Overnight Courier Service

54and56

Hi,

I'm trying to identify any Irish companies who offer a nationwide overnight delivery service for (mainly) automotive spare parts i.e. order the part you need by 5pm and they'll deliver it to your Agreed Location* at the very latest by 7am the next morning so you can collect and start installing as soon as the business day commences and not waste time waiting for a part to be delivered.

Any suggestions?

I looked at DPD, Fastway, Nightline etc but none seem to offer a guaranteed delivery by the next morning. All offer next day but that can be up to 5pm the next day.

Are there any others I should look at?

* Agreed Locations could include

- Key access to service vans with delivery directly into car boot of a technician/mechanic.

- Full or partial access to locked and alarmed service facilities e.g. entrance area or warehouse.

- Drop boxes outside facilities such as small shipping containers or plastic boxes.

- Unlocked but safe spots such as garages or sand boxes etc

- 24/7 manned drop points such as security huts, petrol stations, convenience stores etc.

spyderski

There's no problem in getting this done, the problem is the price you'd be willing to pay. All the cheap prices you see from couriers are based on volume and the sharing of resources. The service you are looking for would require dedicated vehicles and drivers, and is completely unviable unless you can run enough volume to either 1. operate your own fleet, or 2. Subcontract out to someone who will provide you a dedicated service (as multiples like Dunnes, Aldi, Tesco etc have.)

In short, if that's what your business model depends on, and you are looking at the whole country, forget it. Perhaps you could offer this service in the Dublin area and use your own van & driver?

54and56

spyderski wrote: »

There's no problem in getting this done, the problem is the price you'd be willing to pay. All the cheap prices you see from couriers are based on volume and the sharing of resources. The service you are looking for would require dedicated vehicles and drivers, and is completely unviable unless you can run enough volume to either 1. operate your own fleet, or 2. Subcontract out to someone who will provide you a dedicated service (as multiples like Dunnes, Aldi, Tesco etc have.)

In short, if that's what your business model depends on, and you are looking at the whole country, forget it. Perhaps you could offer this service in the Dublin area and use your own van & driver?

Thanks spyderski, I appreciate the input. It's clearly a challenging and specialist service which would attract a premium price but I guess from what you're saying no one currently offers such a service? I thought garages and tyre shops were currently able to order parts/tyres and have them delivered same day in some cases and certainly by the start of business the following day and I'm trying to identify who those companies are as I would like to explore whether the service they offer is a) nationwide and b) suitable for a requirement a business I do some work for has.

vandriver

You are basically looking at specials for all your deliveries.
Unless you are making a few hundred quid per drop in profit,I can't see how this is a runner.

spyderski

No one offers such a service if you don't want to pay the whole cost of the delivery from door-to-door. If you are in Dublin, and want a parcel picked up in the afternoon and guaranteed to be in say Sligo or Dingle by 7am the next morning, the only way is to do it direct.

As you have seen, "at some time" the following day is no problem, as the parcels are put into a network and transferred between vehicles several times until they are handed to the local courier to deliver.

On the other hand, what you are asking requires a driver to pick up from you and drive directly to the location. This will be charged at mileage, plus time, plus profit.

I come across this frequently, and I believe the problem is that people think "well its €10 to get a box delivered next working day, so if i pay €20 they should be able to do it direct by 9am" That's just not the way it works, and if you think about it for a while you'll realise that too.

This problem is worldwide, and is part of the reason carriers are seriously working on drone delivery technology as a solution.

54and56

vandriver wrote: »

You are basically looking at specials for all your deliveries.
Unless you are making a few hundred quid per drop in profit,I can't see how this is a runner.

Thanks VanDriver,

I assume (always a dangerous thing to do) from your username that you know a bit about this space and that your comment that each delivery by 7am next day would have to be booked and treated as a "special" means that "Yes" it's possible to do but that each package would have to be individually handled in a very direct way resulting in a very high cost per package i.e. each package would have to be picked up and delivered directly the same way for example (probably a poorly thought out example) a donated kidney would have to be collected from a hospital in Longford and driven/biked to Beaumont Hospital in Dublin within a very limited time frame and "No" there is no one providing such a commercial service on a nationwide basis for ordinary spare parts etc?

spyderski

As per your example above, it costs the same to deliver a clutch as a kidney.

You will not be charged for a "specialist" service, and it is not unusual or challenging. The cost you pay will simply reflect the full cost of the delivery rather than a cost offset by grouping deliveries together. Any courier will do it, but as VanDriver said, unless you are willing to sacrifice significant profit (think €100-€300) per delivery it will not make economic sense.

Your issue lies not with the delivery method, but with the profitability of your shipment. If your product, delivered by 7am next day could make €1k profit per delivery, presumably it would be no problem to pay a few hundred delivery cost. My guess is that car parts are not that product.

vandriver

Specials are just courier speak for pick up at A,drive to B (usually timed) and don't stop at C D or E on the way.
If I have a Dublin to (say) Tralee for 7am,and you also have Killarney for 7,Limerick for 7 and Cork for 7,these would all require a separate van.
For a next day solution,I could do all of them.
As you can see, the next day can be cheap because every extra delivery is just a little extra cost
But if I get up at 2.30 on the road for 3.00 to meet some guy in Tralee at 7,then back to Dublin empty,you can be fecking sure someone is paying well for my 8 hours of driving(€250 minimum).

54and56

vandriver wrote: »

Specials are just courier speak for pick up at A,drive to B (usually timed) and don't stop at C D or E on the way.
If I have a Dublin to (say) Tralee for 7am,and you also have Killarney for 7,Limerick for 7 and Cork for 7,these would all require a separate van.
For a next day solution,I could do all of them.
As you can see, the next day can be cheap because every extra delivery is just a little extra cost
But if I get up at 2.30 on the road for 3.00 to meet some guy in Tralee at 7,then back to Dublin empty,you can be fecking sure someone is paying well for my 8 hours of driving(€250 minimum).

Gotcha and thanks Spyderski also for explaining so clearly why there isn't a network or syndicated type solution (even at quite a premium to the "normal" next day type cost) which gives the benefit of the A -> B by 7am.

I can't think of any auto part that would justify a €250 delivery cost unless of course it's for someone like Michael Flatley who needs his Bentley up and running by 10am or some such scenario!!

RUDOLF289

Je_suis_Jean wrote: »

Gotcha and thanks Spyderski also for explaining so clearly why there isn't a network or syndicated type solution (even at quite a premium to the "normal" next day type cost) which gives the benefit of the A -> B by 7am.

I can't think of any auto part that would justify a €250 delivery cost unless of course it's for someone like Michael Flatley who needs his Bentley up and running by 10am or some such scenario!!

Good morning,

sorry to interject but there are specialist services for the Motor trade that offer something like you are looking for, but not on the basis of a seperate van per delivery. There may be a seperate vam from the various hubs around the country but at a fraction of the costs suggested above.

It may not be possible to get a 7am delivery in each instance but probably pre 09.00.

PM me for further info.

Cheers,
Rudolf289