London to Paris in half a day!

Yes it's very achievable, we know because we have done it on many occasions, this of course is quite dependent on Euro tunnel delays. Our Euro motorbike couriers carry the documentation required to legally ride into Europe at all times, our biker will arrive at the collection point with a full tank of fuel on board his large touring motorcycle (which will enable him to ride straight to Paris without having to refuel).

View of the biker in front on Eurotunnel

Once the motorbike courier collects in London its a short swift ride to Folkestone Euro tunnel which they have covered  approx a quarter of the total journey distance to Paris.
Once on board the train its a short 35 minutes under the English Channel to reach French soil and back onto the motorbike for the remaining 288 kms (180 Miles).

Arrived safely just in time to see Paris par la lumiere de la rue

Using the E15 Toll auto route ensures the motorcycle courier maintains a good pace heading south to Paris, whilst the roads generally tend to be quieter than the UK's motorway network they are not immune to horrendous  traffic jams especially in the summer months the closer you get to Paris, so the Motorbike undoubtedly ensures the shortest possible delays.
Delivered to its destination at La Defense, a major business district in Paris, safe, secure and above all fast in around four & half hours. 
For piece of mind you can also keep a real time check on its progress within metres of its location at any time using a personalised tracking link.
Our Euro bikes are ready to go to any European destination you only need to ask!

24/7 Couriers

We've had a number of callers at what you may term unsociable hours, where the caller has indicated that they have tried a few other couriers without an answer. We of course will always answer the phone, on this occasion it was 9 pm and the caller needed his passport at a consular service agent in London for 7am in the morning. After agreeing to our quote (which incidentally did not carry any sort of out of hours surcharge) arrangements were made for the courier to collect that evening and set off early in the morning directly from his home, this suits us as it doesn't matter how quiet you try to be, an unusual motorbike driving down a residential street at 5 am in the morning will always disturb someone, I know this personally as our dog barks if a motorbike with a different tone to mine passes the house.

 The passport was delivered as soon as the agent was open and the biker was on his way out before the capital had woken up.

On the subject of out of hours surcharges, we do not add charges for this reason. In many respects it's far easier for a courier to go about his business out side the normal working hours, there's less traffic in the middle of the night. I was shocked a couple of months ago to learn when giving out such a quote that a major London based courier had loaded the quote by around 50% for the out of hours requirements,  knowing how these sort of companies work they were highly unlikely to be offering the courier an increased tariff due to the unusual collection times. This is of course subject to ensuring that the courier has been rested enough during the day to enable a late/early job.

Ensure that when you compare courier quotes you specify the service you are being quoted for.

The following story is a reason why I prefer to use the word "Urgent Courier" to describe our service as opposed to "Same day Courier".
 I quoted a new customer the other day for a 26 mile trip from Central London to Colnbrook near Heathrow and she asked the question "When would it arrive?". This is a very important question and I was glad she had asked it as my reply was "It would go directly there", she may well have received cheaper quotes but often is the case (and especially in London) unless you are a major account customer with these city based couriers they will only offer an "end of day" delivery promise, even if its only 11am in the morning and a half an hour ride away.

The customer rang back to book and as we already had a Courier in Central London at the time it was ideal for him as it just over an hour back to Milton Keynes from the Heathrow area during the day. The journey was completed in around 35 minutes and the customer was very happy with the service they had received promising to call again if the need arises.
However as the customer had asked this its very likely they had used couriers before that had offered what at first seems a competitive quote yet had taken an excessive time to deliver, often co loading to make the low quotes viable. Whilst I can understand a business on tight margins may need take advantage of these low quotes it will not be the same service offered by a courier who will collect and go straight there, if your item just needs to get there by the end of the day you may wish to use this slower service.

We've had a busy summer

It been a very busy summer for us, traditional our work tends to drop off slightly over the summer months however this year one particular customer has been organising events for which they've required the use of our small van to transport exhibition items to & from grand houses the length & breadth of the country.

 




Our regular customers many of whom have been using our services for many years are still with us and we have been steadily expanding our customer base locally as well as a number of London based companies who require more dedication and attention to detail they they have previously received from London based couriers (not to mention the high costs).

More recently we are currently assisting the covering of Salisbury's SMC Express Motorcycle Couriers work, this is due to a spell of ill health by the owner, we have taken on a new rider based in the Salisbury area in order to assist our existing couriers based in South West.

Is spring here yet?

This winter has been a funny one this year, from blanket coverage for most parts of the country and lingering around into the second week especially on minor rounds to milder weather and then this week we are treated to a heavy swift attack of the white stuff to most parts of Kent. Here in the midlands we have got off lightly so far this month with no serious snow falls a few flurry's but nothing that settled.
A urgent trip to Heathrow the other day with urgent documents needed in the Netherlands caught the rider out with a mini blizzard around the section where the M40 meets the M25, luckily he managed to get into and out before any chance of the snow affecting the road conditions.

It's this time of year, its really difficult to know just how many layers of specialised clothing designed to keep a biker warm to put on, the day can changed so much. Take today, a frostly early start hovering around freezing temperatures and then the sun popped out, with blue skies the temperature quickly rose to a nice mild March day that just required a couple of layers under a Goretex bike jacket to maintain comfortable levels.

Roll on spring only 6 more days til it officially starts!

The couriers relationship with the internet

The day to day use of the internet within the transport and especially the courier industry cannot be underestimated. In many ways it has enabled smaller courier businesses to establish themselves within the market and compete against larger national courier businesses with the use of online directories & their own websites through search engine results. Many smaller local couriers will undoubtedly provide a higher level of service to their customers than the national companies as it is quite obviously in their interests to do so, more than say the list of self employed sub contractors (known as core drivers) that the national companies use.

