In Basildon? Need your cupcakes delivered? Here's how...

Over the last few weeks we have been in talks with various companies that produce cupcakes, and how to deliver

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them. Up until recently, the safest and most secure way of delivery has been via same day courier, as it’s the only way to guarantee the cupcakes won’t be turned upside down during their journey to the customer. Sometimes the baker plain mistrusts the courier to complete safe delivery, and wastes valuable baking time delivering!

Unfortunately all that makes delivery very expensive for the people who hand bake and ice the cup cakes. For example, we would charge £15 per delivery / drops of cupcakes, minimum of 5 orders. This can make it too expensive for customers to buy.

Obviously there are still the marketing companies and companies who understand the powerful message that delivery by express courier send, but they have yet to embrace sending out baskets of designer cupcakes to their clients and potential clients….

The problem is, by sending the cupcakes the cheapest method possible means sending them by Royal Mail, and that means they may get bashed, and rotated a number of times before they arrive on the customers doorstep.

The solution is to prevent that, and the way to do that is through the creative use of packaging.

Cupcakes by Courier

The original ‘cup a cake’ container was devised in the US for holding the cupcakes, their icing and keeping them fresh. Last week, I spoke to Kim at the Cup a Cake company and she said the containers can be shipped to the UK for around $100 to $150

So if you are looking to ship cupcakes around the UK, here is the solution for your airtight cup a cake containers. The cupcake company may have to take a deposit from the customer, and the customer promise to wash and return the empty containers so they can be re-used.

A small investment in the right packaging, and you can deliver cheaply and safely to your long distance customers.

Kim Fuga from Cup A Cake can be contacted via kfadmin@cupacake.com

Delivered safe, even upside down

and as you can see from the image, they stay in place upside down.

Kim’s website is here http://www.cupacake.com/default.asp

We hope that helps with the safe despatch of your cupcakes, we suggest you try it out with one or two local postings to be sure the method works to your satisfaction.

Here at Arrow Light Haulage, we have enjoyed getting creative and thinking outside the box (and right back in it) to solve your courier delivery problems with cupcakes.

Alternatively, you know where we are if you would like an express delivery quote.

Sarah

safer cupcake deliveries

PS, if you found this blog useful, please leave a comment – it helps us to know what are the right things our readers would like to see from us.

Businesses: dealing with the Royal Mail Strike

With the Royal Mail set to strike, small businesses across the country will be affected. Here at Arrow Light Haulage we have been thinking up some solutions as to how to continue business as best as possible and where a courier is essential.

Firstly and perhaps most importantly, Parcel Force is not going to strike. That means the cheapest option for sending out parcels and packages under 5kgs is still available.

So if you are a business that sends out one or two parcels a day, and send your invoices by email and pay your customers by Bacs, you will be in a strong position to carry on business as usual.

Until the 14th of October, if you click the link above to book your parcel delivery through Parcel Force and type ‘new’ at the checkout, you will receive a 15% discount.

Secondly, as mentioned above. Use bacs to pay suppliers instead of posting cheques, it’s greener and far more efficient. If you are sending invoices, send them by email too. If like us you have to send additional documentation, scan and email that too. Again it’s greener, faster and far more efficient than the Royal Mail.

For companies that use direct mail for their marketing campaigns, have a look at other methods such as an email mailshots – think of the benefits to your carbon footprint as well as the traffic to your website and the ways to reach customers that may not respond to direct mail. If you need support for this we recommend business consultant Jeff Nutbeem, he can be found via his website – Small Business Consultant

You could be really old fashioned and pick up the phone and call the customers direct and send them a tailored email afterwards. More time consuming perhaps, but may have better results. If the Phone isn’t your thing then talk to an expert, we recommend Shaun Gisbourne at Phone for Business

More importantly, when to use your courier.

Use them when you usually do - for same day deliveries, for urgent items, for fragile items. You may think you need to use one for your every day mail service but the truth is, you can do a lot of it now via email, fax and instant messenger. These are often secure and safe, and if it really is that confidential you will already be using a courier to deliver it.

Sarah

Same day couriers in Essex

PS if you need to send birthday cards either send them with a present, arrange friend to do it if they live nearby, send a video via email – think a bit creatively! The chances are this won’t be the last strike and we can find ways not to let it affect our businesses or personal lives.

Please note, we have used an affiliate service to obtain the codes and links for the Parcel Force discount.

Three tips to save you money with your Basildon same day courier

External transport can be the biggest cost in many small business budgets and with trading times quite tough, these three tips will help you save money with your deliveries.

Timing is crucial when booking your courier service. The delivery window has a biggest impact on the cost of your courier. If you use a same day or express courier you will be paying an increased cost than if you used a pallet network or gave your express courier a bigger delivery window. By giving your same day courier a bigger delivery window you can gain up to a 50% reduction in the cost of delivery. That's right, over the course of a year you can save your business up to 50% of the transportation budget just by giving the courier company more time in which to deliver the goods. A good decision that goes a long way is explaining to your customers why their delivery will take just a little bit longer because it saves them money too.

Multiple deliveries can again save you money on your courier bills. Driver off sick? instead of getting an agency staff in and taking a risk with your vehicle, consider outsourcing it to your local courier company. It becomes cheaper to hire the courier for the day to complete all your deliveries. Common sense is needed here. If you have yet to outsource your transport and your own drivers can only complete 6 or 7 deliveries a day, you will find your courier does roughly the same. There are only so many miles that can be driven in one day, and hours that deliveries can be made in. It's unreasonable to expect your courier company to do double what a normal driver does, but some companies do and wonders why it costs them more. Savings of 25% can be made here.

