Saturday, 25 January 2014

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).



Courier Motorbike Paris
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.

Sunday, 12 January 2014

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.
Milton keynes to London couriers

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.