      The Internet has enabled many smaller sameday couriers to network and converse with other similar couriers around the country in the use of forums It has also created a market for transport exchanges to evolve, these are usually trade only exchanges where sameday couriers can network, help and gain assistance in the form of covering sameday courier jobs when they have no one to cover them. This on the face of it seems an ideal avenue for a sameday courier to go down in order to grow their business, however more and more these exchanges are being taken over by a handful of sameday companies (who herein we will refer to as EB or empire builders) who have decided they want to be "your local sameday courier" in every town in the country. Firstly they start with building a website they will appear on every search engine for Courier in your town, they will seem at first a very attractive option for the customers in your area because they will be quoting around 10-15% less than the market average. The market average will be what the smaller couriers businesses based in your area will be quoting based on cost plus reasonable profit, this all seems very good for the customer free market and all that, however as these EB's are based possibly hundreds of miles away they will now need to "sell" your courier requirements on the trade exchange in order to cover it. Once posted on this exchange the EB will receive quotes by email, text & telephone from self employed couriers to cover this work, and a bidding process begins sometimes down to the level where it becomes uneconomical for the self employed courier to do the work on a stand alone basis, so how will the courier be able to complete this I hear you ask? Well the courier may be returning back to base in that direction anyway so can afford to bid low, or the courier may already have another job going in that general direction which is when the price you paid becomes less attractive as this wasn't the dedicated service you paid for. Some of the members of an exchange site will intentionally bid low (and even below fuel/running costs) in order to "turn the wheels" on a quiet day in the hoping that they will get something coming back to base. This is a very dangerous game to play as they is no guarantee of a return load and even if you do get one another EB will be aware you are returning home and expect another low price. 

With the increase of redundancies there have been more and more new couriers entering the market and in many cases signing up considerable sums of money to these exchanges in the hope of being captains of their own destiny, many of these new start ups will see other couriers working the exchanges to death by co loading and decide this is the way to go, this often results in bad decisions to move items hundreds of miles for a price that wouldn't cover fuel let alone pay themselves a wage. Sometimes bad co loading decisions will result in delays way past expected eta times because their first drop happened to be out when they called, being a member of a courier forum I have heard of the stories of exchange couriers turning up 4 hours late for an eta with no explanation as to why. 

            I knew a motorbike courier who once told me he took a job from one exchange site, Milton Keynes to Aberdeen that was described as a screamer (very urgent). He said he completed in just over 7 hours (a journey google maps estimates would take 8 hours 45 mins) "but I had to go as low as 50p per loaded mile to get it!" he said, an absolutely crazy sub contractor rate which would have netted him about £90 after fuel but before other associated costs (Maintenance costs for 1,000 miles, Tyres, 2 days insurance cost, coffee's etc) for what was essentially a two day return trip (even if you do manage it in one day, you will need the next day off to rest), he was lucky as he knew someone in Glasgow and stayed over, the expense of a hotel would have almost wiped his profit out, needless to say this biker is no longer working as a courier.

             It may even be the case that the EB has never met or had any commercial contact with the sub 

Stock photograph often used

contractor they use but their price was the lowest, essentially using a stranger who happens to be a member of the same exchange. The EB will sometimes have no idea as to the ability of this sub contractor and errors and delays will often occur because of this. These type of Empire builders are quite easily spotted from their websites, they will have non geographic telephone number ie 0845 (but not always the case), their exact location isn't easily obtainable, they boast 2,500 vehicles at their beckon call (a dead giveaway) and their website pictures tend to be stock vehicle photos or stock photos of couriers handing packages over. Some of these exchange sites & EB's survive on the naivety & constant turnover of these redundancy couriers all in the guise of free market forces.

If you need to use a urgent sameday courier use a local one, service levels will be substantially higher than one with an office a hundred miles away, they will be more accountable and keen to build lasting commercial relationships. An experience courier will still have a network of similar sameday couriers around the country that they can call upon for short notice collections a hundred miles away but these will be with couriers that they know well and sometimes built relationships over several years. Your local sameday courier with some notice will still be able to travel to that collection on the other side of the country for you.

Into the Capital

Got a call yesterday from a London based company requiring the returning of a just one stand to their associates in Milton Keynes, after a few city based courier quotes, their associates suggested they try us as although based in Milton Keynes we are regularly in London as the job could be carried out be either a London or an MK based courier, they were pleasantly surprised when they saved 30% over a London based courier and the job was completed this morning entirely to schedule.

MK Bikes have Small vans as well as Motorcycles

In a general conversation with a relatively new customer who's been using us about 6 months he said "What do you do in the winter?"
"We put more clothes on" I replied, no it wasn't what he meant and I fully understood him but essentially that is what we do, an all year round motorcyclist is exactly that, there are still many bikers that ride all year round usually commuters & of course Motorcycle couriers. Modern waterproof & windproof fabrics such as Goretex and little extra's added to the motorbike such as wind deflectors, heated grips and/or handlebar muffs will aid the motorbike courier to endure most usual British winters. Additional layers make all the difference, clothing bought from hiking stores is always a favorite and at least two pairs of gloves (a spare if the first get so wet) with Cold Killer glove inserts indescribably important.

We had another call this morning from a Bedford based company who required some paperwork taking to Manchester before close of business, however the customer at this point wasn't sure when this paperwork would be ready to send, after advising him that the journey time on a Motorbike would be about 2 and a half hours and the collection time could be as late as 2.30pm, he gave us a call back at midday to say the paperwork was ready and the Motorbike was en route to Manchester within 30 minutes and comfortably delivered just after 3pm.