there are also a number of parcel comparison websites that will help you select a provider. Please visit our Knowledge Centre section on this here. With these websites, you will be able to tailor your search to ensure your requirements are met. We have also provided a number of trusted providers within the LOGISTO Directory which is accessible here.

If there are any questions, please contact the LOGISTO Team and one of us will get back to you with our thoughts and advice.

Thank you

LOGISTO Team

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