DSF

once again I need to rant was on to 2 companies ordering or was ordering 30 backpack 1st company price great postage rip off asked can I arrange for my own courier no we work with this company 2nd company price a wee bit more pricey but said no problem me using my own courier but there would be a 20% handling charge so worked out dearer than 1st postage on this was got stuff sent to neice then got her to send me stuff what a round about way

If you use your own courier to collect, the company you are buying from still have to package up the goods properly and have them ready for collection, this takes time for a worker to do, and workers cost money, it also costs in materials for the packing ... when you use their standard delivery option these costs are rolled into the price, you are not just paying for delivery.

Half the problem is that couriers impose a penalty for a tiny stretch of water, yet Penzance to Newcastle doesn't incur a penalty. Companies make a profit on the postage; they add VAT, 20% onto the price coincidentally when there is no VAT on delivery.

GoonerGary;90847 wrote:Half the problem is that couriers impose a penalty for a tiny stretch of water, yet Penzance to Newcastle doesn't incur a penalty. Companies make a profit on the postage; they add VAT, 20% onto the price coincidentally when there is no VAT on delivery.

Unfortunately IIRC companies that are VAT registered have to apply VAT to all services/aspects of any purchase of VAT rated goods...ergo VAT has to be paid on carriage which is then forwarded to the VATman quarterly so there's no profit on it for the company. I 'think' this is correct but await to be corrected.

My City Link account is always plus VAT.

Pretty much all the big players hubs are in Birmingham so if you are in mainland England the item you send is normally sent by truck to Birmingham, sorted and trucked back out. Bear in mind that every truck you see is rammed with parcels each costing about £5.00 to send so you can see why the price is pretty reasonable (someone once told me that each truck is carrying well over 30,000 parcels).

The stretch(es) of water (Justin has the same deal) means that the item needs to go by plane otherwise customers like myself would complain on the length of time it takes. Sending anything using jet fuel will be considerably more than good old fashioned diesel, just to push this point home, I send parcels to UK and they cost no more than £6.50 for up to 20 kilos (less for smaller items etc.), sending the same to Ireland on a next day is in excess of £54.00 as there is so much more involved (see below).

PENZANCE TO NEWCASTLE
VAN > LOCAL HUB > TRUCK > NATIONAL HUB > TRUCK > LOCAL HUB > VAN

PENZANCE TO DUBLIN
VAN > LOCAL HUB > TRUCK > NATIONAL HUB > AIRPORT HUB > AIRPORT > SECURITY SCAN > SORTED FOR FLIGHT > FLIGHT > AIRPORT SORTING > CARRIERS NATIONAL HUB IN IRELAND >
TRUCK > LOCAL HUB > VAN

You could speak to your supplier and look at building a pallet of items to purchase and ship. A pallet (could take days) will be considerably cheaper per item, especially if you look around your town and see if there are any regular "mainland based" trucking companies already delivering. Apart from that it is a tough luck I'm afraid.

We can ship to Northern Ireland for not much more than mainland UK with DHL.
Yes, companies that are VAT registered have to add VAT to deliveries, it's not profit as it only goes to recoup VAT they have paid, and any excess goes back to the government.
Last week we sent a few parcels from here in Bishop Auckland, to Durham City Centre - about a 20 miinute drive, but the shop we are supplying to is on a tiny little street with no easy parking or access (otherwise we'd have taken it ourselves) even though the delivery was just down the road, DHL still routed it via their national hub!

Dublin is much farther by sea than Northern Ireland. 2 hrs on a boat is all it takes and that truck could probably serve all of Northern Ireland. What's two hours when you consider the time it takes to travel across England?