Understanding the Ins and Outs of a Courier Network

A courier network might mean different things to different delivery workers but there's no denying they are advantageous to all parties. Here’s a quick overview of how they might work.

The Nature of the Customer

Let’s assume that a company in Perth (Scotland) wishes to ship something to or from a company in Canterbury. (This is purely for illustration and the two points could be anywhere.) Usually one company or the other will be responsible for arranging the collection and delivery, and they could be at either end. To make matters more intricate, the collection could be in Perth but it’s arranged from Canterbury, or vice-versa.

Quite often, the company commissioning a transport will tend to use couriers that are local to them. So, a courier in Perth might be asked to collect something from Canterbury or one in Kent asked to collect from Scotland. Let’s assume, for simplicity, this consignment is southbound. Clearly, the vast majority of couriers can’t have vehicles and personnel in every town in the UK. Equally, sending a vehicle from Kent to collect a parcel in Scotland would make little economic or environment sense. So, the courier network comes into play – and specifically, in this day and age, an online exchange.

Depots and consolidation

Typically, a courier in Kent might have professional associations in Scotland, which they may have found through an online exchange. They could contact them and ask them to collect the parcel from Perth and perhaps take it to their depot in Perth, or perhaps a nearby major hub city like Edinburgh or Dundee. Once there, the parcel might be put onto another courier’s vehicle making an immediate departure from Edinburgh to London. Once the parcel arrives in London, the Kent-based courier could collect it and arrange for it to be delivered to its final destination in Canterbury. This is one form of courier network.

Variations

There are, of course, other options. Some drivers join an online exchange largely to find back loads; in other words, after doing a run from Perth to Canterbury, the Scottish courier might be contacting their exchange platform in the south of England to try and find a consignment to go north in order to avoiding running empty back to Scotland.

Other options might include sharing loads between each other – such as one courier giving another a consignment in order to make one larger economically and environmentally viable load, as opposed to running two vehicles each carrying a smaller one.

In terms of ownership, some customers might explicitly refuse to accept what’s called ‘transhipping’ (the process of moving a consignment from one vehicle to another) or sub-contracting. That’s relatively unusual though and most will accept the use of one variation or another of a courier network if it means faster transit times, lower costs, a reduced environmental impact or possibly all three things combined. Some companies might even offer a specific choice of rates depending upon the nature of the service provided.

Norman Dulwich is a correspondent for Courier Exchange, the world's largest neutral trading courier network providing and matching jobs in the express freight exchange industry. Over 3,000 transport exchange businesses are networked together through their website, trading courier jobs and capacity in a safe 'wholesale' environment.

Writer and Online Marketing Manager in London.