Blog

In a recent article in Real Business, emphasis is placed on the importance of trust between a sales person and their customer. For a sale to succeed, relationships must be built with not one, but often a number of stakeholders within an organisation. Successful sales people understand that rather than approach a sale as a supplier-customer transaction, it is far better to view each customer relationship as a partnership, where you are in fact both on the same side.

We couldn't agree more, which is why we look upon our services as a provider of dedicated same day deliveries as an extension of yours. We work in partnership with you to deliver on your promises. So, whether you are providing a bag of widgets to a factory or an entire poster campaign to a retail chain across the...

If you're thinking of employing your own driver you must have a need for a regular, reliable deliver resource in your firm. But is committing to a full time employee the best option?

Add together the cost of recruitment, salary and holiday cover plus buying the vehicle, keeping it on the road and the insurance, and it does in fact soon mount up.

And what do you do when the van is in for a service? Or even worse, involved in a bump and it’s off the road for a while – you still have to pay for your driver, and maybe the cost of a hire vehicle on top.

But you’ll have your own van on the road – with your livery, advertising your company wherever it goes. And you’ll be in control of your own deadlines. So, what’s not...

It might seem extravagant to hire a van to deliver a document or envelope but sometimes needs must. Actually we’re called upon to run very small items like these to their destinations more often than you might think.

And to lighten the load (pardon the pun!), we offer fully tracked vehicles driven by CRB checked trained drivers so we can offer you peace of mind and reliability.

Financial documents, passports, contracts, court papers, and certificates are all entrusted to us for same day delivery on a dedicated vehicle. And because we’re in touch with our drivers, we can give you up to date details on where we are, ETA’s and keep you informed should any road conditions delay our progress,

We work with accountants, law firms and the probation...

Let’s face it, we’re facing times of uncertainty, perhaps more so than any other in recent history. What with shock referendum and presidential election results, a new prime minister, earthquakes and currency crashes, is there anything we can be sure of any more?

Let’s take a breath. So, we’re not exactly sure how business will fare in the coming months as we get closer to the reality of Brexit. Caution may well spread throughout commerce and industry, which means we should all do what we can to be prepared.

One way is to take a look at overheads. Right now, we’re providing permanent driver cover on a part-time and full-time basis, for some of our customers. It saves them the cost of employing a driver (pensions auto enrolment, holiday pay,...

We’re not exactly kicking back here and enjoying the sunshine as July rolls on into August. We’ve been called upon to travel the lengths and breadths of the UK and beyond on missions to help our customers deliver for their customers.

It’s always a pleasure, and no more so that at this time of year when the countryside is at its best.

So, just a few words this month about our approach to providing you with the best possible service you can expect from a courier company – well, 3 in fact:

Flexibility: We’ve never had as large a fleet as we have right now. From nifty little Vivaros for nipping around town, to our reliable sprinter transits, perfect for print, POS materials, engineering parts, steel, building materials,...

No two days are the same here at Courier Direct. We’re often required to move the weird and wonderful for an eclectic mix of clients. And we don’t just move goods within the UK, we take trips over to Europe too, regularly, and across the sea to Ireland and the Isle of Man.

Come rain, shine, hail or high water, our dedicated vans of all shapes and sizes are on a mission to deliver whatever our customers request, to any destination of their choice.

Here’s a selection of the more weird and wonderful consignments we’ve been asked to deliver:

Ed’s Stone – do you remember at the height of the general election campaign...

It’s not that long ago when we were using handwritten dockets and checklists to schedule our workload. I remember back in the 1990s writing out delivery instructions for the daily influx of parcels that passed through our depot.

The phone would be ringing off the hook with customers wishing to place orders or requesting PODs, and life in the office was generally mayhem! Organised mayhem of course!

As mobile phones were very expensive still, we used in cab radios, difficult to hear due to interference, and less convenient for the drivers to use.

Things have moved on a lot since then and a lot of the arduous manual tasks are a thing of the past. Thank goodness! I wonder now how we coped and managed to get every parcel...

The latest statistics issued by the Government state that the number of licensed vehicles on Great Britain’s roads reached 36.5 million, up 1.4% in the year to September 2015.

