Last week I took the opportunity to use Send It Now, a part of the Royal Mail Group. Send It Now enables you to send a parcel within the UK or overseas with online booking. All services offer guaranteed delivery, tracking and proof of delivery.
Whilst there are plenty of parcel consolidators out there with who you can book deliveries, there are a couple of things I really liked about Send It Now.
The service is generally delivered by Parcelforce, although in far flung parts of the UK the final mile might be carried out by Royal Mail. Overseas deliveries use Parcelforce’s international partners.
Pros
The big advantage of Send It Now is instant booking online of Parcelforce deliveries with the option to book a collection and have your parcels collected, or what I found more convenient was to simply drop them at my local Post Office. As well as the 11,000 Post Offices in the UK, you can also drop off at any of Royal Mail Group’s 54 Parcelforce Worldwide depots.
If it’s an eBay sale that you need to ship, Send It now can automatically fill in the details of the item you have sold and buyer details to save you time.
Tracking is great, you can log into your account to check the status of parcels, but Send It Now also emails delivery confirmation for every parcel you send.
Payment is by card or PayPal.
Cons
I was sending three parcels to the same address and it was a pain to have to type in delivery details each time – there didn’t appear to be an option to send three parcels in one shipment.
There is a generous weight limit of 30kg, but be aware parcels are limited in size by what your local Post Office can handle. If it won’t fit through their counter window there’s a chance your local Post Office won’t accept your parcel.
You’ll probably find cheaper options out there, Send It Now starts from £11.35 inc. VAT for a UK delivery. To balance this most courier booking services are for next day collection and that’s where Send It Now wins with same day despatch, especially if you’re dropping at the Post Office as no notice is needed.
Who is Send It Now suitable for?
Just about anyone with a one off parcel to send will love Send It now. It constantly frustrates me to see people sending large parcels at the Post Office and paying the full rate card price for Parcelforce (A 2kg 24 hour Parcelforce deliver comes in at £16.49 inc. VAT rising to £48.28 inc. VAT for a 30kg parcel, compared to £12.19 inc. VAT with Send It Now).
Of course if you already have a courier contract or ship a large number of parcels the service won’t be of interest. But if you’re a marketplace seller who normally despatches via Royal Mail and has the odd one off large order then Send it Now might be just the solution you’re looking for.
