Differences between using couriers and ordinary mail delivery for parcels

When you need a parcel delivery you generally have two options. Either using a standard mail service (like the Royal Mail) or using a specific courier. Which is best? What is the most suitable? These are the types of questions many people ask in these situations. In this article we’ll consider why you may find it better to use a courier as your preferred method of delivery over anything else.

Handing over items

With a courier, the choice is generally yours. You can pick where you want your parcel to be picked-up from, along with a date and time to suit. In the case of emergency or same day couriers, this can be within a very short timescale (as little as one hour with Rock Solid Deliveries.) By contrast, if using an ordinary mail service, you are often constrained to a specific location and specific opening times of that venue. This can be inflexible and impractical to many people. Using a courier gives you much more choice when handing over your items for delivery.

Receiving items

Just as using a courier gives you more flexibility for dropping off items, there is also more flexibility for receiving items too. When using an ordinary mail service, a delivery window is often given which can be hours long, making it difficult for any plans to be made.  You can often shorten this window down, but you are likely to be charged extra. Sometimes you may not even get these options, with the best time estimate for delivering being (for example) ‘a few days,’ and even then, this can be subject to change.  With a courier, you will normally get a specific day and time for delivery meaning you or your recipient can plan accordingly. Rock Solid Deliveries have live tracking on all of their deliveries, so we can track where vans are, updating estimated arrival times as appropriate, making the process even more refined.

Reliability

All postal or delivery companies aim to keep their customers happy and carry out their business to the highest standard. When using something like a standard mail service that is literally inundated with parcels, aswell as letter mail, it can be hard to achieve this 100% of the time, and inevitably, there will be some delays or other issues with some parcels. A private courier by contrast, has a much more limited number of jobs active at once, meaning focus is much better and there is less scope for issues to arise. Further, Rock Solid Deliveries can promise one driver to one delivery / parcel, meaning your item has the drivers unique and sole attention until it arrives as its destination.

Price variations

Ordinary postal mail services for delivery of parcels generally have a standard pricing structure. Whilst larger items will always cost more than smaller items (as you would expect,) there is generally not a degree of flexibility or recognition of individual circumstances within the pricing tariffs. With a private courier, your quote can be tailored to cover your specific requirements, with any ‘extras’ added on if necessary. Courier companies must work competitively to attract business, so can’t charge whatever they want, but they do have the advantage of smaller overheads compared to a national system.  These are important benefits for the customer.

Need a parcel delivering in the UK? Visit our locations page, where you will find all the cities we cover and the types of situations we may be needed in.