Top tips for sending your Christmas parcels

Christmas is a busy and stressful time of year for anyone. Want your Christmas to be full of festive cheer rather than festive frustration? Doing what you can to make life easier at this time of year is key. One way you can save time and hassle is looking at the process of sending your parcels over the Christmas season, and how you can benefit from some shortcuts and tips to help. As expert same day couriers, we know all too well the importance of planning and consistency, and can give the following great advice to our customers for this holiday season. Whilst the below might not be seen as your traditional Christmas delivery tips, there are probably some things that you would never have even thought about.

1) Plan early and keep aware of dates.

As we have already alluded to above, planning is key when it comes to sending Christmas parcels. The closer this is left until Christmas itself, the more likely you will struggle to get things done on time. Just like with Christmas food orders, many couriers have last and cut-off dates for parcel deliveries. As we enter December, it is worth keeping a note of these, so you have an absolute deadline. As with the last few years, Christmas 2021 is likely to be very busy for parcel sending, so this has to be factored in too. In planning, a good idea is to streamline your shopping approach, so you have smaller deliveries or batches of sending often, (rather than doing everything all at once.) Many people find this approach works better.

2)  Pay attention to your packaging

Christmas is a busy time for couriers and delivery drivers. All couriers aim to handle their clients parcels with the upmost care whatever time of year it is. However, as Christmas draws closer, things get very busy and standards can slip – this can often be unintentional but an inevitable reality about the season. Ensuring you send any parcels with good protection – especially if value or fragile, is extra important at this time of year. Don’t risk disappoint with damaged arrivals.

3) Christmas delivery traffic is not just a one-way street.

Not only is there a high demand for sending items over the Christmas period, there is also a greater demand for items being returned also. This can even be before the Christmas holiday itself, as people change their minds or decide on another gift for example. The point here is that even greater demand is placed on couriers and delivery drivers – this can make finding a service very hard, and supports the idea we already suggested earlier, that planning is key.

4) Consider all range of shipping / delivery options

Christmas can be a time of year when there is a need to consider other delivery options, including rapid same day services. If you have been really busy and you find there is little time left, then knowing a service such as emergency couriers, (which we provide at Rock Solid Deliveries) can be a vital asset in still ensuring your delivery needs are met.

5)  Insurance

This point relates to ensuring your packaging materials are adequate. Ensuring anything sent through the postal system or couriers is properly insured is also very important during the festive season. There are more instances of parcels going missing or getting lost at this time of year, and this is simply down to extra demand that is placed on the industry. Knowing you are covered even if your parcels doesn’t arrive can being real peace of mind.

6) What is your destination?

Depending where you are sending your goods (and who with) there are different restrictions on what you can and can’t send. It is always helpful to know the rules before you get anywhere near to the stage of sending parcels. This can end up saving you a lot of time and money. Whilst many will use a courier service like ours to send parcels domestically in the UK, many will send abroad. You need to be aware that rules are often stricter in the latter.

7) Choose an experienced courier company

Christmas gifts and parcels are amongst some of the most special items likely to be received by someone during a year. It is because of this that you need to make sure you send your parcels with a courier service who will care for you as a customer and your items. Rock Solid Deliveries have many satisfied customers and highly related testimonials. Your business is our business and we aim to give complete customer satisfaction.

8) Avoid the queues

At Christmas time, traditional posting facilities like Post Offices can get very busy. This can cost precious time and often be inconvenient. By using a courier service, items can be transported door to door, often at a time to suit you. Using a courier or same day courier service can be less expensive than you think also, so shop around.

9) A word about Christmas wrapping

Some people like to decorate the outside box (i.e. the box that the item is transported in) with Christmas wrapping paper. We generally try to advise our clients not to do this as it can sometimes make labels difficult to read. Despite even the most careful of handling, wrapping paper can also rip easily on the outside of the box. If you include Christmas wrap for your items, we suggest you do so on the contents / inside of the box.

If you are sending multiple packages it probably helps to have some sort of plan, so you remember to include everything you need to. Here at Rock Solid Deliveries, we have a helpful guide on the top 5 tips for sending all those parcels in the run-up to the big day.

Follow this handy advice and take the strain out of sending parcels this Christmas.

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