New registrations for July – September 2015 have increased by 8% since the same period in 2014.

With road usage on the rise, can our existing infrastructure cope? And is the answer simply to build more roads?

There’s no doubt that traffic congestion takes its toll on the quality of life, affecting the environment, personal wellbeing and fuel economy as well as adding to the pressures of businesses that use the roads for transportation...

A recent report by the Road Haulage Association (RHA) stated the Tories are ‘miles ahead in industry poll’.

More than half – 57.7% chose the Conservatives. Labour accounted for just 8.2% and the Lib Dems just 0.8%.

These were the results of an exit poll taken at the Commercial Vehicle Show in April.

Richard Burnett, Chief Executive of the RHA comments, “these results are no revelation, under the last Government, the industry benefitted from a sustained fuel duty freeze”. He went on to say that other political parties see fuel duty as a cash cow, and voters are concerned that this will happen again.

Regular vehicle safety checks our part of daily life here at Courier Direct, but we’re often appalled by the lack of preparation for winter conditions we witness when out on the roads.

So, here are some tips to keep you safe, secure and arriving on time, wherever your journey takes you:

Check the following:

• Your anti-freeze levels
• Tyre depth and pressure – at least 3mm of tread is recommended
• Battery life – a local garage can check this for you
• Windscreen wiper blades for signs of splits or damage
• Windscreen wash – top up if necessary
• Are all your light bulbs working, and clean so they can be seen?
• Fuel levels – never...

Manchester has them, Nottingham has them and Birmingham has got in on the act too, so why can’t Bristol have trams?

It seems like we’re the poor relation when it comes to transport systems, and whilst other cities press ahead with slick, attractive trams for mass movement of their citizens Bristol is being left behind.

People like them, they prefer them to buses, because they’re cleaner, more reliable, and they simply appeal to the modern commuter.

But scouring recent reports online, there’s a lot of discussion about missed opportunities, having to cross council boundaries, and basically too much procrastination by the...

It's great to see the Government tackling insurance fraud at last.

They’ve put a cap on the fees that medical professionals can charge for an initial whiplash report. Current prices can be anything up to £700 per report, giving doctors a nice little sum for their trouble.

From October onwards, they’ll be limited to just £180 per report, which may well help them think harder before encouraging crash victims to seek compensation.

And that’s good news. Because right now, all our insurance bills are inflated by an average £90 per year to pay for insurance fraud in the motor industry.

And the ‘no win no fee’ deals aren’t so attractive for lawyers either. They’ll no longer be able to double...

According to Wikipedia, "White Van Man" is a stereotype found in the United Kingdom driving smaller-sized commercial vans; perceived as selfish, inconsiderate, mostly working class and aggressive.

But is that a fair assessment of hard working delivery drivers on a mission to deliver goods and services for the millions of businesses that need their attentive service day in day out, and overnight too?

Now you may say, as an employer of white van men, we’re a bit biased. But it’s never a pretty site to see the amount of bad press out there, almost on a daily basis – is it really with foundation?

So, we’re here to redress the balance a...

Your company name – it says a lot about you – or at least it ought to.

And we were just talking in the office this week about some of the names of our clients, and how they came about.

And then we started to talk about more famous names – like Virgin, Revolver and Chemical Records – they have an edge to them that we quite like.

Then there are other companies choosing names that can’t be pronounced, or are often misheard over the phone – how much time is spent by staff just spelling their company name each time they talk to someone?

Of course we all want to be different, to stand out from the crowd and have a name that no one else thought of. But...

It’s tempting to employ your own driver when your business involves making regular deliveries. It keeps control of costs and delivery schedules.

But is this the best option?

Add together the cost of recruitment, salary and holiday cover plus buying the vehicle, keeping it on the road and the insurance, and it does in fact soon mount up.

And what do you do when the van is in for a service? Or even worse, involved in a bump and it’s off the road for a while – you still have to pay for your driver, and maybe the cost of a hire vehicle on top.

But you’ll have your own van on the road – with your livery, advertising your company wherever it goes....