The last few weekends I’ve been coerced into doing a fair amount of collections for my neighbour, who is a prolific eBay buyer. The trouble is he keeps buying items which are too big for standard couriers so I end up collecting them with him.
A couple of weeks ago it was a new fridge freezer, last weekend it was a replacement engine for his landrover as his had dropped a valve. They’re just not the sort of product that can be shipped on a normal courier contract.
I’m not alone either, at any one time there are over 930,000 items listed on eBay which are available for local collection, usually due to their oversized nature. At the same time a quarter of all lorries and vans travelling on British roads do so completely empty.
A new website, shiply.com, aims to match goods with hauliers already travelling along a similar route. By giving work to vehicles that would otherwise be empty, users of Shiply can expect significant savings.
eBay buyer, Lesley Carmody, used Shiply to collect a heavy glass table which the eBay listing described as a “very heavy item, so would advise pick up only.” By listing the collection on Shiply Lesley had 5 quotes by the next day, which varied on price and availability, from carriers to collect from Manchester and deliver to Birmingham. Hauliers able to bid for deliveries in much the same manner as buyers bid for their goods on eBay.
Lesley said of the delivery “I chose the best for me, not the cheapest, and arranged the delivery using the website, all the quotes were far cheaper than the ones I got via Google.”
Next time you’re buying or selling an item which is collection only list your delivery on Shiply for free, let transport companies bid and then choose the haulier that best suits your needs and budget. They can ship anything from a box to a boat and best of all I no longer need to drive around Southern Englend for my neighbour!
7 Responses
Sounds like the UK equivalent of uship.com
That is so necessary. A lot of times I list local pick up and I wish I could use an affordable carrier. Is there a U.S. equivalent?
@ # 2
Yeah, it is called uship.com
Wow signed up for this service last nite for a pallet I needed to send up to Glasgow and already had and accepted a fantastic quote, it was £30 under the cheapest pallet courier I could find!
Supposed to be collecting today and delivering tomorrow so will let you know what happens! the guy has 30 odd good feedbacks so fingers crossed.
Thanks for this post very helpful yet again!
Stuart
Oh dear………………..I spoke to soon company has already let me down on collection, said it would be today and now won’t be until saturday. Already packed the dam thing up and is sitting on the drive!
Not a great start so I would be cautious…………
Stu
Its great to find all these resources. As a seller I deal directly with the carriers and work on the lowest possible rates. Uship.com has quoted some of our buyers, however, their quotes have been a bit higher than what we paid our LTL carriers.
This message is just to clarify that the user above Stuart did have his item delivered by the service provider he chose on Shiply. The van which was originally going to be used left his area 4 hours before the bid was accepted. And so, a new collection date was sceduled when the service provider was next travelling through his area (Saturday).
Many Thanks.
Robert
http://www.shiply.com