Most logistics companies describe themselves as reliable and customer-focused, which makes them hard to tell apart from their websites.
A more useful comparison comes from asking specific questions about what they cover, how quickly they respond and whether they can keep up as your business changes.
These are the checks worth making before you choose a logistics partner for your business.
Can they handle parcels, pallets and freight?
A business that starts with parcels rarely stays with parcels alone. A larger trade order needs to go on a pallet, a replacement part has to arrive the same day, or a customer abroad asks for a price.
If your logistics company only covers one of those, each new type of shipment means finding and setting up another supplier, with another account and another invoice to reconcile.
Look through their services and check which ones they run themselves and which they arrange through carrier partners. Both can work well, but it’s worth knowing who you’ll be dealing with if something goes wrong.
How quickly do they respond?
Response time is easy to test before you sign up. Ask for a quote on a real shipment and see how long it takes, and whether the person replying asks about weight, dimensions and access at the delivery address. Those questions are a good sign the quote will hold.
Then ask about the day-to-day. Find out whether collections run daily or have to be booked one at a time, how late you can book a same-day job and whether you’ll hear about a delay before your customer does.
Who will collect your goods?
Some logistics companies collect with their own vehicles and drivers. Others pass collections to a third party. It’s worth asking which, because it affects how well the people turning up know your site.
Plenty of Sussex businesses work from rural units, farm buildings or industrial estates where the entrance may not be obvious or difficult to access. A driver who collects regularly learns those details. A different driver every time may not, and a missed collection usually means goods sitting with you for another day.
Can they take on fulfilment as you grow?
At some point, storing stock and packing orders yourself may stop being the best use of your space or your time. If your logistics company also runs a warehouse, moving to fulfilment is a smaller step, because your orders already leave through the same depot on the same carriers.
Ask whether they offer storage and pick and pack, whether you can start with storage alone, how stock levels are tracked and whether how storage is charged.
Can they ship internationally?
Since the UK left the EU, businesses selling into Europe needs customs declarations for its shipments, and someone has to decide who pays the import duty and VAT. Under DAP (delivered at place) terms your customer pays them on arrival. Under DDP (delivered duty paid) you cover them, so the goods arrive with nothing to pay.
A logistics company that handles customs documentation as well as transport saves you coordinating a separate customs agent. Ask which routes they cover too, from road freight into Europe to air and ocean freight further afield.
Where Express & Global fits
Express & Global has been working with Sussex businesses and businesses across the UK since 2002 from our depots in Eastbourne and Hailsham. Our drivers collect daily across East Sussex in our own vehicles, and our services run from UK next-day parcels and next-day pallets to same-day delivery across the UK and Europe.
For growing businesses, we offer outsourced fulfilment and warehousing, and our customs documentationservice covers clearance on DAP or DDP terms. We’re members of the Road Haulage Association, UKWA and The Pallet Network, and ISO 9001 accredited.
Get in touch for a quote on your next shipment and see how we respond for yourself.