We have an online mail-order business. Items sent by Royal Mail are only insured up to a value of £39. Therefore we often have to pay more on top of their standard rates to increase the insurance cover and more again if we want the delivery "signed for".
We are low volume senders but the best deal we can get from a courier is £8.95 +vat,, +fuel recovery surcharge for up to 10kg. The upside is that this includes automatic insurance cover for up to £500.
The downside is that even the smallest item costs £8.95 +vat, +fuel recovery surcharge! There are also other area surcharges depending on postcode.
The insurance cover ends the moment the customer signs for the delivery causing huge conflict is goods are subsquently discovered to be damaged (we sell fibreglass surfboards and no amount of packaging will save them if a fork lift truck drives over them etc).
On top of this we are now being charged £5 each time a customer is "carded" i.e. nobody in and a card is left "we tried to deliver.."
I could go on at length telling of scenarios that have reduced or even negated us making any profit from an order.. such as customers carded 3 times despite arranging a convenient delivery date with us!
We have got the point now where we are scaling down our mail-order and talking to others in our industry, most of them feel the same way and are following suit.
Two of my favouite business adages..
There is no such thing as making too much money.
There are no prizes for going bankrupt.
To operate an online system the size of Rimmers and accurately calculate postage must be a logistical nightmare.
Given the extra overheads incurred in offering mail-order I doubt that anybody makes an overall significant profit on their delivery charges. We have decided now to concentrate on the customer "who is standing in front of us". Presumably you too can save delivery charges and the inconvenience of wrong, missing or damaged items by visiting Rimmers direct (or any supplier for that matter). Given that if you live more than about 15 miles away it will cost you more in petrol alone. When you look at it in those terms is starts to look pretty cheap.
No connection with Rimmers.. I'm not even a satified customer myself!
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