Couriers

[league_of_ordinary_men]

Does anyone know of a courier company that can pick up at multiple locations and deliver at 1 location under on shipment or way bill?We have tried all the well known ones and some not so well known and no of them can help us.

[adrianh]

I can' see them doing it with only one waybill because the waybill is used for track and trace and to set up vehicle collection and delivery routes.

[league_of_ordinary_men]

Yeah I know,but there's a real niche mark here for anyone that can do this kind of shipping.That can pickup at multiple locations on one route gather all the items and deliver to a single address while charging more when a single trip of course but way less then multiple trips.If I had the money to invest I would do it in a heart beat.

[adrianh]

I disagree with you, I think that it is a very inefficient way to work. It messes up tracking systems. You are only looking at your need to save a bit of cash, you are not looking at the practicalities of managing and operating a courier service. Why don't you send somebody with your car to do it for you, they can then go exactly where you want without having to worry about waybills and stuff.

[league_of_ordinary_men]

You see the thing is sometimes the suppliers are based in the same are sometimes right next to each other.If you were to calculate one route to pickup multiple items like they do any way now because any courier company would be insane to pick up one item at a time and drive all the way back to there depot,so what I'm suggesting is that thy will be driving a pre-calculated which was determinant for best efficiency.So why cant thy just pick up the order on the determinant route like they do any other items thy collect,add it to the same way bill in its a container to keep all the items together...etc and instead of charging each pick up like an individual pick up they charge more then a single pick up maybe calculated per km or what ever the case me be.You see theres no one else that does something like that and its not meant just to save some one like me money but if there was a service like that thy will have a huge market in the online market.Now in now case should you lose money but if your willing to make a little less per pick up in return for more business thats worth it.

[adrianh]

It doesn't work because you are not their only client. Imagine if they have 100 customers whose parcels need to be collected 3 different sites and then dropped off at one site per client. It is difficult enough to work out most efficient routes given single point collections, just thing about how hard it would be to calculate most efficient routing if collection points are strung together. You must also remember that courier companies cover very large areas, imagine if your 3 collection poimts are in Goodwood, Durbanville and Town and mine are in Salt River, Paarden Eiland and Mitchell's plein. The only way to do the collection efficiently is to collate those points and route them together, that is exactly what the courier companies do, they cannot charge you point to point because they do not drive point to point based only on the requirements of your waybill. They drive on the best route for all the waybills for the area for that day. You need to keep in mind that courier companies don't have one vehicle that drives from point to point all across town. Vehicles are asigned to various ares according to general needs, smaller vehcles may be assigned to go to town, kombi type vehicles may go to the general northern suburbs and 18 wheel flatbeds may go to Epping. It's all about efficiency, they need to keep their costs down by using strategies that cater for the most customers in the most efficient way, and yes, they can only cater for 90% of need for 90% of the time but like any business, the specialized 10% is generally too expensive or troublesome to bother with. I understand what you want to do but I cannot see how it can be done efficiently from a couries perspective.

[Dave A]

You see the thing is sometimes the suppliers are based in the same are sometimes right next to each other.

The pricing probably takes that into account already. This is just the sort of thing where economies of scale can really make a big difference.

If couriers were to price based on delivering single packages from distribution centre to point of delivery, then coming back to the DC and taking the next one, the price per unit would be significantly higher. (Obviously, same principle applies on pick-ups).

Essentially they bill per unit and assume an average distance travelled per unit picked up/delivered already.

[Newretailer]

I know of companies in the USA that do something similar for exports. You can order from various companies and have it delivered to this one company. They will repack it into as few boxes as possible and send it onto you. You obviously still have to pay for the individual deliveries to them, but can save a lot of money in the process.

[wynn]

I have a relationship with one of my suppliers in Jhb, I use the free delivery service in Gauteng option offered by all the other suppliers to pack and drop the materials off at my friends warehouse then when everything has been delivered I instruct my courier to pick up 5 or 7 parcels depending on how many suppliers I used.

You need to trust the guy because loss of any materials is not covered until the courier picks the parcel up.

[shiebas]

Hi please gave me more information on the exact requirements and frequency of pick-ups