Loading and unloading information is our third and final tip here. By keeping your customer informed of when to expect delivery and having them ready to unload the courier means you can avoid waiting time. Waiting time can double the cost of some deliveries where the customer is ill prepared to receive their goods. If we are collecting, the same applies. If the companies know when the courier is arriving all waiting time can be avoided. Accurate collection times can save you 20% of your final transportation bill.

Bonus Tip - get the timing off your courier. For the arrival time of your freight or cargo ask your courier what time they will get there. Not the person in the office, but the actual driver in the van who will have all the up to date traffic timing via their satellite navigation system and it's very accurate compared to the timings given by an online routing program.

Sarah Arrow

Basildon same day couriers that help companies save money by getting the correct courier or freight delivery service for their products.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Sarah_Arrow

Using a courier and diminishing your chances of corporate manslaughter

Image by rodneylibraries via Flickr

Does you company have an item that needs moving or delivering regularly? Do you need to make a deposit at your bank or collect change? Delivering contracts that cannot be faxed? Tender documents that must meet a strict deadline?

Have you thought about what it costs you as a business when you get a member of your team to do it instead of booking a same day courier service?

You may be thinking “Bank/ post office not very far, get the receptionist to do it or one of the admins, they can do it…” Sure, the phone may get unprofessionally answered to your potential new customer, no biggie but you having a staff member drive their own vehicle to the bank / post office / customers office could cost you big time – corporate manslaughter anyone?

• If they have an accident, you may be liable and they may not be insured for business use.
• Expenses – 44p pence per mile, the hour and a half out of the office, the parking costs…
• What about their work? Whilst they are doing something to save you money – who is doing their job?
• What if the job over runs?

Getting it right is tough for any business, and for a one off getting a member of the team to do it once is a decision you have to make.

When it starts to happen on a regular basis, then you need to think is it actually saving you money to use a staff member and more to the point what happens and who is liable if it goes wrong.

For example when delivering a tender document, it may need to be delivered out of hours. It may need someone to wait for the bid writing team to finalise the last few touches, and a member of staff is sitting waiting to do this instead of going home. After leaving at 7pm 2 hours after their normal finishing time, they drive (a little angrily) to the office where the tender is to be submitted, they are feeling a little tired and cannot wait until their day is finished and they can go home. The deliver the document at 9pm that evening (would have been sooner but they don’t have a sat nav and wasn’t expecting to use one!) and the deadline has been met.

Well, it’s cost you 4 hours of pay so far, their mileage and now they are on their way home. The get home at 11pm (2 more hours of pay) and have their dinner, shower and bed. The next day they arrive in work tired and snappy. An accident could happen at any point whilst out driving or the next day with a tired employee and the cost could exceed far more than what a same day courier would cost.

When you are next compiling your risk assessment, have a look at how many hours additional driving your staff are doing. You could be in for a surprise.

Sarah

Same day couriers for documents, banking and many other things!

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Delivering to builders

One new courier delivery service we have started to provide is collecting and delivering items for builders who just don't want to wait for the builders merchants.

Two or three days for delivery when you are on a tight project build can make all the difference and if you want it urgently, we can help get it to you, on your schedule.

Items need to bagged or palletised for ease of movement and the driver will help unload if you let us know at the time of booking.

We have also found that the last few months that we have had enquiries from the domestic market for this service - this is far cheaper than hiring a van for a one off job. So if you have sack of cement, sand and hardcore that need moving give us a shout and we can see what we can do.

Sarah
Same day couriers for building services

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Couriers to deliver your furniture

Do you need a furniture courier? do you have items of furniture that you have bought from a store, free-cycled or ebayed?

• Sofa


• Chairs


• Antiques


• Sideboards


• Dressers


• Beds


• Cabinets


• Desks and other items of office furniture

Arrow Light Haulage the Essex based same day courier company are happy to quote to move your items. Whether they are high value or sentimental value, we look after them as if they are our own.

All our furniture deliveries are wrapped in felt blankets if they are not packaged already, then strapped to the vehicle - so they don't slip and slide in transit.

Whether it's one item or a houseful, we can offer you help and a two man team if items are really heavy.

Kevin

0844 884 3331

Same day courier

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Sometimes the collecting part isn’t a problem but the fact that the forwarders are not 24/7 like us means you cannot collect your goods yourself (losing a days pay from work or having to take a days holiday). Time is money and it can be as equally frustrating to sit and watch it being wasted.Sarah & Kevin Arrow, West Thurrock & Dartford Courier and parcel services, Jun 2009Sometimes the collecting part isn’t a problem but the fact that the forwarders are not 24/7 like us means you cannot collect your goods yourself (losing a days pay from work or having to take a days holiday). Time is money and it can be as equally frustrating to sit and watch it being wasted.

We are based in Essex near Tilbury port, a drive from Harwich & Felixstowe and are 10 minutes from the M25, in other words we are real close to your goods. You no longer have to wait - if you want your goods we can collect on your authorisation and deliver.

After waiting for your items to reach the UK you may just decide to cut out all the hassle and ask us to be your courier and collect and deliver for you.

Give me a call on 0844 884 3331 to discuss your courier and delivery requirements.Alternatively send me an email and I’ll get a quote back to you. I’ll need to know the collection postcode, the delivery postcode, the item size and description of the item. If you are unaware of the service you will need, just say so and I can give you a price for each option.

Regards

Kevin Arrow

Basildon couriers and delivery services, same day, next day, every day